Can I transfer saved game data and demos to a different PS3?

[ps3andlovinit]

Originally Posted by NARMAK

That only answers the copying save file question, i am more interested in the 2nd question as i am about to upgrade mine to 250GB but would like to transfer my Demo's, DL games, Music, Photo's & all my Video's, can anybody tell me how to do this, i live in the UK so hardware suggestions that are available to do this here are welcome

Well I started working on one ...few things to note first..

1. I copied my photos, music, home videos to the USB drive first because I wanted a backup copy that wasn't in the PS3 file format...just standard files that I could then restore to our Mac etc if need be..something to think about.

2. After copying them I went back and deleted them off the PS3 so the backup utility wouldn't spend time doing it.

Here is what I had written so far...

So here is what I know after upgrading to a larger HDD. Might be handy for someone else hesitating or unsure.

READ ALL OF THIS - as there are a few notes at the end that are important to know BEFORE you follow this process. Some are for your peace of mind and some are related to configuration variations.

The process backing up and restoring to the SAME machine

1. Obviously connect a storage device that is going to be big enough to backup your content - I used an external USB drive.
2. Under System Settings\Backup Utility run the backup option and select the device you connected in step 1.
3. My 20 GB of data took about 45 or so minutes to backup to my usb drive. It was a slower 2.5" external.
4. Once it's finished, power down your PS3.
5. Remove the old drive and replace with the new drive. It's easy. The old drive is your safety net if something doesn't go as expected with your restore. Just put it back in if you have a problem along the way.
6. Turn on the PS3
7. Format the drive when prompted.
8. Go to the System Settings\Backup Utility, select Restore and device from step 1. You will see a item that is something like 101220071324 - which is the date/time of your backup. Select it to restore and follow the the prompts to overwrite, reboot etc when it's finished

That's it. Everything should be restored exactly as before - even stuff you have downloaded from the store. No need to re-download it. All your system settings, user accounts, game saves are present.

Now a few things to note..

1. When your doing a backup you get various warnings both in the documentation and via prompts..

a) about protected content may not be backed-up/restorable etc.
b) about user and system settings NOT being saved to the backup.

Warnings that are a bit scary because of their ambiguity.

I believe a) and b) are only of concern if your trying to restore that data to ANOTHER MACHINE or accounts have changed on your current machine.

Point a) is probably where the idea that you would have to re-download protected content from the store..and if you delete accounts or try restoring on another machine you mightl have to.

Point b) - the reason you get this "scary" warning is because the system and user settings (but not game save data) are stored in the firmware of the MACHINE and are not stored/saved into the backup file..so this warning is really saying those settings won't transfer to another machine or wont be restorable if you delete accounts etc on THIS machine.

Here is what I *assume* are the implications

IF your restoring that backup to the same MACHINE and the user accounts haven't changed then I *assume* either a) or b) are not of any concern. Your machine will look the same after the restore - except you will have more space now. During an upgrade your user accounts are unlikely to have changed so it's not a big deal...but backups that you have sitting around for a long time and then maybe an account gets deleted may not restore any protected content data for those accounts - hence the warning prompts.

I did the backup while logged in as the user associated with the master account