Hi.. I'm new to this forum but I have an issue here with my new WD5000BEVt (500GB) upgrade drive for my 40GB PS3 unit. I partitioned the new drive to its full 465GB using Super Fdisk and replaced the existing 40GB on the the PS3 but the drive looks like is not being recognized. It just give me a message that the system doesn't recognized the drive and let me connect the controller thru a USB cable and press PS and as soon as I press PS it will restart and go back to the same error message (like there's no HD available). I tried repartitioning the drive using another partitioning software (SwissKnife v3.22). Deleted the previous partition and creating a new partition. As soon as I installed the drive on the PS3 unit and restarted the unit the same error message appears. I bought this drive at NewEgg and I have read some reviews from buyers that they were successful in using this particular drive on their PS3 units. I already exhausted everything I knew and almost ready to give up. Any suggestions from anyone. what I am doing wrong here? Any help appreciated. thanks
You dont state which format you partitioned the HDD to,from most places ive read,when one has a problem,they format it to FAT32,i have not yet upgraded my HDD,so i dont know from personal experience.
thanks for the reply. yes, at first i had just partitioned the whole drive with fat32 using the SFdisk program and see if the PS3 will recognize it. That didn't work. Then I hook it up again to my desktop PC run the partitioning software again( delete the old partition and creating it) and this time I have it formatted. Install the drive to the PS3 and I got the same error. PS3 could not find any system drive. Took the drive again to the PC and this time, use the SwissKnife partitioning program and did the same thing I did with the other software (deleting old partition and creating one) first just doing the partition. That, didn't work. Then, have it formatted and it didn't work either. I was just wondering if this model drive is "compatible" with the PS3 system. I compared the size and check if pin connector lined up with the original drive and they are the same. I know the drive is okay coz my PC recognize it every time I connect it to one of the SATA ports.
I thought your not suppose to partition the HDD at all? Just plug it in without any partition and the PS3 will detect and automatically format it
the ps3 will format and partition the drive 4 you. take it back 2 the pc and make it one partition put it back in the ps3. u may have to turn the ps3 off in the back a few times. and make sure you have nothing else pluged into the ps3. see if that works 4 you.
thanks for all the reply..I tried putting the drive unpartitioned and unformatted to the PS3 but it wasn't recognized. So after searching on the net for some procedures I came upon some info about partitioning the drive but not formatting it. It make sense doing the partition so the PS3 system will recognized the drive and let the PS3 do the formatting for compatibility. But the problem is the drive is not being seen by the PS3 system. I placed the same drive on an external enclosure to act as a back-up or an external drive and the PS3 system saw that same drive this time as an external usb drive. Right there I know that the drive is a good one. BTW, I'm using a v2.76 system software on this PS3 unit.
"PROBLEM SOLVE"...Here's a order of the trouble on my PS3. First: With the new WD500GB drive after using 2 different partitioning software which I ended up using SFDISK (shareware software) this error message will show up.. "The system software cannot be run correctly. Press the PS button to try to restart the system. If the system cannot be restarted, the system partition of the hard drive must be reformatted and you must reinstall the system software. Insert the storage media that contains update data of version 2.76 and then press the START and SELECT buttons at the same time." Second: After several tries doing the partitioning and formatting and partitioning again without reformat ( I ended up with the 2nd part) letting the PS3 do the formatting for compatibility I guess, I re-upgraded the system software again with v2.76. I said again coz the first upgrade was done through the net. This time I downloaded it through a usb drive install it on a PS3 folder (instruction can be found on the SCE website just in case you don't know)and update my original drive with the new software through that the USB drive Third: After the upgrade I swap again the drive with the WD500GB and after seeing the same error I tried that START and SELECT button and lo and behold it give me a message and that the system will do a format of the new drive and the rest is HISTORY. Anyway, thanks for everybody who responded to this thread. I hope this experience will help somebody out there who planned to do the same upgrade. BTW: I ended up having a total of 465MB capacity.
I'm pleased you managed to upgrade your hard drive. Im actually suffering the exact same problem with the 40gb PS3. I tried reinstalling the software update with the usb stick but to no avail. Im sick to death of swapping the hard drive around trying to find a fix. Do you think partitioning the new drive but not farmatting it was critical? Its the only thing I havent done.
I wont touch the original PS3 drive I will try using another SATA drive and play with it. Besides you will need the original drive on your PS3 just in case you send your unit to SONY for repair. You can buy a 60GB SATA drive for about $40-$60 for upgrade.
Hello. I have 2 launch 60GB consoles and installed a Western Digital 320GB in each of them. [I used HP format tool on my computer]. Quick format the HDD with FAT32 and install. Im wondering why there was issues with the 500GB HDD. Lol thats a big drive. I find 320GB is an overkill! Honey what you putting on your PS3? Regards Natasha.
I have a 60GB release console as well,with the PSN games i have i find that even 200GB would be small,there is also the mandatory installs that games make you install,like GTA4 and MGS4,there is also the fact that people use their consoles for movies and music,if im being honest im sure i could fill 500GB easy.
Oh ok hun. I never thought about the movie side of things. I guess these small drives that come with the consoles is not going to do the job. I wonder why they put small drives in the consoles. Regards Natasha.
That and you've also the time at which the consoles were developed 60gb was a fairly large size for a 2.5 sata. As for why they haven't stepped it up a lot higher now besides the cost reason its quite likely that with such a large increase in capacity and complexity of the larger 2.5's there is likely a higher failure rate that they would not want to deal with.
Oh sugar I hope not. That would really suck if your HDD dies. I think I better do A backup just in case. Lazy me, I have not done that yet. Regards Natasha.
In reply to fastbabe question why I used a big drive was for curiosity. I can use a smaller drive but the price difference between a 320 and 500 wasn't that much. And beside if it works that would save me from doing an upgrade in the future if in case the drive is still alive.
