Connecting External Hardrive

[Kinslayer]

I tried connecting my External 500 GB USB 2.0 HD to my PS3 and it didn't detect it. Is there anything special you need to do for that?

[CptGreedle]

Make sure it is formatted to FAT32.
Give it time, sometimes a large drive will take a minute to load on some machines.

[Kinslayer]

OK so it has to be Fat 32 cus mine is NTFS. I guess I'll have to reformat it. Also, where would the drive show up once the PS3 detects it?

[Rovic]

Originally Posted by Kinslayer

OK so it has to be Fat 32 cus mine is NTFS. I guess I'll have to reformat it. Also, where would the drive show up once the PS3 detects it?

IT shows up depending on what media you have on it....go to your photo section and it will say removable disk...same for vidoes, music...etc...

[Rovic]

i forgot to mention if you have hidden files on your remobable hard disk you can also see them on your ps3 highlighting the "remobable disk" and hit the triangle and put "show all"....

[CptGreedle]

The drive should appear under each item (photos, videos, music, games?) because you have the potential to store that information on the PS3. It should be called something like "USB device" or "USB drive". If you already have some files stored on their, but it can't see them, it is because they are in the wrong folder. Hit triangle and show all to see all the folders and files.
The folders have to be labeled correctly (videos, music, photos) in order for it to show up. The PS3 will automatically make the folders if you want it to handle the files.
Yes you need to reformat it to FAT32 for it to work.

[kingofgrills]

With an external hard drive that's already formatted to NTFS with data on it, is it possible to add another partition that is formatted to FAT32 standards?

I have a 500GB external drive to back up my PC, and I'd like to use spare space on it to back up my PS3. Will that work easily, and if so, what would be the easiest application to use for formatting it?

[CptGreedle]

You can partition it, no problem. It should read it fine (I have never tired but theoretically it should work). However to partition it, it will probably have to wipe the drive clean anyways. So if you want, partition it half (250GB) NTFS and half FAT32. I have never done that before, but I don't see why it shouldn't work.

[starlightpress]

Here's some instructions how to do it:

http://www.wikihow.com/Add-an-Extern...-Playstation-3


Also, if you want a large fat32 hard drive, you need to use a program such as SwissKnife to make the fat32 drive larger than 32GB

http://www.compuapps.com/Download/sw...swissknife.htm


I used it for my 500GB hard drive, works fine.

[CptGreedle]

Originally Posted by starlightpress

Here's some instructions how to do it:

http://www.wikihow.com/Add-an-Extern...-Playstation-3


Also, if you want a large fat32 hard drive, you need to use a program such as SwissKnife to make the fat32 drive larger than 32GB

http://www.compuapps.com/Download/sw...swissknife.htm


I used it for my 500GB hard drive, works fine.

Um.. 32GB? I think you have some bad information here.
A FAT32 drive can be as large as 8TB. BUCH bigger than 32GB. Without any other software. You do not need Swissknife to add an external FAT32 drive to your PS3.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fat32#FAT32_.28VFAT.29

[Kinslayer]

Thanks a lot for the help guys. I hardly have anything on it so I'll have to reformat it which will take like an hour and hopefully everything will be fine after that

[starlightpress]

Originally Posted by CptGreedle

Um.. 32GB? I think you have some bad information here.
A FAT32 drive can be as large as 8TB. BUCH bigger than 32GB. Without any other software. You do not need Swissknife to add an external FAT32 drive to your PS3.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fat32#FAT32_.28VFAT.29

Well, for people using windows 2000 or XP trying to format with the built in utility, was just giving them an option in case they run into any problems and I quote from your link:

Windows 2000 and Windows XP can read and write to FAT32 file systems of any size, but the format program included in Windows 2000 and higher can only create FAT32 file systems of 32 GB or less. This limitation is by design and according to Microsoft was imposed because many tasks on a very large FAT32 file system become slow and inefficient.[12][16] This limitation can be bypassed by using third-party formatting utilities or by using the built-in FORMAT.EXE command-line utility.[17][18]

Nothing wrong with giving people options.

[chnandler_bong]

Originally Posted by starlightpress

Well, for people using windows 2000 or XP trying to format with the built in utility, was just giving them an option in case they run into any problems and I quote from your link:

Windows 2000 and Windows XP can read and write to FAT32 file systems of any size, but the format program included in Windows 2000 and higher can only create FAT32 file systems of 32 GB or less. This limitation is by design and according to Microsoft was imposed because many tasks on a very large FAT32 file system become slow and inefficient.[12][16] This limitation can be bypassed by using third-party formatting utilities or by using the built-in FORMAT.EXE command-line utility.[17][18]

Nothing wrong with giving people options.

The following link is from Footnote 17 of the wiki page:

http://www.ridgecrop.demon.co.uk/ind...at32format.htm

This gives what looks like a viable alternative to Swissknife, which some people have had problems with. That being said, I've not tested it myself so caveat emptor.

[kingofgrills]

Sweet. Thanks guys. I just received my 320GB hard drive, and I'm dying to install it in my PS3. My 60 gig drive has just 4GB of free space on it, and I want to have plenty of breathing space for the home beta and all the great holiday season stuff coming.

[chnandler_bong]

Originally Posted by kingofgrills

Sweet. Thanks guys. I just received my 320GB hard drive, and I'm dying to install it in my PS3. My 60 gig drive has just 4GB of free space on it, and I want to have plenty of breathing space for the home beta and all the great holiday season stuff coming.

Wait, will this be a USB-attached drive or an internal drive to the PS3? If it's internal, then just pop it in and the PS3 should take care of the rest, you don't need to worry about formatting it.

[gillies]

To the best of my knowledge, Swissknife won't run on Vista. Too bad, really.

To format an entire external drive into FAT32 (no partitions) beyond the 32gb limit set within the XP and Vista GUI, do this:

1. Plug in your drive and find out what letter it appears as.

2. Open a command prompt by typing cmd into run (XP) or search (Vista).

3. Say your drive appears as G. Enter the command: C:\>format g: /FS:FAT32

4. Or change the drive letter to whatever you have.

5. Hit enter and follow the prompts.

[ps3andlovinit]

Originally Posted by starlightpress

Nothing wrong with giving people options.

The Mac being another one.

[kingofgrills]

Originally Posted by chnandler_bong

Wait, will this be a USB-attached drive or an internal drive to the PS3? If it's internal, then just pop it in and the PS3 should take care of the rest, you don't need to worry about formatting it.

I'm formatting my external 500 GB HDD, so I can back up the PS3. Once I back up the PS3, I'm replacing the internal HDD with the 320 GB internal HDD.

[kingofgrills]

Originally Posted by gillies

To the best of my knowledge, Swissknife won't run on Vista. Too bad, really.

To format an entire external drive into FAT32 (no partitions) beyond the 32gb limit set within the XP and Vista GUI, do this:

1. Plug in your drive and find out what letter it appears as.

2. Open a command prompt by typing cmd into run (XP) or search (Vista).

3. Say your drive appears as G. Enter the command: C:\>format g: /FS:FAT32

4. Or change the drive letter to whatever you have.

5. Hit enter and follow the prompts.

Unfortunately, I run Vista. Is there a way to format the drive in Vista beyond 32GB while keeping the drive partitioned? I really need the drive to support both formats.

[Kinslayer]

It didn't work with FAT32 for my 500gb drive. got the following message


WARNING, ALL DATA ON NON-REMOVABL
DRIVE H: WILL BE LOST!
Proceed with Format (Y/N)? y
Verifying 476937M
The volume is too big for FAT32.

Tried that program that was suggested too but it keeps crashing.