PS3 questions

[redflameent]

I am mainly buying the PS3 for a media center because it is cheaper to buy that for a Blu ray player than buying a standalone. So how big of a hard drive can fit in a PS3? I heard it is a 500 GB. But can I buy external drives for it? I want to put 1 TB omn it for my movie collection.

 

[RyanB]

The PS3 uses FAT32, which will address up to 2TB of hard drive space, so that's the limit on hard drive size. Just be aware that it needs to be a 2.5" SATA drive (basically a laptop hard drive). 5400 or 7200RPM drives both work fine, but of course there's a small boost of shortening load times with the 7200...since a lot of games will have you installing some stuff on the HD for faster loads.

External drives (or even thumb drives) will work fine. Just be aware that the drive will have to be formatted to FAT16 or FAT32 as well.

Other media stuff... if you have media XP computer or better, you can allow that computer to share media and play it through the PS3 straight from the menu. And if you're interested in Netflix in HD, or the upcoming Hulu Plus, that's an option as well.

 

[blackgravity]

Waitwaitwait.

External?

So, would it be possible to use an external drive to test whether or not that's the issue with my dead PS3?

 

[RyanB]

Waitwaitwait.

External?

So, would it be possible to use an external drive to test whether or not that's the issue with my dead PS3?

No idea, to be honest...what exact issue are you having? Is it booting? I dunno if it would stop it from booting if it didn't have a hard drive. I will say this much...when I put my new drive in...that basically meant not hard drive until I formatted it in the PS3. It booted fine with no drive. I'm pretty sure the actual PS3 OS lives inside internal storage.

Have you called sony on a repair estimate? I believe the repair cost is $150...kinda steep, but cheaper than a new one for sure. Other than that, I'd recommend backing up your hard drive before shipping it out. Would stink to lose your game saves.