Viability of keeping two internal hard drives in use?

[Tyger]

SO having downloaded tons of PSN and PS+ content over the last couple of years, my 120GB slim is down to about 15GB left. I've tidied up what I can, deleted some game saves (though these don't make much of a dint) but now Playstation Plus has a ton of new "free" games, about 20GB+ worth (Infamous 2 alone weighs in at 10GB)

So I need to upgrade my drive, and I have picked one out on eBay (640GB or something for GBP64.99) but I was wondering how practical it is to simply maintain two different internal drives at the same time, thus avoiding immediately going through the whole back-up routine, if at all?

I do have a 500GB USB drive but would have to move all the content from that to my PC's internal HD, then format/partition it for the backup etc etc. What is there to stop me simply keeping some games/content on the existing PS3 drive, and some stuff on the new one, then when I want to play a particular game, removing one drive and slotting in the other? I know it's a bit of a hassle but one I can happily deal with, so it's more a case of whether the connectors are likely to damage easily? I appreciate they aren't really designed to keep swapping the drive out.

Any ideas? Seems a viable alternative to me, but perhaps I am missing something. I may well still go through the whole backup thing eventually and get a case for the 120GB and use it for something else, but the PS+ games expire the first week in July and not sure I have the time or inclination to go through all that before then, would sooner just order the new drive and be pretty much good to go

 

[Ibonibo]

I don't think it's possible, you need to do the backup thing. Count a day in it takes a lot of time.

If you don't have time to do it. Just download the game and cancel it. Once you downloaded it the "purchased it" icon will appear, and you should be able to download it again at a later time.

When I did the copy from one Ps3 to another it took hours. To fasten it up, delete demos, free games, and redownload them again, takes a lot less time.

 

[richiem2282]

use this thread:
https://www.gtplanet.net/forum/showthread.php?t=254400

 

[Tyger]

Thanks guys but I don't really see why it wouldn't be possible? Or would there be an issue with my PSN ID or something? What's to stop me having two formatted internal drives and swap between them? Is there proprietary data on the drive the PS3 ships with that you *must* copy onto the new drive via the system backup routine? I kinda assumed the OS was rooted in another part of the PS3, and the hard drive itself is just for storing game data, media etc.

Thanks a lot ibo for the advice regarding re-downloading games though, do you know if that extends to Playstation Plus freebies too, when they are no longer available for free?

 

[Coxis]

When you insert a hard drive in a PS3 that isn't the currently active drive it'll say you need to reformat it and won't let you boot to the OS. Sorry.

 

[SirDrexl]

Thanks guys but I don't really see why it wouldn't be possible? Or would there be an issue with my PSN ID or something? What's to stop me having two formatted internal drives and swap between them? Is there proprietary data on the drive the PS3 ships with that you *must* copy onto the new drive via the system backup routine? I kinda assumed the OS was rooted in another part of the PS3, and the hard drive itself is just for storing game data, media etc.

Thanks a lot ibo for the advice regarding re-downloading games though, do you know if that extends to Playstation Plus freebies too, when they are no longer available for free?

Before the slim system was introduced, I believe that much more of the OS was on the system itself. But even then, it still needed the specifically authorized hard drive to function.

I really hope that the PS4 will allow us to keep off-system backups of our games, like Steam. I kinda doubt they will, as it could be an attack vector for pirated games. But, I think it's feasible as long as they 1) require online authorization to get a game onto (or back onto) the system drive AND 2) leave some small amount of important data out of the backup, like an executable file, that you would have to download again any time you transfer a game back.