Posted Nov 10, 2006 at 04:29PM by Chris L. Listed in: Accessories Tags: Seagate Technology, SATA, Gamewatch
Ó

Sniffle! A sweet, beautiful sight. 120GB BABY!!!


What was it, only a few moments ago that we posted the "How to replace your HDD without voiding your warranty" scans from the PS3 manual? Well, the first thing some would do upon getting their hands on the PS3 for the first time is to load up a launch title and taste all that delicious PS3 gaming goodness. An intrepid PS3 owner, psmania, though, decided that the first thing she'd (yes she, maybe) do is swap out the 20GB SATA drive for, uh, she dunno, how about 120GB?

In her Korean-language post (yes, Korean) on Ruliweb.com she describes and pictures the HDD-replacement process. Now, we can't verify from here if she's done the real deal - not after an HDD capacity photoshopping bit cropped up on teh intarwebs - but by comparing these shots with the manual scans from earlier, we can be fairly confident that psmania just pimped her PS3 out big-time.

Enjoy the pictures of a PS3 enjoying six times its original disc capacity. The Read link below leads you to the Ruliweb in its original Korean post - hope you got a good web translator or a friend who knows Korean. And the userpic there's the reason we said she's a she (unless he's just using the pic to impress guys. Likely not).

There's something so beautiful about 120GB - Image 1 There's something so beautiful about 120GB - Image 2 There's something so beautiful about 120GB - Image 3 
There's something so beautiful about 120GB - Image 4 There's something so beautiful about 120GB - Image 5 There's something so beautiful about 120GB - Image 6




UPDATE: Next, GameWatch decided to do an HDD swap of their own: 60GB for 100GB. Not as impressive as psmania's six-times pimp-up, but GameWatch does the honor of writing down the specifications of their swaps. For example, the 20GB PS3 uses Seagate LD25.1 HDDs, and the 60GB HDD is Seagate's Momentus 5400.2 SATA. The 100GB GameWatch uses is from the same Momentus family: the 7200.1 SATA 2.5".

You can read more about GameWatch's HDD swap at their site here (you'll need a translator for it, though). Beyond that, Here are their pictures of their own HDD swap:

GameWatch swaps their HDD - Image 1 GameWatch swaps their HDD - Image 2
This is what you find inside the 20GB PS3 This is what's inside the 60GB PS3 And this is the 100GB GameWatch decided to use.




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20 Comments


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   by .... (Unregistered) - 2006-11-10
 » .....

yay first post !!

wow this is awesome. Imagine the possibilities

   by Vietone - 2006-11-10
 » One more thing thats great

Imagine a 200GB PS3, its just great.

   by kura (Unregistered) - 2006-11-10
 » I posted the translation on digg.

Things needed for Replacement

Replacement HDD (2.5", SATA)

Phillips and slottet head drivers (+ and -)

1.Turn of the console, lay it on its sides, and open the lid labeled "HDD"
2.Remove the blue screw once the lid is open.
3.lift the handle and slide it to the right gently.
4.Remove the 4 silver screws from the sides
5.The model of HDD is Seagate's ST920217AS.
6.Install the Replacement HDD back onto the frame, screw it back, and slide the HDD back into the console.
Slide it to the left until you can feel that it's been connected. Screw the blue screw back in, and close the lid.
7.Restart the PS3, and the console will ask to Format the HDD. Choose "Yes".
8.Replacement HDD is recognised instantly.


   Re: Chris L. (QJ. NET Staff) - 2006-11-10
 » Thanks! Way better then the web-lator.

(Wonder how you say that in Korean?)

   Re: Victor B. (QJ. NET Staff) - 2006-11-10
 » Kamsahamnida!

Thank you, in Korean. :)
   by GmDude66 (Unregistered) - 2006-11-10
 » Nice

Well, they are now making hard disks that can hold TERABYTES of data :D

Pimp your PS3 with one of those, lol


   Re: BULL3TPR00F - 2006-11-10
 » not sata

not 2.5" sata hdd's, the terabytes are 3.5" sata's.

i believable the largest 2.5" sata drive is 250gb or so.

   Re: mellowyellow (Unregistered) - 2006-11-11
 » usb goodness

just get one of those mass storage usb harddrives, mmm, 1.6 terrabytes....
   by Advertising -
   by Spector - 2006-11-10
 » Anyones thoughts changing?

With the 20GB PS3 having HDMI now and in light of this kind of news is anyone else thinking of getting a 20GB model then using that $100 you had left over for your 60GB model and getting themselves a nice 2.5" hard drive.

I'm going to be campping out for mine and if I have the choice I think I might get myself the 20GB and just pop a 120 or 160GB in it.



   Re: senjutsu - 2006-11-11
 » lol, yeah tough of that too

But anyway I'll buy mine in january, so I have the time to think about it and see how it's evolving! :D

   Re: pillow (Unregistered) - 2006-11-11
 » other features

i'm still getting the 60gb model cuz it has wifi built in and a card reader for all the different cards
   by Bryden (Unregistered) - 2006-11-11
 » Don't Change It!!!

They'd better not pull some BS where they modify the PS3 later on so you can no longer do this. With that and their tirade against homebrew.... I would have to kill you, Sony.

   by oochi (Unregistered) - 2006-11-11
 » bobo

what would the HD have to do with homebrew ?

   by piff (Unregistered) - 2006-11-11
 » yeah!!!

Uhh those 2.5" SATA HDD are expensive they are the same as the ones in laptops, so forget about getting a decent HDD for $100 think somthing around $200+ and were talking 60-120 GB range

   by Sembazuru (Unregistered) - 2006-11-12
 » HDD to HDD data transfer?

Ok, this is great. Nice to see confirmation that the HDD swap is as easy as that.

Now, imagine that you've been using your PS3 for about a year and are feeling cramped by the 60GB drive. You want to upgrade the internal drive but don't want to loose all your precious game-saves, purchased add-ons, etc. How do you transfer all that data to the new drive?

This all comes down to how Sony has chosen to format the internal drive. Did they use an existing format (FAT32, ext/3, etc), or did they roll their own proprietary format?

I hope the former, but if anyone has contact with someone brave enough to do this with their new PS3 system, I want to see some PS3 data saved to the internal drive, and then the drive removed from the PS3 and attached to a PC (running Win, OSX, and/or Linux). Attachement either directly to an SATA port, or to USB through an external HDD case. Can the data be copied off the drive? Can new data (like some spare mp3's on the PC) be copied to the drive and the PS3 able to recognize them? If the PC can't regonize the drive, can the PS3 recognize it through USB (with the removed PS3 drive in a USB Hard drive case), and able to copy the datas onto the new drive that way?

Thoughts? (And please no guesses, I want hard empirical data.)


   Re: MetalDwarf (Unregistered) - 2006-11-12
 » Adapter to external

is there such a thing as a 2.5" SATA to 3.5" SATA adapter? would it be possible to plug in an adapter to the PS3 run a cable outside the case and plug in an external hard drive? preferably of the faster/cheaper/larger 3.5" variety?

   Re: Sembazuru (Unregistered) - 2006-11-12
 » Re: MetalDwarf

Yeah, sure. You can skin the cat many ways has how to hook up the PS3 formatted HDD to a PC. My question boils down to either:

A) Is the formatting of the PS3 HDD proprietary and only understandable by the PS3, or something computers (Windows, Mac, and/or Linux) can understand.

B) Can the PS3 understand it's own formatted drive when it is attached externally through the USB ports, and can you copy data from the external (old PS3 drive) to your brand-spanking new and larger new PS3 drive.

   Re: Advertising -


   Re: bw (Unregistered) - 2006-11-22
 » RE: HDD to HDD data tarnsfer

I would think by then you will own a jump drive that has 10GB on it and I can imagine you can transfer files to that and to SD card, copy to PC for the time being. Or likely network the PS3 with your PC and transfer that way..

Give it time and one will figure it out. I would say with the price of HDD's now, just spend the coin and get a larger one
   by bw (Unregistered) - 2006-11-22
 » 350GB 3.5"

DailyTech has stated they have already installed a 3.5" 320GB HDD into the PS3. here is a quote site can be found here http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=4908&ref=y here is a quote
"What's different from Microsoft's implementation is that the hard drive is easily accessible via a special compartment on the console. Just a flip of the lid and a removal of a few screws is all that's required to separate the hard drive from the system. What's even more interesting is that Sony explicitly states in its Safety and Support manual that the system will accept any 2.5" SATA hard drive, which will eliminate any user cries of storage limitations like what Xbox 360 owners are experiencing. People getting (or stuck with) the 20GB version of the PlayStation 3 could easily upgrade to a drive that would surpass its more expensive older brother. This also opens up the opportunity of upgrading to a faster, 7200 RPM drive. At DailyTech, we've already attempted to use a 3.5" 320GB hard drive (with some creative cabling), and had no problem utilizing the new drive."

   by Serafic (Unregistered) - 2006-11-26
 » Aww . . .

I'm buying my PS3 in March (pal always gets screwed.)
Do you think it would be possible with the latest PS3's?
Hopefully.



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