HOW TO... Upgrade your PS3 Hard Drive

[professorhat]

swampydrill:question is when you do a back up does it keep everything in their playlist or not.
Yup, if you do a backup like the one in my guide, it restores the system to exactly as it was before including playlists.
swampydrill:Also i wonder if anyone has name of a god program for compressing DVD to VI or MP4 as there are a few collections i would like to store on the PS3, have tried DVD shrink but it cut it down to 3gb and it wasn't very god quality.
On the Mac, I believe Mac the Ripper is well thought of on these forums. Not sure about PC for ripping I'm afraid, but if you can get it ripped at full quality, I found the PS3 Video 9 software does a good job at compressing the file down to a reasonably sized MP4 whilst still being good quality.
soulstyle:Question: Can you not just add extra hard disk by plugging into the USB port of your PS3. Also, i have addtional hard disk for my computer. Can this content be accessed through my playstation 3 or is this not possible, due to different operating programmes?
You can add a USB drive, but not everything can be used by the PS3 in this way e.g. you can't directly record TV shows from the PlayTV unit to a USB drive, nor can you use playlists on any music stored on a USB drive. Given that internal drives are normally cheaper than USB drives and it's so easy to swap out, it makes sense to upgrade the internal one if you want to use the PS3 in this way.
As for accessing things from your PC, this is indeed possible. It can be done using Windows Media Player, or you can get some DLNA enabled software like Twonky Media or TVersity if you don't want to be tied to WMP (understandable!).

 

[Anonymous]

Many thanks for these answers. Just one more, as all my music is locked in itunes library, can i access this music through the PS3 and then play across my av system?

 

[Anonymous]

Do you mean streaming from your computer? If so are you on PC or mac?

 

[Anonymous]

My itunes library is on a external hard drive(PC). Is it possible to just plug this drive into PS3 and access my music?

 

[professorhat]

Yes it is. The music won't show up by default on the PS3 menu unless it's under a folder called "MUSIC" on the USB drive, but you can access anything by going to the Music section of the XMB, clicking into the USB drive and then pressing the triangle button and then pressing View all. You'll then see all the music in the same folder structure as it is under the iTunes Library folder.
As for streaming it, the PS3 can't communicate with iTunes directly unfortunately (so no playlists), but you can add a DLNA client to your PC like the ones mentioned above and share your iTunes Library music folder through this software. This will give you the same access as plugging the USB drive directly in (in terms of appearance of the folder structure). Be aware, any DRM protected files aren't going to work though.
EDIT - might be worth reading through this post which looks at other options with streaming music from PC to PS3.

 

[ianandyr]

professorhat:On the Mac, I believe Mac the Ripper is well thought of on these forums.

Handbrake is also a good option for ripping. Transcoding has been added in Version 0.93. Supports all kinds of formats in and out.

 

[Anonymous]

Or alternatively Medialink (which does connect to itunes and playlists) if you are streaming from a Mac.

 

[professorhat]

Octopo:Or alternatively Medialink (which does connect to itunes and playlists) if you are streaming from a Mac.
Nice, hadn't seen this. Already have Connect360 and PSPware so will be adding this to my collection as well - nice one. Unfortunately no use for your PC soulstyle I'm afraid.

 

[Anonymous]

Deal on the 320GB drive

http://www.hotukdeals.com/item/284392/western-digital-scorpio-wd3200bevt-/

 

[Anonymous]

Strange how they haven't dropped the prices of the 40GB PS3 to try and move these units, you pay the same price and allot cases even more for the 40GB version than the 80GB.

Unless they drop the prices in these units, I can't see why anyone would buy a standalone 40GB PS3 when you can get the 80GB PS3 with bundled goodies for cheaper.

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks, thats really interesting stuff. I am very impressed!

 

[RodhasGibson]

Superb Prof and you can bloody cook as well I"ve heard.

Good on Yer mate.

 

[kena]

Great post , several people have asked me to perform this task since I do IT.. Referred them to your guide and most were happy to do it themselves. Saved me a bit of time!!!

 

[professorhat]

Good stuff, good to hear it's getting some use!. Have now just updated it (finally!) with the problems listed by hungoverdrawn and also an email I got from someone else who used it with the latest 2.53 software and got an issue which he fixed, so hopefully everything is covered for the moment.
If you use the guide and find an issue which you have solved, please post it here and I'll get it updated with any other tips people have so everyone can benefit.
Thanks!

 

[Anonymous]

Upgraded my brother's PS3 from 80GB to 320GB over Christmas with much referencing to this post. Ta very much!

 

[Anonymous]

Could you post a link please to which hard drive you bought for the ps3 many thanks.

 

[professorhat]

Already there, it's in the very first post:professorhat:The one I got in the end is the Western Digital 320Gb drive, though I see there is now a Western Digital 500Gb version which will fit. I can also recommend Dabs - I've ordered a few times and only once had a problem which was quickly sorted out via their online Chat facility.

ÿ

 

[Anonymous]

Dear professorhat,

The first portion of the link to your Upgrade PS3 Hard Drive tutorial in your signature line appears to be outdated as it redirects to a "404 This resource is not found..." page.

Outdated portion: whathifi.com

Substitute: community.whathifi.com

and it works just fine.

Unfortunately, the outdated forums link reference does not appear to redirect to the correct reference automatically... Hopefully, editing your signature line will update all preexisting posts...

Oh, and thanks for posting the tutorial!

Regards,

Johnny C.

 

[professorhat]

Nice one - should be sorted now. Thanks for letting me know!

 

[Anonymous]

Trying to stick a new 640 gig Sanyo drive in....

BUT

These instructions suggest a USB stick. Fine, but my PS3 tells me I need about 22 gig of space. Don't have anything like that available.

So, do I either buy/borrow an external drive, or can I usb-usb to my laptop and use that for memory?

I'm stuck, am I missing an easy solution in the absence of a 22 gig usb?!

 

[Anonymous]

jpfreestyler:

Deal on the 320GB drive

http://www.hotukdeals.com/item/284392/western-digital-scorpio-wd3200bevt-/

Cheaper to buy a Samsung Spinpoint M7 from Amazon and its only £45 quid for 640GB.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Samsung-640GB-Cache-5400RPM-Internal/dp/B0031M9JCE/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1284767278&sr=8-2-fkmr0

 

[professorhat]

SAP7:Trying to stick a new 640 gig Sanyo drive in.... BUT These instructions suggest a USB stick. Fine, but my PS3 tells me I need about 22 gig of space. Don't have anything like that available. So, do I either buy/borrow an external drive, or can I usb-usb to my laptop and use that for memory? I'm stuck, am I missing an easy solution in the absence of a 22 gig usb?!

Can't use the laptop with a USB I'm afraid, it needs to be either a USB disk or stick. You can get 32 GB (or even 64 GB) USB sticks, but unless you need it to be that small size, you're better off getting a normal larger USB external disk as for the same price, you'll get several hundred GBs worth.

 

[Mainiac]

Only just got round to this recently, and it worked a treat first time!

Thanks ever so much!

One question, now that my new external drive is FAT32 can I save music to it under this format and still retrieve it to a pc?

If not what would I need to do to make this happen. As I intend to use the external drive to regularly backup my PS3 data to the drive as well as store music if possible.

Cheers

 

[professorhat]

Wow, this is a blast from the past!

Yes, both PCs and Macs can read FAT32 drives, so you should be able to read anything you put on there on your PC as well.

 

[Mainiac]

Good man, thanks again.

Cheers