Question about upgrading to PS3 Slim

[MerrickG]

Hey guys,

I currently own an original PS3 60GB with BC and it contains and upgraded hard drive to 320 GB.

Anyway, my brother got a PS3 slim for xmas, but he was disappointed to find out that it does not have BC since he still plays a lot of PS2 games.

So I told him I would trade my PS3 for his. (I have no use for BC).

However, I want to keep my 320 GB hard drive and place it in the Slim.

THE QUESTION:
Is it just a simple case of exchanging hard drives between the two consoles or is it more involved than that?

Yes, Im aware that there are probably MULTIPLE threads on the subject, but the search button didnt yield me what I was looking for. All I get are threads asking about whether the hard drive is upgradable.

[Xerios]

u have to make sure both systems have the same level of firmware.. so make sure both are at 3.15 and then u can swap the drives... i just did this today from the 60 gig to my slim with a 320gb HD... but both were mine lol

[ifuwereahotdog]

Just a note...you will lose all your information on the HD unless you use the backup utility.

[MerrickG]

Originally Posted by ifuwereahotdog

Just a note...you will lose all your information on the HD unless you use the backup utility.

Originally Posted by Xerios

u have to make sure both systems have the same level of firmware.. so make sure both are at 3.15 and then u can swap the drives... i just did this today from the 60 gig to my slim with a 320gb HD... but both were mine lol

Uh guys. Which is it? Simple replacement or backup?

[ifuwereahotdog]

There is no simple replacement for swapping hard drives on the PS3. Your only option is to back up to an external hard drive or USB drive.

[Barnolde]

The new firmware has a transfer feature that can do it with just an ethernet cable. However, it's one way and will delete the info on both HDDs prior to the transfer. The only benefit is that it copies over locked save files.

[Rike255]

You cannot simply just "switch" the hard drives. As soon as you put your 320GB HDD into the PS3 slim it will require you to format the drive, meaning you will lose all data on it.

You need to perform a backup of your 320GB drive first, then swap the drives and do a restore on your new slim with the 320GB drive. Unfortunately, copy protected game saves/media will NOT be restored, there is no way of getting this data onto the new system (exception, see below).

Another option is: as of FW3.15 there is a feature where you can just connect two PS3's and it'll MOVE all data from one system to the other. It deletes the data on the old one but that's ok for you. Just set it up to move everything from the 320GB PS3 to the Slim. I've never used this before, but that's how it's supposed to work.

[MerrickG]

Is there a master list of which games have protected saved games? Why is this?

[Rike255]

It's developer's choice. I have no idea why they do it, seems like a very stupid idea to me. I suppose they do it to stop people from cheating by copying game saves from others. I don't know why they don't just lock a save to a specific PSN ID if the developer really wanted to, since they are all trophy locked that way anyways.

Here's a list (more or less complete I'd imagine) of non-portable game saves:

https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?t=124699

[MerrickG]

I might just use the ethernet transfer. It turns out that its a 250 gig PS3 he has.

Ill just put the 320 in my laptop and place the 200 in his PS3