Backup Utility VS Copying ?

[The Big Blue]

I got a 320G Free Agent Go the other day for $71 @ BBY.

Anyway, did the backup last night and had some questions.

After selecting the ext HDD as destination for backup the screen showed "Preparing... please wait" for about 12 minutes. Then went to the "Backing up" screen and sat there for about 12 minutes before it starting actually backing up. Is that normal?

The actual backup time seemed reasonable I think... 33G, 70 mins.

I'm not a gamer. I've decided to import my ~300 CDs to the PS3
and sell off the CDs. I'm really only concerned about protecting/not losing the music and also photos (not into vids at the moment).

Is the backup data on the ext HDD only useful as a PS3 backup? If I copied instead could the music be accessible via PCs or other devices?

Is the backup "smart", e.g. only backs up "new content"?

What are the advantages to backing up?

I'm wondering if it might make more sense in my case to just copy the content rather than use the backup utility.

Any help appeciated.

[Marine Mike]

Originally Posted by The Big Blue

I got a 320G Free Agent Go the other day for $71 @ BBY.

Anyway, did the backup last night and had some questions.

After selecting the ext HDD as destination for backup the screen showed "Preparing... please wait" for about 12 minutes. Then went to the "Backing up" screen and sat there for about 12 minutes before it starting actually backing up. Is that normal?

The actual backup time seemed reasonable I think... 33G, 70 mins.

I'm not a gamer. I've decided to import my ~300 CDs to the PS3
and sell off the CDs. I'm really only concerned about protecting/not losing the music and also photos (not into vids at the moment).

Is the backup data on the ext HDD only useful as a PS3 backup? If I copied instead could the music be accessible via PCs or other devices?

Is the backup "smart", e.g. only backs up "new content"?

What are the advantages to backing up?

I'm wondering if it might make more sense in my case to just copy the content rather than use the backup utility.

Any help appeciated.

Its acting normal as it does a very thorough job of backing up.

When you do the 'Backup' function on the PS3, it backups up all files/games on your PS3.

The only thing that it doesn't save is Trophys, which are saved to the Playstation Network when you synch them. Therefore if you Backup and Restore your PS3 and you have trophys that are not synched the the network, they will be gone.

To retrieve your trophys on the PSN, you just need to re-synch your PS3 to the PSN and they will be re-added to your PS3.

[ras752000]

If all you really care are about are the MP3s (or whatever) on the PS3's drive, copying just those to a \music folder on the root of the portable drive (and \photo for pics) makes more sense and makes them PC accessible instead of being internal to the PS3 backup file . . . otherwise you are wasting space on the PS3 files, and you stated you are not a gamer . . .