Upgrading My PS3 to 1 TERABYTE

My PS3 slim I upgraded to a 256Gig about a year ago. In that one year..with all my DLC, free games on PLUS. I realized that if I was going to progress further than I would have to start deleting data on my current PS3. And what a pain in the ass that is to delete one game to make room for another. Sure they are games I rarely play anymore..but I like having them in my list just in case.

So I said to hell with this and instead of a 500Gig upgrade..I went with a almighty 1 Terabyte.

But messing with the guts of my system always terrifies me, technology and me don't get along too well.

But I figured..what the hell, this NEEDS to be done. So I started with backing up all my stuff to a external hard drive. And the very first time I tried to do this..it took 7 hrs, got to 98% and a error appeared. This error when I looked it up, said that I have copyrighted data that cannot be transferred, there for we stopped the entire transfer.

Why wouldn't it just NOT transfer that data and continue? I don't know..but that's how it works.  So I went online and looked up which games are copyrighted from my list and put the saved data on the CLOUD service that PLUS has. So that was very helpful.

With that..I tried again..this time it took 5 hrs, got to 89% and I got the same error. Copyrighted data found...cannot complete transfer. Gawd Dammit!!

I then dug a little deeper and did a more thorough search for copyrighted data and moved what I found to the cloud service and removed all the install data from DLC games that were listed as copyrighted.

Didn't matter, after 4 hrs..got to 93% and stopped with the same copyright error.

Well..at this point I said, fuck it..and moved EVERYTHING to the cloud service, all my saved data. Deleted ALL my games, got rid of all the install data, DLC, EVERYTHING. The only thing left on my system at this point where my themes.

At this point, whats even the point to transferring ..oh yeah..right...it helps when you do a system restore when I put the new hard drive in, other wise I have to do a update via USB data.

So I try again, it gets to 98% in 4 min..and BAM..same error..cannot transfer, copyrighted data.
At this point I delete EVERYTHING. Its gone...its all gone. The system is clean. I try again for shits and giggles..but nothing...again I get the same error.

Oh well, looks like I am rebooting the system with the new hard drive via USB.

I turn off the system, swap out the drives and start up again. Before that I go to the Playstation Website and download the latest firmware update and put in in a folder labeled PS3 Update and put that folder on a USB.

Stick the the USB in the PS3 before turning it on, and start it up. AT first I downloaded the wrong firmware or got the wrong file, cause it didn't recognize the file on the USB. I was shitting myself at this point, cause I was just waiting for it all to blow up in my face.

So I went back and got the NEW file and tried again. Put it in my PS3 and clicked , Update. Voila!!!, it worked. I was super Happy!!!

After 2 days for frigging around with saved data, copyrighted data, looking for which games are listed as copyright protected, uploading all data to cloud and moving some save data to my external one file at a time. I finally had a fully upgraded PS3 with 1 Terabyte of space.

Getting everything back on my PS3 took another week, lol
Downloading all my games again, getting the addons, updates, the saved data, avatars, themes, etc. Its been over a month now since I upgraded and I am still getting updates and DLC stuff for my games.

It was  messy experience, but it had to be done. I need the space. But for the most part, everything is good so far, nothing blew up or exploded or somehow got lost.

I recommend anyone doing this..to forgo the backup process if you have alot of games like I did. And just dump all your saved data on cloud or a external, ONE BY ONE. That way you know which ones are copyrighted and which ones are not. If you don't have PLUS membership, you will lose your copyrighted saved data, as you have no way of moving it.

But there are plenty of helpful HOW TO videos of how to swap out your PS3 HD. But not many give a detailed explanation of all the stuff you have to do.

With that..I have tons of space!! Yeehaaa!!