It's not high definition, it's Higher

How Hard is Replacing Your HDD?

You guys probably heard this on this week’s show, but in case you have not, I am considering replacement of the HDD in my PS3. I checked my hard drive this week, after downloading the Uncharted 2 demo, which is awesome, and discovered I was down to my last four gigs of space. I have seen the videos on the net, and heard about the replacement of a HDD on other podcasts, but I am wondering if any of you all have any advice for me.

Are there things I should avoid? Any tools I should be sure to have? I am not a technical wizard by any stretch of the imagination, but I consider myself competent, should I even attempt it? You guys tell me, also if there is a particular drive you installed and have liked, or one that you installed, but have had problems with and should not be purchased? Thanks in advance for everyone’s help, this may not happen immediately, but I do not think I am making it through the holidays without doing it.

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Permalink Reply by Bourne34 on October 4, 2009 at 7:40pm: a little over a year ago, i swapped my 60 gig with a WD 320 gig - it's really very simple. you'll need to make sure you have all of the necessary smaller screwdrivers, but if you've ever done work on a pc before you should have everything already.

the one main red flag i'll note is to take your time removing the first blue screw you'll come to after opening up the plastic hdd cover. it is made from an EXTREMELY soft metal, as supposed to basic screws, and i stripped it only after a few rotations. you'll either want to make sure you have the correct size fitting for the screw, or also bring something to grab it from the outside; i ended up using a set of wire cutters, and created two notches on the head of the screw and turned it with the cutters. after installation, i made sure it was put back in place, but i didn't tighten it very much at all; basically tighten it by hand.

keep in mind you may want to back up your current saved games, music, etc. to something else, which can be done via the settings menu. backups afterwards might not be a bad idea, considering more data could be lost, or you get the YLOD like myself, and have to completely breakdown the ps3 to reapply heat sink compound to the processors...

hope this helps a bit.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by ediddy999 on October 5, 2009 at 10:30am: How long did it take you to back up your data? I am looking to change out my HDD too. Did you have to redownload all your games, or do they copy over like the other content?; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by ediddy999 on October 5, 2009 at 10:31am: Also guys if you have links to HDD that you recommend link it up.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by sk8erniall on October 5, 2009 at 11:21am: yeah, im the same as bourne. Its pretty easy, only problem i had has with the smaller screws(not the blue one) they were on real tight. I ended up using plyers around the edge on the screws to undo them, it was easy after that.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Jonathan Ramirez on October 5, 2009 at 11:26am: Here's a pretty cheap one http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136197
60 bucks for 320gigs and free shipping, this would cost like $3,000 on the 360 going by Microsoft's pricing of hard drives. I've never switched Hard Drives but I did take mine out once just to see how easy it was, and it was extremely easy, and I'm an idiot.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by ediddy999 on October 5, 2009 at 12:48pm: Very true on the MS pricing of HDD. They are flat out robbing people when it comes to upgrading on the 360. I still rock the good old 20 GB, since I love my PS3 so much and play all my multiplats on it. I like the price of this one.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Fireheart/FireVader/Chilliredjim on October 5, 2009 at 4:45pm: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AuyQPW3bDS0

good You-tube on how to upgrade your PS3 Hard Drive

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNSytaL9hnI&NR=1&feature=fvwp

another good PS3 Hard Drive Upgrade Video; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by ediddy999 on October 5, 2009 at 4:55pm: Nice, I'll be checking these out later tonight.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by bsmith3258 on October 5, 2009 at 7:53pm: Thanks a lot to everyone for their contributions so far. This is really helpful guys, I did a detailed look at what I could delete on my hard drive, and I cannot do anything to eliminate my space problems. This looks like more and more of a possibility, maybe as early as this weekend.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by PK07 on October 6, 2009 at 12:39am: im thinking of selling my 60GB and getting the 250GB Uncharted 2 bundle...

im trying to work out the transfers process for that at the moment too...; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Nathan Little on October 6, 2009 at 2:02am: I did this whole swap with a small flat head screwdriver and also a small Phillips screwdrivers. I replaced my 40GB PS3's HDD with a 140 GB HDD from my laptop. . .I dropped my laptop and long story short I ended up selling it, pulling my HDD before doing so. I think it took me maybe 10 minutes total to swap them out. It was pretty easy, I wouldn't worry too much about it, just be careful with soft screws, and the basic electronic safety.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by food86 on October 6, 2009 at 3:02pm: you will have to redownload all you psn,psp games basically anything you get off psn, lol i did a ton of dlowding for rockband tracks. one thing that sucks though is that you lose your saves that have copy lock on it. I lost my mercenaries save file, rockband save file and my kilzone 2 save files as well since backing will not save your locked saves. be aware of this most games are fine though, and try to delete installs of old games like the ones with 2 gb or more, i deleted some games installs i didn't play anymore and it made my backing up and reinstalling so much faster.; ▶ Reply to This