Upgraded PS3 to 160 GB, system says size is 130 GB out of 149 GB. Is this right?

Someone else can show you the math but the advertised size is not the actual size and the actual size is not the usable size for a HDD.

Looks about right to me.

9.5 hours for the full format?? Is there another option which is quicker?

ahh good, lol

Can anyone verify if there is any difference at all with a full format vs a quick format if the drive is brand spanking new? Will the read times be better with the full format?

the glorious world of FAT32...

Hard drive manufacturers define a 1GB = 1000 MB, 1MB = 1000 KB, 1 KB = 1000 bytes. Computers define 1 GB = 1024 MB, 1 MB = 1024 KB, 1 KB = 1024 bytes.

So 160 GB * (1000/1024) * (1000/1024) * (1000/1024) = 149 GB actual

Actually, the IEC and IEEE both define 1024 bytes as 1 kiB (and on up the chain; 1024 kiB = 1MiB, etc). The SI definitions for prefixes are only supposed to be used for base 10 numbers, which is how hard drive manufacturers advertise the storage.

This is a semantic convention that OS providers refuse to handle correctly, apparently because it somehow would cause more confusion than the situation already present.

LOL, is that possible?!

Wow 9 hours to do a full format?!? When I do get around to upgrading my PS3 HD, I think I'll pop it into my PC and have it format there first with Fat32 and then move it to the PS3. Jeezz 9 hours, thats one folding work unit time there... lol

I believe usually a full format goes thru every sector of drive and writes to it. A quick format just writes to a small portion of the drive and tells the drive everything else is empty even if there is data left. The system will read those areas with data as empty and will overwrite it when needed. A full format will erase all the data first.

It really shouldn't make that big of a difference for a brand new drive.

You only need to do a quick format when you put the drive into the PS3.

full format (at least pc version) checks the disk for problems during the scan which would be good for an older drive, or one you suspect has an actual problem. New drives can generally be quick formatted

My 160gb ps3 reports the same amount.

haha i just installed a scorpio 120 GB,i do the quick format and i'm sitting here with 97/111 GB lol what a ripoff.

10 gigs lost after format, and then 10 gigs of ps3 software stuff... sounds about right haha

However, why is the free space used not a constant if it's used by some system data after fresh format?
The smaller the HD is, the less it's used. I believe I saw somewhere around 30GB used when you install a 250GB HD, so after format it'll actually just say 200GB/2xxGB

Looks like it carves off roughly 12.5% of the total drive space and reserves it for system use. That way, even if you fill up the available space on your hard drive 100%, the OS will still have some room to write temporary files and the like. There are also file system structures and metadata that would need space proportional to the total amount of storage available. (By analogy, most Unix filesystems are designed to reserve a certain percentage of space that's only usable by root, so the system can keep functioning even if all the user space is filled up.)

Wow, I've replaced two HD's and didn't notice there was a full format option on the PS3. Both my 250gb and 160gb formated very quickly.

Quick format simply wipes the file system and replaces it with an empty one. The data is still there. Full format actually wipes (overwrites with 0's) the data. A brand new HDD doesn't have any data on it, so a quick one will suffice.

I put a 320gb drive in and was left with 298 when all said and done.

My 40GB when i first got it said 28 or 29 of 37 i believe.

Silly question -- what is the easiest way, if any, to replace the hard drive with a larger one while preserving all of my files?

you could:

- back up your files onto an external HDD
- move those files to your PC
- install the new drive
- use the old HDD put the files back onto the PS3.

Here's my recommendation for upgrading to avoid data loss. First, buy an portable HDD enclosure with your new drive. It allows you to back things up during the upgrade, and use your factory hard drive as a USB drive for later.

Second, put the new HDD in the enclosure and format it with your PC to FAT32. Now, the PS3 will recognize your new HDD as an external drive when you plug it in to the USB port. Select the backup utility from the Systems Settings menu with the new hard drive plugged into your PS3's USB port. The PS3 will backup your entire internal hard drive to the external one.

Once the backup is completely, transfer the files from the external drive to your PC hard drive preserving the directory structure. Now, you can do the hard drive swap on the PS3. Don't worry about formatting the new drive, the PS3 will prompt you to do that when it boots up with the new drive. (I selected a full format, and you can partition 10GB for Linux if you'll want to do that later.)

While the PS3 is formatting the new HDD, put the factory PS3 drive in the external case. Format this drive with your PC to FAT32. Once the PC is done formatting the drive, copy the backup files to the external drive preserving the directory structure.

After completing this transfer and the PS3 formatting of the new HDD, plug the external drive (which is your original PS3 drive, now formatted to FAT32 with the backup files loaded on it) into a PS3 USB port. Use the Restore utility found in the System Settings menu on the PS3. The PS3 will now restore everything to your new internal HDD.

At the end of this process, your PS3 will look just like it did before you started. All of your files, logins, preferences, etc. will be there. The only difference will be the available HDD space you see in the System Settings. For less than $20 picking up the external HDD case for a 2.5" drive allows you to perform a seamless backup and restore, as well as have a portable HDD for later use (such as transferring files between the PC and PS3, for future backups).

This is super. Thanks so much.