Since the PSN store started this mass Genesis of great deals of digital downloads I had to make the jump from 150gb to 500gb hard drive. Thank God the PS3 uses a standard SATA Notebook hard drive. So what will you need to make this process a reality.
- PS3 update file
- External Hard Drive
- SATA Notebook Hard drive
- Screw Driver
- USB Cable for PS3 controller
- PS3 Controller
- PS3 (duh)
Now the first step is to back up your current info on your PS3. Make sure you have your external hard drive plugged in the PS3. In the XMB scroll over to the settings tab. That is to the far left after the user tab. Now look for System Settings. Press X and scroll to Back Up Utility. Select it and another menu will appear. It will say Back up, Restore and Delete Backup Data.
Select Back up and there will be a screen informing you that the trophy data won’t be backed up. That can be synced online. Then under that warning you will see your profile name of the info that you will be backing up. For me it was my user profile Ruscle_BVI. Select Yes and the next screen will ask you to back up the data to “other storage media” which is your external hard drive. Select yes and you will see your external hard drive as on option to use.
Now depending on how much games you have downloaded on your PS3 this can take a while. Now we go to http://us.playstation.com/support/systemupdates/ps3/pc_update/index.htm for the update file. Follow the directions correctly so that you can update the PS3 once the new hard drive is installed. What I did is the same external hard drive I used to back up the PS3, I placed the UPDATE folder in the PS3 folder. Keeping everything I needed for the upgrade in one drive.
The above pic show the external Hard drive I used to back up and update my PS3 once I swap it out with a 500gb notebook SATA hard drive. I know fellow geeks I am using a Western Digital Hard drive. I know I am taking a risk but hey….life is a risk. So to find where the Slim PS3 keeps the hard drive is easy.
It is right under the slot where you place your game discs. Get your screw driver and take out the blue screw. Then you will slide the black panel to the right. It is the one right in front with the formats the PS3 can play written on it. Then you will see the Hard drive bay.
Once you slide that out we can then swap out the old with the new. There will be 4 screws holding the Hard drive. They are very tiny so be careful. I have a son who loves to take stuff and run with it. So I strategically did this when he wasn’t around. What I recommend doing is keeping the old hard drive just in case something was to befall your PS3. Say someone stole it or even got zapped by aliens. Even worse Zombies…
Now the fun part. Slide back in the hard drive. Place back in the screw and lets turn back on our PS3. DO NOT BE AFRAID when you see the default screen of your PS3. The text may look blurry but that is because we need to load back the PS3 update file. The PS3 will ask you to plug in your PS3 controller via USB. Once you plug in your controller it will ask you to press start and select at the same time to find your update folder. At this point you can plug in your external hard drive. Press start and select and it will find your update file. Now if it does not find your update file make sure it is in the PS3 folder. Inside the PS3 folder you should have an UPDATE folder. Inside the UPDATE folder should be a ps3.pup type file. So double check that if you have any problems. Now sit back and let the Ps3 update itself. After that is done go ahead and go back to the settings tab. Then look for back up utility. Then restore back up file. Restore your back up and all your info is back where it belongs. You may have to set back your themes but I found this process quite easy. Now to deal with all those games and demos. I know what is gonna be my first game to download.
CaribGamer 
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