PS3 Largest External HHD/SSD Drive for PS3?

[free1616]

Hey, psy1

Great to hear about your plans to add an external HDD/SSD to your CECHA01 with custom firmware!

Games on an external drive should work similarly to those on the internal drive. However, keep in mind that some games, like the GTA IV Complete Edition, may have specific compatibility issues when run from an external drive with certain sector sizes.
I recently experienced such an issue and had to compromise by installing GTA IV on the internal HDD.

It would be interesting to know if you encounter similar challenges with GTA IV or other games on the external drive.
Additionally, I've found that my 4TB external HDD formatted as exFAT MBR works well with the PS3.

Otherwise, I can concur with my predecessors that PS2 games need to be loaded onto the internal hard drive.

Best of luck with your setup, and I hope you enjoy gaming on your expanded storage!

FYI - check this out: PS3 - external hard drive problem - GTA 4 does not start | PSX-Place

Best regards

 

[psy1]

However, keep in mind that some games, like the GTA IV Complete Edition,

I think the correct game name is: Grand Theft Auto IV & Episodes from Liberty City. Serial: BLUS-30682

I tested that game; it updated to v.1.02 fine and installed fine.
I played for 15 minutes and it played perfectly from my external NAS set-up.
Going further into the game might reveal problems but I don't have the time to do that that right now.

It would be interesting to know if you encounter similar challenges with GTA IV or other games on the external drive.

I haven't encountered any problems so far using the external NAS. (It's a little more complicated than an external HDD.)

 

[luvbuckets]

4TB is the Max size external HDD you can use on the PS3, split into 2 x 2TB Partitions. Any more Partitions, or larger than 2TB Partitions, on a single drive and the PS3 will ignore them.

To get the maximum compatibility possible DO NOT use these sealed external HDD enclosures eg WD Passport drives etc as the extra software found on them does not play nice with the PS3 and often leads to the PS3 not recognizing them.

Best way is to simply get a 3.5 or 2.5 SATA HDD, same as you would put inside your PS3, PC or laptop, and buy a simple external HDD enclosure that is externally powered and use that.

Personally I use a Sabrent 2.5 HDD USB 2.0 enclosure, its cheap, reliable and does the job with a 4TB HDD split into 2 x 2TB [ 1x 2TB FAT32 MBR for folder format games, 1 x 2TB NTFS MBR for ISO Games ] Partitions and never had issues.

I've successfully gotten an 8tb WD external to work with one partition and it's pretty stable. I think it needs to be WD though because they have that legacy format tool available. This format tool will make one large partition and the disk will be MBR not GPT. I believe it formats it as NTFS as well.

Harddrive:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07D5V2ZXD/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1

format tool:

https://downloads.wdc.com/wdapp/WD_Quick_Formatter_2.0.0.65.zip