David Reeves, boss of SCEE, has admitted that keeping only the 40GB PS3 on shelves is a worry in his mind in terms of consumer storage space. His mind has
calculated a possibility for "official" Sony external hard drives. We find that a little odd because Reeves even reminds us that the PS3 has an easily replaceable hard drive already: "The PlayStation will stay the same, but consumers can choose whichever size of hard drive they want. They can now, of course, because it's not a proprietary hard drive." So why external hard drives? Maybe people are scared to crack open their PS3. Maybe they don't have anywhere to dump all the information before switching the new hard drive in.
Any external hard drive, as far as we can tell (using a 120GB Western Digital currently -- it's old) works already. Reeves said there's no rush for this idea, though. "We've played the games with the hardware, with different hard drives and things like that, and we want to keep it very, very simple. We know that works." What do you guys think? Would you grab an official external, get a third-party, or just slap a new laptop hard drive direct into the system? Those of you who've done the latter, how has it worked since?
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
5-07-2008 @ 7:07PM
Lars said...
You're average consumer doesn't even know what type of HDD the PS3 uses, let alone how to change it. Something like this, or an official Sony high-capacity internal drive would sell pretty well I think.
Me, personally, I'm running a 250GB.
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5-07-2008 @ 7:07PM
Lars said...
Arg, spelling fail. You're = Your
5-07-2008 @ 7:11PM
AshStampede said...
your average consumer could just read their ps3 manual and all that would be answered. The ps3 manual is really helpful on its features.
5-07-2008 @ 7:44PM
Lars said...
But the average user won't. Nor will they read any EULA.
5-07-2008 @ 7:09PM
Matt said...
I already threw a Western Digital internal drive in there. Upped my 40GB to 120GB. Works like a charm, and it wasn't difficult at all.
Granted I'm somewhat tech-savvy being a computer engineer, but seriously, I find it hard to believe anyone would have trouble. Although if they sold Sony brand INTERNAL drives, they could include a full manual for the replacement.
I think Sony is considering this because let's face it--now I have a 40GB hard drive doing nothing in a box. I'm going to wind up selling it online...meaning I have to be lucky to find someone on eBay who needs it, or something.
Anyway, point is it's a good call to offer the external to ADD to your storage rather than repoace it. But if you can't use it to install games, it's somewhat useless...
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5-07-2008 @ 7:36PM
The Aggie CEO said...
keep that HDD dude........
if U have to send your PS3 in they need the ORIGINAL HDD........
5-07-2008 @ 7:11PM
Batzi said...
I got a 160 GB WD(external) and works pretty good!
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5-07-2008 @ 7:13PM
AshStampede said...
My 20gb is down to 8gb and need to upgrade it, but i keep spending that money for a drive on new games. next month doesnt look good either. Metal gear solid and I was hoping to pick up GTAIV same time. here is to hoping they fit.
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5-07-2008 @ 7:19PM
Dennis Rosecrans said...
Currently I have a 160GB WD Scorpio Drive in mine, however its just not enough space, and the largest laptop drive I've seen that runs 7200rpm is only 250GB, I believe media intensive people need at least 500GB especially if HOME is going to allow customers to access other users media. While we can get an external high capacity drive, one of the biggest quarks is that you have to plug it into the wall for power. If Sony could develop a large external drive, power it by USB and slap an awesome logo on it, I would buy it. or if you could offer a high speed 15,000RPM drive and add a software update so that the PS3 could take advantage of the speed increase that would really be something.
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5-07-2008 @ 7:41PM
The Aggie CEO said...
there are larger out........
I have a 320GB and there are also 500GB ones out there.........
they arent cheap tho..........
5-07-2008 @ 9:12PM
Rory said...
Do you also have a PC in the house that is plugged in? Why not just stream from that?
5-07-2008 @ 10:52PM
The Aggie CEO said...
yea I stream Video from my Media Server.........
but as far as I know I cant stream game installs/data........would be nice if we could tho.........
5-07-2008 @ 7:24PM
Popfrogs said...
This is a good idea but it still doesn't solve some problems. The main problem I have is the crappy way the PS3 firmware supports external hard drives. It won't let you install games on them, it won't let you change file metadata (like sorting external mp3's into folders), it's like once your media is on there you can't do anything but play or delete it.
I hope they plan to fix this in the future. With all the 5GB installs games are doing, you should be given an option of installing the game data somewhere else. Worse comes to worst it'll just prompt you saying it can't start the game because the hard drive isn't plugged in or turned on.
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5-07-2008 @ 7:26PM
Alex said...
Upgraded my 60GB to a 250 WD laptop drive. used my external USB 250GB to back up my saves on the 60 GB and it works fine.
NOTE:: Externals only work when formatted FAT32. NTFS is a no go. but as long as you don't have any files over 4GB you are fine with FAT32. I only use the External drive to copy MP3s over from my PC and when my TVersity Server isn't working and want to watch Divx files.l
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5-07-2008 @ 7:28PM
papertiger201 said...
Here's my question to people who have replaced their HDDs: Where did you transfer all your data to before swapping out your HDD? I've already got about 40 gigs of my 80gb (Well, 72gb really) used up (mostly game installs and updates) and I don't have an external media that would hold that much (I've got a couple 4gb USB sticks, but that's it).
Should I just pony up for an external HDD to transfer everything, or should I just transfer my game saves and do all the intalls/updates again? Any opinions would be welcome. Thanks!!
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5-07-2008 @ 7:38PM
Shinogu said...
In terms of download PSN games, I just redownloaded them later on. I backed up my saves to a USB drive and then dropped em in after the procedure was done.
Speaking on topic, anyone who's had their hand at replacing the internal hard drive by themselves knows about the problem regarding the screws holding the hard drive in the frame. An external drive wouldn't hurt to lighten the Sony support line on an issue that they're probably getting on that subject, but then there's the issue of the capacity for the EXTERNAL drives. And what would be in those external drives? I can see music, movies and photos there, but I dunno if installed game data would stream well through USB.
5-07-2008 @ 7:29PM
Shadowen said...
I believe this is because opening the ps3's HD bay voids the warentee. :(
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5-07-2008 @ 7:33PM
lorderk said...
You sir are wrong.
5-07-2008 @ 7:35PM
The Aggie CEO said...
no it doesnt......
5-07-2008 @ 7:35PM
Aaron said...
No it doesnt lol Replacing the PS3s HD does not void the warranty.