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Help formatting ext HD for PS3?

Big Stevie

Big Stevie

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Jun 20, 2012
1,385
874
UK
I can't get my ext HD to be recognised on my PS3 Slim.

Ive just bought a WD My Passport 1TB HD that I want to be able to use between my MacBook & PS3 for videos and photos. I understand I need to reformat it to FAT32, so my PS3 can recognise it.

In Disc Utility I get the options of reformatting to exFAT or MS-DOS. Ive tried both but I can't get my HD to be recognised on my PS3.

DiscUtility1.png


Ive tried creating partitions, but it still doesnt work.

Any suggestions please?
 
Thanks mankar4, I think Ive already tried that, but I'll give it another go to be sure
icon_thumbs.gif
 
Big Stevie said:
In Disc Utility I get the options of reformatting to exFAT or MS-DOS. Ive tried both but I can't get my HD to be recognised on my PS3.

Ive tried creating partitions, but it still doesnt work.

Any suggestions please?
Click to expand...
MS-DOS (FAT) is FAT32.

Format A Hard Drive Using Disk Utility (which is in your /Applications/Utilities folder)

Choose the appropriate format:

HFS+ (Hierarchical File System, a.k.a. Mac OS Extended (Journaled) Don't use case-sensitive)

NTFS (Windows NT File System)
  • Read/Write NTFS from native Windows.
  • Read only NTFS from native Mac OS X
    [*]To Read/Write/Format NTFS from Mac OS X, here are some alternatives:
    • For Mac OS X 10.4 or later (32 or 64-bit), install Paragon ($19.95) (Best Choice for Lion and Mountain Lion)
    • For Mac OS X 10.5 and later, including Lion, FUSE for OS X
    • For 32-bit Mac OS X, install NTFS-3G for Mac OS X (free) (does not work in 64-bit mode)
    • Some have reported problems using Tuxera (approx $36), which is an enhanced version of NTFS-3G with faster performance.
    • Native NTFS support can be enabled in Snow Leopard and later versions, but is not advisable, due to instability.
  • AirPort Extreme (802.11n) and Time Capsule do not support NTFS
  • Maximum file size: 16 TB
  • Maximum volume size: 256TB
  • You can use this format if you routinely share a drive with multiple Windows systems.

exFAT (FAT64)
  • Supported in Mac OS X only in 10.6.5 or later.
  • Not all Windows versions support exFAT. See disadvantages.
  • exFAT (Extended File Allocation Table)
  • AirPort Extreme (802.11n) and Time Capsule do not support exFAT
  • Maximum file size: 16 EiB
  • Maximum volume size: 64 ZiB
  • You can use this format if it is supported by all computers with which you intend to share the drive. See "disadvantages" for details.

FAT32 (File Allocation Table)
  • Read/Write FAT32 from both native Windows and native Mac OS X.
    [*]Maximum file size: 4GB.
  • Maximum volume size: 2TB
  • You can use this format if you share the drive between Mac OS X and Windows computers and have no files larger than 4GB.
 
Big Stevie said:
Thanks mankar4, I think Ive already tried that, but I'll give it another go to be sureImage
Click to expand...

The external has to follow a certain file/folder structure for the PS3 to display the files (or press triangle -> display all, but this is better imo). You have to keep movies in a folder called VIDEO, pictures in a folder called PICTURE, and music in a folder called MUSIC. For example:

MUSIC
song1.mp3​
song2.mp3​
VIDEO
movie1.mp4​
movie2.avi​
PICTURE
pic1.jpg​
pic2.png​

Also, check out PS3 Media Server. It's a wonderful app that allows you to stream/copy stuff to your PS3 wirelessly.
 
Last edited:
Thanks, Ive got the PS3 Media Server working that streams content to my PS3, but I really want to copy files over to the ext HD for back up as well as copying over to the PS3, I shall give things another go tomorrow morning :)
 
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