Program for cloning PS3 hard drives?

[Rokku]

Is there a program to allow you to directly clone a hard drive from a PS3 to another drive, rather than having to reinstall everything from scratch? I want to upgrade my PS3 to a SSD but I don't want to have to re-download all my games again.

 

[godreborn]

I think clonezilla?

 

[Hayato213]

Is there a program to allow you to directly clone a hard drive from a PS3 to another drive, rather than having to reinstall everything from scratch? I want to upgrade my PS3 to a SSD but I don't want to have to re-download all my games again.

You probably need an usb hdd docking station

 

[Rokku]

You probably need an usb hdd docking station

Yeah, I have one, I just don't think Windows 10 (maybe Linux, but definitely not Windows 10) would recognize the PS3 hard drive without help.

 

[Jayro]

Clonezilla, and use the byte-per-byte transfer. It's slower, but it will be guaranteed to copy everything.

Or, if your PS3 is hacked, Multiman should be able to format the new drive and copy the files over.

 

[fringle]

Here's a previous post that may be helpful where the op successfully cloned the hdd of the ps3.

https://gbatemp.net/threads/ps3-hdd-cloned-successfully.585968/

 

[Rokku]

Clonezilla, and use the byte-per-byte transfer. It's slower, but it will be guaranteed to copy everything.

Or, if your PS3 is hacked, Multiman should be able to format the new drive and copy the files over.

Yeah, I do have custom firmware on my PS3, so all I would need is to hook up the new drive via a USB to SATA adapter and run Multiman to copy to it?

 

[Jayro]

Yeah, I do have custom firmware on my PS3, so all I would need is to hook up the new drive via a USB to SATA adapter and run Multiman to copy to it?

Well I think either the PS3's stock OS or Multiman should have a copy utility in them. But it's been 10+ years since I've had a hackable PS3.

 

[Hayato213]

Yeah, I have one, I just don't think Windows 10 (maybe Linux, but definitely not Windows 10) would recognize the PS3 hard drive without help.

Don't need a computer, you can only clone the same size with a docking station. You need a docking station that has cloning features.

 

[vitaxos]

If you got the rebug cfw (maybe it works also on other cfw's i don't know) there is an option for it in the settings menu next to the profil users. When you scroll down till the bottom there are special rebug settings and in there is an option for cloning the hdd. I did it yesterday because i switched from a hdd to a ssd.

After that, the PS3 will ask you for connecting the new drive with an USB cable to the PS3. The cloning will take some time and it's very slow.

 

[nubie]

I see some youtube videos about this and it's take really long times for just only 250gb , imagine with really big drive

 

[fringle]

I see some youtube videos about this and it's take really long times for just only 250gb , imagine with really big drive

It's because it's doing a sector by sector copy for the entire drive. If it also didn't need to clone the free space it wouldn't take as long but since it needs the entire drive and file system to be cloned with the PS3 it's going to take a while with an old 5400/7200rpm drive. Going from SSD to SSD would be a bit quicker.

 

[Rokku]

It's because it's doing a sector by sector copy for the entire drive. If it also didn't need to clone the free space it wouldn't take as long but since it needs the entire drive and file system to be cloned with the PS3 it's going to take a while with an old 5400/7200rpm drive. Going from SSD to SSD would be a bit quicker.

Does it work if the SSD is larger than the HDD?

 

[fringle]

Does it work if the SSD is larger than the HDD?

It would probably work but the extra space would most likely be inaccessible when doing a clone of the old drive.

 

[Rokku]

It would probably work but the extra space would most likely be inaccessible when doing a clone of the old drive.

Hmm, they don't even make 320GB SSDs so I guess I'm stuck with unusable space or re-downloading all my files...

 

[fringle]

Hmm, they don't even make 320GB SSDs so I guess I'm stuck with unusable space or re-downloading all my files...

The backup and restore feature built into the XMB may work or if you already have custom firmware it seems that there may be a backup feature within it as posted above. If that's not an option and you still haven't purchased the SSD than you're best bet would be to probably get a 350gb since the space loss would be minimal when doing a clone.

 

[godreborn]

Don't use the official backup/restore. It's slow, like 40 hours or so.

 

[nubie]

You can clone it with PC ?

 

[fringle]

You can clone it with PC ?

Yes you can clone with a pc but drive size must match or you are wasting money on space that can't be used in the ps3 due to the nature of cloning the ps3 hard drive.

 

[Rokku]

I've done a bit of research, and apparently I can back up my stuff off the PS3 via FTP and then send it back to the console somehow? Not entirely sure how that works but I'm willing to do that instead, I just don't know if I'll have to re-install CFW onto the new hard drive.