Best way to transfer data from one PS3 to another... IN A DIFFERENT COUNTRY!

Hey guys,
I've recently picked up a Japanese PS3, I figure it wasn't worth sending my Australian PS3 over since the PS3 is region free and this will save me the cost of shipping it over as well as probably needing a power-hungry step up converter. Now there's the issue of how to get all my stuff from my old PS3 to my new one. Now, I could use the console's back up tool, this would probably allow someone from my family to run a backup on my original PS3 then to copy the backup file to the internet, where I could put it on my own portable drive and then run the restore on my new PS3. But what are the limitations on this? I'm guessing there are some, or people would use it to share downloaded games or something. The transfer tool is obviously out since it needs a direct Ethernet connection between the two consoles.

 

I recently upgraded my PS3 HDD.

I cloned the 80GB drive and put that image on the new drive.

You could do this over the internet with a capable helper for sure.

 

Do you have PS+? If not, you can use cloud saves.

 

The PS3 locks the HDD to a specific console, so cloning the drive wouldn't work.

You could copy individual saves to a USB but this wouldn't work for copy protected saves. PS+ cloud saves would be able to transfer all saves.

Or as you have mentioned, there is the option of the PS3 backup tool. Depending on how much data you have to back up, it could take a long time. Also, I have found it to be a bit hit and miss in terms of reliability, a couple of times the backup has been corrupted on restore and I have had to start fresh. I have also found they don't like to be disturbed, moving a backup from one device to another made the backup unusable.

 

Except that it did work?

Good job with that misinformation though.

 

If you upgrade your old HDD for a new on the same PS3, yes it will works (I did the same thing with my old 60go to 250Go, rest in peace my dear).

But you cannot put a HDD from a previous PS3 to another PS3 : it won't be recognized and you will have to re-download your stuff, and loose everything which is encrypted like savegames.
When I came to Canada, my PAL 60Go first model (with a 250go) died and the HDD wasn't recognized on the slim one I bought here.



I think it's only possible to transfer stuff from a PS3 to an other with a ethernet connection.
http://manuals.playstation.net/document/en/ps3/current/settings/transferutility.html

 

I did:

PS3 drive image onto desktop PC.

Drive image put onto new HDD.

PS3 didn't know there was a difference, everything is as it was.

 

Except that you were upgrading your hard drive on the SAME console, he wants to move the data to a DIFFERENT console. As I said, the HDD (or the data on it) is locked to a specific console.

Try moving your HDD to another console, you will see it doesn't work

OP said the consoles are in different countries so this is not an option. Unless you have a really long ethernet cable.

 

Sorry, forgot to add "only" on my post.

 

Makes more sense now

Though the backup utility does allow data to be transferred to another console, just not directly.

 

Didn't work for me, except for some savegames, I had to redownload/reinstall nearly all of my stuff (and had to say adios to some savegames for platinum-ed games T_T )

 

I know copy protected saves are not restored to a different console, but I didn't realise games wouldn't all be restored either.

Seems like PS+ might be the best option to keep all the saves, but games will probably have to be redownloaded.

 

I wouldn't mind getting PS+ for this and I don't mind having to re-download any games (I don't have many digital games anyway) but I'm a bit concerned about the talk of certain games might not be able to be restored. How does the PS3 backup tool compare? Can it save ALL saves? It'll also save my downloaded data too, right? How complex would transferring the backup across the internet be? Is the backup a single file or would I be needing to clone the hard drive to make the PS3 happy?

 

The backup would be multiple 4gb files due to the fat32 file size limit.

Some games prevent their saves being copied, these would not be restored to another console. Try copying all of your saves to a USB - if you use the 'copy multiple' option, games that are greyed out can't be copied.

TheRealPhoenix has found that a lot of downloaded content did not restore when using the backup utility.

If you are lucky, you won't have any copy protected saves, meaning the backup utility would be fine. Or you could just copy the saves to a USB, which would be caste. If you have protected saves you want to keep, I think PS+ is the only option.

 

Oh? PS+ can restore protected saves? That might be the easiest option, as it's the save data I'm most concerned about, I'm fine with having to re-download any digital games (I hope Sony makes this a simple affair!).

 

There is a minor restriction on protected saves, each protected save can only be downloaded once every 24 hours. Other than that, there are no restrictions.

One thing I have just thought of. LittleBigPlanet, for some reason unknown to me, keeps its save data under the 'game data utility' section, which would need to be backed up using the backup utility (unless there is some kind of in game export option, never had to check). I think replays/ghost times in GT6 are also the same (but not save progress). I don't know if any other games do this.

 

Man, PlayStation Plus is a bit of a pain. I'm trying to get it running, but since my Visa card was issued in Japan and my original PS3 account was registered in Australia, I can't use the card to buy a PS+ subscription. I've got one for my Japanese account, but from what I've read, you need to buy multiple PS+ subscriptions for each account.

 

Is the free 14 day trial not an option?

You could always buy a code online for the correct region, a lot of sites send codes by email. Not sure this is an option for you, but some regions also accept funding through PayPal.

 

You could just have the hdd posted over then use the PS3 Hdd toolset and dump the disk...
also the ps3 uses a 100~250v PSU so no need for extra transformers..

if your looking to get rid of the pal unit, hit me up

 

Maybe you should get a family member in Australia to get a Superslim PS3, have them backup the data onto to that system via ethernet. Ship that system to Japan? Those slims do weigh a lot less than the regular fat ones.