A Christmas Gift
My oldest son decided he needed to have a PlayStation 3 so that he could play online with his friends. He'd originally wanted it as a birthday present (with a TV) for his bedroom, but we figured it was too much - that and the fact we'd never see him again!! Instead we decided to make it a joint Christmas gift for all and locate it in a communal area where it could be plugged into the computer display.
We picked up a Sony PS3 Slim Console with 12GB Hard Drive from Argos for a reasonable price. I did wonder at the time why it only had 12Gb when they're usually 500Gb, but what did I know? - I didn't give it a second thought, just wrapped it up and stuck it under the tree.
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| Fatally flawed PS3 Slim 12Gb |
And on the big day the kids were happy racing cars, jumping from platform to platform and generally shooting anything that moved. We'd selected a variety of games to suit their age range of 6 to 14, and despite the Playstation Network being attacked on Christmas day, they were still able to play without problems. (Boy am I glad we hadn't bought an Xbox One!)
Out of Space
The problem occurred the following day. They'd created three accounts and run a variety of games using them, but it had already gotten to the stage were no new games could be loaded because the disk space was down to a few hundred megabytes. I was surprised just how little time that had taken!!
So my first thought was, "how do I clear some space down?"
My web searches proved to be fruitless, it didn't look like you can do any sort of housekeeping on the disk. So I widened the search to see how others had solved the problem. It became apparent that the only way to solve the problem was to fit a laptop HDD and turn it back into a full-size Playstation. It turns out that there's a disk slot in the side of the console behind a clip-on panel. Using it doesn't invalidate the warranty, or need any tools, but does require the purchase of a special Sony drive caddy!
A Cheap & Dirty Solution
Eventually I found Quentin's Youtube video which explains how to fit a HDD using an old credit card instead of Sony's caddy. (To be quite honest why isn't the caddy included in the box if the console is almost unusable without a disk?)
↵ Use original player
← Replay
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The instructions in the video are simple enough to follow, so I raided an old 300Gb USB disk drive for it's HDD and unplugged the Playstation ready to start.
Always a Catch!
The biggest problem I had was trying to figure out how to remove the disk hatch from the console. It runs the full length of the right of the case, but there are no screws or obvious catches. I couldn't figure out how to open it (the manual didn't say either) so I resorted to carefully unclipping the catches with the plastic credit card that I'd ear-marked for the job.
I can now report that all you need to do it push the cover towards the back of the case by either pressing the side firmly, or inserting your thumbnail into the front corner and pushing back gently.
The disk can then be slotted down into the drive space, although it took me a few attempts to locate it into the sockets. The credit card was then cut into to two and used just like the video suggested. Perfect!
Finishing Off
The final step involves starting up the console, it then detects and formats the disk, and then copies the user data from it's internal 12Gb flash drive. It takes about ten to fifteen minutes and then you're good to go.
Thanks a lot to Quentin for this tip,.. it sure was a life saver.
