PS3 HDD problems...hooking it up to a laptop? Help please <

[Bad Ash]

PS3 HDD problems...hooking it up to a laptop? Help please

hey all-

I have come to realize that my ps3 is broken. Sony is telling me to send it in along with $175 to get it fixed or to get a new one...I would love to find a way to fix this without having to send it in and have done a lot of research and looks like I might be S.O.L. but figured id ask the trustworthy souls on my favorite forum

Whenever I turn on the PS3 it automatically starts installing an update which freezes at 63%. It says technical error contact tech support. There is no ps3 menu there is no way around it, I have to turn it off with the power supply in the back when this happens and it sucks.

and the error code is 8002F1C1

From what ive read my hard drive is "bricked" so heres the real question: If I remove the HDD (legal and allowed by Sony) and delete everything on it using a laptop, does anyone think this will solve the problem?

Also, does anyone know how to do this hook up? I would be using a girlfriends laptop since I have a desktop and would be in deep if I broke it haha. Ideally I would be able to hook it up using a USB cable (not sure if this is even possible) and following steps I found here...

http://www.ehow.com/how_6026_format-hard-drive.html

any advice would be awesome if someone is pretty tech savvy, and I am willing to try this if you guys think this is a feesible solution. I also thought I read something about putting the laptops hdd into the ps3 but not sure I understood how that would help, so if someone has some more information on that it would be amazing.

Thanks for all of your help and time to read this

 

[Dirty_Zulu]

Re: PS3 HDD problems...hooking it up to a laptop? Help please

Could be your hard drive is mechanically broken.

The OS for PS3 is on a chip so you just put in a new HD and select the backup function from the system menu.

This will give you the opportunity to upgrade to a cheap ginourmous HD.

 

[ffejrxx]

Re: PS3 HDD problems...hooking it up to a laptop? Help please

seconded,

you can remove, than use another computer to unpartition, reparetition and format the drive, then run scandisk on it

looks like you lost all of your saves and downloaded extras anyways

also check the mfg of the drive and see if its under warranty
send it in and get a replacement

 

[Dondrei]

Re: PS3 HDD problems...hooking it up to a laptop? Help please

Out of curiosity, is the PS3 HDD interchangeable with normal PC HDDs?

 

[ffejrxx]

Re: PS3 HDD problems...hooking it up to a laptop? Help please

ps3s use notebook 2.5in sata hdd

not sure if the ps3 controller is a sata1 or sata2 tho

if you use a sata2 drive on a sata1 controller you will need to put a jumper on the drive to make it bakcwards compatable with sata1 controllers

sata notebook drives (1.8in, 2.5in) have the same connectors as a sata pc drives (3.5in)

 

[Bad Ash]

Re: PS3 HDD problems...hooking it up to a laptop? Help please

Thanks for the advice. I have actually done none of the above yet and would still be open to some advice.

Sony suggested I send it in, but I dont have it under warranty and they are asking for $170 which I just dont have right now to fix a gaming system.

I ended up removing the HDD of the PS3 and bought for 20 bucks something to connect a HDD to a laptop. However when i plug it into the laptop the laptop immediately shut down and I got it plugged in with the computer on, but had no way of opening the HDD up. Of course the plug in came with no CD and no instructions and googling had little to no help at all.

Buy a new HDD is an option because I have defintely accepted the fact that my saves are gone, but I dont want to spend the money if it wont work. I do have 2 old laptops that are no longer working, is there a way to remove those harddrives and using that in the PS3? How would I go about removing them or even knowing what is on them or if it will work? Or is this kind of a cross and fingers kind of deal.

It would be amazing if I could get this to work but it might just be too messed up. Thanks for past and future advice!

 

[ffejrxx]

Re: PS3 HDD problems...hooking it up to a laptop? Help please

what kind of connector did you get to connect the drive to the notebook?
usb, firewire, esata?

your old laptop drives will work if they are sata
look up instructions on how to remove them
look at the connectors on the drive
if there are pins (eide/pata) it wont work
if it has L connectors it will work (sata)

I got it plugged in with the computer on, but had no way of opening the HDD up

do that again, then
right click on my computer -> manage
click on disk management in the left plane

in the lower right plane (assuming no other usb/sata/firewire drives are connected)
disk 0 should be the notebook hard drive
disk 1 should be the ps3 hard drive

you may need to right click on the drive and select initialize
and assign it a letter if its been formated already