Formatting and restoring the hard drive

[doubleminor]

I have an 80gb PS3 (last model of the backwards compatible), and it's giving me the fits right now. It keeps freezing up and I figure to just restore and start over from scratch. There could be some underlying problems, but figure to try the 'process of elimination' method.

 

I've used the backup utility and even manually backed up what I could (just in case).

 

My question: is the best method to format completely and reinstall, or just do a simple restore? Since I work in the PC biz, I'm treating it like a PC issue; usually formatting and reinstalling is the best way to go. However, I don't want to wipe it clean and not be able to recover the OS (as I haven't had this issue before with my PS3).

 

As for the freezing, the PS3 is on a flat, clean surface with lots of air space. So hopefully overheating should not be an issue. It's kinda flipped out on me before; powered on one day and it asked me to restore. Over the holidays, it started making a grinding noise (like a coffee maker) but the noise went away on Xmas day. Weird. All games and movies work fine. I don't use it all that much.

 

Anyone else have to format/restore their PS3?

[Gabriel]

I have an 80gb PS3 (last model of the backwards compatible), and it's giving me the fits right now. It keeps freezing up and I figure to just restore and start over from scratch. There could be some underlying problems, but figure to try the 'process of elimination' method.

 

I've used the backup utility and even manually backed up what I could (just in case).

 

My question: is the best method to format completely and reinstall, or just do a simple restore? Since I work in the PC biz, I'm treating it like a PC issue; usually formatting and reinstalling is the best way to go. However, I don't want to wipe it clean and not be able to recover the OS (as I haven't had this issue before with my PS3).

 

As for the freezing, the PS3 is on a flat, clean surface with lots of air space. So hopefully overheating should not be an issue. It's kinda flipped out on me before; powered on one day and it asked me to restore. Over the holidays, it started making a grinding noise (like a coffee maker) but the noise went away on Xmas day. Weird. All games and movies work fine. I don't use it all that much.

 

Anyone else have to format/restore their PS3?

 

Now that you've backed everything up, I'd go with a full format and reinstall, but I don't know for sure either.

 

One word of warning. In the weeks leading up to my system's demise, it was doing something similar. Since it typically froze when I was watching videos on Youtube, I figured it was a plug-in incompatibility issue with the browser. It did it a few times while I was navigating the crossbar and looking at pictures, but I really didn't think anything of it. The system would just lock up and accept no input at all. Looking back, I really should have paid more attention to it.

 

If you haven't opened it, remember that you can still send it back to Sony and get a slim back for $150 instead of the $300 of a new slim (if you can find one).

 

Anyway, good luck.

[doubleminor]

I hope mine isn't planning on dying soon. It seems to only happen with the Worms game, and that's one of my favorites. One time it wanted to do a restore out of the blue. Format was probably needed, anyway.

 

When I had a 360, it did some of the same; hard freeze but with vertical lines on the screen. It quit working altogether, eventually.

 

Format is done; now restoring.

Edited March 20, 2010 by doubleminor

[doubleminor]

Well, got everything all formatted and restored, but the freezing persists. However, it's only been for one game (Worms) and it seems to be a widespread issue with no fix.

 

I've tried to delete/reinstall, but no go. Oh well.