It has come to my attention that Sony used JIS screws on the hard drive cage inside of the PlayStation 3. All guides I researched for this video mentioned that these screws were phillips screws and that a phillips #1 screwdriver, like the one I use in the video and tell people they need to replace the hard drive, would be all they need to replace a PlayStation 3's hard drive. You might be able to take out these screws using a phillips #1 screwdriver like I did. But if any of the screws won't budge, you shouldn't force the screws out as you might end up stripping them. You might need to acquire a JIS screwdriver if you don't have one already to remove the screws from your system's hard drive cage.
Still working like a charm in April 2024! So instead of an external hard drive, I did use a PNY 256Gb thumb drive to save everything from my old hard drive and it worked just fine. Also, my restore took a few hours less than my back-up, which was a pleasant surprise. This video is excellent, thank you very much!
@@bynxtypebeat So I had the original HDD in the console and followed these instructions to a "T" with one exception -- he says to use an external hard drive with its own power source to back-up your old PS hard drive onto before you switch it out, rather than a thumb drive. I didn't have an external hard drive with its own power source, but I did have a 256 GB thumb drive so I figured I would try that first before shelling out money for a new external HD. I did, and it worked like a charm! My original HDD was still in the PS3, 160 GB, and it took about 8 1/2 hours to back up from the original PS hard drive onto the thumb drive. Then I switched out the original 160 GB PS hard drive with a Western Digital 500 GB hard drive, went through the process as described in the video and then restored all of my stuff from the thumb drive, which took about 5 1/2 hours (in the video, it took him longer to restore than to back-up, for me it was the opposite). Once I restored to the new PS HDD from my thumb drive, I removed the thumb drive and the system works like a charm. I hope that helped clarify what I meant
@@JoshDambuleff No, I used a second, small thumb drive that I had saved the update onto. The update itself is a pretty small file, so I used maybe an 8GB or 16 GB to store the update. And then every so often I will go and update the update on that thumb drive, just in case I ever need it again.
I keep getting "No applicable update data was found" message. But before I put in the usb I made sure it said Folders: PS3, UPDATE & A then FILES: PS3UPDAT What am I doing wrong?
Awesome vid man, but just an FYI for everyone you actually don't need an external hard drive with a power source to back up your data. I used a Seagate Slim 1TB and it worked just fine.
This shit is kicking my ass man!! Lol!! I been @ this since last night. So do u copy & paste to the PS3 folder 1st & then to the UPDATE folder? Or do u just create the PS3 folder & paste straight to the UPDATE folder? Nothing I've tried works. I keep getting the "no applicable update was found" message. Can somebody tell me what I'm doing wrong?
@@TheEndofThis Not really useless, but you're not going to get full ~500MB speed that SATA SSDs are capable of. Speed is limited to 150MB as it's a SATA gen 1 connector. For comparisor regular mechanical drives have a max speed of 80-120MB. So you do get a ~25% speed boost. SSDs have another advantage though, no "seek" and "spin-up" times which makes the whole console feel a bit more responsive. The difference is not huge but it's there.
A complete, "no-surprises" approach to backing up and restoring your PS3. Awesome, Awesome, Awesome job on the video. Thank you so much! Im at the final step of restoring the backed-up data to my new 1TB HD
I followed this guide and used some tools, and it worked! My old HDD was clicking, booting me out of games, having problems starting, etc. I thought I was toast, so I quickly ordered a new SSD and didn't proceed to use it to do any more damage until it was replaced. Shortly thereafter, my SSD finally arrived in the mail from Amazon. Here's what I did: I used IM-Magic Partition Resizer Free to format my new 1tb SSD (Crucial brand, if you're wondering) to FAT32 Logical partition. Then I used HDD Raw Copy Tool to make a perfect 1:1 clone of my old HDD to my new SSD. It was pretty straightforward. Just popped it in, turned it on, and bingo... works perfectly. :)
When you cloned it, what happened to the extra space with the SSD? I don't get how the PS3 will even recognize it as it uses a file system other than FAT32.
Bro this worked perfectly and easy, i got my ps3 for $30 bucks at a game store because the HDD wasn't working but all it needed was a new one and the update. You jus gained a sub
hello sonicghost, although I primarily use the PS3 as a Blu-ray DVD player. I went to download a game for my granddaughter and needed an additional 6.7 GB of disk space. I replaced 160 GB drive with a 1 TB drive following your, explicit excellent instructions. Thank you for the detailed video and in-depth explanation of each step. The replacement was flawless. The only difficulty I encountered was the agonal amount of time it took to both back up and restore the original disk. But you have no control over the Sony application that does that. thanks again. I appreciate you posting such a helpful video. Best regards; FreeLance-Rider
Hello, does the PS3 still has access to the store? My brother have a PS3 and I bought several games on it, he is in another country, if I get a PS3 now. I would install a 1TB drive. But… can I access my purchased games? Can I download them? Can I buy new games?
This is a very helpful video you did grreat. I just got ps3 in 2021 and this is great to know. I will follow this guide and thank u so much for bring this awesome. You kill this tutorial in 2014. man i hope you still do videos
Sigh, back when UA-cam was still worth it. Who knew that a ps3 hard drive replacement video could be almost 20 minutes of full content and no ads. What has the world become[facepalm]
Fantastic video, was having issues trying to install the new firmware but you walked me right through the service settings. My ps3 is now working well with my new hard drive. Thanks you so much.
Thank you so much for breaking it down so simple! I just did it as you explained and it worked perfectly! This past weekend, I bought a PS3 at a yard sale for $3 because it didn't work. With one $2 500gb hard drive from Goodwill, and it's as good as new! :)
hello i cant get it im looking at comments because it always says "no applicable update data was found" i feel he wont reply so can you help me out i have the version 4.88
@@bubblestruly6244 No probs dude, I gochu. What's going on is that your thumb drive isnt formatted to FAT32, which is the only format the PS3 reads. Check this video and follow what the guys says, depending on what size thumb drive you have. Mine was 128gb, so I had to go through the extra step of installing rufus, but it worked perfectly for me. Once you have your thumb drive formatted to FAT32, copy and paste the folders and file as originally directed here, then go through the installation steps. It will work! :) ua-cam.com/video/xJNAS505vVU/v-deo.html
Thank you so much for this. I was trying to get to upgrade my old ps3 hard drive and couldn't find any decent tutorial, your held my hand all the way thru like the nob i am at this lol
Thanks for this vid. Got my PS3 via a recycling site as a non-starter, so zero cost and was then given a 500Gb disk for free too. The original disc was dead, so followed your process for the physical replacement up to the 'two button press and hold to power up'. Because the replacement drive wouldn't boot as it was from another device and since it didn't have valid code on it, the PS3 menu allowed me to format the disk in-situ and then after the usual 'no-way-back' warning, proceeded to load up the new system software. The only glitch, which was very minor, was the system didn't advise the user to press the X to proceed when the EULA was shown on the screen, so made the assumption I needed to and now we have a happy PS3 user.
your 10 years ago tutorial still works until now.. luckily, no need 3rd party software to format the thumbdrive or hdd or ssd, windows system has option for fat32 to format.
Worked like a charm. For those without a flash drive on deck, you CAN use an SD card in the same manner, just use a usb sd card reader and you're golden.
i accidentally updated my jailbroken ps3, and bricked it. i eventually took apart of 20gb xbox 360 hard drive, got out the mini hard drive, and put it in. then i just followed theses steps, and its updating right now! thanks so much!!!!!!
When you get a new hard drive (cuz 20gb is really not enough) (i suggest) Jailbreak your ps3 but after you did that DO NOT TOUCH the system update setting BEWARE OF IT!
Guys, this is a great tutorial but in order to save 9 hours of your time, just clone the drive. Takes less than 20 minutes and you are good to go. Tried and tested on mine. Thanks.
Thanks , this helped alot I just upgraded to a 500 GB drive from a very full 160 on my ps3 slim. Trying to do this getting everything i needed prepped for more than a few months now. watching many instructional videos.finding a way to format to fat32 for my backup of my firmware and HDD. It has been quite a mess and fighting me all the way. When i finished the restore process i got a error.that it couldnt finish, although it did complete to 100 percent. SMH. I resigned in to PS account restored my trophys. But was unable to go into the PS Store without it freexing up and having to do a hard shutdown. I had to delete the PS Store and redownload it, Although, every time i finally figure out a process to solve a problem,and thank someone.... another problem arises. Hoping this time its for good. I am quite computer savy but this whole indepth process has really pushed my patients to its limits. The videos made it look so easy. I have had to repeat all the steps of the upgrade process multiple times till it finally worked. Even to the point of formating the drive for the backup down to within 10 GB of the backup space required. So my ps3 would recognize it. Thanks again, Wayne
Thanks for the great video. Mine worked out exactly like you said. This video was way more in depth then others that I watched. I'm glad I found your video before I started this operation.
Hey SonicGhost. Great great video. I posted another comment 7 days ago but I finally got a hard drive with independent current connection. Following your tutorial was super easy. Thank you so much.
2021 info: With the PS Store closing for the PS3 in July, I've decided to upgrade my internal HDD from 500GB to 1TB. I was able back up my PS3 files with the PS4 Game drive (2TB external HDD) by formatting it to FAT32. The video titled 'Format any size drive to Fat32' helped alot.I then installed a new WD Blue 1TB HDD (for laptops, not desktops!) to my PS3 slim, and downloaded the update software 4.87 from the Sony webpage, and still works! Great video dude! Hope this is helpful to anyone and everyone.
I like to ask, how is that PS4 game drive going on the PS3? It’s USB powered, right? I’m trying to figure out what external hard drive is good enough for the PS3 and not buying something that doesn’t work as this guy says to buy an external hard drive with its own power source or adapter. Thanks.
@@BossBig709 For the PS4 game drive, first I connect to my PC, and format it to FAT32. Once completed, I then connect it to the PS3 and see it if reads it. I used it to backup my files mostly. And, it is usb powered.
Thank you so much I upgraded in 2019 to a new one terabyte drive and this video still works fantastic. and it fixed my problem I had super lag because I had the original hard drive on the original PlayStation 3... And the dreaded clicking
Finally got round to upgrading my PS3 HDD after living on the edge (less than 2GB) for quite some time! haha. Great tutorial! Won't know what to do with all the space (upgraded from 120GB to 1TB)
Hey guy after watching loads of vids on this got to say yours is the best one i found thanks guy changed my HD to 1 TB works perfect thanks for your time
Was having issues with stock HDD so I grabbed an old laptop which had 500gb and 7200rpm. PS3 is running so smooth again. It was freezing so much and taking years to boot internal games. Thanks for the video! 🎉
This is a great tutorial! I backed up my PS3 to a flash drive and then restored it all to a new SSD without issue. Windows limits FAT32 partitions to 32GB which wasn't enough to backup my data so I used fat32format to get around that. I also put the bios on the same flash drive as the backup which worked.
Thanks bro that’s was well don I got my to work. I watch a lot of videos and non tell us to format the hard drive in the ps3 and how to do it you. That’s nice of you
Thanks for the video, perfect explanation! The other videos/sites I looked at were garbage compared to this one as they didn't give all the info that I needed. So thank you!
KEEP IN MIND!!! An external hard drive that's larger than 2TB is considered TOO BIG and won't be formatted into FAT32. I've tried it with a 4TB and it didn't work.
Mine isnt even that being but its not appearing correctly on my computer at all. idk what to do. I cant even format it because its not even letting me select it.
I just slapped in my 1TB HDD then flash drive to apply update and re download games i wanted and save files from the Cloud..took maybe 30 minutes then a few hours to download and update the games mind you most of mine are physical games.
you all prolly dont give a shit but does someone know a way to log back into an Instagram account?? I somehow forgot the password. I love any help you can give me
@Wilson Deshawn Thanks so much for your reply. I got to the site through google and Im trying it out atm. Looks like it's gonna take quite some time so I will get back to you later when my account password hopefully is recovered.
dude you are awesome man saved me I couldn't get my ps3 to un freeze unfortunately lost all data and games didn't back up any of it so. but it was the hard drive
i followed your guide but i'm guessing my sandisk cruzer blade 16gb isn't compatible with my ps3 system as the ps3 does not pick up the usb stick at all
@@skoufalotlord1895 activating your ps3 also activates the new HDD/SSD so you can use it with the system, to my knowledge Both your system and account should be activated so everything works properly
Thank you SonicGhost, my buddy got a ps3 slim from a guy for $5 with a piece of tape on it that said "doesn't work". We had everything we needed to install a new harddrive except the fat32 formatter, we'd used another one but it didn't work. your link and instructional steps near the end of the vid were very helpful. also i was wondering, is the panflute in the later half of the video "The Great Zamfir," master of the panflute?
Heads up for those having trouble unscrewing the hard drive from the caddy: Sony used JIS screws, which happen to look exactly like Phillips screws. I almost stripped mine before I saw someone on Reddit made a PSA about it, which forced me to buy a JIS screwdriver from Amazon. I don’t know how SonicGhost was able to unscrew them without any problems though…
I did not know that Sony used different type of screws to secure the hard drive to the PS3. Thank you for bringing this to my attention. All of my research said that the PS3 used phillips screws and using a phillips #1 screwdriver, like the one I used in the video, would work. I didn't have any issues taking out the screws using my screwdriver, but I know that might not be the same for everyone. I'll update the description along with adding a pinned comment to the video to let people know of this fact to avoid any confusion.
Today, Sony announced that the PS3 and Vita will be publicly executed later this year. By that, I mean they will be closing down the stores for both consoles this summer. We will still be able to download games we've purchased, but I'm gearing up for the inevitable day when they disable that feature as well. I'm installing a 1 TB drive in my PS3 and downloading every game I own so they'll all be there when they shut it down for good. The PS3 was a great console and doesn't deserve to die like this.
Same here, im gonna back up all the games and dlc I bought on there as a precaution. Hopefully we might get an emulator or something later on which gives us back the lost content.
i still need to get the cable to connect it to a pc, but this was rly informative for when it comes in? question: what’s the music in the video? i was bouncing throughout lol
2020 and still relevant! Finally finished UNCHARTED 2 after many, many years and wanted to continue the series so today I thought it would be good to upgrade my 256 GB PS3 SLIM to a 1TB Drive. However, it got stuck at the screen where it can't find the update on the USB memory stick. After trying a few different suggestions I read this comment on another user (STI Driver) on another video post about performing this upgrade: "All you have to do is unplug the USB CABLE from the system after pressing START and SELECT it will work guaranteed" - This got me in the right direction unplugging the USB controller cable at a certain point seemed to work. Even though it wasn't working initially when I used the same technique. Once it copied the update to the PS3 I unplugged the USB memory stick and then I was able to guide the update along with the USB Controller plugged in. I did also find an older USB memory stick to be safe as well. The restore from backup (on my external HD) seemed to fail the first time but it may have been that I had the wrong username in the system. I deleted the user and tried again with a different name I may have used and it seemed to be restoring my files from backup correctly. I then deleted the extra user. So unplugging the various devices at certain times seemed to work. An important step that might save a few of you some similar trouble if you hit this roadblock. Thank you SonicGhost and STI Driver! However adding payment systems again seems to cause all kinds of aggrivation.
When I formatted the drive it restarted with a blank screen and now I can't fix it I tried holding it down for safe mode and it still shows a blank screen:( help
This video is very helpful, but there's no need to install an actual firmware for ps3 ... It's installed on flash memory on console... The only thing you need to do after rebooting console after upgrading hard drive is formating it after information about new harddrive detection.... Of course an backup of settings and save games before all of this is required (an usb stick is good for that)
Hello, I really want to thank for sharing this instruction video, it helpt me to have a fine working ps3 with 1 TB, plays as new. Greetings from The Netherlands
I don't have the case for the harddrive or the harddrive..... I just have this new one with no case can I still plug it in?......... I just plugged it in without the metal case 👍
Im lookin at getting a 1tb for my ps3 soon, my ideal plan is to just copy all my game saves and start the rest of the hdd from scratch, is there anything other than of course my psn account/trophies and game saves i will lose? Minus the dlc ect which i will reinstall what i want anyways as it should still be there
It has come to my attention that Sony used JIS screws on the hard drive cage inside of the PlayStation 3. All guides I researched for this video mentioned that these screws were phillips screws and that a phillips #1 screwdriver, like the one I use in the video and tell people they need to replace the hard drive, would be all they need to replace a PlayStation 3's hard drive.
You might be able to take out these screws using a phillips #1 screwdriver like I did. But if any of the screws won't budge, you shouldn't force the screws out as you might end up stripping them. You might need to acquire a JIS screwdriver if you don't have one already to remove the screws from your system's hard drive cage.
Still working like a charm in April 2024! So instead of an external hard drive, I did use a PNY 256Gb thumb drive to save everything from my old hard drive and it worked just fine. Also, my restore took a few hours less than my back-up, which was a pleasant surprise. This video is excellent, thank you very much!
do you still have your hdd in your console or did you replace all of that with the thumb drive hdd
@@bynxtypebeat So I had the original HDD in the console and followed these instructions to a "T" with one exception -- he says to use an external hard drive with its own power source to back-up your old PS hard drive onto before you switch it out, rather than a thumb drive. I didn't have an external hard drive with its own power source, but I did have a 256 GB thumb drive so I figured I would try that first before shelling out money for a new external HD. I did, and it worked like a charm! My original HDD was still in the PS3, 160 GB, and it took about 8 1/2 hours to back up from the original PS hard drive onto the thumb drive. Then I switched out the original 160 GB PS hard drive with a Western Digital 500 GB hard drive, went through the process as described in the video and then restored all of my stuff from the thumb drive, which took about 5 1/2 hours (in the video, it took him longer to restore than to back-up, for me it was the opposite). Once I restored to the new PS HDD from my thumb drive, I removed the thumb drive and the system works like a charm. I hope that helped clarify what I meant
@@HlotSfandid you use the same thumb drive to load the new software update onto the ps3 upon startup? Or did you use a seperate one?
@@JoshDambuleff No, I used a second, small thumb drive that I had saved the update onto. The update itself is a pretty small file, so I used maybe an 8GB or 16 GB to store the update. And then every so often I will go and update the update on that thumb drive, just in case I ever need it again.
Thank you!!!!!! I bought a "broken" PS3 for $20 and after swapping the HDD and following your steps, I have a new PS3 with 500GB.
FOR 20$!?!?!?
i bought one too for $20 cad :)
I keep getting "No applicable update data was found" message. But before I put in the usb I made sure it said Folders: PS3, UPDATE & A then FILES: PS3UPDAT
What am I doing wrong?
did the exact same thing except it was a broken PS3 at the Transfer Station (only paid for HDD)
@@truestdude same i been stuck for 3-4 months
There are so many garbage videos on UA-cam that explain all of these steps but make it way more complicated than your video does. Thank you from 2020.
The video is 10 years old and yet save me today when my PS3 disk died of old age. Thank you, dude.
Awesome vid man, but just an FYI for everyone you actually don't need an external hard drive with a power source to back up your data. I used a Seagate Slim 1TB and it worked just fine.
This is by far the easiest and most detailed video on this tutorial! I literally watched 20 different videos that were crap.
This is the best, most comprehensive, and professional HDD replacement guide - thank you!
Painless and effective. Works like a charm, had fun doing it too! Thank you for this detailed video.
Is it normal to be stuck at checking please wait after installing the flash drive it's taking forever
@@stylewithaltitude-mensstyl2295 it doesn't sound normal, maybe start over and try again
@@rMachete I got through... still getting the error on multiplayer saying ea connection to the server was lost. Do I need to sync ea with psn?
This video is still helping even in 2021. Thanks
thank god you said this, I just decided I'll try to enhance my ps3
Video is still helping even in 2019! Thanks SonicGhost!
Max Cooper 2020
Ah yes the ps3 changes over time
Yup!
@@T-Fyre xxx hi
This shit is kicking my ass man!! Lol!! I been @ this since last night. So do u copy & paste to the PS3 folder 1st & then to the UPDATE folder? Or do u just create the PS3 folder & paste straight to the UPDATE folder?
Nothing I've tried works. I keep getting the "no applicable update was found" message. Can somebody tell me what I'm doing wrong?
The best tutorial I've seen so far....i've used it to upgrade to a SSD drive. Congratulations Sonicghost!
I heard SSD drives are useless in a ps3 and that speeds are severely limited, is that true?
Kosm _ depends. Some games it improves performance and it also improves loadings and installs
I will try an SSHD tomorrow. Let's see how that goes.
what if you have game installed on your old HDD, can they be transferred?
@@TheEndofThis Not really useless, but you're not going to get full ~500MB speed that SATA SSDs are capable of.
Speed is limited to 150MB as it's a SATA gen 1 connector.
For comparisor regular mechanical drives have a max speed of 80-120MB. So you do get a ~25% speed boost.
SSDs have another advantage though, no "seek" and "spin-up" times which makes the whole console feel a bit more responsive.
The difference is not huge but it's there.
A complete, "no-surprises" approach to backing up and restoring your PS3. Awesome, Awesome, Awesome job on the video. Thank you so much! Im at the final step of restoring the backed-up data to my new 1TB HD
Were you able to do it ? It I downloaded the firmware from the sony website and it didn’t recognise it
@@xYyckx Yes I completed it successfully back then.
This video was so helpful, thank you so much. I'm horrible with technology, but you helped me get my ps3 back to life and it cost less than $25!
I followed this guide and used some tools, and it worked! My old HDD was clicking, booting me out of games, having problems starting, etc. I thought I was toast, so I quickly ordered a new SSD and didn't proceed to use it to do any more damage until it was replaced. Shortly thereafter, my SSD finally arrived in the mail from Amazon. Here's what I did:
I used IM-Magic Partition Resizer Free to format my new 1tb SSD (Crucial brand, if you're wondering) to FAT32 Logical partition.
Then I used HDD Raw Copy Tool to make a perfect 1:1 clone of my old HDD to my new SSD. It was pretty straightforward.
Just popped it in, turned it on, and bingo... works perfectly. :)
When you cloned it, what happened to the extra space with the SSD? I don't get how the PS3 will even recognize it as it uses a file system other than FAT32.
Awesome! Just got my PS3 back up and running. Just took the harddrive out of an old laptop and followed your instructions. Thanks so much!
Bro this worked perfectly and easy, i got my ps3 for $30 bucks at a game store because the HDD wasn't working but all it needed was a new one and the update. You jus gained a sub
hello sonicghost, although I primarily use the PS3 as a Blu-ray DVD player. I went to download a game for my granddaughter and needed an additional 6.7 GB of disk space. I replaced 160 GB drive with a 1 TB drive following your, explicit excellent instructions. Thank you for the detailed video and in-depth explanation of each step. The replacement was flawless. The only difficulty I encountered was the agonal amount of time it took to both back up and restore the original disk. But you have no control over the Sony application that does that. thanks again. I appreciate you posting such a helpful video.
Best regards; FreeLance-Rider
Hello, does the PS3 still has access to the store? My brother have a PS3 and I bought several games on it, he is in another country, if I get a PS3 now. I would install a 1TB drive. But… can I access my purchased games? Can I download them? Can I buy new games?
@@CRJ08 Yes, it still has access
This is a very helpful video you did grreat. I just got ps3 in 2021 and this is great to know. I will follow this guide and thank u so much for bring this awesome. You kill this tutorial in 2014. man i hope you still do videos
Man I cant say it anyway else but Thank you, I wish you much success!
Sigh, back when UA-cam was still worth it. Who knew that a ps3 hard drive replacement video could be almost 20 minutes of full content and no ads. What has the world become[facepalm]
:-/ you are so right two unskippable ads are just stupid
Fantastic video, was having issues trying to install the new firmware but you walked me right through the service settings. My ps3 is now working well with my new hard drive. Thanks you so much.
finally had time with COVID out there to update mine just today, still helping in *2020*! Thanks SonicGhost!
Fo real bro!!!
what covid? out where?
Thank you so much for breaking it down so simple! I just did it as you explained and it worked perfectly! This past weekend, I bought a PS3 at a yard sale for $3 because it didn't work. With one $2 500gb hard drive from Goodwill, and it's as good as new! :)
hello i cant get it im looking at comments because it always says "no applicable update data was found" i feel he wont reply so can you help me out i have the version 4.88
@@bubblestruly6244 No probs dude, I gochu. What's going on is that your thumb drive isnt formatted to FAT32, which is the only format the PS3 reads. Check this video and follow what the guys says, depending on what size thumb drive you have. Mine was 128gb, so I had to go through the extra step of installing rufus, but it worked perfectly for me. Once you have your thumb drive formatted to FAT32, copy and paste the folders and file as originally directed here, then go through the installation steps. It will work! :)
ua-cam.com/video/xJNAS505vVU/v-deo.html
Thank you so much for this. I was trying to get to upgrade my old ps3 hard drive and couldn't find any decent tutorial, your held my hand all the way thru like the nob i am at this lol
Thanks for this vid. Got my PS3 via a recycling site as a non-starter, so zero cost and was then given a 500Gb disk for free too.
The original disc was dead, so followed your process for the physical replacement up to the 'two button press and hold to power up'.
Because the replacement drive wouldn't boot as it was from another device and since it didn't have valid code on it, the PS3 menu allowed me to format the disk in-situ and then after the usual 'no-way-back' warning, proceeded to load up the new system software.
The only glitch, which was very minor, was the system didn't advise the user to press the X to proceed when the EULA was shown on the screen, so made the assumption I needed to and now we have a happy PS3 user.
your 10 years ago tutorial still works until now.. luckily, no need 3rd party software to format the thumbdrive or hdd or ssd, windows system has option for fat32 to format.
Very useful and easy to follow instructions! Well done!
I know PS3 is obsolete but I am still using it. Decided to upgrade the HDD. Fantastic tutorial. Thank you.
Same here man, mine still works great. No need to hang er up yet. Still lots of fun games out there
@@captawesome11 Got sucked into Lego Dimensions. Will take some time.
Beata Nozka You're PS3 is NOT obsolete. Lol don't believe the hype.
Ps3 is old, not obsolete. Old you can come back to it and enjoy it. Obsolete is something you never want to return to.
Worked like a charm.
For those without a flash drive on deck, you CAN use an SD card in the same manner, just use a usb sd card reader and you're golden.
i accidentally updated my jailbroken ps3, and bricked it. i eventually took apart of 20gb xbox 360 hard drive, got out the mini hard drive, and put it in. then i just followed theses steps, and its updating right now! thanks so much!!!!!!
When you get a new hard drive (cuz 20gb is really not enough) (i suggest)
Jailbreak your ps3 but after you did that DO NOT TOUCH the system update setting
BEWARE OF IT!
@@mertansprinter its been a while since this happened lol but yeah stay away from the system update if youre jailbroken it will not be a good time
Gotta sub, because thats what i was searching for, and you gave me even more, very detailed, very good content, thank you
Mate I'm watching this in 2021 almost 2022 and it STILL WORKS
Guys, this is a great tutorial but in order to save 9 hours of your time, just clone the drive. Takes less than 20 minutes and you are good to go. Tried and tested on mine. Thanks.
that if the hard drive still works.
Thanks , this helped alot I just upgraded to a 500 GB drive from a very full 160 on my ps3 slim. Trying to do this getting everything i needed prepped for more than a few months now. watching many instructional videos.finding a way to format to fat32 for my backup of my firmware and HDD. It has been quite a mess and fighting me all the way. When i finished the restore process i got a error.that it couldnt finish, although it did complete to 100 percent. SMH. I resigned in to PS account restored my trophys. But was unable to go into the PS Store without it freexing up and having to do a hard shutdown. I had to delete the PS Store and redownload it, Although, every time i finally figure out a process to solve a problem,and thank someone.... another problem arises. Hoping this time its for good. I am quite computer savy but this whole indepth process has really pushed my patients to its limits. The videos made it look so easy. I have had to repeat all the steps of the upgrade process multiple times till it finally worked. Even to the point of formating the drive for the backup down to within 10 GB of the backup space required. So my ps3 would recognize it. Thanks again, Wayne
Thanks for the great video. Mine worked out exactly like you said. This video was way more in depth then others that I watched. I'm glad I found your video before I started this operation.
Hey SonicGhost. Great great video. I posted another comment 7 days ago but I finally got a hard drive with independent current connection. Following your tutorial was super easy. Thank you so much.
2021 info: With the PS Store closing for the PS3 in July, I've decided to upgrade my internal HDD from 500GB to 1TB.
I was able back up my PS3 files with the PS4 Game drive (2TB external HDD) by formatting it to FAT32.
The video titled 'Format any size drive to Fat32' helped alot.I then installed a new WD Blue 1TB HDD (for laptops, not desktops!) to my PS3 slim, and downloaded the update software 4.87 from the Sony webpage, and still works! Great video dude!
Hope this is helpful to anyone and everyone.
I like to ask, how is that PS4 game drive going on the PS3? It’s USB powered, right? I’m trying to figure out what external hard drive is good enough for the PS3 and not buying something that doesn’t work as this guy says to buy an external hard drive with its own power source or adapter. Thanks.
@@BossBig709 For the PS4 game drive, first I connect to my PC, and format it to FAT32. Once completed, I then connect it to the PS3 and see it if reads it. I used it to backup my files mostly. And, it is usb powered.
@@Grayfox82 Alright, I’ll try that when I get one. Thanks for the response.
@@Grayfox82 I almost forgot to ask, will a external hard drive backup my themes and game installs?
Awesome--this video had the extra info that I needed, after struggling with some more mainstream instructions.
"Mainstream instructions" - you mean official instructions? Lol
Bro 6 years later you still helped me lol
Here we go with new PS3 and new drive. Thanks for the guide. Really good one!
Thank you so much I upgraded in 2019 to a new one terabyte drive and this video still works fantastic. and it fixed my problem I had super lag because I had the original hard drive on the original PlayStation 3... And the dreaded clicking
I cant just put in a new SSD on a bad HDD? My HDD is clicking and not able to get on
Bro your a legend thanks bro u saved me a lot of money for having it repaired i did it myself for next to nothing u made it simple short and sweet
Finally got round to upgrading my PS3 HDD after living on the edge (less than 2GB) for quite some time! haha. Great tutorial! Won't know what to do with all the space (upgraded from 120GB to 1TB)
Hey guy after watching loads of vids on this got to say yours is the best one i found thanks guy changed my HD to 1 TB works perfect thanks for your time
Was having issues with stock HDD so I grabbed an old laptop which had 500gb and 7200rpm. PS3 is running so smooth again. It was freezing so much and taking years to boot internal games. Thanks for the video! 🎉
i like these tutorials. do it nowadays and the UI looks complete different
lots has changed in the past 8 years
This is a great tutorial! I backed up my PS3 to a flash drive and then restored it all to a new SSD without issue. Windows limits FAT32 partitions to 32GB which wasn't enough to backup my data so I used fat32format to get around that. I also put the bios on the same flash drive as the backup which worked.
Just fixed and upgraded drive in PS3 with this video, great work , thanks
Here in 2021 still with my PS3! Just installed a 240gb ssd. Thanks SonicGhost!!
Thanks bro that’s was well don I got my to work. I watch a lot of videos and non tell us to format the hard drive in the ps3 and how to do it you. That’s nice of you
What is the song playing in the background? It sounds very familiar
Thanks for the video, perfect explanation! The other videos/sites I looked at were garbage compared to this one as they didn't give all the info that I needed. So thank you!
KEEP IN MIND!!!
An external hard drive that's larger than 2TB is considered TOO BIG and won't be formatted into FAT32. I've tried it with a 4TB and it didn't work.
Mine isnt even that being but its not appearing correctly on my computer at all. idk what to do. I cant even format it because its not even letting me select it.
Will a 2TB HDD work with PlayStation slim ..??? Please answer
I think 3 tb is the limit
I think 1TB is the maximum size for PS3.
It works, I'm noy a native english speaker and also I understud everything you said in this video, this tutorial helped me a lot, so Thank You!!
I just slapped in my 1TB HDD then flash drive to apply update and re download games i wanted and save files from the Cloud..took maybe 30 minutes then a few hours to download and update the games mind you most of mine are physical games.
Thanks for making this tutorial, I can finally play watch dogs again without hour long loading screens and freezes lmao
Great Tutorial, recommended! And thumbs up for the background music, Aquatic Ambiance from the Donkey Kong Country OST is always a blast ;-)
Looked for this comment!
you all prolly dont give a shit but does someone know a way to log back into an Instagram account??
I somehow forgot the password. I love any help you can give me
@Nikolai Gerardo Instablaster :)
@Wilson Deshawn Thanks so much for your reply. I got to the site through google and Im trying it out atm.
Looks like it's gonna take quite some time so I will get back to you later when my account password hopefully is recovered.
@Wilson Deshawn It did the trick and I finally got access to my account again. I'm so happy:D
Thank you so much you saved my ass :D
Amazing !!! Even in 2020 your Information still VERY USEFUL ........ I just UPDATED my PS3 into 1TB ..... THANKS for the UPDATE \O/
You are a life saver i brought a ps3 slim that had 16gb but wanted to put my old ps3 super slim harddrive in it bc it was 500gb
dude you are awesome man saved me I couldn't get my ps3 to un freeze unfortunately lost all data and games didn't back up any of it so. but it was the hard drive
Hey dude, fantastic tutorial on how to do this. My PS3 is better than ever thanks to you.
i followed your guide but i'm guessing my sandisk cruzer blade 16gb isn't compatible with my ps3 system as the ps3 does not pick up the usb stick at all
You can also clone the disk to prevent from doing that extra step on backing up everything.
17:16 Can someone please explain what he means here? What do I have to do and in what circumstances do I have to go press Activate account?
@@skoufalotlord1895 activating your ps3 also activates the new HDD/SSD so you can use it with the system, to my knowledge
Both your system and account should be activated so everything works properly
Thank you SonicGhost, my buddy got a ps3 slim from a guy for $5 with a piece of tape on it that said "doesn't work". We had everything we needed to install a new harddrive except the fat32 formatter, we'd used another one but it didn't work. your link and instructional steps near the end of the vid were very helpful. also i was wondering, is the panflute in the later half of the video "The Great Zamfir," master of the panflute?
Thanks. Today I learned my japanese needs work and couldn't find any english pictures of the update menu.
Cheers Sonic! Just installed a new HD and reinstalled PS3 SW. All worked OK.
dude THANK YOU
my ps3 has been broken for years and now i can fix it! you are a fucking LEGEND my guy
Hay man thank you for the great video. This video has helped me out a lot.
Still helpfull in 2021!!! Thank you very much!
Heads up for those having trouble unscrewing the hard drive from the caddy: Sony used JIS screws, which happen to look exactly like Phillips screws. I almost stripped mine before I saw someone on Reddit made a PSA about it, which forced me to buy a JIS screwdriver from Amazon. I don’t know how SonicGhost was able to unscrew them without any problems though…
I did not know that Sony used different type of screws to secure the hard drive to the PS3. Thank you for bringing this to my attention. All of my research said that the PS3 used phillips screws and using a phillips #1 screwdriver, like the one I used in the video, would work. I didn't have any issues taking out the screws using my screwdriver, but I know that might not be the same for everyone. I'll update the description along with adding a pinned comment to the video to let people know of this fact to avoid any confusion.
Today, Sony announced that the PS3 and Vita will be publicly executed later this year. By that, I mean they will be closing down the stores for both consoles this summer. We will still be able to download games we've purchased, but I'm gearing up for the inevitable day when they disable that feature as well. I'm installing a 1 TB drive in my PS3 and downloading every game I own so they'll all be there when they shut it down for good. The PS3 was a great console and doesn't deserve to die like this.
Same here, im gonna back up all the games and dlc I bought on there as a precaution. Hopefully we might get an emulator or something later on which gives us back the lost content.
Thank you so much for this! It was extremely helpful, worked flawlessly :)
Man! Thanks alot, I had a dead PS3 and you helped a lot to make it come back alive! really thankful mate!
i still need to get the cable to connect it to a pc, but this was rly informative for when it comes in?
question: what’s the music in the video? i was bouncing throughout lol
I definitely heard the old midi tracks to Donkey Kong Country’s water level in there so it’s some kind of remix of midi tracks I think
I tried a 2tb firecuda 2.5 and the ps3 says the installed hard disk is not supported I guess it's too big for the ps3
Worked like a dream, just forgot to back up myndata
2020 and still relevant! Finally finished UNCHARTED 2 after many, many years and wanted to continue the series so today I thought it would be good to upgrade my 256 GB PS3 SLIM to a 1TB Drive. However, it got stuck at the screen where it can't find the update on the USB memory stick. After trying a few different suggestions I read this comment on another user (STI Driver) on another video post about performing this upgrade: "All you have to do is unplug the USB CABLE from the system after pressing START and SELECT it will work guaranteed" - This got me in the right direction unplugging the USB controller cable at a certain point seemed to work. Even though it wasn't working initially when I used the same technique. Once it copied the update to the PS3 I unplugged the USB memory stick and then I was able to guide the update along with the USB Controller plugged in. I did also find an older USB memory stick to be safe as well. The restore from backup (on my external HD) seemed to fail the first time but it may have been that I had the wrong username in the system. I deleted the user and tried again with a different name I may have used and it seemed to be restoring my files from backup correctly. I then deleted the extra user. So unplugging the various devices at certain times seemed to work. An important step that might save a few of you some similar trouble if you hit this roadblock. Thank you SonicGhost and STI Driver! However adding payment systems again seems to cause all kinds of aggrivation.
This video has been a great help thanks
Do you think the Seagate portable 1tb would work? (No external power supply)
Just did mine yesterday and it went so smooth !!
When I formatted the drive it restarted with a blank screen and now I can't fix it I tried holding it down for safe mode and it still shows a blank screen:( help
Thanks for helping me out! Tutorial still works 2021
January 2022 and I'm watching this! 👍
Does it also restore copy-protected games?
RPM is not the read/write speed, it is the spin speed of the disk platter.
This video is very helpful, but there's no need to install an actual firmware for ps3 ... It's installed on flash memory on console... The only thing you need to do after rebooting console after upgrading hard drive is formating it after information about new harddrive detection.... Of course an backup of settings and save games before all of this is required (an usb stick is good for that)
WARNING: you need a powered external usb hdd for system backup. Regular hdd won't work unfortunately.
Hello, I really want to thank for sharing this instruction video, it helpt me to have a fine working ps3 with 1 TB, plays as new. Greetings from The Netherlands
Still working in 2021; many thanks!
Thank you. Great video. Changed my HDD
Awesome worked like a charm for me great instructions....Thank you.
Using this in 2024
what if the ps3 is already Jailbreak? can it be backup and restored to the new hard drive? thanks in advance
My PS3 is not jailbroken if I want to change the hard disk. What's new, do I change the hard disk a lot or do I need to install anything else?
I don't have the case for the harddrive or the harddrive..... I just have this new one with no case can I still plug it in?......... I just plugged it in without the metal case 👍
video is so helpful even in 2022
Video is so helpful even in 2023
Can you not take the old Hard drive out of the ps3, put in into a pc and back it up that way? I me a 256gb on a pc takes me about 20 minutes to copy.
Absolutely
Im lookin at getting a 1tb for my ps3 soon, my ideal plan is to just copy all my game saves and start the rest of the hdd from scratch, is there anything other than of course my psn account/trophies and game saves i will lose? Minus the dlc ect which i will reinstall what i want anyways as it should still be there