PS3 PS3 slim hdd identification possible?

[HEVIHITR]

So here it goes, my bro in-law left his PS3 here years ago, if I recall it had HDD issues, but honestly I can't remember. I got my personal PS3 going, decided if his works I'd sell it on. I unfortunately have a box of HDDs, from 2.5 to 3.5, IDE to SATA, I know the original SATA HDD went in there, which one it is though is a mystery. Is there anyway to identify it from make, size etc alone, I'm unsure what is on some drives and whacking them in randomly seems like I could corrupt them or wipe them. Or am I better off just buying a new HDD/SSD and starting fresh or can I find the original drive and go from there. As usual google was little help as was reddit. Any pointers would be greatly appreciated.

 

[GuilloteTesla]

There are all kinds of brands, models and sizes for HDDs on the PS3.

Best guess would be to search for your console model on the right column and see if you have the listed drives in your box.

https://www.psdevwiki.com/ps3/Harddrive#Harddrive_Model_info

The other way would be to swap each of your 2.5'' SATA drives one by one until your PS3 recognizes its own (but it will damage your console so it's not worth it).

 

[PierzOr]

Like GuilloteTesla already mentioned, check the devwiki page.

I think original PS3 HDD are always Fujitsu, Hitachi, Seagate or Toshiba brand.
2.5" form factor, 20, 40, 60, 80, 120, 160 ,250, 320 or 500GB in size and SATA-150 or SATA-300 interface.

If you can't find the drive this way you could connect it to your PC and see how it's formatted.
PS3 HDD are always formatted in FreeBSD UFS1 or UFS2, so a Windows PC will not recognize the partitions.

If there's no data on the HDD you wish to recover (savegames, themes, DLC, PSN game installs etc) you can use any 2.5" SATA-150 or better HDD (max 1TB afaik) to do a fresh install.