PS3 Harddrive exchange question

[DoctorObviously]

So, as some of you may may know that my PS3 has a YLOD, I'd really love to get my hands on my saved games that I can't reach. Fortunately, my friend happens to own a 'phat' PS3-model that could be compatible with my HDD. He said I could use his PS3 to put my HDD in, copy my saved games, and reinstate his HDD, but only if nothing bad could accidentally happen to HIS PS3.

So I would really like to know if there is any risk of undergoing this procedure and if there was a change his PS3 could break from putting in my HDD in (different patch? different system settings perhaps? that sort of stuff)

 

[Marter]

From what I remember, the hard drive has to be re-formatted when you put it in a different PS3. In other words, it won't work. Sorry.

 

[Irridium]

It should be fine. At worst you'll probably just have to update the system to the latest patch.

Oh, and some saves won't copy. Yes I know it sounds odd, but when I copied my saves from one HDD to another(going from fat PS3 to slim), some wouldn't let me copy them.

It should be fine, but some games won't let you copy saves for whatever reason.

NOTE: I haven't tried this, so I may be wrong. The HDD may need to be re-formatted as stated above.

 

[Blackadder51]

Hmm, I don't think that would work. However when I exchanged my 60gb for a 500gb it didn't need to restore settings etc. I think all thats saved on it are game saves and movies etc. However I think you might need to format.

Also the fuckin screws on the HD (all 5) are that soft that you have to be so careful not to thread the bastard or damage the casing of the hard drive itself.

 

[Grayjack]

You'll have to re-format the HDD, so it's a no go.

 

[DoctorObviously]

Hmm, I don't think that would work. However when I exchanged my 60gb for a 500gb it didn't need to restore settings etc. I think all thats saved on it are game saves and movies etc. However I think you might need to format.

Also the fuckin screws on the HD (all 5) are that soft that you have to be so careful not to thread the bastard or damage the casing of the hard drive itself.

My friend has the exact same model that I have, so maybe there is a larger chance that it would work?

 

[mjc0961]

My friend has the exact same model that I have, so maybe there is a larger chance that it would work?

There is a 0% chance this will work. As in, it will never work. Any time you put a new HDD into a PS3, if that HDD hasn't been in that PS3 before, the PS3 will immediately ask to format that HDD. Your options from there are to accept and let it format, or turn off the console and take the drive out. It does not matter if the drive came out of your PS3, any other PS3 on the planet will want to format it. So you will not be able to access your saves that way.

The only way you are getting them back is if you get your YLOD repaired. I wouldn't send it to Sony, because best case you get a different PS3 back that's the same model as yours, and worst case you get back a Slim PS3 (well, worst case if you're like me and have a fully backwards compatible model and don't want the downgraded slim; if your fat doesn't play PS2 games then it's moot). Either result means slapping your HDD in means format time. You'll have to find some third party that will take YOUR PS3 and repair it and then send YOUR PS3 back to you. From there you can get to your saves again, and it's up to you to decide if you want to keep using the repaired PS3 or get a new one anyway and transfer the saves over before the old one dies again.

Oh, if you do go that route, use the transfer tool in the two console's system settings. Don't sit there and copy back and forth with a flash drive, you never know which saves are locked from being copied for some completely stupid and pointless reason.

 

[Blackadder51]

Hmm, I don't think that would work. However when I exchanged my 60gb for a 500gb it didn't need to restore settings etc. I think all thats saved on it are game saves and movies etc. However I think you might need to format.

Also the fuckin screws on the HD (all 5) are that soft that you have to be so careful not to thread the bastard or damage the casing of the hard drive itself.

My friend has the exact same model that I have, so maybe there is a larger chance that it would work?

But the model doesn't mean shit, its the hard drive that matters. When your friends Ps3 detects your Hard drive it will say "We need to format this shit". Which will annoy you.

Sorry mate, but if you got warranty go to sony, thats what i did when the Blu-ray laser died. See if they can can back up the hard drive, or go online and see if there is any DIY versions to fixing the YLOD.

 

[thenumberthirteen]

It won't work. When you replace the drive it reformats automatically. My PS3 YLOD'd the other day and so I've lost a load of saves and videos. The only way around this is to keep regular backups.

 

[mjc0961]

It won't work. When you replace the drive it reformats automatically. My PS3 YLOD'd the other day and so I've lost a load of saves and videos. The only way around this is to keep regular backups.

Which sadly isn't a full guarantee, because any saves that have that stupid copy protection I mentioned above can only be restored to the PS3 you made the back-up on. You can still restore most of your stuff to a different PS3 from a back-up, but any copy protected saves won't be restored. The only way to move those between two PS3s is that data transfer utility, which requires two working PS3s.

So yes, thank you again for that utterly pointless copy protection thing you added into the PS3 firmware, Sony. It's doing a whole lot to annoy people who don't want to lose their saves if their console dies and absolutely nothing else.

 

[DoctorObviously]

My friend has the exact same model that I have, so maybe there is a larger chance that it would work?

There is a 0% chance this will work. As in, it will never work. Any time you put a new HDD into a PS3, if that HDD hasn't been in that PS3 before, the PS3 will immediately ask to format that HDD. Your options from there are to accept and let it format, or turn off the console and take the drive out. It does not matter if the drive came out of your PS3, any other PS3 on the planet will want to format it. So you will not be able to access your saves that way.

The only way you are getting them back is if you get your YLOD repaired. I wouldn't send it to Sony, because best case you get a different PS3 back that's the same model as yours, and worst case you get back a Slim PS3 (well, worst case if you're like me and have a fully backwards compatible model and don't want the downgraded slim; if your fat doesn't play PS2 games then it's moot). Either result means slapping your HDD in means format time. You'll have to find some third party that will take YOUR PS3 and repair it and then send YOUR PS3 back to you. From there you can get to your saves again, and it's up to you to decide if you want to keep using the repaired PS3 or get a new one anyway and transfer the saves over before the old one dies again.

Oh, if you do go that route, use the transfer tool in the two console's system settings. Don't sit there and copy back and forth with a flash drive, you never know which saves are locked from being copied for some completely stupid and pointless reason.

That's a lot of useful information. Thanks mjc! Still a shame though ((

 

[Blackadder51]

Hey man, i did a quick search try this. I have no idea if it works.


How to fix ps3 yellow light of death 3. tips first

1)Turn off your playstation 3. If you think your ps3 has been caught by the heat, then wait at least 20 minutes and put it back on again

2) Check if there's any loose cable.

3) Try to put out your playstation's hard-drive, and put it back in. You might want to repeat this 2-3 times for better results.

 

[thenumberthirteen]

It won't work. When you replace the drive it reformats automatically. My PS3 YLOD'd the other day and so I've lost a load of saves and videos. The only way around this is to keep regular backups.

Which sadly isn't a full guarantee, because any saves that have that stupid copy protection I mentioned above can only be restored to the PS3 you made the back-up on. You can still restore most of your stuff to a different PS3 from a back-up, but any copy protected saves won't be restored. The only way to move those between two PS3s is that data transfer utility, which requires two working PS3s.

So yes, thank you again for that utterly pointless copy protection thing you added into the PS3 firmware, Sony. It's doing a whole lot to annoy people who don't want to lose their saves if their console dies and absolutely nothing else.

It is stupid. Why saved games gave that protection is beyond me. I have Timesplitters saved data that I can't move onto my PS3 because its copy protected. I can understand if downloadable games were copy protected, but saves? They have no monetary value. Who cares if your friend copies your save and they have all the cool things unlocked?

 

[tigermilk]

One option might be to put your hard drive in an external enclosure connect it to a pc, transfer the data to a pc then try and transfer it back to a new PS3. This might not work though (don't know much baout computers).

 

[mjc0961]

That's a lot of useful information. Thanks mjc! Still a shame though ((

No problem. Indeed is it, though. Microsoft does get a lot of (well deserved) flak for the price of their proprietary hard drives, but at least of your 360 dies, you just pop off the HDD and slap it on a new one and bam, saves. I'd much rather get an RRoD than a YLoD. =P Anyway, good luck in getting yourself gaming on the Playstation 3 again no matter what you do now.

It is stupid. Why saved games gave that protection is beyond me. I have Timesplitters saved data that I can't move onto my PS3 because its copy protected. I can understand if downloadable games were copy protected, but saves? They have no monetary value. Who cares if your friend copies your save and they have all the cool things unlocked?

And if they try to copy it for trophies, it already tells you "you did not earn a trophy" if you play the save on any other PSN account aside from the one that created it. I don't think that I explained that well, so let me put this this way. If I sent you my save for [PROTOTYPE] on hard mode right before the last mission so all you had to do was beat the last boss to get the hard mode trophy, it still wouldn't work because you're not playing on my PSN ID. It would just say you didn't get a trophy instead.

So Sony can't use the trophy excuse to try and justify that pointless feature. In fact, have they ever tried to justify it? I don't see how they could.

 

[thenumberthirteen]

So Sony can't use the trophy excuse to try and justify that pointless feature. In fact, have they ever tried to justify it? I don't see how they could.

The same feature was on the PS2 (and PS1 I think). It just serves to piss people off.

 

[Blackadder51]

The same feature was on the PS2 (and PS1 I think). .

On memory cards?

How did I not notice that? Thats just fucking stupid.

 

[thenumberthirteen]

The same feature was on the PS2 (and PS1 I think). .

On memory cards?

How did I not notice that? Thats just fucking stupid.

Not many games used it, but the Timesplitter games did, and so I can't copy my save to the PS3 meaning all those hours spent unlocking that FishBowl robot and Cyborg Monkey are wasted.

 

[mjc0961]

So Sony can't use the trophy excuse to try and justify that pointless feature. In fact, have they ever tried to justify it? I don't see how they could.

The same feature was on the PS2 (and PS1 I think). It just serves to piss people off.

I never would have noticed that on either of those two systems, as if the system broke you would just pop out the memory card and then pop it in the replacement. No problem.

...Although now that you mention it, some GameCube games did that, which did hit me because I bought a bigger memory card after the first Pokémon game's save file was big enough to fill up one of the original 59 block cards. And then you find that the Pokémon save can't be copied, which okay that makes sense. Don't want people to copy legions of Mews and such. But they had a move option which was a copy and then instant delete from the old card, and you couldn't use that either! >_<

Not many games used it, but the Timesplitter games did, and so I can't copy my save to the PS3 meaning all those hours spent unlocking that FishBowl robot and Cyborg Monkey are wasted.

Couldn't you still use it with one of those memory card adapters for the PS3? I had one briefly, I plugged it in, transfered my saves, and then sold it on Amazon, but as I recall it acted just like another memory card in the system's memory card utility.

 

[thenumberthirteen]

Not many games used it, but the Timesplitter games did, and so I can't copy my save to the PS3 meaning all those hours spent unlocking that FishBowl robot and Cyborg Monkey are wasted.

Couldn't you still use it with one of those memory card adapters for the PS3? I had one briefly, I plugged it in, transfered my saves, and then sold it on Amazon, but as I recall it acted just like another memory card in the system's memory card utility.

I have one, but it won't copy as it's protected.