(Need ideas!) Cramming a 3.5" drive in a Playstation 3

[Con]

Hello. On my rig I am going to upgrade the 2TB WD2002FAEX drive to a 10TB ST10000VN0004 drive. My client (friend/family/acquaintance) stopped playing RuneScape so much and is now on their Playstation 3 all the damn time and has run out of space on their hard disk.

*None of these pictures are of my system, but it is a fat PS3.

 

I would like to swap out the Playstation 3 small form factor drive for my 3.5"  2TB WD2002FAEX, so that such a storage headroom will never resurface and they can play their games and leave me alone.

 

 

The hard drive slot looks normal, there is SATA and SATA Power (?), so I would like some sort of female to male extension to have the leads come out of the system, like this:

 

 

That doesn't sound too hard, unless I have to dig deep into the disassembly to reach the ports at the base of the slot, if I can't push it in with the head of a screwdriver.

 

The main thing I want to know is what kind of housing to put the drive in, because all the ones I can find online seem to have SATA to USB in the housing, when all I want is some sort of housing to protect the drive with the wires going from the PS3 to the drive directly. I also need some ideas for how to stick it to the PS3, but it's not necessary as there is plenty of room to just put it next to the system. I want some sort of housing to protect the external system drive from dust and such.

 

Any advice is much appreciated!

[SCHISCHKA]

You can buy 3.5" drive addons.

e.g. https://nyko.com/products/playstation-4-data-bank

[Con]

Just now, SCHISCHKA said:

You can buy 3.5" drive addons.

e.g. https://nyko.com/products/playstation-4-data-bank

Yes! Those things look great. But it's not for a PS4.

[SCHISCHKA]

Just now, Con said:

Yes! Those things look great. But it's not for a PS4.

oh missed that you have a ps3. a quick google search shows not many are still selling ps3 accessories.

1 hour ago, Con said:

when all I want is some sort of housing to protect the drive with the wires going from the PS3 to the drive directly

have a look for esata enclosures. I think this should do the job

[Levent]

its gonna be little off topic and im not sure if things changed since 2012 but I remember PS3 having maximum drive capacity limit around 2tb because of fat32 (and formatting required for ps3 to recognise the drive)

[Con]

The only thing left now is how am I going to extend the wires outside of the PS3 case? I have found this 7pin SATA extension with power: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/292033167880

However, I understand that 2.5" drives use less power than a 3.5" drive, so will the PS3 meet SATA standardisation and work or will it under power the drive? And if it under powers the drive, will it still work? It can use about 20 watts, but only to startup a 3.5".

I'm also going to wrap something around the wires to pretty it up a bit, like a black cable wrapper.

 

On 05/07/2017 at 1:41 PM, SCHISCHKA said:

oh missed that you have a ps3. a quick google search shows not many are still selling ps3 accessories.

have a look for esata enclosures. I think this should do the job

Oh! Thank you. This change of search lead me to find this. http://www.gearbest.com/hdd-ssd/pp_356041.html It's just what I needed. I'm going to brake the back of it open for the wires and that's it.

On 05/07/2017 at 2:27 PM, Levent said:

its gonna be little off topic and im not sure if things changed since 2012 but I remember PS3 having maximum drive capacity limit around 2tb because of fat32 (and formatting required for ps3 to recognise the drive)

Yes, I am aware of the process involved in preparing a hard disk drive for PS3 software. My computer case also has an X-dock which is a hot-swappable small form factor drive socket, so I can plug the small hard disk into it and put the PS3 files in the HDD manually (maybe), or just move them over bit by bit. Save files don't take up much room and the games will need to be reinstalled anyway.