Connect an external hard drive to ps3

Hi,

yeah, you can connect an external hard drive to a 40GB PS3. Don't forget it needs to be in FAT32 format and you have to create a PS3 folder ;)

Hello,

I've been browsing through forums and other websites for nearly 4 months to perform this manipulation.
In the manual for your PS3, you will find a chapter on disassembly for disk replacement (it doesn’t void the warranty!).
I took a look, and indeed it’s easily doable (Be careful with the little blue screw, it’s fragile!).

- For those less focused on aesthetics, it's quite simple: Remove the original disk, manage to connect a SATA + power cable at the back of the original disk slot, and directly connect the cables to a standard 3.5" PC disk!!
- For the others (I’m one of them), buy a nice ventilated enclosure (https://www.materiel.net/ is good for the lifespan of the disk). Then, buy a SATA/e-SATA converter (https://www.pearl.fr/article/TG1126/adaptateur-esata-s-ata if your enclosure has a SATA connection, it's unnecessary. Finally, with minimal modification to the finishing plastic plate, everything remains aesthetic.

Once the new disk is installed, the console needs to reinstall its operating system (OS, it’s a custom Linux) for that, take a little look in the PS3 manual.

And there you are with a faster and larger disk at a lower cost!
Personally, I just ordered all the parts (around €100), nothing is set up yet, but there’s no reason this won’t work!

Good luck to all.

NettSpawn.

PS: You then have a 40GB hard drive left that you can put in your computer or in another 2.5" external enclosure.

instead of connecting your hard drives, just use
ps3 media server which will share all your files from the PC, and if the hard drive is connected to the PC, it will also recognize it

moreover, with PS3media, you could play 1080p mkv movies, etc.
however, you won't be able to do that with a hard drive

because the PS3 does not recognize NTFS format to read HDs on a hard drive

Hello everyone.

I have a Memup multimedia hard drive and a PS3.

On my first attempt, I couldn't read the content of my hard drive on my PS3, which detected the hard drive but displayed that there were no titles present. I spent a few hours getting tangled up on the internet reading about FAT32 compression issues.

I reconnected the hard drive a few hours later, but this time instead of instinctively selecting the hard drive, I simply pressed the triangle button on my controller, clicked on "Show All," and, miracle of miracles, all the content of the hard drive appeared.

I can now enjoy all the movies and music in 720p....
So, I know this isn't the solution for all hard drives, but I thought it was worth mentioning to save some people from wasting hours or worse, giving up when it just takes pressing the right button.

Anyway, the only way is the FAT32 format and not NTFS.

thank you juliennnnnnnnnnnnnnn

I’m coming back quickly to warn that on the SONY website they indicate that you need to create a directory "MISE À JOUR" in the root of the USB stick to reinstall the system and copy the firmware file of the PS3...

There is an error due to automatic translation, you need to create a directory "UPDATE"!!!

NettSpawn.

Hello to you,

Well, for the PS3 + external HD, it's pretty straightforward...
Rule 1
Only FAT32, I've tried everything to see ExFat no - NTFS no - MACOS extended (from NTFS mac) nada, there may be, and definitely is, a proprietary format from Sony like those for camcorders because it reads files of several tens of GB, but I don't know it.

--> buy yourself a Sony camcorder of 120 GB and put your HD files on it lol little solution for 2000 € but well when you've already invested 6000 for the screen and 3000 for the mac just to format in FAT32 for nothing, you don't count anymore

Once in FAT32, push the male cable into the female USB port, mmmm USB when it grabs you
the disk will appear but be careful to see anything you need to press the triangle and choose display all and off you go

you can see image files when you're in pictures, sounds when you're in sounds, etc.

you can also use the external drive to do an update without having the console connected
ps3\update\PS3UPDAT.PUP which you need to find on the net, just be careful to choose the right one.

THANK YOU rosso46du77 for your help

Hello everyone,

I've finished with my external HDD setup...
I had to buy a male/female SATA cable on an auction site to connect my external HDD, a SATA/eSATA converter, and I also made a small modification to the rack to accommodate my cable (previously modified with a cutter...).
Anyway, there are better ways than makeshift solutions for connecting an HDD!

Buying a 2.5" one seems more aesthetic. You should avoid 10,000 RPM HDDs as they are not the same thickness as the others...

But otherwise, feel free to enjoy a SATA II drive as it works.

That's it,

NettSpawn

PS: The real advantage of having an external hard drive is that the PS3 runs cooler.

to easily format an external HDD in FAT32
-1-find a Linux distribution disk in a cheap magazine, or (as in my case) download the Gentoo mini install image (http://www.gentoo.org) and burn it
-2-reboot and boot from the DVD
I describe the procedure on Gentoo (it's the same on a magazine Linux, but you'll have to work in a console in administrator mode (root))
!! WARNING: in console mode under Linux, case (uppercase or lowercase) and spaces matter in command lines

for Gentoo
after responding 'gentoo' at the boot prompt
then (quickly) press 16 for keyboard choice (to get a French keyboard)
wait for the system to load, then execute the following commands in 5 steps

------ STEP 1: check how your system names the external disk

#ls /dev

this command will list all connected disks: usually the internal disk is labeled as /dev/hda, or more often now /dev/sda

plug in your external HDD, wait a moment and redo

#ls /dev

a disk will have appeared: for example /dev/sdb: in this case (be careful not to get the name wrong and if yours is not sdb, replace it in the following steps): do:

----- STEP 2: write the partition table of the external disk

#fdisk /dev/sdb

in fdisk type 'o' first to edit a blank partition table
then 'n' to add a new partition
choose primary partition, partition number 1
choose default options if you want to format the entire disk in FAT32
type 'p' to check your new partition table
type 't' to select the file system type, and choose the hex option '0c' (code for FAT32)
if that freaks you out, type 'q': you exit without touching the disk
otherwise, if you're okay with it, type 'w', which writes the new partition table

if you want to partition your disk, for example into 2, keeping a NTFS part, you make two partitions (repeated command n), choosing the size based on the number of blocks or cylinders you want (for example half for each partition)

at this stage your partition table is written: note: if you've divided your disk into 2, you'll have identifiers /dev/sdb1 and /dev/sdb2, and under Windows this will appear as two distinct disks

----- STEP 3 remaining to do the file system:

#mkfs -t vfat /dev/sdb1

(or
#mkfs -t ntfs /dev/sdb1
#mkfs -t vfat /dev/sdb2
if you partitioned into two and want to keep a NTFS partition)

----- STEP 4 and check that everything is fine

#fsck -f -y /dev/sdb1
which will confirm the file system

----- STEP 5
at this stage unplug your external disk, and restart: since you are still on Linux, this is done by typing

#shutdown -r now

THERE YOU GO !!
Now, reboot under Windows, open 'computer' under Vista, or 'my computer' under XP, plug in your external disk
right-click 'properties'
You are in FAT32