Clone Internal PS3 HDD Onto Bigger HDD - HOW..??

[gumbaz]

Is it possible at all to clone my original PS3 HDD onto a larger HDD so I don't have to worry about losing any lil settings or files ect..??

like a byte for byte clone/copy onto a new larger HDD, so when i put the new HDD in, it works/looks exactly like the old one did to the ps3, except now I have more free space..

is anything like this possible at all..?

[sabin1981]

For exactly what you're asking about; no. The drive is unrecognisable in any OS outside of the PS3, so you couldn't hook it to the PC and clone it. You can, however, simply do a HDD Backup, copy the backup file to an external, swap in your new internal HDD and then run the Backup>Restore utility.

The downside to this could be if you have a more recent machine that has the 16MB flash, as opposed to the old 256MB one. If you've got a recent machine (you'll know from one simple test; can you play PS2 games? No? Recent machine with 16MB flash) you will have to include the 3.41 update at the same time, which will reflash your firmware with the same one you're one now, removing authentication of PSN downloads and/or addons. This happens because on the newer machines, with the 16MB flash, a large portion of the firmware itself is actually stored on the HDD and not the internal memory.

There's a thread on here about, where people have lost access to their PSN games when doing a HDD upgrade. Check this section.

Here we go, found it; http://psx-scene.com/forums/f177/rea...g-games-67409/ (reactivating games)

Read that CAREFULLY.

[gumbaz]

what about this..?
Ghosting a Ps3 HDD Howto: - PlayStation 3 - South African Community

[Ex-Cyber]

The drive is unrecognisable in any OS outside of the PS3, so you couldn't hook it to the PC and clone it.

As far as I've heard, the drives are completely off-the-shelf and will work fine in a PC. A PC operating system won't know how to interpret the contents in any case, but it should still be possible to read/write the drive at the sector level.

Anyway, if you did do an exact clone and PS3 didn't reject it for some reason, you'd probably still have the same amount of free space because you cloned the old filesystem including all its information about the volume size and free space.

[GrEn]

As far as I've heard, the drives are completely off-the-shelf and will work fine in a PC. A PC operating system won't know how to interpret the contents in any case, but it should still be possible to read/write the drive at the sector level.

Anyway, if you did do an exact clone and PS3 didn't reject it for some reason, you'd probably still have the same amount of free space because you cloned the old filesystem including all its information about the volume size and free space.

This is true, I am using my old 160GB internal drive as a backup drive now for my PC after formatting it to NTFS. I think sabin1981 was saying you wouldn't be able to access the drive until it was formatted, making it so you couldn't make a backup of it since the PC cant read the file system of the drive right out of the PS3.

[gumbaz]

As far as I've heard, the drives are completely off-the-shelf and will work fine in a PC. A PC operating system won't know how to interpret the contents in any case, but it should still be possible to read/write the drive at the sector level.

Anyway, if you did do an exact clone and PS3 didn't reject it for some reason, you'd probably still have the same amount of free space because you cloned the old filesystem including all its information about the volume size and free space.

hmm, interesting thought there, I wonder if anyone has verified if this ghosting/cloning procedure actually does work or not and if it will indeed keep the amount of free space as the old PS3 HDD had..?

[sabin1981]

This is true, I am using my old 160GB internal drive as a backup drive now for my PC after formatting it to NTFS. I think sabin1981 was saying you wouldn't be able to access the drive until it was formatted, making it so you couldn't make a backup of it since the PC cant read the file system of the drive right out of the PS3.

Yep, that's exactly what I was saying. You can't clone a drive if you can't access it

@Gumbaz

If you "clone" it the way you are suggesting, then you clone the low-level drive information and MFT .. which means if you clone your 80GB to a, say, 500GB drive -- you'll end up with 80GB again.

[xtremeskier97]

Yep, that's exactly what I was saying. You can't clone a drive if you can't access it

@Gumbaz

If you "clone" it the way you are suggesting, then you clone the low-level drive information and MFT .. which means if you clone your 80GB to a, say, 500GB drive -- you'll end up with 80GB again.

Not so sure about that. Some have reported that HDClone Pro cloned the drive, but didnt know what to do with the extra space, so you end up with the same amount of free space as you had on the smaller drive (pointless).

BUT, the fact is the file system CAN be cloned even if you cant read it.

[Fresc]

Could you not just use FTP to get the files you want off the original HDD then back to the new drive?

[sabin1981]

Not so sure about that. Some have reported that HDClone Pro cloned the drive, but didnt know what to do with the extra space, so you end up with the same amount of free space as you had on the smaller drive (pointless).

BUT, the fact is the file system CAN be cloned even if you cant read it.

I'd like to see some sources on that before I believe it =)