640gb 2.5in sata, for ps3 systems $50

[quote name='CaoPi']I took mine apart and these screws are pretty damn tight all 4 of them. Does anyone have a recommended phillips size for disassembling the HDD? I don't want to strip off the screws

Also was wondering what is the maximum HDD size you can place inside a PS3?[/QUOTE]

Use a good quality phillips, one with a "High Torque Grip". Don't use those cheap 2-3$ screwdrivers.

This is a good High Torque grip phillips;
STA064930.JPG


You will literally hear the screws "click" as soon as they loosen on the first turn. That is how tight these darn screws are on.
 
[quote name='Saix_XIII']No problem at all. When I first upgraded my 80GB to a 250GB I did not want to get an expensive external drive either so I tested the method I posted and it worked much to my delight. The info may have existed online at the time but I never found it.

To answer your question you can make an entire HDD that is up to 2TB (might work on larger drives, but I know for a fact 2TB work).[/QUOTE]

Came home from work and got my new caddy in the mail. Currently restorin' my system! Thanks again for providin' that alternative method. Now I can keep all of my games installed and use the 60GB HD to transfer stuff instead of the 4GB flash drive I've been usin' forever :applause:

[quote name='Kyoz']Use a good quality phillips, one with a "High Torque Grip". Don't use those cheap 2-3$ screwdrivers.

This is a good High Torque grip phillips;
STA064930.JPG


You will literally hear the screws "click" as soon as they loosen on the first turn. That is how tight these darn screws are on.[/QUOTE]

I'm gonna invest in one of those. The one I had fit perfectly, but it just wasn't doin' the job for them screws.
 
I really lucked out, getting all 4 screws out took me about 40 seconds lol. None of them were very tight, probably because my PS3 might have been a refurb.

A note to everyone, you need a USB flash drive with the latest PS3 firmware, 3.66 on it. Make a folder called "PS3" with a subfolder "UPDATE" and save it there with the correct name.

Formatting the blank HDD takes about one minute, just finished it now (used cloud storage so no long backup times (just will have to Download and install a crap ton of games)

Glad I'm upgrading, it was becoming virtually impossible to play games it was so full
 
[quote name='FlyingMonkey9']I really lucked out, getting all 4 screws out took me about 40 seconds lol. None of them were very tight, probably because my PS3 might have been a refurb.

A note to everyone, you need a USB flash drive with the latest PS3 firmware, 3.66 on it. Make a folder called "PS3" with a subfolder "UPDATE" and save it there with the correct name.

Formatting the blank HDD takes about one minute, just finished it now (used cloud storage so no long backup times (just will have to Download and install a crap ton of games)

Glad I'm upgrading, it was becoming virtually impossible to play games it was so full[/QUOTE]

So you need to use a flash drive to format the new HDD? Without this the PS3 can't do anything? I thought this would method was only convenient if you don't have internet access. I was just confused about this since I haven't upgraded mine personally.

I searched some youtube videos but they don't mention anything about using a USB flash drive. It was just a removing the screws and having the PS3 formating the new hard drive once it is inserted.
 
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[quote name='CaoPi']So you need to use a flash drive to format the new HDD? Without this the PS3 can't do anything?[/QUOTE]

Nah the PS3 will format the HDD just fine without it.
 
[quote name='triggap']Nah the PS3 will format the HDD just fine without it.[/QUOTE]

It told me I needed to insert a storage device with firmware 3.66...I was surprised too so I just put it on a USB like it says on the playstation site and then it was able to do the automatic formatting
 
[quote name='FlyingMonkey9']It told me I needed to insert a storage device with firmware 3.66...I was surprised too so I just put it on a USB like it says on the playstation site and then it was able to do the automatic formatting[/QUOTE]

what PS3 were you using? You don't have internet access?
 
It is some manner of new requirement apparently one of the updates broke the hard drive upgrade process and now you have to have a copy of the update handy in order to format the new hard drive, at least I did as well when I updated to a 500 GB recently. It would probably work to put the update on the same external drive that your old drive is backed up to rather than using a second thumb drive.
 
I finally got around to opening mine after getting a phillips #0. I found a Tohisba drive inside. My new 750G samsung should arrive tomorrow :)
 
[quote name='CaoPi']what PS3 were you using? You don't have internet access?[/QUOTE]
I had to do the same. My PS3 was connected to internet, as far as I know. I got message after putting in hard drive that it did not detect proper firmware, and please insert a device or something similar. So I attached USB stick with downloaded firmware (downloaded from PSN site). It read it from USB stick and that worked. I was surprised it didn't do that on its own, though.
 
on top of this has anyone actually had the PS3 Hard drive failed if previously upgraded to a different hard drive, brand, etc?
 
I was in need of a new hard drive for my PS3, badly! I had some amazon credit so I purchased a WD Scorpio Black 500gb 7200rpm. Read reviews about 5400 vs 7200 rpm and the 7200rpm was noticeably faster on the PS3.

I'm a very impatient person so the 7200 is the way to go for me, :p

What kind of external drive did you guys end up using to transfer your saved data? I'm about to go to Fry's and "borrow" one for a few hours. I
 
I ended up ordering this from amazon, external hard drive enclosure for less than $10.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002JQNXZC
Came with the USB cable and screwdriver to take the 2 screws out. Put my new drive in, backed up to it, dropped the backup on my computer, put the new drive in my PS3, put the old drive in the enclosure, put the backup on it and restored from it, and now I've got a spare 80 gig external hard drive.
 
Also I just formatted my new 750G drive and only got 620/698 free. Why does the formatting take up so much???
 
[quote name='CaoPi']Also I just formatted my new 750G drive and only got 620/698 free. Why does the formatting take up so much???[/QUOTE]
1GB = 1,000,000,000 bytes in marketing. In reality, 1GB = 1024*1024*1024 bytes. Hence, the discrepancy.
 
thinking about buying a warranty for this hard drive from square trade if it does ever fail...I know Samsung I usually good but, my actual stock 160G hard drive bought from bestbuy came in a Hitachi drive!
 
[quote name='CaoPi']thinking about buying a warranty for this hard drive from square trade if it does ever fail...I know Samsung I usually good but, my actual stock 160G hard drive bought from bestbuy came in a Hitachi drive![/QUOTE]

I honestly wouldn't bother. The price of the warranty is around what, $20? In 2-3 years breaks (if even then) your warranty may not be valid and if it is you can prob get a 640GB drive for $20-30 at that point in time. If it breaks sooner then 2-3 years then it is under the Samsung warranty.

[quote name='blahtastic']Just recently hooked up this drive...is it just me or is it slower than the original PS3 HD?[/QUOTE]

Usually bigger drives are slower due to the fact that it's bigger. Think of it like a room. If you're in a small room looking for a specific item it may take a few minutes. Go into a room that is 5 times the size and it'll take five times as long.
 
[quote name='blahtastic']Just recently hooked up this drive...is it just me or is it slower than the original PS3 HD?[/QUOTE]
Not a pro on these things, but when you say "slower" what exactly do you mean?

- Initial boot up slower?

- Loading slower?

- Saving games slower?

And how slow exactly? If it's going to be so slow, I'll just stick with my 120GB for now.
 
[quote name='Jcaugustine']Not a pro on these things, but when you say "slower" what exactly do you mean?
- Initial boot up slower?
- Loading slower?
- Saving games slower?
And how slow exactly? If it's going to be so slow, I'll just stick with my 120GB for now.[/QUOTE]

I haven't tested it extensively (just popped in Source Code on Blu Ray). Anyways, it seems that the loading time for the icons seems slower, about 10 seconds or so initially. After the movie finished, it seemed to speed back up to normal, though. I'll have to keep an eye out the next few days though.
 
I bought a Western Digital Scorpio Blue 500 GB 5400 RPM drive a year ago and have noticed slightly slower loading of the start up of the system. It plays games/movies just fine, the XMB menu just loads slower during system start up and after gaming/movies.
 
The slower startup/loading of the XMB is more than likely caused by the fact that is a larger HDD. When the PS3 starts it does a quick scan to show the games/movies/music/pics showed on the HDD. The larger the HDD the longer it takes for it to scan the drive.
 
The slow loading from the WD Scorpio Blue is likely caused by the aggressive head parking feature of the HDD (google it). It parks the head after a specified number of seconds of inactivity. Normally, PC/Mac OS would manage the power saving and keep the HDD parking under control. However, PS3 doesn't do that so the head parking kicks in frequently and the result is the slightly pausing and slow loading of XMB and/or games (especially in cut scenes of some games).

There is an utility called WDIDLE v3 software (google it again) that is supposed to be able to adjust the parking timing or to disable it altogether. Some people say they don't see the slowness after they disabled the aggressive parking. Doing that may void your warranty too.
 
[quote name='ShreeAspenwood']pretty sure that is for the slims that you need the flash drive.[/QUOTE]
Nope, mine is a fat PS3 and it needed the PS3 update on a drive to format the new HDD.
 
It took time for everything to load up (icons appearin' etc) on my HDD after it restored. But once everything loaded up initially, it's been normal like the 60GB HDD ever since.
 
[quote name='eau']The slow loading from the WD Scorpio Blue is likely caused by the aggressive head parking feature of the HDD (google it). It parks the head after a specified number of seconds of inactivity. Normally, PC/Mac OS would manage the power saving and keep the HDD parking under control. However, PS3 doesn't do that so the head parking kicks in frequently and the result is the slightly pausing and slow loading of XMB and/or games (especially in cut scenes of some games).

There is an utility called WDIDLE v3 software (google it again) that is supposed to be able to adjust the parking timing or to disable it altogether. Some people say they don't see the slowness after they disabled the aggressive parking. Doing that may void your warranty too.[/QUOTE]

I remember reading about that a while ago when I was thinking about upgrading the drive. Kind of spooked me to the point of forgetting about the upgrade at the time. I guess I can understand the head parking for a notebook computer, where any power savings can be useful from a battery life perspective, but, it certainly makes things interesting for a console.

I wonder if there's a surefire way to avoid that style of feature from any manufacturer's drives?
 
[quote name='Jerakon']I remember reading about that a while ago when I was thinking about upgrading the drive. Kind of spooked me to the point of forgetting about the upgrade at the time. I guess I can understand the head parking for a notebook computer, where any power savings can be useful from a battery life perspective, but, it certainly makes things interesting for a console.

I wonder if there's a surefire way to avoid that style of feature from any manufacturer's drives?[/QUOTE]
There is a model of Western Digital HDD which does not have the head packing feature. Make sure it has "BEVT" in the model name, such as this one I bought from new egg and you should be fine.
 
[quote name='guardian_owl']There is a model of Western Digital HDD which does not have the head packing feature. Make sure it has "BEVT" in the model name, such as this one I bought from new egg and you should be fine.[/QUOTE]

I'll give that one a look. Thank you.
 
WD5000BEVT has aggressive head parking feature. Whether it affects your perceived response time is a YMMV.

However, do not go for WD5000BPVT. It uses advanced format and uses 4kb per sector. PS3 doesn't support advanced format directly so the HDD will have to emulate 512b per sector. This basically leads to some intermittent pauses or slowness.

Basically, do not stick an advanced format HDD into a PS3. It's useable but not recommended for performance reasons.
 
This is probably a reaaaaally dumb question, but I know next to nothing about computers and hard drives. And this seems as good of a place to ask as any.

Bought a new HD yesterday for my PS3. Now, it's known for aggressive head parking and want to do the WDIDLE thing. If I remove the old HD from my laptop to put the new one in and install the WDIDLE to it, if I put the old HD in afterwards...would it cause any problems?

I just want to make sure taking out the HD, putting in a new one and running the utility, then putting the old one back won't cause any problems to the original HD including no deleted files/programs or anything.
 
[quote name='4thHorseman']This is probably a reaaaaally dumb question, but I know next to nothing about computers and hard drives. And this seems as good of a place to ask as any.

Bought a new HD yesterday for my PS3. Now, it's known for aggressive head parking and want to do the WDIDLE thing. If I remove the old HD from my laptop to put the new one in and install the WDIDLE to it, if I put the old HD in afterwards...would it cause any problems?

I just want to make sure taking out the HD, putting in a new one and running the utility, then putting the old one back won't cause any problems to the original HD including no deleted files/programs or anything.[/QUOTE]

http://forums.storagereview.com/ind...wer-western-digital-hdd-head-parking-and-you/

Make sure you remove any existing HDD since WDIDLE would attempt to apply settings to all HDD.

Again, some people notice the problem on their PS3 and others don't. So experiment it yourself before voiding the warranty on your HDD.
 
[quote name='eau']WD5000BEVT has aggressive head parking feature. Whether it affects your perceived response time is a YMMV.

However, do not go for WD5000BPVT. It uses advanced format and uses 4kb per sector. PS3 doesn't support advanced format directly so the HDD will have to emulate 512b per sector. This basically leads to some intermittent pauses or slowness.

Basically, do not stick an advanced format HDD into a PS3. It's useable but not recommended for performance reasons.[/QUOTE]

The newer models with AF are perfectly fine. IE: Scorpio Black WD5000BPKT

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136856

They (7400s) have no "pause" effect you guys are talking about with the 5400s.
 
Anyone know if the same effect can be done with a 360? I have a friend that has an Elite with 20 GB and wants to upgrade his HDD space. If all is well, I wouldn't mind doing it on my 360 either.
 
The only way to put your own HDD on your 360 is it void the warranty/mod the HDD enclosure. Not sure if that is allowed to be talked about on here.
 
[quote name='Saix_XIII']The only way to put your own HDD on your 360 is it void the warranty/mod the HDD enclosure. Not sure if that is allowed to be talked about on here.[/QUOTE]
I think 360 HDD has special firmware in it. If you do the mod and connect online, M$ could find out and ban your system.
 
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