hi everyone, today i just got my refurb ps3 from sony and i wanted to use my old 500gb hard drive because all of my save games are in there (esp DEMON'S SOULS). but i got a problem, when i installed it and then i turned my ps3 on then a message comes out on the screen that i needed to reformat the hardrive. the choices are yes or no. so i chose NO, of course because all of my save games are in there. but when i chose NO a message came out that the ps3 cannot start due to the hard drive is incorrect and the correct hard drive was not found. Please i need your help about this. i don't want to reformat my 500gb hdd! and also i don't have any backup of my save games because i wasn't able to back it up when my ps3 got the YLOD. 

itchy18


hi everyone, today i just got my refurb ps3 from sony and i wanted to use my old 500gb hard drive because all of my save games are in there (esp DEMON'S SOULS). but i got a problem, when i installed it and then i turned my ps3 on then a message comes out on the screen that i needed to reformat the hardrive. the choices are yes or no. so i chose NO, of course because all of my save games are in there. but when i chose NO a message came out that the ps3 cannot start due to the hard drive is incorrect and the correct hard drive was not found. Please i need your help about this. i don't want to reformat my 500gb hdd! and also i don't have any backup of my save games because i wasn't able to back it up when my ps3 got the YLOD. 

IF you did not back them up I think you are screwed.....

Sorry man they are gone. If you didnt back up your game saves then its to late. Sucks.

 

Yeah, sorry man, you should have backed them all up.

Sorry mah man,you're screwed.

really? you should really reformat it before you install it on the ps3? tsk! i didn't have the chance to back it up cause my ps3 got the YLOD. man this sucks. if it wasn't for the demon's souls I would reformat this thing right ahead. 

This reminds me, I gotta back-up my game saves for both my consoles.. I'd be one sad camper if I lost them

once you install a harddrive to the ps3, you can't stick in another one. Most likely when you sent in the ps3, they formatted the ps3 and put in their own harddrive to work with it. People upgrading to a larger harddrive came across that problem. They upgraded to the new 250-500 whatever drive, once it was done, stuck in the old one to transfer and well surprise, can only formatt and not read. The only thing i would suggest, plug the harddrive into a cp and see if you can copy the files. If you can do that, then just transfer to a usb drive and away you go.

The way it's encrypted makes it hard to know what is what. Maybe if you can put all the data from the old hard drive to another hdd/pc and then reformat it and copy the data back on to it, but that may not work either and you would need a large hdd to copy all that.
 
Sony needs to enable, through a firmware update, the ability to select only what you want to backup, I have 250 gb used on my ps3 and don't have that much free space on my other drives. If we could just backup our game saves and games, and not all the demos, music and videos it'd be alot easier.

If by some odd coincidence you have a 2.5" hard drive enclosure or just an adapter lying around you could probably plug that sucker into a PC and pull all your save games off it before reformatting in the PS3.  I have no idea what sort of effect that might have on your trophy progress, though.

Polluted


If by some odd coincidence you have a 2.5" hard drive enclosure or just an adapter lying around you could probably plug that sucker into a PC and pull all your save games off it before reformatting in the PS3.  I have no idea what sort of effect that might have on your trophy progress, though.

trophy's are on the psn, so as long as you login they upload and you'll have them

you have to reformat the hdd on the new ps3; if you don't, the ps3 won't "recognize" it and won't accept it - so whatever you didn't back up is lost

also, trophies will stay UNLESS you didn't sync them.  If you didn't sync any trophies before your ps3 crapped out, those trophies will be lost. 

MAKE ME FEEL ALIVE

thanks for the help guys. really appreciate it. well i already decided to reformat the hdd. i got a hard drive enclosure for the hdd and tried to plug it to the computer but the computer couldn't read it. i also tried it on my laptop but still no luck. and for the trophies, yup i just synced it and my trophies are still there but i don't really care if they're gone. oh well what can we do it is what it is. move on.  

itchy18


hi everyone, today i just got my refurb ps3 from sony and i wanted to use my old 500gb hard drive because all of my save games are in there (esp DEMON'S SOULS). but i got a problem, when i installed it and then i turned my ps3 on then a message comes out on the screen that i needed to reformat the hardrive. the choices are yes or no. so i chose NO, of course because all of my save games are in there. but when i chose NO a message came out that the ps3 cannot start due to the hard drive is incorrect and the correct hard drive was not found. Please i need your help about this. i don't want to reformat my 500gb hdd! and also i don't have any backup of my save games because i wasn't able to back it up when my ps3 got the YLOD. 

if you did backup you hdd you have to start allllllllll over again . it hap to me ,i know how you feel at lest you dont lose you trophies lol . add RAVEN81

eraursls84

Polluted


If by some odd coincidence you have a 2.5" hard drive enclosure or just an adapter lying around you could probably plug that sucker into a PC and pull all your save games off it before reformatting in the PS3.  I have no idea what sort of effect that might have on your trophy progress, though.

trophy's are on the psn, so as long as you login they upload and you'll have them

Right, but if you import someone else's save game trophies for that game will stop working.  I'm wondering how this would work if he pulled the saves off his old HD by hooking it up to a PC.  I mean he made them with his own PSN ID, but the system might think something fishy is up since he'd be copying them all from a foreign device. Who knows?

There was a time, prior to firmware 2.4, where one could switch HDD' within
the same PS3 without reformatting (after they were formatted on the same PS3).
But after firmware 2.4 parts of the GameOS were transfered to the HDD. Those
parts may likely have a signature that couples them with the firmware. If you now
put another HDD into your PS3, which was also formatted under the same
firmware (post 2.4) on the same PS3, then you have to reformat it no matter what.

i also had this same problem with the ylod but i had backed up my hdd, but once i got a refurb back from sony i installed my back up onto it but some of the locked game saves would not transfer to the refurb ps3 due to the copyrite crap. i cant help thinking this will only get worse though as more and more game saves are getting locked.
 
has anyone else had this problem? or is it just a UK/Europe thing?

 

@PSN ID nick131085: Got the same problem back then. Today, I do monthly
save my most important savegames on an external disc. If you ask me, the
PS3s backup utility isn't worth a thing. So don't rely on it.