EDIT 3: While I would still appreciate any info anyone could give, I now only have one real important, simple question: Is it safe to try to dust the Slim's HDD compartment? (Obviously with the HD itself taken out)
The story starts last night. I'm playing Lego Star Wars, and I notice that my PS3 Slim is making odd noises. So I turn it off, thinking there's likely just something wrong with the disk. Now I tried turning it on, but it's giving me the infamous "Correct hard disk cannot be found" message, and the system is making an odd whistling sound.
Now, my brother had PS3 hard drive problems not too long ago, and managed to get his replaced rather easily. But he's a casual gamer at best, and it wasn't a big deal for him. But for me? I've recently spent hours trying to reach Level 50 in Assassin's Creed multiplayer, I have a coveted Red Dead Redemption file I play often, and I'm nearing the end of Lego Star Wars, which has taken me quite a bit of time. I don't want to have to resort to replacing/wiping the drive unless I can somehow find a way to make some back-ups first, but A.) That's probably not possible and B.) I doubt I'll have a choice in the end.
Hopefully the whistling noise just means that air is leaking through a large dust-build up, which should be easy to sort out. But even then I could use a little guidance. My brother said taking apart his PS3 (Original model) and accessing the hard drive was easy. Is the internal parts of the cooling fan just as easy to get to? Are there any good step-by-step guides on the internet?
Any help is appreciated. After all, my weekend just started and I got LA Noire in the mail <_<
EDIT: I blew on the back of it, to see if that could help clear dust. It's *kind of* worked. My PS3 turned on, but now it just brings up the menu screen, hovers on it for a minute, and then freezes. And as I'm listening to the sound it's making, it's less of a *a whistling* noise and more of an extremely high-pitched whirring, or a scraping noise.
EDIT 2: Thank god, I got it working long enough to grab all the data I wanted. I'm sure something still needs to be done, though. Any ideas?
The story starts last night. I'm playing Lego Star Wars, and I notice that my PS3 Slim is making odd noises. So I turn it off, thinking there's likely just something wrong with the disk. Now I tried turning it on, but it's giving me the infamous "Correct hard disk cannot be found" message, and the system is making an odd whistling sound.
Now, my brother had PS3 hard drive problems not too long ago, and managed to get his replaced rather easily. But he's a casual gamer at best, and it wasn't a big deal for him. But for me? I've recently spent hours trying to reach Level 50 in Assassin's Creed multiplayer, I have a coveted Red Dead Redemption file I play often, and I'm nearing the end of Lego Star Wars, which has taken me quite a bit of time. I don't want to have to resort to replacing/wiping the drive unless I can somehow find a way to make some back-ups first, but A.) That's probably not possible and B.) I doubt I'll have a choice in the end.
Hopefully the whistling noise just means that air is leaking through a large dust-build up, which should be easy to sort out. But even then I could use a little guidance. My brother said taking apart his PS3 (Original model) and accessing the hard drive was easy. Is the internal parts of the cooling fan just as easy to get to? Are there any good step-by-step guides on the internet?
Any help is appreciated. After all, my weekend just started and I got LA Noire in the mail <_<
EDIT: I blew on the back of it, to see if that could help clear dust. It's *kind of* worked. My PS3 turned on, but now it just brings up the menu screen, hovers on it for a minute, and then freezes. And as I'm listening to the sound it's making, it's less of a *a whistling* noise and more of an extremely high-pitched whirring, or a scraping noise.
EDIT 2: Thank god, I got it working long enough to grab all the data I wanted. I'm sure something still needs to be done, though. Any ideas?