How to Upgrade your PS3 eSATA Hard Drive

[PS4 News]

Thought I might share how I upgraded my 60GB PS3 up to a 500GB PS3. My main reason for the huge amount of space is to store HD films, without me having to stream them from my PC. Also, I couldn’t just buy an external USB hard drive because when formatted to FAT32 (the required format), there is a 4GB file size limit, and as most of you know, most HD films exceed this size!

Below is a list of hardware and tools I used:

• 500GB My Book External Hard Drive (Home Edition) with eSATA connectivity
• HD XT Hard Drive Extender
• SATA to eSATA Cable
• Screwdriver (Philips and Flathead)
• Drill with hole saw attachment (Optional)

I began by backing up any information I needed off my PS3 to a USB memory stick, such as my photos. My music could be restored off my iPod and films copied over at a later stage.

Next, I disconnected my console and laid it flat so I had access to the hard drive bay. I used a flathead screwdriver to remove the plastic covering from the bay, not using too much force so I didn’t break it. As other hard drive upgrade tutorials show, you remove the small blue screw, lift the metal clip, slide the caddy to the right and pull it out. You can feel when the drive has been disconnected.



After removing the caddy, I took the Xecuter HDXT, pushed it into the caddy slot and installed it the same as you would the hard drive. (It’s the same size as the hard drive caddy, and has a SATA connector on a chip that effectively move the female SATA connection to the face of the bay) I noticed as little more force is needed when installing this to ensure a good connection. To finish this installation, I fitted the provided caddy slot cover that has a removed section to allow access to the SATA socket.



Not particularly in the order I did this project, but I found the SATA part of the cable was not long enough to make a good connection to the Playstation. I was a bit impatient so I took out my scissors and a Stanley knife and hacked away about 3-5mm of the plastic. Probably not recommended but it worked for me!



I connected my new external drive to the mains and hooked it up using the SATA to eSATA cable. The drive powers on automatically with the PS3, so I powered it up and on my TV I was walked through the installation and formatting of the PS3 software and firmware etc.



After I knew everything was working correctly, I still wanted my console to stand vertically, so consequently I made some modifications to my furniture. 5 minutes later using the drill with a hole saw attachment, I had a hole in the base of my cabinet and one in the rear of the cabinet. A good idea to use the vacuum cleaner now! Dust and wood shavings everywhere!



I fed the SATA cable through these holes, connecting it to the Playstation, and the other end back to the Hard Drive. This gave the appearance of a standard PS3, as the hard drive is hidden from view. However, the hard drive does look good if you wanted it in view as it is matte black with a curved face and a long white light that changes depending on usage.



The total cost of this project was roughly £100, well worth it in my opinion knowing what I am going to use it for. As for transferring large video files, I use an Ethernet cable connected to my PC and use Nero MediaHome. It only takes 15 or so minutes to transfer around 8GB. I completed this project around a month ago and delayed in posting to ensure everything continued working well. Also, I forgot to take pictures at the time, which is why they are not that great! (And these are taken on my phone – hence the quality)





Any questions, please ask! I hope this helped someone.

[tubbies]

Thank you very much for the tut. I'm thinking of upgrading mine sometime this week and stumbled upon this. Few questions though, if you don't mind. I am not familiar with eSATA. Is it simply an external hard drive but with a SATA connection instead of a USB?

And what is the benefit of doing this instead of the normal, internal hard drive? Is it because theres no single SATA drive with that much storage?

1 last question. How is it that the hard drive able to write files >4GB if the PS3 can't read NTFS format? Sorry for asking a lot of questions

[cdragomir]

Actually if you do not need 500GB, just 300GB, now is on the market Seagate Momentus 2.5inch SATA - 300GB. Just same change as you have done, but is not an external drive, it is a small drive fit exacctly into PS3.

All data can be backup in around 1-2 hour, depend on how many data was on 60GB HDD and then restored in same 1-2 hour. The changing of HDD took around 10 minutes and is completely safe. Now I have a 300GB HDD and for the moment is more then enough and of course an external HDD which is for backup and stuff.

[glennheart]

thank you for the info... but is this compatible with 20gb, 40gb, and 80gb or just for 60 gb?

[edwindaniel]

mmm... good thank you, max storage to PS3? also the best brand for hard disk driver for the PS3?

[pejeanut]

Actually if you do not need 500GB, just 300GB, now is on the market Seagate Momentus 2.5inch SATA - 300GB. Just same change as you have done, but is not an external drive, it is a small drive fit exacctly into PS3.

I have this and work very fast compared to hdd external.

[blaZoNe]

i bookmarked this page so when i get ready to upgrade my PS3 i have a guide to go by. one question i have for you is.. the hole cut into the hdd cover, it looks like a usb? if it is then why can't you just use your usb ports that are already on the PS3?

another question i have for you.. I was wondering if it matters if i put a 5400 rpm that has an 8 mb cache or a 7200rpm with a 16 mb.

[Brammie65BE]

@ blaZoNe: It is actually a SATA slot, you can see a very tiny extra piece on the plastic in the middle.

Can you put files bigger than 4GB on a HDD with this tutorial? Because that's what I also want, for my HD movies.

[0mExicAn]

@ blaZoNe: It is actually a SATA slot, you can see a very tiny extra piece on the plastic in the middle.

Can you put files bigger than 4GB on a HDD with this tutorial? Because that's what I also want, for my HD movies.

Pretty Sure you can...

Also thanks for the great tutorial!

[Ptero]

Thanks Man!!!