PS3 Hard Drive Replacement Advice

S

Spafon

CAGiversary!
I know, I know, now is not a good time to buy a hard drive because of the floods. But I have an 80gb PS3, and I am tired of deciding what old game saves I want to delete each time I load up a new game. Also, I have a $20 credit for Newegg that expires soon. Does anyone think the prices will be dropping anytime in the next couple months? Because that is about all I am willing to wait, and I have read articles that this might affect prices until 2013.

Anyways, I don't know anything about replacing the hard drive. I am thinking of a 500-750gb+ Hard Drive. Is there anything I have to look out for or any advice anybody has to give regarding replacing it? Anybody have any suggestions for good drives and/or deals? Thanks in advance.
 
It doesn't actually help much as it's out of stock at the moment, but I bought this one over a year ago for $55 shipped.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136459

Just make sure the drive is 2.5" and as long as you try and at least match the specs with the one above, you should be fine(I'm completely happy with mine and have had no problems). Also, make sure you have an external hard drive handy as that's necessary to complete the switch. Well, at least as long as you're wanting to transfer all of your data and account info.
 
What specs are a concern? Physical size? Should I know the RPM or just get the highest available?
 
[quote name='Spafon']What specs are a concern? Physical size? Should I know the RPM or just get the highest available?[/QUOTE]
The stock hard drive in a PS3 is a 2.5" SATA laptop drive that runs at 5400 RPM's. People have said that it slightly improves loading times to get a 7200 RPM drive, but that it does generate more heat.

So it's up to you to decide if the slight improvement is worth the added heat generated.
 
[quote name='IAmTheCheapestGamer']The stock hard drive in a PS3 is a 2.5" SATA laptop drive that runs at 5400 RPM's. People have said that it slightly improves loading times to get a 7200 RPM drive, but that it does generate more heat.

So it's up to you to decide if the slight improvement is worth the added heat generated.[/QUOTE]
Thanks for the tip, I think I will stick to the stock 5400, and thanks Mixer236, I think I will track down something very similar to what you bought.
 
Save files are tiny. Why not just back up the ones you don't use on a usb flash drive and transfer them to a pc. As for game files, you can just delete the ones you don't use anymore.
 
[quote name='dohdough']Save files are tiny. Why not just back up the ones you don't use on a usb flash drive and transfer them to a pc. As for game files, you can just delete the ones you don't use anymore.[/QUOTE]

Because it's annoying to have an install every time you put in a ps3 game that you don't play too often(and God forbid it be one with a ton of patches). Not to mention all the patches, dlc and psn games add up much more quickly than you might think. I like having all my downloaded titles there and ready to go, as well as all of my retail game installs.

I know I'm not majority, but I have zero movies, music and demos on my ps3. All of that and yet my HDD has just over 400GB of space taken up on it. So yeah, I'd much rather have went through that bit of effort than still be having to deal with my old 80GB drive.
 
[quote name='dohdough']Save files are tiny. Why not just back up the ones you don't use on a usb flash drive and transfer them to a pc. As for game files, you can just delete the ones you don't use anymore.[/QUOTE]
Some save files aren't transferrable unless you have that cloud saving from PS+ since the companies that made the games decided to lock those saves to that particular system. A good example of this is Mercenaries 2, which had some missions that were a major league pita to get by.

When I went to get rid of my 40gb PS3 I tried using a flash drive I had to transfer some saves off the hdd and that was one of them that had copy protection on it.

Although with Sony handing out those "free" month PS+ codes to some PSN members one could just activate the first of the three codes they are sending people, save any saves they want to to the cloud and then re-download them once they upgrade to the larger hdd.
 
[quote name='el swordo']How many games do you play on your ps3 that you have to worry about reinstalling? Just keep your 3 or 4 most played games installed and uninstall to make room for the rest. They have a 640gb one on newegg for $70 which isn't horrible http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152204 I paid $80 last april for a 640gb and don't regret it. Do you have a dead laptop lying around you can format the drive and use?[/QUOTE]
The only problem with uninstalling/reinstalling is as Mixer236 said. What if the install files are a gig or more and then there's MULTIPLE patches for said game(s), with each of those being hundreds of MB's? Then you have to re-download/re-install THOSE and by the time you get around to playing a game you're kind of put off on the idea.
 
[quote name='IAmTheCheapestGamer']The only problem with uninstalling/reinstalling is as Mixer236 said. What if the install files are a gig or more and then there's MULTIPLE patches for said game(s), with each of those being hundreds of MB's? Then you have to re-download/re-install THOSE and by the time you get around to playing a game you're kind of put off on the idea.[/QUOTE]
Exactly this. I don't want to worry about re-downloading anything, especially with some content becoming unavailable in the future.
 
Yep & yep. By the time you re-install a game like LBP, for instance - which has a METRIC TON of patches - you've wasted over an hour and just want to do something else. I like to re-play a lot of my games, and don't get rid of any of them all too often. So, it just makes sense for me to have them all on one drive. I did the 3-4 games at a time game for nearly a year and just got totally sick of constantly reorganizing my HDD to make room every time I got a new game. More room is always better, and I'll certainly do it sooner should the need ever arrive for a console HDD to be replaced again.
 
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