I get that most of you won't care about the latest incarnation of Sony's PS3 with both next gen consoles being right around the corner but since my PS3 40 GB died this weekend and I had to replace it I'd figured that some of you might be interested.
So my PS3 died this weekend, console still works but the BluRay drive wouldn't read any discs anymore. Since the console was technically no longer working - reading discs being a significant part of what that thing is used for and all - I figured that I'd go to the internet to try a few suggestions figuring that it technically wouldn't matter if I broke the console even more than it already was in the process. (It would have mattered but more to that later)
First I wanted to do a backup of my data in the case that I really do fuck things up royally though. I already had done a backup of my XBox 360 and I have to say that even though both consoles now sport up to 500 GB of storage the backup feature on both systems is pretty basic and also rather infuriating. On the PS3 for example you can't select what you want to back up, the console always does a full back up of everything. If you want to select what you want to save you have to copy it manually with one of the other tools the PS3 offers (like the game data management tool or save data management tool). Unfortunately the PS3 has a dedicated tool for every type of data - like video data, audio data, game saves, game data, PS vita data and so on, so you risk forgetting something important that way. If the capacity of your back up medium of choice is too small then the whole process simply fails. At least the PS3 tells you how much more capacity you'd need to save everything but figuring out what to delete (and how to delete it) is up to you. Fortunately for me the USB drive I had was big enough to at least store all of my saves and the account and profile data so I just had to delete a few game installs but the whole process could be rather more comfortable (data selector, spanning of the backup on multiple volumes, suggestions as to what you can safely leave out, like game install data etc.)
The first internet suggestion was to clean the laser/lens assembly of the BluRay disc drive. Apparently it is rather common for the assembly to get covered in so much dust that the drive can no longer read any type of disc and there is a metric ton of inernet how tos and youtube videos just on the subject of how to take apart your PS3 and its BluRay drive to access the laser/lens assembly for cleaning. The process itself is pretty simple and nothing an experienced DIY PC builder can't handle, it involves taking off the cover of the PS3 and taking out the drive and then opening the drive to get access to the lens assembly to be able to clean it with a q-tip and some cleaning alcohol. It's pretty basic but it does involve taking apart the BluRay drive itself and you risk completely breaking the drive in the process so do it at your own risk. In my case the whole ordeal didn't help so the next suggestion was to buy a replacement drive, which is rather pointless I'd have to say since the replacement parts are rather expensive and you can only get them from specialized retailers (at least where I live). You also have to know your make and model of PS3 to get the right one. A replacement for my drive would have cost me $80 plus shipping and the drives are DRM'd to the PS3 logic boards so you'd have to hack/flash your PS3 to make it work. So I went out and bought a new console instead.
Ot at least I tried. Anticipating the launch of the PS4, stocks of PS3 are pretty low where I live right now. Most big box retailers had maybe one or two console SKUs (but a whole lot of PS4 preorder boxes) and when they did it most probably were the 500 GB ones bundled usually with a number of second rate games I don't need or want. The most ridiculous being a "God of War" themed PS3 painted like Kratos's tattoo with matching controller no less (and God of War Ascension as game bundled which adds insult to injury). At least Sony now offers a 12 GB flash based "super slim" version of the console for $199 that is basically a "bring your own hard disc" entry level version (HD mounting bracket sold seperately of course). A warning to others attempting the same thing. Don't put the HD of your original PS3 in the new one. The system software always wants to format and reinitialize the drive you put in even when it already contains a PS3 file system. At least it prompts you if you really want to do that. There are also other reasons why you don't want to do that but I'll come to those in a minute. In my case I bought a 64 GB SSD to go (Samsung 840 for $30) with the new PS3 so it wasn't a problem. Installing the new drive is pretty easy and could probably be done even by inexperienced users.
Now to get all of my data back on the PS3. At first I tried to use the backup I made earlier to transfer my data from the old system to the new one. This won't work however. The new PS3 realizes that the backup was made from another system and tells you that not all content that was backuped will be restored because "some DRM content cannot be transferred". Ok you couldn't tell me that before I made that back up though for some reason. Also you need to deactivate the old console for both video and game content to be able to use the content with the new console otherwise you won't be able to watch videos bought on the old PS3 with your new one and won't be able to play downloaded games. How any of this should work if your old console is really broken and all you have is a back up of your data but no access to the broken system is beyond me. After my experience I reckon you'll probably need to deal with Sony's customer service at that point or you might even be completely SOL for all I know.
The best way to get the data from the old system to the new one according to Sony is:
1. Go to "account"->"account settings"->"activation" on your old PS3 and decativate the PS3 for both games and video content.
2. Use the data transfer utility ("Settings"->"System Settings"->"data transfer utility") on both systems to transfer data from the old one to the new one. You need an ethernet cable connection between both consoles (either direct or via a switch) in order for it to work. USB, wireless or any other means is not supported.
3. Go to "account settings"->"activation" on your new PS3 after that is finished and activate the new PS3 for both games and video content.
Tip: if step three fails for any reason then toggle the activation of content on the old console (choose activate then deactivate). When I did it Sony's online service didn't recognize that my old console was already decativated for video until after I chose to activate and deactivate it again.
So I finally had all of my data on the replacement PS3 so as a last step I wanted to format the old PS3 before putting it on ebay. The straightforward way would be to go to "settings"->"system settings"->"format utility". The tool offers to either do a quick format or a complete format. As we know now the straightforward way might not be the best way to do it on a Sony console though. I chose complete format to hopefully reduce the chances of a potential buyer to be able to restore any content on the drive although the complete format took 2.5 hours on my 40 GB PS3. The complete format procedure does delete everything, well if by everything you mean everything except the user account and settings on your PS3
After the reboot everything is indeed gone, except the user account and all of your settings which are all still there. This significantly lessens the confidence in the whole process. How can I be sure that my credit card info and other data are indeed gone when a full system format doesn't even delete the account or my settings? Only "restore system to defaults" will get rid of your account info and settings.
All in all the whole process took a lot longer and was a lot more complicated than it should have been in this day and age and if my old PS3 had been broken in a way that would have made accessing the data on the system impossible (instead of just a defective BluRay drive) then I wouldn't be able to restore everything even if I had a recent backup of all of my data which quite frankly is ridiculous.
So I now own the most recent "super slim" (it's called "super slim" in Germany at least) PS3 SKU. Sony has forgeone the "slot in" BluRay drive from previous incarnations in favor of a "top loader" design with a drive lid that you can slide to the left in order to open the drive toinsert discs. On the positive side it's a whole lt smaller and weighs a lot less than the old one. It also fashions a matte black standard plastic finish which I like more than the glossy "piano lacquer" black finish of the old models. It unfortunately produces a lot more noise than my old model. Especially the optical drive noise when accessing or reading discs is much louder and more apparent in this model than the old one. You can also hear the system fan more. It also produces nearly as much heat as my old model so it seems like the new model hasn't gotten significantly quieter or more efficient than the older models which is quite surprising.
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