backing up PS3 saves?

[kenshin-dono]

im planning on opening up my ps3 to vacum it out, its probably got a lot of dust bunnies in it. I just need to double check the warranty is void before i do this.

i figure i better back all my stuff up in case something bad happens. I was wondering what the best way to back up game saves and such is. I know you can use USB sticks, but can i put the saves on a USB stick, then put the files on my hard drive for storage? Or do they not transfer/get corrupted? Id love to do that even after the cleaning to back my stuff up in the event of a YLOD failure or something. Since recovering data after thats almost imposible id imagine

[Nikran]

im planning on opening up my ps3 to vacum it out, its probably got a lot of dust bunnies in it. I just need to double check the warranty is void before i do this.

i figure i better back all my stuff up in case something bad happens. I was wondering what the best way to back up game saves and such is. I know you can use USB sticks, but can i put the saves on a USB stick, then put the files on my hard drive for storage? Or do they not transfer/get corrupted? Id love to do that even after the cleaning to back my stuff up in the event of a YLOD failure or something. Since recovering data after thats almost imposible id imagine

Apprently you can use USB sticks or External HD's but they must be FAT32. I don't see why you can't upload the save files from to your computer afterwards to maintain another backup.

But be warned. you may not be aware of this but there are certain games that use locked saves which for galactic fuck up reasons cannot be copied at all. infact the only way to transfer them might only be through a direct data transfer between two PS3's (And tbh i've heard people say even that don't work). google 'PS3 locked saves' to find a page that might contain a list of games that use this system, or you can just go into your PS3 and look at each save (the additional info should mention 'Locked save' or something similer).

[ant900]

Best way to do it is to use the backup utility since that backs everything up except for the protected save files as Nikran said.

As for a YLoD my friend got one recently and so to transfer the data we just did the reflow trick, and it worked wonders (though we had to do it twice).  It allowed the ps3 to work long enough to allow us to do a data transfer to his new slim.  Was really sad since it was a launch day 60gb.  Lots of memories camping out for 36 hours for the thing

[kenshin-dono]

thats really really lame. Why the hell do companies lock out saves like that? I coudln't transfer several files with my 360 when it died because of this (i wound up losing some anyway due to a screw up on the usb transfer somehow. pissed me off). I also remember having troubles witht he original xbox like this too

Seriously. WTF?! I think i actually prefer the old memory card data storage method. I still have my old ps1/ps2 saves. No matter what happened to the machines my saves were ok and are in tact to this day. Letting people use a HD was suposed to make it easier, there is NO FRIGGIN REASON to keep you from transferring your saves. Why do companies do that? Im serious here, does anyone have teh slightest idea? I see no practical purpose other than to be dicks.

grr man that just pisses me off so much

thanks for the info though. It seems i can back it up to my computer, unless the games dont let you.

[Nikran]

Seriously. WTF?! I think i actually prefer the old memory card data storage method. I still have my old ps1/ps2 saves. No matter what happened to the machines my saves were ok and are in tact to this day. Letting people use a HD was suposed to make it easier, there is NO FRIGGIN REASON to keep you from transferring your saves. Why do companies do that? Im serious here, does anyone have teh slightest idea? I see no practical purpose other than to be dicks.

From everything I know it seems to be a means to prevent cheating through trading save files and also cheating with the trophy system by again trading save files. It's pretty fucking retarded. I really don't give a flying fuck if people choose to cheat, thats there business. What is more harmful and far more rage generating is the loss of PS3 owners save files (I doubt many people give a shit about some fool who just cheats with saves all day long).

One person had an excellent idea on how to combat this whole mess and also accomplish the goal of the game developers (to stop cheating) at the same time. It would involve locking the save files to our PSN accounts. So basicly you can copy the saves and what not, but the system won't be able to use them unless the user account that created the saves is the same account that is currently in use on the PS3.  Cheaters cannot trade save files as those saves are useless to them and PS3 owners can live without fear of save file loss. Problem solved.

But do the game developers give a shit or have the brains to implement such a thing?

[ant900]

Seriously. WTF?! I think i actually prefer the old memory card data storage method. I still have my old ps1/ps2 saves. No matter what happened to the machines my saves were ok and are in tact to this day. Letting people use a HD was suposed to make it easier, there is NO FRIGGIN REASON to keep you from transferring your saves. Why do companies do that? Im serious here, does anyone have teh slightest idea? I see no practical purpose other than to be dicks.

From everything I know it seems to be a means to prevent cheating through trading save files and also cheating with the trophy system by again trading save files. It's pretty fucking retarded. I really don't give a flying fuck if people choose to cheat, thats there business. What is more harmful and far more rage generating is the loss of PS3 owners save files (I doubt many people give a shit about some fool who just cheats with saves all day long).

One person had an excellent idea on how to combat this whole mess and also accomplish the goal of the game developers (to stop cheating) at the same time. It would involve locking the save files to our PSN accounts. So basicly you can copy the saves and what not, but the system won't be able to use them unless the user account that created the saves is the same account that is currently in use on the PS3.  Cheaters cannot trade save files as those saves are useless to them and PS3 owners can live without fear of save file loss. Problem solved.

But do the game developers give a shit or have the brains to implement such a thing?

The thing is developers CAN and DO lock saves to an account,  but for some reason some developers decide to just lock the whole save file to a specific HDD.  If you try to move a Soul Caliber IV file to a new account it will say that that save doesn't work on that account, but at least you can move it.  Good luck trying to get Bayonetta or Rockband off of your HDD =/

[gamesfreak26]

Has anyone actually been able to use an external drive to backup data?  There's a lot of guides out there but they don't tell you which hard drives are compatible and stuff.  If so, what size and brand external drive did you use?  A friend of mine wants to backup his data. 

I have heard that you have to format your drive to FAT32.  Doesn't that mean that you can only have 32GB? 

I didn't know about the locked saves.  Thank You Nikran, I'll let him know. 

gamesfreak26

[Sosseres]

One person had an excellent idea on how to combat this whole mess and also accomplish the goal of the game developers (to stop cheating) at the same time. It would involve locking the save files to our PSN accounts. So basicly you can copy the saves and what not, but the system won't be able to use them unless the user account that created the saves is the same account that is currently in use on the PS3.  Cheaters cannot trade save files as those saves are useless to them and PS3 owners can live without fear of save file loss. Problem solved.

Problem not solved. Copy to PC, Hex edit the save file(s), copy back... Profit.

[fohfoh]

I have heard that you have to format your drive to FAT32.  Doesn't that mean that you can only have 32GB? 

...

lol. Who wants to break it to him?

[ant900]

I have heard that you have to format your drive to FAT32.  Doesn't that mean that you can only have 32GB?  

...

lol. Who wants to break it to him?

pssh, make me do all the work -_-

I have heard that you have to format your drive to FAT32.  Doesn't that mean that you can only have 32GB?  

My PS3 currently has a 320GB FAT32 formatted drive in it, and all retail PS3s ever except for the original 20GB have had more than 32 gigs in them.  The 32 doesn't have to do with disk size.

[Sosseres]

The real problem with FAT32 is: Max file size    4 GB minus 1 byte (or block size if smaller). This means you have to break up images of games, programs and video files. Even some 1080p encodes pass that limit and have to be broken into pieces. I recall I couldn't download a torrent due to that limit, needless to say I havn't used it since then.

[donald1]

you cannot do it, i tried. i tried to put the save file for SC4 on a regular SD card, but when i put that save data on a different PS3 and tried to play SC4 with my save data, it gives you some wierd error message about the save data and you cannot play the game. now, i feel that this is somehting Sony should have made public from the start instead of letting people find out on thier own cuz i was very pissed off.

so, unless you feel up to hacking the data to make it work, dont teven bother.

[Soulreaper77]

Yeah this "feature" is the biggest bullshit ever. I have a 40 GB PS3 and I've gotten to the point where there isn't enough space on my harddrive anymore because of all the game data that needs to be installed to reduce lag. I had an other OS installed but then I updated without removing it first and now there is an other os partition of 10 GB on my harddrive. I figured I could just format the whole harddrive but then I get this save bullshit and my MOST important games are save locked, Star Ocean 4 (80+ hours invested), Heavy Rain and some others. Now I basically have 10 GB less because of those idiotic save locks and also I'll lose my trophies if I format because I don't have the latest firmware to sync with the server yet (I might JB my ps3).
I could get a new harddrive but then I would have to switch between them every time I want to play an save locked game which is really annoying.
All in all we're just screwed over by the developers.

[donald1]

^ also one of the reasons why i stopped playing games and sold the damn thing.

having to install some of the game to reduce lag is bullshit cuz after the first playthrough of Fallout3, the game started to lag so bad, it would often freeze for 10 minutes or just never recover and i'd have to restart the game just for the same thing to happen. the PS3 is equally shitty as it is awesome, how the developers managed that one is amazing.

and the load times for Tekken 6 was a f-ing joke, nice way to ruin an otherwise good game. installing it didnt really reduce the load times at all.

[Soulreaper77]

^ also one of the reasons why i stopped playing games and sold the damn thing.

having to install some of the game to reduce lag is bullshit cuz after the first playthrough of Fallout3, the game started to lag so bad, it would often freeze for 10 minutes or just never recover and i'd have to restart the game just for the same thing to happen. the PS3 is equally shitty as it is awesome, how the developers managed that one is amazing.

and the load times for Tekken 6 was a f-ing joke, nice way to ruin an otherwise good game. installing it didnt really reduce the load times at all.

That's why JB'ing the PS3 is so awesome because every game is played from the HDD. I still don't understand why that isn't the standard now instead of physically selling the games, doing things like Steam has, to guarantee fast loading times + less waste (plastic cover, BD, booklet).
I hope that the next generation consoles have no players anymore but only HDD, preferably SSDs. 

[Sosseres]

That's why JB'ing the PS3 is so awesome because every game is played from the HDD. I still don't understand why that isn't the standard now instead of physically selling the games, doing things like Steam has, to guarantee fast loading times + less waste (plastic cover, BD, booklet).
I hope that the next generation consoles have no players anymore but only HDD, preferably SSDs. 

I don't hope for that, I don't even connect my consoles to the net, I see not point in doing that. Would have to connect it through my PC or get a router, too bothersome for the gain.

[monstor666]

worse comes to worse...just RAID your ps3 HDD

[kurandoinu]

That's why JB'ing the PS3 is so awesome because every game is played from the HDD. I still don't understand why that isn't the standard now instead of physically selling the games, doing things like Steam has, to guarantee fast loading times + less waste (plastic cover, BD, booklet).
I hope that the next generation consoles have no players anymore but only HDD, preferably SSDs. 

I don't hope for that, I don't even connect my consoles to the net, I see not point in doing that. Would have to connect it through my PC or get a router, too bothersome for the gain.

+1. Plus, I get most of my games second hand anyway. And I LIKE cases and things

[daveLovesIt]

Backups to fat32 work fine. As you try to backup each save, it will tell you if they are locked.

You can open your PS3 to replace the HDD, without voiding warranty (on the slim model at least, but I believe the older versions). Therefore, you can actually copy a locked save, if you know how to handle the disc outside of the console and how to dump the right data. This save will not work on another PS3, however. Boohoo.

But wait - moving the save legitimately to another PS3, then restoring the dumped data to the disc gets us a locked save copy!! We can also compare these different save dumps and work something out about encryption methods and and keys. Once we have that, we can sign code we write ourselves and write game mods and tools if we track down the right docs or just reverse engineer stuff.

So what I mean is, its a computer with HDD in it with data on it. You have physical access to it and when it isn't connected to a network there are no admins to stop you doing whatever you want. At present time, I would consider console-hacking boards "spoilers" as I've only had one for a week, and have been busy working out how to repack anime for best results. (Well, that and trying to interfere with the boot process so I can restore the otherOS funcionality). But I do hear tell that the newest models have been hacked/unlocked already, so there is absolutely no need to understand the processes yourself, if you fancy risking your hardware with some random tools you download from the net....?