How to Hook an External Hard Drive to a PS3
If the internal hard drive on your Sony PlayStation 3 is quickly running out of space, you can purchase any external hard drive and connect it to your device to add more room. The only stipulation is that your external hard drive is going to be have to be formatted in the FAT32 file system for the PS3 to recognize that it is there. Once this is done---you'll need to use a computer---the actual connection process is as simple as plugging in a cable.
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Instructions
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Format your external hard drive in the "FAT32" file system. To do this, connect your hard drive to your computer and open the "My Computer" desktop icon. Right-click on the drive's icon in "My Computer." Click the "Format" button. Click "FAT32" from the "File Type" drop-down menu. Then, click "Start." This will format your external hard drive in the "FAT32" file system.
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Right-click on the drive's icon in "My Computer" and click "Eject" after the formatting process is complete. This will "unmount" the drive from your operating system, allowing you to safely remove it without the worry of losing any data.
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Unplug your hard drive from your computer.
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Plug the USB hard drive cable into a USB port on the rear of your PS3.
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Turn on your PS3. During the booting process, your system will immediately recognize the external hard drive, and its storage space will be available for use by the console.
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Tips & Warnings
The FAT32 file format doesn't support files larger than 4GB, so you can't copy files larger than that to the drive and have the PS3 read them.
If you have a larger hard drive, you won't be able to use Windows to format the external hard drive in FAT32 format. Use a free program called SwissKnife to get that job done (a link is provided in the Resources section of this article).
References
Resources
- Photo Credit hard drive 2 image by Graham Lumsden from Fotolia.com
