ps3 won't recognize external hard drive

[vonzar]

Why won't my ps3 recognize my western digital mybook hard drive when it used to? I reformat it a while ago and this is the first time I've used it since. Could that be the reason? If so, how do I fix it? Any help would be appreciated as I would like to back up my ps3 so I can upgrade the hard drive. Thanx.

[quexos]

Originally Posted by vonzar

Why won't my ps3 recognize my western digital mybook hard drive when it used to? I reformat it a while ago and this is the first time I've used it since. Could that be the reason? If so, how do I fix it? Any help would be appreciated as I would like to back up my ps3 so I can upgrade the hard drive. Thanx.

When you reformatted your external hard drive did you keep it FAT32 or did you make it NTFS ? Because the PS3 does not recognize that kind of file system.

[vonzar]

Originally Posted by quexos

When you reformatted your external hard drive did you keep it FAT32 or did you make it NTFS ? Because the PS3 does not recognize that kind of file system.

I set it as NTFS, because that is what the format tool says is the default. I just went in to formatting again, and it showed NTFS as default, and doesn't even have fat32 as an option. What should I do? It won't recognize NTFS at all?

[quexos]

Originally Posted by vonzar

I set it as NTFS, because that is what the format tool says is the default. I just went in to formatting again, and it showed NTFS as default, and doesn't even have fat32 as an option. What should I do? It won't recognize NTFS at all?

The good news is that we now know why it does not work so here is what you should do:

Assuming you are on XP:
Plug your external hard drive on your computer, go to desktop or wherever it appears on the computer and right click it, then click on "properties", in that window you have one tab called "hardware" go there then carefully choose in the list, your hard drive, once you did, click on "Properties" then in the new window, click on "strategies", once there choose the option that comes at the top. It's something like "optimize for a quick delete" or something like that. My xp being in french I don't know the exact words used in english, all I can say is that the right one is the one on top. After that click "ok" or "apply"

Once you did that close the windows and come back to your desktop or wherever you see your external hard drive on your computer then right click it and choose "format" in the field called "file system" you can now choose between NTFS and FAT32, choose FAT32 and format. (Or maybe you can only choose FAT32 but it's the one you need anyways)

Now your PS3 will recognize your external HDD

[vonzar]

I am using windows vista and I followed your steps and when i got to the screen that showed "optimize for quick removal" and "optimize for performance" both are grayed out. What should I do now?

[quexos]

Originally Posted by vonzar

I am using windows vista and I followed your steps and when i got to the screen that showed "optimize for quick removal" and "optimize for performance" both are grayed out. What should I do now?

Well if you are on Vista things could be a little different so I'm not sure how to do it with Vista.

But if it's not too different, make sure you chose your hard drive in that list where I told you to carefuly choose your hard drive, because in that list the choices are very similar. Look at the icon of your hard drive, and make sure it's the same in that list where you must carefully choose cause if you did not get the right line then you cannot change the formatting system.

Beyond that, I'm sorry but I cannot help you as I don't use Vista. Now you could go on youtube and type NTFS to FAT32 Vista, maybe some video will help.

[owa]

With FAT-32, I don't think you can format a drive over 32 gig in Vista. Here's the Microsoft help on that (explains how to format a drive using FAT-32 in Vista but mentions the limit as well):

http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/Win...01033.mspx#EQC

Can't you format the drive from the PS3 using the PS3's format utility though (under the system settings on the PS3)? Edit: I think I used that utility when I upgraded the hard drive in one of mine but I can't remember if I used it for the external drive that I use for backups. Their utility may only work for internal drives but I'd at least give the PS3 utility a shot if you haven't already.

[quexos]

Originally Posted by owa

With FAT-32, I don't think you can format a drive over 32 gig in Vista. Here's the Microsoft help on that (explains how to format a drive using FAT-32 in Vista but mentions the limit as well):

Can't you format the drive from the PS3 using the PS3's format utility though (under the system settings on the PS3)? Edit: I think I used that utility when I upgraded the hard drive in one of mine but I can't remember if I used it for the external drive that I use for backups. Their utility may only work for internal drives but I'd at least give the PS3 utility a shot if you haven't already.

It is my understanding that he cannot format it anymore with the PS3 because of his last NTFS formatting, the PS3 does not recognize the drive anymore.

If what you say about the 32GB limit is true, it means that those portable drives can never be formatted anymore if you only have Vista. What a terrible flaw that would be.

[owa]

Seems like a format utility should be oblivious to the file system being used. What if the drive hasn't been formatted at all (which use to be the standard practice) or for a more common example now, you wanted to use a drive formatted on a MAC on a PC or vice versa? I'll play around with that tonight with my PS3 backup drive. Having to have something preformatted to be useable (i.e. to be able to format it) just doesn't make sense to me so I'm hoping that's not the case.

There are ways around the Vista's format utility 32-gig limit (actually, I think it's the same for XP and 2000 also). I've had to use it but at the moment I can't recall what it was. I think it was a freeware utility or something like that or maybe it was the utility that comes with most hard drives since they can usually format the drives.

Edit: Oh, that gave me an idea. If the PS3's format utility really does look at the file system and balks at NTFS, he could try deleting the partition and seeing if the PS3 is able to handle the drive then. If his drive came with software, it can probably format the drive to its full capacity as well (with FAT-32).

[quexos]

In my opinion all drives should be NTFS as this system is better and allows for unlimited single files on it. HD Drives in Pc's are NTFS and can read FAT32. I don't even see the point of any type of memory being FAT32 nowadays.

[vonzar]

Thank you owa, I will try that on my ps3. If that doesn't work, I guess I will have to go over to my brothers house and use his xp computer. Thanks for your help, both of you. I will let you know if I can get this fixed.

[vonzar]

By the way, what kind of data can be backed up on a ps3? Videos, music, Games, Saved Games? I doubt the games can be backed up, but can the others? Let me know as my new hard drive arrives in 2 days. Thanks

[vonzar]

why can't the ps3 recognize NTFS? Every where I read trying to find a way to convert from FAT32 says that it is inferior to NTFS. Reading through this stuff I remember why my drive is NTFS in the first place. I changed it when I first got it so that Windows Vista would allow me to use it to for automatic back ups of my computer. Is this something that sony could fix with a software update? If so they should, because it seems from all the searches I've done everyone is trying to change their hard drives from FAT32 to NTFS, and so all of these people, like me, are left without a good means of backing up their ps3s. I am left with two options. Either I swap out the hard drives without backing up and losing all of my data, or I buy a new external hard drive because I just tried windows xp and it still wouldn't do it. I did a search for FAT32 to NTFS and it said that windows (it didn't say windows vista) will not allow FAT32 for anything over the 32GB. When I tried on xp, it still showed the only options as NTFS, so it seems to be with XP too. This is just ridiculous. If one file system is inferior to another one, why make it the only one your system will recognize. I have had my ps3 since launch and this is the first instance I have come across where I thought, damn, what were they thinking!

[silversnake]

this has been talked about before and someone mentioned the program swiss knife which is very easy to use to FORMAT hard drives in either NTFS / FAT 32. I don't know if it works on Vista but if you said you tried on XP as well you should give that a try. Good luck

[owa]

Try this link: http://www.ps3pad.com/ps3-help-guide...ve-to-the-ps3/

and definitely don't try the format utility for the PS3. It doesn't look like it works for external hard drives. The above link also includes a link to the swissknife program silversnake mentioned.

The backup utility will backup everything. I used it when upgrading the PS3s internal hard drive a while back. I used the utility to backup the PS3 to an enxternal hard drive, swapped the internal drive with a larger one, restored the backup from the external and it was just like it was before (all settings, game saves, music, pics, etc. were backed up) except I had a lot more free disc space. When just trying to backup specific games saves/settings (i.e. when not using the backup utility under the system settings), I don't think some things can be copied.

BTW, I'm going through this now also since I wanted to see for myself how it all worked. I'm currently in the process of trying to get back to FAT-32 on the external drive.

[vonzar]

silersnake, thank you for the tip, swissknife worked perfectly. owa, thank you for your help, and sorry to inconvenience you like that. You didn't have to do it to your drive. Anyways, thanks everyone for your help.

[quexos]

I'm the only one whose help did not seem to be appreciated

[vonzar]

Originally Posted by quexos

I'm the only one whose help did not seem to be appreciated

Thank you quexos, I didn't mean to leave you out.
I just have to say, I love this site, I have had so many problems helped on here. Thank you every blu-ray.com member.

[quexos]

Originally Posted by vonzar

Thank you quexos, I didn't mean to leave you out.
I just have to say, I love this site, I have had so many problems helped on here. Thank you every blu-ray.com member.

Hmm I'm thinking whether I should forgive you or not ... thinking ... thinking ...
Okay no problem dude

[owa]

Did you use swissknife in Vista or XP?

The version I downloaded didn't work in Vista so I downloaded Western Digital's FAT-32 format program but it didn't work in Vista either. So, I ended up doing things under XP.

I was just searching for info on swissknife and Vista though and saw some links that made it seem like they have a version for Vista. So, just curious which route you took. If there's a version for Vista, I want to download it for future use.

Anyway, glad you were able to get it formatted.

Edit: Apparently, you can run swissknife in Vista in the administrator mode. The WD utility that didn't work for me is actually supposed to be Vista compatible so I'm not sure what the deal is with that one.