External Hard Discs and PS3 - Blu-ray Forum

Bobby Henderson · 03-02-2008, 05:18 PM

I'm interested in buying a large capacity external hard disc to attach to my 80GB PS3 via USB 2.0. I'd like to use the external hard disc as a "jukebox" of sorts for storing a backup of all the LPCM tracks of my music CD collection (hundreds of legally store bought discs).

Anybody else done something like this? I'm looking for any possible technical problems that might come up during the process.

For one thing, PS3 doesn't recognize NTFS hard disc partitions. I'm stuck with using FAT32. Naturally that raises the issue of partition size. What's really the sweet spot for high capacity while maintaining a good efficient cluster size? With NTFS, your cluster sizes are only 4k no matter how big the partition. Not so with FAT32. And then there's that 4GB file size limit -but not a big deal for what I want to do.

Anyway...any tips?

MatrixS2000 · 03-02-2008, 05:25 PM

I have a 160GB external HDD connected via USB.

Just plug it in and you're good to go.

aygie · 03-02-2008, 05:43 PM

It has to formatted in fat32, so you can only transfer files of 4GB and lower.

gufazi · 03-02-2008, 05:45 PM

I recently bought a 1TB Western Digital and hooked it up via usb2 for similar reasons (ripped CDs/ DVDs I own and family photos). I copied them from my mac and pc and hooked it straight to the PS3 no problem.

actionhank · 03-02-2008, 06:06 PM

I know what you're saying the efficiency of a fat32 drive really goes down the drain as it gets larger and as the fragmentation worsens. However I've never tried to mount anything larger than 60 Gb on my PS3. You could always just use the media server capability of the PS3 and stream the music from your computer...

I wish Sony would incorporate ext3 read/write capability in the future.

Rapstah · 03-02-2008, 06:11 PM

External drives won't store game data, though, will they?

03-02-2008, 05:18 PM	#1
Bobby Henderson Power Member Member since:Jan 2008 Location:Oklahoma Blu-ray collection:96 Blu-ray reviews: 12	External Hard Discs and PS3 I'm interested in buying a large capacity external hard disc to attach to my 80GB PS3 via USB 2.0. I'd like to use the external hard disc as a "jukebox" of sorts for storing a backup of all the LPCM tracks of my music CD collection (hundreds of legally store bought discs). Anybody else done something like this? I'm looking for any possible technical problems that might come up during the process. For one thing, PS3 doesn't recognize NTFS hard disc partitions. I'm stuck with using FAT32. Naturally that raises the issue of partition size. What's really the sweet spot for high capacity while maintaining a good efficient cluster size? With NTFS, your cluster sizes are only 4k no matter how big the partition. Not so with FAT32. And then there's that 4GB file size limit -but not a big deal for what I want to do. Anyway...any tips?

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03-02-2008, 05:25 PM	#2
MatrixS2000 Power Member Member since:Mar 2007 Location:Toronto, Canada 4K collection:48 Blu-ray collection:305 Trading Score:6	I have a 160GB external HDD connected via USB. Just plug it in and you're good to go.

03-02-2008, 05:43 PM	#3
aygie Blu-ray Ninja Member since:Jul 2007 Location:PSN Network: Aygie Blu-ray collection:99	It has to formatted in fat32, so you can only transfer files of 4GB and lower.

03-02-2008, 05:45 PM	#4
gufazi Member Member since:Dec 2007 Location:Springfield, Virginia	I recently bought a 1TB Western Digital and hooked it up via usb2 for similar reasons (ripped CDs/ DVDs I own and family photos). I copied them from my mac and pc and hooked it straight to the PS3 no problem.

03-02-2008, 06:06 PM	#5
actionhank Senior Member Member since:Jun 2007 Location:Las Vegas, Nevada	I know what you're saying the efficiency of a fat32 drive really goes down the drain as it gets larger and as the fragmentation worsens. However I've never tried to mount anything larger than 60 Gb on my PS3. You could always just use the media server capability of the PS3 and stream the music from your computer... I wish Sony would incorporate ext3 read/write capability in the future.

03-02-2008, 06:11 PM	#6
Rapstah Active Member Member since:Mar 2008	External drives won't store game data, though, will they?

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