Backing up PS3 files for HDD swap

[MajinTony]

So it may pose a little difficult for my friend and I to format his external hdd to fat32 for that route, we'll see. what are the other options, does a flash drive need to be formatted? But then again how big do they come. I need about 22 gigs, whereas my friend is maxed out at 60 gigs.

I have a feeling the external gig will probably be the way to go but may prove difficult for my pea sized brain.

[RageProphetXIII]

Yeah I'm about to add a 200gig hdd on my ps3. I want to add Yellow Dog Linux to it so I can play some snes games off my ps3.

[keyser28146]

Well,

MOST external HDD's are formatted in FAT32 for this reason: it works with about everything modern.

Unless you have formatted one with a DIFFERENT file system, whichever one you have should work... after you have restored the backup to the new HDD, there is no reason you can't erase everything on the external HDD and your friend can use it too... but if it is big enough, you could have multiple backup files on there... it names them based on the time the backup was started.

[RageProphetXIII]

How much time would it take to back up 40 gigs of info. and does it just copy your configurations and files and install them back the way you had it before.

Will i have to reinstall all my games and photos, movies....etc.?

[BOSS]

How much time would it take to back up 40 gigs of info. and does it just copy your configurations and files and install them back the way you had it before.

Will i have to reinstall all my games and photos, movies....etc.?

I don't remember how long it takes exactly, but you just basically copy all of your data.

You will have to reinstall everything (which is the annoying part). This includes any DLC you have (Warhawk expansions, PSN games, etc). Same thing with the firmware update.

[RageProphetXIII]

I don't remember how long it takes exactly, but you just basically copy all of your data.

You will have to reinstall everything (which is the annoying part). This includes any DLC you have (Warhawk expansions, PSN games, etc). Same thing with the firmware update.

oh that's lame. Oh well. I'm trying to put 200 gig hdd and put linux on it so i can play some snes games.

[keyser28146]

Whoa...

I've done this twice and have not had to reinstall ANYTHING.

1. You back it up, using the BACKUP UTILITY.
2. Your entire 40, 80, 160, 250, etc gigs will show up as a single backup. You then manually sync your trophies. The backup process takes an hour or more depending on how much data you have... I think when I did 60 it was about an hour, and when I did the 160 it may have been 2 hours.
3. You physically swap drives.
4. You fire up the PS3 with the new drive and it will format it. It takes seconds, maybe a minute to do this, both for the 160 and the 500 I've installed.
5. You go back to the BACKUP UTILITY with the external still attached, and select "restore". It will find the backup on the external HDD, you tell it OK.
6. It will restore.
7. When you fire it up after that, ALL you music, photos, installed PSN games, etc will be on there and immediately playable. I have never had to reinstall any games or anything if you use the backup utility. All your game saves and everything else are also there and run just as though you were on the old drive.

It's only if you switch drives WITHOUT backing up that you lose the data and game saves and have to reinstall previously downloaded content. The backup utility is the way to do it, copying off is not the same thing.

If you were curious about the file size with FAT32, you will notice by hooking it to a PC that the drive will have something like this:
Sony->PS3->Backup Data->200909021200->BUPART1 (3.99GB), BUPART2 (3.99GB), etc etc etc.

[BOSS]

Whoa...

I've done this twice and have not had to reinstall ANYTHING.

1. You back it up, using the BACKUP UTILITY.
2. Your entire 40, 80, 160, 250, etc gigs will show up as a single backup. You then manually sync your trophies. The backup process takes an hour or more depending on how much data you have... I think when I did 60 it was about an hour, and when I did the 160 it may have been 2 hours.
3. You physically swap drives.
4. You fire up the PS3 with the new drive and it will format it. It takes seconds, maybe a minute to do this, both for the 160 and the 500 I've installed.
5. You go back to the BACKUP UTILITY with the external still attached, and select "restore". It will find the backup on the external HDD, you tell it OK.
6. It will restore.
7. When you fire it up after that, ALL you music, photos, installed PSN games, etc will be on there and immediately playable. I have never had to reinstall any games or anything if you use the backup utility. All your game saves and everything else are also there and run just as though you were on the old drive.

It's only if you switch drives WITHOUT backing up that you lose the data and game saves and have to reinstall previously downloaded content. The backup utility is the way to do it, copying off is not the same thing.

If you were curious about the file size with FAT32, you will notice by hooking it to a PC that the drive will have something like this:
Sony->PS3->Backup Data->200909021200->BUPART1 (3.99GB), BUPART2 (3.99GB), etc etc etc.

I'm pretty sure Prophet is talking about an internal HDD (at least that's what it sounds like).

[keyser28146]

hmm. I thought he was talking about using an external to store a backup, then reformatting so he has the 10GB Linux partition... I'm not even sure you need to reformat to do this... the Install Other OS option may be able to resize without this being an issue...

[MajinTony]

Well I crammed every game save, pic, and music that I needed to on about half a gig of memory stick pro duo. Bob told me the backup utility didn't transfer PSN games and I got impatient so I'm locked and loaded and just re-installing/downloading all my games and patches. I was paranoid about using space so it's pretty minmal. I only had 9 games from the PSN store.

Over 400 gigs to fill for the next 5-6 years w00t!!!

Thanks for all the advice. This is by far the easiest process I've ever done. Signing up to the PSN is more difficult. Signing up to GB definately was :D

[keyser28146]

It does transfer everything, BUT it is SLOOWWWW. As long as you sync your trophies and re-dl everything, you can be back up in 20 minutes and downloading. The backup utility is flawless, but slooooow

[RageProphetXIII]

Well Thanks guys. Boss I didn't actually specify what kind of drive i was using. I have a 500 gig external that I will be using to back up all my info and games. Then I'll be install a 200 gig hdd I have for the 80 and I'll probably reformat the 80 gig for my laptop.

[keyser28146]

Then I'd use the slower backup utility, that way you'll have to re-install nothing.

[RageProphetXIII]

Then I'd use the slower backup utility, that way you'll have to re-install nothing.

Yeah most likely that is what I'll be doing. Anyone here install Linux on their console yet? If not Anyone interested in doing so? Got any opinions?

[keyser28146]

nope. I was gonna, but I keep procrastinating.