PS3 Backup - is it as easy as it looks ?

A

Andy1

Guest
Hi - PS3 won't load games, so having read the Forums it looks like it is back off to Sony. I understand that this may mean a replacement machine so I would ideally like to back up the system before it leaves me so that hopefully some (if not all) of the data can be restored.

I am certainly not a PC techie, but I have got an A-A USB cable and I intend to switch both machines on, plug one end of the cable into the PS3 and the other into the PC, and hit "backup" on the PS3.

Is this all there is to it ?
Should I be connecting the machines when they are off, and then boot them up ?
Will the PC merely create the necessary files as soon as the PS3 starts to downlaod the info, or do I need to open certain files on the PC to accept the data.


If anybody can give me any feedback, I would be very grateful.

Thanks
 
You cant connect via USB like that, you will damage your machine and your ps3 as USB carries a voltage.

Your best bet is to borrow a portable HDD and back it up that way.
Its all very straight forward, the HDD that you are using for the backup needs to be FAT32 formated i think.
 
What do you need to back up ?

If its game saves , they could probably fit on a USB stick

Any games or trailers ect downloded form the PSN store can be re downloaded again for free as well as the store remembers what you have had .
 
Hi - PS3 won't load games, so having read the Forums it looks like it is back off to Sony. I understand that this may mean a replacement machine so I would ideally like to back up the system before it leaves me so that hopefully some (if not all) of the data can be restored.

I am certainly not a PC techie, but I have got an A-A USB cable and I intend to switch both machines on, plug one end of the cable into the PS3 and the other into the PC, and hit "backup" on the PS3.

Is this all there is to it ?
Should I be connecting the machines when they are off, and then boot them up ?
Will the PC merely create the necessary files as soon as the PS3 starts to downlaod the info, or do I need to open certain files on the PC to accept the data.


If anybody can give me any feedback, I would be very grateful.

Thanks

Not to sure about the way you are doing it TBH, this is the info in the manual

PS3™ | Backup Utility

One thing you MUST do is backup your gamesaves onto a usb pen drive, seperate to the main backup. When I performed a restore onto a new machine my game saves went AWOL and I lost them, not good.
 
Thanks for the reply guys - looks like I could have been on the brink of an expensive mistake.

The only thing I really need to back up is the game saves, and I have a 1GB Flashdrive which I can use.

When I went into the Backup section on the PS3, it did not give me the option of only backing up the games saves - can someone please tell me how to do this / where the saves are stored.

Thanks again.
 
Plug an ipod in via USB and off you go ... worked a treat for me moving xGb worth of stuff

:smashin:
 
Hi have done a search re Backing up games and read quite varied responses.

If I want to ensure any games I have purchased are kept, in light of a fault, can I 'backup all contents of PS3 HD onto external drive(FAT32'd) and then restore all (full)games etc (not worried so much about game saves) back to new unit?
I have looked at PS3 site too but couldn't see direct answer to this.

Oh and I assume this would also be possible with a large flash usb drive?

Thanks
Matt
 
Yes you can - whe i swapped my original 60gb for a 320gb i simply did a full back up to an external hdd i had and then restored it after swapping the 320 for the 60. Everything was back as i had it before the swap - all games, vids, music, saves etc
 
Excellent, thanks for your quick response, much appreciated.
:thumbsup:
Matt
 
Hi all,

I am trying to backup my PS3 prior to installing a new HDD.

I have a 4gb USB stick and a 320gb external drive (Seagate). Both are formatted as Fat32. The stick is completely empty and the Seagate has over 230gb free space.

If I plug the stick in, it shows up in various menus and I can see it is empty. When I use the Backup utility, the PS3 recognises the stick and asks if I want to back up to it. However, it then starts the process, logs out of the PS3 network and says the USB drive cannot be accessed.

If I plug the Seagate in, the PS3 does not recognise it at all.

I have then read this thread, which implies I can copy game saves manually to a stick. However, when going to the Game menu and selecting any of the save folders for GTA, Burnout or Lego Star Wars, the only options I get are Delete or Information, not Copy.

Any clues would be appreciated.
 
Last edited:
Hi all,

I am trying to backup my PS3 prior to installing a new HDD.

I have a 4gb USB stick and a 320gb external drive (Seagate). Both are formatted as Fat32. The stick is completely empty and the Seagate has over 230gb free space.

If I plug the stick in, it shows up in various menus and I can see it is empty. When I use the Backup utility, the PS3 recognises the stick and asks if I want to back up to it. However, it then starts the process, logs out of the PS3 network and says the USB drive cannot be accessed.

If I plug the Seagate in, the PS3 does not recognise it at all.

I have then read this thread, which implies I can copy game saves manually to a stick. However, when going to the Game menu and selecting any of the save folders for GTA, Burnout or Lego Star Wars, the only options I get are Delete or Information, not Copy.

Any clues would be appreciated.

Highlight the game save you want to copy press the triangle button on the controller the copy option is available then.
 
Thanks for that. Looks like I can copy individual game saves, but not the whole lot in one go, which would have been nice.

Have now got the Backup utility past the initial screen: I re-formatted the USB stick and started the backup process again; it gets to 50% after about 20 minutes and then displays "USB device cannot be accessed" again. Looking at the stick on my PC, there are about 6mb of files plus nearly 2gb of other used space. But it still hasn't backed up everything, I suspect.

Very frustrating...
 
When doing a system backup, what exactly does it backup?

I've plugged a 4GB USB pen drive in but it says there isn't enough room. I've just deleted all my demos and movies. The only thing I know is left, is SOCOM which was downloaded from the PSN.

If I just backup the game saves, what other data will I lose? my external HDD is NTFS which the PS3 won't recognise.
 
Just remember a backup will only restore on the same machine, so if its being swapped (ie its broken) then backup is useless (only works for swapping HDD on the same PS3). Just copy your gamesaves onto a mem stick and take a note of your account id and passwords and anything youve downloaded. Then log in with your account and redownload everything (I think your allowed 5 downloads of the same 'bought' item. Copy your save games and your back in business one of my games is copy protected so would loose that save, might be TC vegas2 but not sure.
 
BackUp is always useful, it copies EVERYTHING onto something external, Photos, Music, Videos, Accounts, GameSaves, Installed Games, Game Updates. It literally clones your PS3's Drive.

But Downloaded Games may not work if your getting a new PS3, on a HDD Swap everything will be fine.
 
If for some reason you have to use a different machine, downloaded games that you've paid for are still usable under your psn account. There is also game sharing allowed, i think it's with up to 4 friends, ie you can have a game downloaded to 5 different machines and usable on that machine, as long as it's been "activated" under the psn id that bought the downloads.

Activate system is the one for all this, just remember to deactivate the system if for some reason you're getting rid of a ps3 and don't want your downloads to be playable on it. This keeps your quota of up to 5 system activations for any one psn id intact.
 
Thats the problem i had, my Old PS3 which went in for refurb is using one of my slots up, apparently you can give sony a ringa ring ring and they can clear the authorisations.
 
Finally resolved my backup issue by using an old 40gb portable USB hard disk I had lying around. Formatted it as FAT32 and it backed up the PS3 very quickly. Restore to the new 320gb hard disk went very smoothly too.
 

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