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How to Upgrade or repair your PS3 

How To Upgrade Your PS3 Hard Drive

Optimizing Your PS3 for Bluray



How to upgrade your PlayStation 3 Hard Drive

This is a great site that walks you through how to change your hard drive on your PS3 system. Some systems seem to run into problems as the memory fills up, replacing the hard drive can resolve the issue. You may also want to simply upgrade to more memory:

http://www.cnet.com.au/how-to-upgrade-your-playstation-3-hard-drive-339282375.htm

Here is a link to a video showing you exactly the steps to go through. This video was created by c/net and indicates that it will not void your warranty (the hard drive is located under an access panel). This video also shows how to back up the system first so that everything is saved:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AuyQPW3bDS0
 
Upgrade Your PlayStation 3 Hard Drive

It doesn't matter which of the PlayStation 3 systems you have - you can always use more storage space.

The built-in hard-disk space quickly disappears once you start downloading games, music, demos, and HD videos. The good news is that Sony has designed the PS3 so that owners can perform their own hard-drive upgrades. Simply select your own hard drive instead of using a service to buy an official first-party hard-disk accessory. However, giving console owners that option means that you will need to know how to select the right hard-drive upgrade and the correct installation technique.

Step one to replacing the hard disk is going to your local store or looking online for a new hard disk. The PS3 is compatible with just about any 2.5-inch SATA notebook hard disk. Both 5400-RPM and 7200-RPM drives should work fine. The physical size of the hard disk (2.5 -inch) is important because it has to fit the PS3's 2.5-inch drive tray. In terms of storage capacity, you may as well go big: 120GB, 160GB, or even 250GB.

Once you have the new SATA drive, you need back up the data on your current PS3 hard drive to an external storage unit. Skip this step if you don't want your music, videos, and game saves, but most people will want to save all that information. The PS3 has a built-in software backup utility that is designed to copy the PS3's hard-drive contents to an external storage device, you can use a USB thumb drive or a memory stick. whatever you use, the storage device must use the FAT32 file system in order for the PS3 to recognize it. If you have an external hard drive that's formatted in NTFS instead, you can use the Disk Management utility in Windows to reformat the drive, but you will need to create partitions on large external hard drives because Windows can only do FAT32 on drives 32GB or smaller.

If your storage device isn't large enough to handle a full system backup, you can selectively copy the most important data over through the various music, photo, and game menus in the XMB, this way you can use multiple units. Do not worry about your PlayStation Network login and system settings, they will remain safe on the system during the entire backup process. After you have your data safely backed up, you can move on to the actual hard-drive swap.

The only tool you will need is a Phillips-head screwdriver. The PS3 owner's manual includes step-by-step instructions on how to replace the hard drive, in case you need more instructions.

1) Ensure that you turn off and unplug the system.

2) Remove the plastic HD side-panel (clearly marked), and remove the blue screw (do not loose).

3) Lift the metal latch, move the drive tray to the right, and slide out the drive.

4) Remove the four screws that hold the hard drive to the tray. Be sure to use a screwdriver that fits snugly as the screws are extremely tight and easy to strip.

5) Swap in the new drive, and replace the screws.

6) Put the drive tray back into the system and slide it into place (you will feel a click). Then replace the blue screw and snap the side panel back onto the system.

7) Turn on the console and let the system format the new drive. After that is finished, load up the PS3 backup utility again to restore data from your external storage device back onto the PS3 hard drive.

You now have a newly upgraded PS3 with a much more memory and the old leftover hard drive. You can make the old drive useful by buying an external drive enclosure for a SATA drive, to make it into a portable storage device, pick one up at your local store or online.

Joe Fox writes articles for http://howtorepairanything.net your resource for tips and how to advice for repairing anything around the home or garden.

You are now one step closer to knowing how to repair anything and everything.