lookin' for an external!

[JonD7]

wondering if you all could help me real quick, I want to buy an external around 500GB maybe? but i'm not sure what's compatible with the PS3, from what i've seen on here we can only use 4GB at a time correct? can we use multiple folders or how exactly would it work with a 500GB HDD?

found a Western Digital 500GB 2.0 USB 2 HDD on ebay for $79, would that be alright?

[Forrestandjen07]

My 160gig works fine

but why not just buy an internal 500

[JonD7]

I have a 320GB internal already... since my PS3 died on me 2 times before, I want to make sure I don't lose any of my information, again.

[Forrestandjen07]

Yea , I dont know what that 4gigs at a time thing is

But I had no problem backing up my stuff to my 160gig external before upgrading my drive

[Marquoz]

Originally Posted by JonD7

wondering if you all could help me real quick, I want to buy an external around 500GB maybe? but i'm not sure what's compatible with the PS3, from what i've seen on here we can only use 4GB at a time correct? can we use multiple folders or how exactly would it work with a 500GB HDD?

found a Western Digital 500GB 2.0 USB 2 HDD on ebay for $79, would that be alright?

Western digital is fine, that would be good. The 4GB at a time is single file size, nothing to worry about if you are backing up from the PS3.

Here's the how and why.

The PS3 uses FAT32 as a file system (which the WD HDD may or may not come with, if it doesn't, use Swiss Knife to set it). FAT32 is an older file system that has many limitations. One of them is a single file size of only 4GB. You can have a hard drive as large as 500-1000-more GB (not sure of the max limit) and utilize the entire space without a problem as long as each file is 3.99 GB or less.

If you are using it on a home computer, that means you can't put .ISOs on it, or massive video files. Anything other then that pretty much will work fine.

That said, feel free to purchase it, verify that it is FAT32 not NTFS, slap that puppy on the PS3, and backup to your hearts content!

[JonD7]

Thank you so much Marquoz! i'm buying it right now, 500GB for $79 seems like a pretty awesome deal.

[dn3g3l]

anyway to do this using vista? i don't have xp and i tried using swissknife on vista and it won't work.

Originally Posted by Marquoz

Western digital is fine, that would be good. The 4GB at a time is single file size, nothing to worry about if you are backing up from the PS3.

Here's the how and why.

The PS3 uses FAT32 as a file system (which the WD HDD may or may not come with, if it doesn't, use Swiss Knife to set it). FAT32 is an older file system that has many limitations. One of them is a single file size of only 4GB. You can have a hard drive as large as 500-1000-more GB (not sure of the max limit) and utilize the entire space without a problem as long as each file is 3.99 GB or less.

If you are using it on a home computer, that means you can't put .ISOs on it, or massive video files. Anything other then that pretty much will work fine.

That said, feel free to purchase it, verify that it is FAT32 not NTFS, slap that puppy on the PS3, and backup to your hearts content!