[stefan_uk]

As the title says, not sure what this does can anyone explain to me, i have an idea but want it clarified, cheers

[leicesterlad]

Erm.... restores the system presumably back to factory settings.

Go on do it

[psikey]

No it doesn't. You can backup the PS3 internal drive to an external USB drive. The restore option can re-install your back-up (just like backup/restore on a PC).

If you select restore, the PS3 will look for files on a USB drive/card with folder PS3/Export/

Backup & restore work without problems (I've used it on the JPN PS3 I had).

[Steve-L]

No, not quite! I fell into this trap last night. I used the backup option under system settings to backup the PS3 hard drive. After rebooting it I selected "PS3 System Restore" (or similar) and all it does is format the hard drive and wipe your PSN details

To do the restore you must first select the Backup option and then select "restore" from the sub menu. Even then when it is actually restoring your data the screen says "backing up data..."

There is also a further option to restore factory settings - what that does that the other system restore doesn't I have no idea!

Someone at Sony really should look at re-designing that part of the menu system...