External SSD PS3 Drive Issues

Since getting a new computer recently I have a spare Intel 330 SSD and I wanted to use it in a hard drive enclosure to use as an external drive with my PS3. I am doing this currently with a spare 40GB conventional drive.

I have overcome the usual hurdles of formatting a large drive to fat32 and having Video and Picture folders on the root of the drive, but it is still not recognized by the PS3. Its fine plugging in to my laptop but nothing on the PS. I am using the same (usb 2.0) enclosure with both drives, but only the 40 gig works.

I am stumped. Any help or ideas would be great :hi2:

 

Pretty please with sugar on top?

 

It is either an issue of the enclosure not being compatible with the SSD - simple to check with a new enclosure - make sure it is a different make/model.

Or, it is an issue with the FAT32 format used - and that the PS3 doesn't like - how did you do this format?

It might also be the size/capacity of the SSD itself.

Or it might be that the SSD is not getting enough power from the PS3's USB port - can you add more power (external adaptor or by using a 'Y' USB cable plugged into two USB ports - one simply used for power purposes)?

Or, an interaction of all the above.

Without more details and/or experiments on your part, it is hard to suggest a 'real' workaround - even with 'sugar on top'.

Good luck.

 

The enclosure works fine with the other drive on both PS3 and PC so I doubt its that. It is USB 2 and I have ordered a 3 this morning to try with just in case though.

I have logically formatted in FAT32 with a number of programs Fat32formatter, Maxtor Maxblast, and a number of others I have found, tried, uninstalled and forgotten the names of

Capacity should not be an issue unless it a specifically SSD related problem. I have heard of much larger external drives being used with a PS3

It is a Y cable, that's something worth trying out

Thanks for your help, will plug both cables in and see if that has anything to do with it.

 

The enclosure can be a problem if it somehow limits the power delivered to the SSD.

Also; the HDD and the SSD have different power requirements too - they are not equal.

I hope plugging in both ends of the 'Y' cable solves this issue for you.

 

IMO the free Gparted program (bootable so it's not OS dependent) is either the best current partitioning program, or if you want to quibble, it's one of the top 3.

Download the latest .iso of GParted Live 0.14.1-6 and make a bootable CD from the 140MB .iso file.

See: GParted - Browse /gparted-live-stable/0.14.1-6 at SourceForge.net

BTW specifically get an .iso file as the .zip files are sometimes not the same thing when unzipped.

There are actually 2 questions; one is the PS3 itself somehow limited with regard to size of a FAT32 partition?

Doubtful IMO.

The 2nd is just how big can a FAT32 partition be?

The answer is pretty big.

"The boot sector uses a 32-bit field for the sector count, limiting the FAT32 volume size to 2 TB for a sector size of 512 bytes and 16 TB for a sector size of 4,096 bytes."

BTW I suspect that sector size is set by the specific HDD or SSD itself, and is not something that you can set by yourself.

See: File Allocation Table - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Good chance that Tiller put his finger on the problem and that a Y cable will get more power to the device.

But when things don't work there is FUD!

 

I got a 160GB external HDD formatted in FAT32 and my PS3 has no problems with it (it's the PS3's original drive), no problem with a 160GB partition on a 1TB external either. I used gparted to format it.

 

I also have a HDD that I already use with no problems, its just the SSD that doesn't play ball.


Well I tried with both Y cables plugged in - Nothing

Tried a new 3.0 enclosure from a different manufacturer - Still nothing

I do also have a spare 128GB HDD I could use, but would really have preferred to have used the SSD and sold on the HDD instead. No matter what program I use to format it with its not recognized by the PS3.

Has anyone successfully used a SSD of any make to function with a PS3 as an external drive I wonder?

 

Nobody know?