Hard Drive Clearance - Works with PS3 at Best Buy - YMMV

ryanflucas

ryanflucas

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While at Best Buy today, I stopped by the store's clearance aisle. Normally its accessories and such, but this particular location had 40+ external hard disks on clearance.

The employee said that Seagate & Western Digital have released new drives with different more updated packaging. Essentially the drives are identical, but the packaging and included manual (software) is newer. Most Best Buy stores will be closing out the previous drives starting today.

If you have a Playstation 3, you can use the smaller 2.5" drives in your system. Just carefully open the external drive casing and remove the drive and install it in your system. The 3.5" drives would be removable but only for use with desktop computers internally.

The dept head thought this would be uniform across the country, but I'm still marking this YMMV. Either way, your location most likely will be closing these out for the new ones in some capacity. Can't hurt to check though - a 500GB drive in your PS3 would be nice. As far as I know, these 2.5" drive are all 5400rpm.


Seagate External Drives On Sale
(my store didn't price these yet but they were below $75 according to the rep)

  • 250GB USB 2.0 2.5" FreeAgent Go
  • 320GB USB 2.0 2.5" FreeAgent Go

Toshiba Drives On Sale

  • 160GB USB 2.0 2.5" $69.99

Western Digital Drives on Sale

  • 250GB USB 2.0 My Passport 2.5" $69.99
  • 500GB USB 2.0 My Passport 2.5" $76.99
  • 640GB USB 2.0 My Book 3.5" (not yet priced)
  • 1TB USB 2.0 My Book 3.5" $100
  • 1TB Mirrored USB 2.0 My Book 3.5" (two 1TB drives in a mirrored raid. You could use this as is, or remove the two 1TB drives and have 2TB of storage in a desktop computer). $125


In case you are from Milwaukee, WI this store number is Northridge #24. I'm going to Fox Point #654 tomorrow to see if they have the same stock for clearance. The markdowns are being done on existing sku's not the normal yellow clearance stickers. I have a price verification receipt I can scan for the 500GB & 250GB 2.5" WD drives upon request.

Here are tutorial links for replacing your PS3 hard disk (Thanks dattomcat89!!)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5sRkj89axOU&feature=player_embedded
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IuQ5f9tXlrw&feature=player_embedded
 
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[quote name='Lord Darkstorn']I didn't think external drives worked on PS3. I have a 500gb external by La Cie and it won't communicate with the console at all.[/QUOTE]

they have to be formatted fat 32 but yeah they work with ps3. don't buy anything 3.5" only 2.5" you can always bust open a 2.5" external and put the harddrive in your ps3
 
[quote name='Lord Darkstorn']I didn't think external drives worked on PS3. I have a 500gb external by La Cie and it won't communicate with the console at all.[/QUOTE]

External drives don't as-is. The drives used are standard drives they use in laptops, desktops, etc. If your external 500GB La Cie is built with a 2.5" drive you should be able to take apart the enclosure and pull out the drive to install inside the PS3.
 
[quote name='Lord Darkstorn']I didn't think external drives worked on PS3. I have a 500gb external by La Cie and it won't communicate with the console at all.[/QUOTE]

He's saying that you can remove the drive from the external casing and use it to replace your internal PS3 drive.
 
[quote name='sophicous']I mean that's great that it works with the PS3 at Best Buy, but what about the PS3 at my house?

:lol:[/QUOTE]



I doubt it. I heard that sony made your ps3 different just to piss you off.
 
don't even bother with 160gb, or even 250gb. You can pick up twice the capacity for literally $5 more. Newegg.com usually has the best prices on this stuff, 2.5" 320gb for $65 or less. I picked up a 500 for my laptop a couple months ago for $80 with a free external enclosure. That WD 500gb that you listed is pretty good, otherwise kinda meh. Check slickdeals if you're looking for HDs, there's always something up on that board
 
Depending on your Best Buy store, you may try negotiating the clearance prices, especially if the item in question isn't selling well. I did this recently and got a Caselogic 32cd capacity CD Wallet for $0.99 each when I bought a bunch of them. This isn't going to work in all situations but it works around here if you can locate the clearance\overstock aisle. The department heads\managers tend to hang out around there doing inventory. I chat it up with these guys when I can, as they tend to want to move stuff out so they can make inventory paperwork easier. If they can sell all of the remaining inventory of a particular item, they can remove the sku from their paperwork.

Stories are also clearancing many of their Windows Vista notebooks & desktops so that all the systems on display by the end of the month are Windows 7 only. That includes moving their Wireless G & N routers to the clearance section if it doesn't mention Windows 7 on the box.

If you check out Bestbuy.com right now, you'll notice there's less then 3 Dell notebooks in inventory, and what they do have is in outlet. They haven't stopped selling Dell, but their inventory is down to nil right before the Windows 7 introduction.
 
Not that great of a sale IMO. Pretty run of the mill prices. Recently got a 250GB for $17 at Staples, so I'm good for the PS3 for a while.

Wouldn't mind getting a larger one, but Best Buy clearances vary by store/district/territory, and they won't pricematch another Best Buy store outside of their district or territory.

Edit: brief comparison:
Seagate
250GB USB 2.0 2.5" FreeAgent Go - $68.99 on Amazon
320GB USB 2.0 2.5" FreeAgent Go - $69 on Amazon

Toshiba
160GB USB 2.0 2.5" $69.99 $49.99 on Newegg (just the drive)

Western Digital
250GB USB 2.0 My Passport 2.5" $69.99 - $69.95 on Amazon $53.99 on eCOST
500GB USB 2.0 My Passport 2.5" $76.99 - $99.95 on Amazon
640GB USB 2.0 My Book 3.5" (not yet priced) - $83.99 on Amazon (3.5") $129.99 on Amazon/J&R (2.5")


1TB USB 2.0 My Book 3.5" $100 - $100 on Best Buy.com (and most other places)
1TB Mirrored USB 2.0 My Book 3.5" $125 - $139.99 on Amazon
 
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Are you really supposed to stick to 5400 RPM? I thought people posted you could put 7200 RPM in for faster loading.
 
[quote name='J7.']Are you really supposed to stick to 5400 RPM? I thought people posted you could put 7200 RPM in for faster loading.[/QUOTE]
Most of the people I've heard from who put 7200rpm in their PS3 say there is little difference in load time.
 
[quote name='FierceDeityLink1']Depends on how much you want to pay for a few seconds faster loading.[/QUOTE]
You're right looks like may not be worth it. 2 seconds for loading on startup and another 2 for a game, and 0.7 for a level. Conservatively then since I only use 10 level loads here and playing once per day without multiple loading of system or game 10*0.7=7+2+2= 11
11*365=4015/60= 66.92 minutes a year. For $20 more I don't know if I'd spring for the 7200 RPM, it would only be good if it felt like those ~0.7 seconds helped keep you immersed in the game between level loads.

From that article... to put the data onto your PC it sounds like you would have to partition a usb drive then partition your PC's HDD as well? Anyways that's a great article for the FAT32 info too, and I'll be saving it for future reference.
 
[quote name='J7.']From that article... to put the data onto your PC it sounds like you would have to partition a usb drive then partition your PC's HDD as well?[/QUOTE]
Yes, unless you just have a spare hard drive that you can reformat as FAT32. Personally, I was able to use a 16GB flash drive. Depends on how much content you have.
 
I personally don't own a PS3. Those of you who have one, is there any reason to get a bigger drive besides downloads & game installations? I can't for example connect a 16GB usb flash drive (or network the PS3) and copy avi files over to the drive and use it like a media center could I?

Essentially making the PS3 like an Apple TV (but with a function to play games\blu-ray's)?
 
[quote name='ryanflucas']I personally don't own a PS3. Those of you who have one, is there any reason to get a bigger drive besides downloads & game installations? I can't for example connect a 16GB usb flash drive (or network the PS3) and copy avi files over to the drive and use it like a media center could I?

Essentially making the PS3 like an Apple TV (but with a function to play games\blu-ray's)?[/QUOTE]

you can use windows media player, or tversity as free software to connect ur ps3 to ur home computer thru ur wireless network. or you can save avi files to a flash drive and transfer them over. we are on patch 3.01 ish and they added divx around 2.0, 2.5ish..
 
FYI to all, you need to get a certain version of the My Passport drives to be able to pull the harddrive from it. After a certain point this year they started combining the external case circuit board (for power, USB plug and all that) and the hard drive circuit board into one solid board, so the HDD itself isn't usable outside of the case.

On the bottom of the box it'll say "R/N:" followed by A7B, B7B or B8B. The A7B and B7B are guttable, but the B8B is the solid board type.
 
Don't mean to thread jack, just a quick question. I wanna get some DLC but I plan on upgrading my HD in the future. If I dl something onto my 40gb, am I gonna run into protected content issues if I wanted to move that stuff to my new HD? Basically, should I not buy the DLC until I get my bigger HD?
 
[quote name='FierceDeityLink1']Not that great of a sale IMO. Pretty run of the mill prices. Recently got a 250GB for $17 at Staples, so I'm good for the PS3 for a while.
[/QUOTE]

Is this still available???
 
[quote name='uhoh_evo']Don't mean to thread jack, just a quick question. I wanna get some DLC but I plan on upgrading my HD in the future. If I dl something onto my 40gb, am I gonna run into protected content issues if I wanted to move that stuff to my new HD? Basically, should I not buy the DLC until I get my bigger HD?[/QUOTE]

No, use the backup utility on the xmb and won't have that problem. DLC can also be accessed in your download history in the PSN store (don't forget your login or password though). Back to thread.
 
[quote name='AXV1']You can back up your PS3 data onto an Ipod.[/QUOTE]

That's freakin' brilliant. That would have never occurred to me and the main reason I haven't done it yet is that I didn't know how I was going to back up all the data. I guess you can delete everything on the ipod pretty easily and restore it all off your computer again, right?

Here's a youtube video I found on the subject:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLSaCGTQMC8
 
[quote name='uhoh_evo']Don't mean to thread jack, just a quick question. I wanna get some DLC but I plan on upgrading my HD in the future. If I dl something onto my 40gb, am I gonna run into protected content issues if I wanted to move that stuff to my new HD? Basically, should I not buy the DLC until I get my bigger HD?[/QUOTE]

If you use the backup utility and restore your data onto another hard drive there won't be any ownership issues. PS3 also allows you to re-download anything you bought on up to five different machines. So if you ever get a new system or want to play a game you own at a friends house, all you have to do is log in and go to your downloads page in the PS store to redownload everything.
 
[quote name='FierceDeityLink1']Yes, unless you just have a spare hard drive that you can reformat as FAT32. Personally, I was able to use a 16GB flash drive. Depends on how much content you have.[/QUOTE]
Did you just keep it on that drive or did you format your PC and put it on there too? If you create a FAT32 partition on your PC can you just delete the partition afterwards?
 
[quote name='nhlmaniac']If you use the backup utility and restore your data onto another hard drive there won't be any ownership issues. PS3 also allows you to re-download anything you bought on up to five different machines. So if you ever get a new system or want to play a game you own at a friends house, all you have to do is log in and go to your downloads page in the PS store to redownload everything.[/QUOTE]

Except for Singstar content since it is not part of the PS store. I could be wrong but I believe that was a big issue that plagued Singstar DLC.
 
after seeing some reviews of the new passport drives I hope my local best buy has some of the old ones on clearance

why would they switch to proprietary usb hookups? what the fuck Western Digital? why are you regressing?
 
[quote name='jazzman']Except for Singstar content since it is not part of the PS store. I could be wrong but I believe that was a big issue that plagued Singstar DLC.[/QUOTE]

Yea, Singstar songs aren't part of the PSN store. If you're not switching systems you can just redownload those from the singstar store. If you're going to a brand new system you'll need to call Sony up and tell them to deactivate your songs on your old system so you can redownload them on your new system. It's a bit of a hassle.
 
[quote name='Stealthcat']No, use the backup utility on the xmb and won't have that problem. DLC can also be accessed in your download history in the PSN store (don't forget your login or password though). Back to thread.[/QUOTE]

[quote name='nhlmaniac']If you use the backup utility and restore your data onto another hard drive there won't be any ownership issues. PS3 also allows you to re-download anything you bought on up to five different machines. So if you ever get a new system or want to play a game you own at a friends house, all you have to do is log in and go to your downloads page in the PS store to redownload everything.[/QUOTE]

Exactly the answers I was looking for. Thx guys!
 
[quote name='J7.']You're right looks like may not be worth it. 2 seconds for loading on startup and another 2 for a game, and 0.7 for a level. Conservatively then since I only use 10 level loads here and playing once per day without multiple loading of system or game 10*0.7=7+2+2= 11
11*365=4015/60= 66.92 minutes a year. For $20 more I don't know if I'd spring for the 7200 RPM, it would only be good if it felt like those ~0.7 seconds helped keep you immersed in the game between level loads.[/QUOTE]

..and how much time do you waste calculating useless information like this? lol. This always bugs me, like seeing people calculate how many kilowatt hours and therefore pennies they save by buying a certain type of LCD. Stop thinking so much :lol:
 
[quote name='kr580']FYI to all, you need to get a certain version of the My Passport drives to be able to pull the harddrive from it. After a certain point this year they started combining the external case circuit board (for power, USB plug and all that) and the hard drive circuit board into one solid board, so the HDD itself isn't usable outside of the case.

On the bottom of the box it'll say "R/N:" followed by A7B, B7B or B8B. The A7B and B7B are guttable, but the B8B is the solid board type.[/QUOTE]

Good info!
 
[quote name='buckythekat']after seeing some reviews of the new passport drives I hope my local best buy has some of the old ones on clearance

why would they switch to proprietary usb hookups? what the fuck Western Digital? why are you regressing?[/QUOTE]

Wait.... So your saying they don't use the normal USB Cables anymore? They use special ones now? Wtf?!
 
[quote name='iHack']Is this still available???[/QUOTE]
Nope, it was pretty much one day only, since the employees took them for themselves at many stores.

[quote name='J7.']Did you just keep it on that drive or did you format your PC and put it on there too? If you create a FAT32 partition on your PC can you just delete the partition afterwards?[/QUOTE]
Yeah, if you use a partition manager liked gParted, you can just resize your NTFS partition (shrink it), and make a FAT32 partition in free space. Then, once you're done, just delete it and grow the NTFS partition back to full-size.
 
[quote name='FierceDeityLink1']
Yeah, if you use a partition manager liked gParted, you can just resize your NTFS partition (shrink it), and make a FAT32 partition in free space. Then, once you're done, just delete it and grow the NTFS partition back to full-size.[/QUOTE]
So you have to shrink your regular HDD first to make room, that makes sense. It sounds like it may be easier to just save stuff you cannot redownload onto a usb and just keep it on that rather than messing with your computer. It's too bad you have to download some 3rd party program to be able to get it on your PC, as I would like to backup my saves.

[quote name='jallen']..and how much time do you waste calculating useless information like this? lol. This always bugs me, like seeing people calculate how many kilowatt hours and therefore pennies they save by buying a certain type of LCD. Stop thinking so much :lol:[/QUOTE]
Sorry if I make informed decisions - what if it saved you 10+ hours a year (which it could if you move music and videos off and on your PS3 a number of times a year). It would be worth calculating and I would've saved myself 9:55+ hours over the year than someone like you who doesn't think about much at all. I enjoy calculating anyways. Why do you think others have also done the calculations and even written up articles on it... How much time do you waste complaining about other people's behavior?
 
[quote name='ryanflucas']
  • 1TB Mirrored USB 2.0 My Book 3.5" (two 1TB drives in a mirrored raid. You could use this as is, or remove the two 1TB drives and have 2TB of storage in a desktop computer). $125[/QUOTE]
Isn't that one 1TB Raid0 or 500GB Raid1 ?
 
Interesting why destroy an external drive. You can get similar size internal hard drives much cheaper then the external ones from places such as newegg or try pricewatch.
Adam
 
[quote name='joeybc86']Does anybody know if this drive is compatible?

I want more then 500GBs, and 7200RPM Speed...

Is this the best price?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148374[/QUOTE]

Read the reviews. One person said this, "I've bought 24 of these drives over the last four months to upgrade the performance in several Dell Latitude D620 and D630 laptops for a client. I've already had to RMA 6 of them, and many of the others are already acting up."

Whether this item is compatible or not with a PS3 I'd buy another brand.
 
[quote name='fignutz32']Isn't that one 1TB Raid0 or 500GB Raid1 ?[/QUOTE]
"two 1TB drives in a mirrored raid"
That's 2x 1TB RAID1.

[quote name='possum1284']Interesting why destroy an external drive. You can get similar size internal hard drives much cheaper then the external ones from places such as newegg or try pricewatch.
Adam[/QUOTE]
You can always re-use the external enclosure, and unlike internal drives (most of the time), external drives tend to go on clearance for insanely low prices. Not necessarily the case for these deals, though.

[quote name='joeybc86']Does anybody know if this drive is compatible?

I want more then 500GBs, and 7200RPM Speed...

Is this the best price?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148374[/QUOTE]
A quick Google says that's 12.5mm, and I believe all PS3s will only accept 9.5mm maximum.
 
[quote name='Stealthcat']No, use the backup utility on the xmb and won't have that problem. DLC can also be accessed in your download history in the PSN store (don't forget your login or password though). Back to thread.[/QUOTE]

I also deactivated my ps3 for video and games just to be safe.
 
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I have had nothing but problems with seagate drives for the last few years. They use to be great so I am sticking with the western digitals.
 
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