PlayStation®3 General Discussion

[existenz1]

Ages ago I upgraded my phat from a 60G to 320G and it was straightforward, really just back up, swap drive, format and restore.

I expected my slim upgrade on latest firmware to be identical, but ...

I ordered a nice 500G from Amazon to upgrade my slim from 120G (this 500G drive: http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B001JSSDGU/ref=ox_ya_oh_product

After installing the new drive and booting for the first time I had a heart stopping moment when I saw this message. At first I thought it was a fault (this isnt referred to most of the upgrade web sites I have seen)

"The system software cannot be run correctly. Press the PS button to try to restart the system.

If the system cannot be restarted, the system partition of the hard disk must be reformatted and you must reinstall the system software.
Insert storage media that contains update date of version 2.70 or later, and then press the START and SELECT buttons as the same time.
For information on how to obtain update data, refer to the SCE Web site for your region."

until I realised that with the latest PS3 firmware organisation there is an additional step to do. Even if you have your PS3 on the latest firmware when you upgrade your harddrive you need to have a downloaded copy on a US3 memory stick under the directory \PS3\UPDATE.

(Presumably the above also applies to phats on latest firmware)

You can get 3.01 here to put on a memory stick http://tinyurl.com/ygxa6a5

Then you press START and SELECT on the PS3 controller connected via a USB cable.

It then seem to go through a boot process off the USB stick to format the new drive.

Anyway hope that helps someone

Sorry if old or you knew this

Anyway now I have a 500G Slim and all is cool.

Message Edited by existenz1 on 10-10-2009 11:50 AM

[McWopper]

The technical support section might use this better.

[Mikelarry85]

Upgrading to any other harddrive other than the one that comes with the slim does this. i had the same issue when i was upgrading mine.useful info tho too little too late for me (couldnt find any thread about this when i ran into this issue) but im sure there are other users who would find this and thank you.

Message Edited by Mikelarry85 on 10-10-2009 12:18 PM

[Halabalu]

I had a similar message appear when I upgraded my 40GB PS3 to a 320GB HDD.

Luckily I've always used the USB Flash Drive option when updating the Firmware.

It gave me a bit of a fright when I received that message and I had the sinking feeling that I ruined my new console!! 

I had watched a ton of YouTube videos on doing the upgrade and non of them had that problem. 

Thankfully it all worked out ok....  

[TheOrion]

You only need firmware on a usb stick on 40gb or later models, its been like that since the release of that model, you can still upgrade a 60gb without the firmware at hand.

[thenextbutton]

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TheOrion wrote:
You only need firmware on a usb stick on 40gb or later models, its been like that since the release of that model, you can still upgrade a 60gb without the firmware at hand.

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I was alble to do my 40gb ok without the memory stick. It was when i tried to upgrade my slim to the 500gb this happened for me.

[TheOrion]

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thenextbutton wrote:

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TheOrion wrote:
You only need firmware on a usb stick on 40gb or later models, its been like that since the release of that model, you can still upgrade a 60gb without the firmware at hand.

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I was alble to do my 40gb ok without the memory stick. It was when i tried to upgrade my slim to the 500gb this happened for me.

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Hmm.. I was sure it was from the 40gb models, its been happening before the slim I know that.

[Reaveros]

I had to do the same on my new 80gb PS3. According to some sites, at some point sony decided to reduce the internal flash memory of the PS3 that's used for the frimware, meaning that part of it is now installed on the harddrive.

[Jonesy-ov-s5]

i have a 40gb model and when i put in my 500gb hdd i had to do this.

[trubadman]

Yeah, i got that message when i changed my HDD a year ago, i thought the HDD was corrupted or not compatible, but then i jsut put the firmware on the USB, the hardest bit for me was remembering the correct file structure so that the Ps3 recognised the firware file!!