so i'm gonna back up my ps3

I want to upgrade the HDD so I can store all of my music and movies on it and not have my ancient dell next to the tv anymore as a "media center pc."

I figured i could just backup my game saves, activation data, misc. small things. Turns out it wants to copy my install data too. I can always reinstall the games, that's no problem. Is there any way to backup my stuff for the new HDD without copying all my install data? or am I going to have to get an external HDD? I figured my 4gb flash drive would be enough for the few game saves I have.

If you just want to back up your game saves a flash drive will do just fine. Just put it in, highlight the one you want and select copy. The same would apply for music, movies, and pictures I assume. It'll just take a while to copy each individual thing and if you have lots of big files they might not all fit.

Yeah, i figured that would work. I just kinda wanted to hit backup and voila everything works. I think it might be counting my videos and music in there too. I didn't think about that. I'll try to delete them (i have copies on the PC) and see if that will let me fit my stuff onto a flash drive. Also, does anyone know if you can copy the backup data from the flash drive to the PC? so i could copy a crapton of stuff, offload it on the PC and then repeat with even more data? I just don't have like 50-80 bucks right now for an external and if i'm going to spend the money i might as well go big.rikguenther

[QUOTE="rikguenther"]Yeah, i figured that would work. I just kinda wanted to hit backup and voila everything works. I think it might be counting my videos and music in there too. I didn't think about that. I'll try to delete them (i have copies on the PC) and see if that will let me fit my stuff onto a flash drive. Also, does anyone know if you can copy the backup data from the flash drive to the PC? so i could copy a crapton of stuff, offload it on the PC and then repeat with even more data? I just don't have like 50-80 bucks right now for an external and if i'm going to spend the money i might as well go big.jt4mtb

but what if I do the pick and choose method? like pick a few gamesaves here, a few gamesaves there, then copy to PC, rinse and repeat? Surely i can restore them all one at a time. I'd try but i'm not with my ps3 at the momentrikguenther

So you basically HAVE to use the backup utility? You can't just recover your profile, account, and settings by logging in after you put in the new hard drive? I can't use the backup thing because my external drive won't format to FAT32. Plus, I have 100 Gigs of stuff backed up from my PC to my external, and I don't want to have to erase all that and re-copy everything. I already have all my saves copied to my PC.

So you basically HAVE to use the backup utility? You can't just recover your profile, account, and settings by logging in after you put in the new hard drive? I can't use the backup thing because my external drive won't format to FAT32. Plus, I have 100 Gigs of stuff backed up from my PC to my external, and I don't want to have to erase all that and re-copy everything. I already have all my saves copied to my PC.

DSPX

No, you don't have to use it. It's just (in a lot of cases) more convenient and less headache. As I said, some games either prohibit copying the save file or key their saves specifically to the user (not just PSN ID) that created it. Say you just create a new profile with the new hard drive in place, but the profile's name differs from what you had before, then those certain saves will not work as the game will only let the original user play them. It's not cool to lose a gamesave that you spent 100+ hours on. You can do just fine w/o using the utility; you just have to remember to name profiles exactly the same as it was before, and concede to the fact that you'll lose whichever saves are copy locked.

[QUOTE="DSPX"]

So you basically HAVE to use the backup utility? You can't just recover your profile, account, and settings by logging in after you put in the new hard drive? I can't use the backup thing because my external drive won't format to FAT32. Plus, I have 100 Gigs of stuff backed up from my PC to my external, and I don't want to have to erase all that and re-copy everything. I already have all my saves copied to my PC.

jt4mtb

No, you don't have to use it. It's just (in a lot of cases) more convenient and less headache. As I said, some games either prohibit copying the save file or key their saves specifically to the user (not just PSN ID) that created it. Say you just create a new profile with the new hard drive in place, but the profile's name differs from what you had before, then those certain saves will not work as the game will only let the original user play them. It's not cool to lose a gamesave that you spent 100+ hours on. You can do just fine w/o using the utility; you just have to remember to name profiles exactly the same as it was before, and concede to the fact that you'll lose whichever saves are copy locked.

I hate to be a bother again, but why do you have to create a whole new account? Isn't there a option to recover or re-activate a existing profile/account?