using USB storage on ps3

[darkcalling]

My brother has a 12gb ps3. He wants to use a large capacity USB card to expand its memory so he can keep more than 2games on it at a time. Is this possible? All the how tos online are about transferring files or watching videos from a USB. He needs to be able to download from the store directly to it or save games to it directly. Can this be done?

 

[Frezzato]

Unfortunately you can't do that. I have a slim and tried downloading a game to a thumb drive but it didn't work. But don't take my word for it:

You can't install games on external USB drives. Games will only run off of the internal hard drive.

You can replace the internal hard drive. It will take any standard SATA 2.5" (laptop-sized) drive. The drive will be reformatted automatically. See How to upgrade your PS3 hard drive. I upgraded to a 1 TB drive. It took maybe ten minutes to do the swap, but a few hours to backup before the swap and a few more to restore.

You can back up to a USB hard drive, though it takes forever.

Can I install PS3 games on an external hard drive? [http://gaming.stackexchange.com/questions/106490/can-i-install-ps3-games-on-an-external-hard-drive]

The good news is that you can get a 500GB, PS3-compatible notebook hard drive [http://www.amazon.com/Blue-500-Mobile-Hard-Drive/dp/B0037NYQ6Q/ref=sr_1_2?s=electronics&rps=1&ie=UTF8&qid=1392758977&sr=1-2&keywords=5400rpm+2.5+sata+ps3+compatible] for around $60 now. Several years ago I paid $70 for mine. I don't use PS+ so I've never had an issue with space. And don't forget, you'll need to acquire an HDD mounting bracket [http://www.amazon.com/TOMTOP-Mounting-Bracket-System-CECH-400x/dp/B00CRXE932/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1392759177&sr=8-1&keywords=ps3+hdd+bracket].

 

[Tanis]

No, but it's really easy to install a new one and transfer the old data to said new one.