I tried two different hard drives on my CFW fat PS3; can't read NTFS no matter what I do.

[sandungas]

Yeah, i understand, something similar happens to me (not related with the thread though). I have a 2TB USB HDD for the PS3, but i formatted it years ago, at that time my priority was to use MBR/NTFS and to prevent compatibility problems with PS3 backup managers, OS's etc... so i just acepted whatever cluster size was the default given by the tool i used to format it (and i dont remember the tool i used to format it)
After the format, i copyed some games, it was working fine, so no more worries... and right now i dont know his cluster size

 

[bguerville]

Yeah, i understand, something similar happens to me (not related with the thread though). I have a 2TB USB HDD for the PS3, but i formatted it years ago, at that time my priority was to use MBR/NTFS and to prevent compatibility problems with PS3 backup managers, OS's etc... so i just acepted whatever cluster size was the default given by the tool i used to format it (and i dont remember the tool i used to format it)
After the format, i copyed some games, it was working fine, so no more worries... and right now i dont know his cluster size

Iirc when deank released sMan with the ported libntfs freddy & I worked on, I tested a 500Gb & a 2Tb disk.
On 500Gb, everything worked as expected immediately but on 2Tb, the default ntfs cluster size which worked fine with Irisman, Managunz, prepNTFS etc.. did not fare well with SMan (and by extension wMM), the ntfs partition could not be mounted properly & I had to double the cluster size to get it mounted, I am not sure, it was quite a while back, but I don't think the cluster size was as high as 64kb.

 

[DaddyLongLegs]

I got my 5tb external drive working as fat32!

The drive is an external USB Western Digital 5TB black "gamer" hard drive. I plugged it into Windows, and formatted it to NTFS with WD_Quick_Formatter_Win_1_2_0_10 (setting the EXE to open in Windows XP compatibility).

Then I simply used guiformat-x64.exe on the drive, and chose 65536 clusters in the drop down. guiformat-x64,exe formatted the drive to fat32 just fine, and Windows had no problem seeing all 5tb!

Also keep in mind that PS3 (and PS2) is designed to read all games natively through the FAT32 filesys... and If you are on DEX (like me) then you CANNOT use the PS2 Classics Placeholder to play your PS2ISOs. Also, if your PS3 is NOT a BC MODEL then PS2ISOs will NEVER be playable from external location and will always have to be copied to PS3~dev_hdd0~PS2ISO before playing

My PS3 is fully BC with PS2 games. What's the method for playing PS2 ISOs from the external?

I am also still confused if there's a way to play PS2 games that are larger than 4GB.

 

[bguerville]

I got my 5tb external drive working as fat32!

The drive is an external USB Western Digital 5TB black "gamer" hard drive. I plugged it into Windows, and formatted it to NTFS with WD_Quick_Formatter_Win_1_2_0_10 (setting the EXE to open in Windows XP compatibility).

Then I simply used guiformat-x64.exe on the drive, and chose 65536 clusters in the drop down. guiformat-x64,exe formatted the drive to fat32 just fine, and Windows had no problem seeing all 5tb!



My PS3 is fully BC with PS2 games. What's the method for playing PS2 ISOs from the external?

I am also still confused if there's a way to play PS2 games that are larger than 4GB.

It works on Windows, that's good but have you tried it on ps3 yet? If ever the partition isn't recognised, remember you may need to tweak the cluster size.

wMM handles ps2 iso games a bit differently from ps3 ones, the iso files are cached on the internal hdd (copied in /dev_hdd0/PS2ISO iirc) before they get mounted. As a result, if you don't have that many ps2 games, you might be better off keeping them on your internal hdd.

And to store any iso > 4Gb (ps2 or ps3) on fat32, you need to split it. WMM or other backup managers should treat the split files as if it was just one iso file.

FYI, iirc on a full BC console, you should also have the option of using burned DVD game backup discs if you wish, Cobra should support it.

 

[DaddyLongLegs]

It works on Windows, that's good but have you tried it on ps3 yet? If ever the partition isn't recognised, remember you may need to tweak the cluster size.

Unfortunately you were right. I just tried it on the PS3 and it does not work. MultiMan just hangs forever when I try to load the games list, and WebmanMod won't refresh the list/XMB.

The only place I got the games to show up in was in WebManMod in "HTML mode"'; all the games showed up and could be mounted, but they never start after selecting them.

I did fat32 MBR with 64k clusters. I guess I am out of luck here?

 

[SKEPTiCK]

Unfortunately you were right. I just tried it on the PS3 and it does not work. MultiMan just hangs forever when I try to load the games list, and WebmanMod won't refresh the list/XMB.

The only place I got the games to show up in was in WebManMod in "HTML mode"'; all the games showed up and could be mounted, but they never start after selecting them.

I did fat32 MBR with 64k clusters. I guess I am out of luck here?

Here, I will show you how it can be a little more confusing than it appears.

So, in the image below, you will see that my external says 4,096 bytes (which is only 4kb sectors)

and even though I used WBM to format to 32kb or 64kb, my original bytes per sector remained the same.

So idk, wild, my PC thinks it is 4kb sectors but my PS3 reads everything off of it fine. Games that are larger than 4GB do not break or split ever... only when using Filezilla. Even when they are split during FTP, my PS3 puts them back together just fine, PS2 or PS3. I never have problems running anything or adding more. Games bigger than 4GB only show 4GB when viewed from PC but they're full-size when viewed on PS3.

That's why I was saying it has been theorized that the external drives which natively use 4,096 byte / 4kb clusters are the ones that you can trick into carrying some kind of secondary allocation for bytes/sector. So even though the picture is showing you 4,096 bytes on PC it has to be read differently by the PS3 because I definitely remember formatting this drive to 32kb or 64kb with Wii Backup Manager.

 

[Berion]

You misleading physical sector size with cluster size. There are two different things, not related to each other. But the good idea is to creating larger or equal cluster size of sector size (i.e if "ss" = 4096B, then it making "cs" = 512B, 1024B or 2048B slow it down a bit).

 

[DaddyLongLegs]

Is there anything else I can try? Just keep buying 5TB drives until I find one the PS3 reads?

 

[Yo_Yo]

I was able to get a 4tb drive working and later a 5tb drive working. I ended up returning the 4tb to amazon and got the 5tb for a little more space after learning how it works. So I can confirm the options below work.

Model number: WDBU6Y0040BBK-WESN
Model number: WDBU6Y0050BBK-WESN
Formatted with WD Quick Formatter: https://support-en.wd.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/16241

The WD Quick Formatting tool only gives two options to format. Windows XP compatibility or Vista and later. I selected Windows XP compatibility and ok. That is basically it. Really simple. The format is NTFS

I can confirm the drive does work with Multiman, Webman Mod, Irisman, and MagnaGunz as a game loader without having to use prep ISO. However, I wasn't able to browse the drive with Multiman file explorer on either drive. I heard this was because the bigger NTFS drives only work with iris-based managers for file exploring. MagnaGunz can browse the drive. It is slow but works, other managers may work too. I haven't tested. I haven't really needed to since it's for ISO games only.

I've been using a mixture of the following:
-fat32 32gb thumb drive (for small pkg games, raps, homebrew, icons, etc)
-1tb exfat drive (for big PKGs mounting with prep ISO and installing through WebmanMod Bluray menu)
-5tb drive exclusively for hosting ISO (mainly with WebmanMod)

The 1tb might not be necessary for the task and would probably work the same with the 5tb, although that's just what I had lying around, So I've been using it that way. It also works good with multiman file explorer.

I suggest using the 5tb drive for PS3 for ISO's. It really only gives you about 4.5tb of usable space. I estimate that would hold maybe 500 - 550 games (depending on the size of the games in the library). However, you may want different options for installing things and managing files like I mentioned above.

I don't know what 5tb drive you are using, but maybe try the WD quick formater? Or you could always get one of the drives I mentioned above.

 

[DeViL303]

I was able to get a 4tb drive working and later a 5tb drive working. I ended up returning the 4tb to amazon and got the 5tb for a little more space after learning how it works. So I can confirm the options below work.

Model number: WDBU6Y0040BBK-WESN
Model number: WDBU6Y0050BBK-WESN
Formatted with WD Quick Formatter: https://support-en.wd.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/16241

The WD Quick Formatting tool only gives two options to format. Windows XP compatibility or Vista and later. I selected Windows XP compatibility and ok. That is basically it. Really simple. The format is NTFS

I can confirm the drive does work with Multiman, Webman Mod, Irisman, and MagnaGunz as a game loader without having to use prep ISO. However, I wasn't able to browse the drive with Multiman file explorer on either drive. I heard this was because the bigger NTFS drives only work with iris-based managers for file exploring. MagnaGunz can browse the drive. It is slow but works, other managers may work too. I haven't tested. I haven't really needed to since it's for ISO games only.

I've been using a mixture of the following:
-fat32 32gb thumb drive (for small pkg games, raps, homebrew, icons, etc)
-1tb exfat drive (for big PKGs mounting with prep ISO and installing through WebmanMod Bluray menu)
-5tb drive exclusively for hosting ISO (mainly with WebmanMod)

The 1tb might not be necessary for the task and would probably work the same with the 5tb, although that's just what I had lying around, So I've been using it that way. It also works good with multiman file explorer.

I suggest using the 5tb drive for PS3 for ISO's. It really only gives you about 4.5tb of usable space. I estimate that would hold maybe 500 - 550 games (depending on the size of the games in the library). However, you may want different options for installing things and managing files like I mentioned above.

I don't know what 5tb drive you are using, but maybe try the WD quick formater? Or you could always get one of the drives I mentioned above.

Nice, thanks for the info.

 

[Yo_Yo]

Nice, thanks for the info.

No problem. I know I made a post about this same issue when I started modding my PS3 a couple of weeks ago, and there is a lot of confusion on what works. I just got lucky and got it working on the first try. Maybe I'll go back and update that post so there is more info about this and not just another dead end for people looking this stuff up.

 

[hotdogs_stuff]

I use 2tb powered HDD, using MBR and formatted in fat32. i know it's not ideal as you can only fit around 200 ps3 games on it, but i only have around 184 ps3 games which leaves me around 380gb free space, but i also upgraded the internal HDD to 1tb (so that's potentially another 80 or so games i could store).

I usually split my games with multiman in file mode, which has always worked for me (these last 3 years) but i recently started using the ISO mode. it does't seem to matter at all which mode i choose the files are still split. If you look in MM command mode you'll see the files stored nicely but the ISO's are split into several smaller ISO's. either way seems fine.

My point in the conversation is that I tried to format the 2tb in MBR and NTFS (and later exfat) and the ps3 wouldn't recognize them in multiman or webman mod. i really wanted to preserve my disc games as whole disc ISO's but this seems sufficient. if you are ripping real discs it doesn't seem to be any hinderance to your preserving your collection. plus the self powered ones prevent USB issues later and they are super cheap right now at less than 60 bucks, it says it's for the PS4 but after reformatting it works fine on the ps3.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B074QFFFHG/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

also there isn't anything stopping you from having one or 2 for your PS3 games and another for your PS1&2 collection.

 

[Berion]

but the ISO's are split into several smaller ISO's

ISO's aren't split into smaller ISO's because few disc images cannot be mount as one contains all data from all as one device.
ISO are split into pieces, in the same way just like You cutting bread, instead of making tiny breads.

Split disc images can be assemble again if needed, outside PS3, even by Windows build-in tools (using copy). So such form is fine for archiving purpose because after merging, it will be binary the same as *.iso made "as one file".

 

[DaddyLongLegs]

I was able to get a 4tb drive working and later a 5tb drive working. I ended up returning the 4tb to amazon and got the 5tb for a little more space after learning how it works. So I can confirm the options below work.

Model number: WDBU6Y0040BBK-WESN
Model number: WDBU6Y0050BBK-WESN
Formatted with WD Quick Formatter: https://support-en.wd.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/16241

The WD Quick Formatting tool only gives two options to format. Windows XP compatibility or Vista and later. I selected Windows XP compatibility and ok. That is basically it. Really simple. The format is NTFS

I can confirm the drive does work with Multiman, Webman Mod, Irisman, and MagnaGunz as a game loader without having to use prep ISO. However, I wasn't able to browse the drive with Multiman file explorer on either drive. I heard this was because the bigger NTFS drives only work with iris-based managers for file exploring. MagnaGunz can browse the drive. It is slow but works, other managers may work too. I haven't tested. I haven't really needed to since it's for ISO games only.

I've been using a mixture of the following:
-fat32 32gb thumb drive (for small pkg games, raps, homebrew, icons, etc)
-1tb exfat drive (for big PKGs mounting with prep ISO and installing through WebmanMod Bluray menu)
-5tb drive exclusively for hosting ISO (mainly with WebmanMod)

The 1tb might not be necessary for the task and would probably work the same with the 5tb, although that's just what I had lying around, So I've been using it that way. It also works good with multiman file explorer.

I suggest using the 5tb drive for PS3 for ISO's. It really only gives you about 4.5tb of usable space. I estimate that would hold maybe 500 - 550 games (depending on the size of the games in the library). However, you may want different options for installing things and managing files like I mentioned above.

I don't know what 5tb drive you are using, but maybe try the WD quick formater? Or you could always get one of the drives I mentioned above.

Thank you so much.

Just to be sure I am reading your post correctly, I am supposed to format the 5tb drive as NTFS? Not fat32?

 

[Yo_Yo]

Thank you so much.

Just to be sure I am reading your post correctly, I am supposed to format the 5tb drive as NTFS? Not fat32?

No problem

Yes WD format tool literally only gives the 2 options there is nothing else to tinker with. It does NTFS advanced formatting by default. You just need to select "Windows XP compatibility."

 

[DaddyLongLegs]

No problem

Yes WD format tool literally only gives the 2 options there is nothing else to tinker with. It does NTFS advanced formatting by default. You just need to select "Windows XP compatibility."

Unfortunately I got the drive you recommended but I am not given the option of "Windows XP Compatibility". I opened the program, clicked format, and it immediately began to format:

It never asked me how I want to format it.

The file I downloaded is WD_Quick_Formatter_2.0.0.65.zip

Is that version correct? Any ideas why I am not given the "Windows XP Compatibility" option in the program?

edit: I figured it out. The program has to be running in Windows 7 compatibility. Not XP, or 10!

Now to see if this works on my PS3!

By the way should I re-join my ISOs now that I am using NTFS? Or is leaving them split OK?

 

[Yo_Yo]

Unfortunately I got the drive you recommended but I am not given the option of "Windows XP Compatibility". I opened the program, clicked format, and it immediately began to format:

It never asked me how I want to format it.

The file I downloaded is WD_Quick_Formatter_2.0.0.65.zip

Is that version correct? Any ideas why I am not given the "Windows XP Compatibility" option in the program?

edit: I figured it out. The program has to be running in Windows 7 compatibility. Not XP, or 10!

Now to see if this works on my PS3!

By the way should I re-join my ISOs now that I am using NTFS? Or is leaving them split OK?

That is interesting. I was able to format mine using windows 10 without compatibility mode. I'm glad you got it working though. I'll make a note in my old post about your findings. I don't like leaving bad info or dead-ends on the internet.

I don't have any experience with split files since there is no need to when using this method. I don't know how Webman mod would work with that. I prefer mine as a single file.

 

[SKEPTiCK]

Unfortunately I got the drive you recommended but I am not given the option of "Windows XP Compatibility". I opened the program, clicked format, and it immediately began to format:

It never asked me how I want to format it.

The file I downloaded is WD_Quick_Formatter_2.0.0.65.zip

Is that version correct? Any ideas why I am not given the "Windows XP Compatibility" option in the program?

edit: I figured it out. The program has to be running in Windows 7 compatibility. Not XP, or 10!

Now to see if this works on my PS3!

By the way should I re-join my ISOs now that I am using NTFS? Or is leaving them split OK?

To run in compatibility, right-click the WD_Formatter.exe, goto Properties, then Compatibility and assign proper setting from there.

To be honest, I have no clue why using drives as FAT32 is such an issue for you when it's the exact opposite for me... Every time I format a drive as NTFS my PS3 will not recognize it, whether I formatted using Diskpart, WBM, Ridgecorp, etc, etc.

and I'm not saying that I've never gotten an NTFS USB working because I have, it just seems that there is a particular method in getting the drive formatted correctly when switching from FAT32 to NTFS

Even the "fat32format" tool from ps3tools 4.81 gives issues with USB not being recognized by the PS3 after supposed proper format so it's not just an issue with NTFS drives being recognized by the PS3 but this can happen with any fs type as far as I am concerned.

There should be NO REASON AT ALL to split your .PS2ISOs whether you are using FAT32/NTFS and that's what I've been trying to get you to understand but maybe that just sounds "not possible" to you. There is no point in using a file splitter on PC

So, why do I say this you ask? Because multiMAN can natively split/rejoin the files for you. (example below)

1. I put a PS2 disc containing a game bigger than 4GB into my disc drive
2. Now I "Create ISO" from that disc into PS3~dev_usb001~PS2ISO (my FAT32 external)
3. And when you copy those PS2ISO parts from external to the internal PS2ISO folder, they will be automatically re-joined
4. This does not matter for PS3ISOs because PS3 games can be played in split format (most splits being 8GB)
5. The FAT32 structure on the PS3 itself does not limitate files to under 4GB like your PC is going to do

So I don't see any particular reason to constantly be splitting/joining files on PC when mmCM can do this for you. You're giving yourself alot more to do than is necessary... We are nearly 4 pages in and you still haven't found a direct solution, at the same time you are getting so many different answers/opinions that it's just making it harder for you to find the real answer.

If you did total drive wipe with diskpart and properly formatted to FAT32 @ 32kb (Since 64kb in ANOTHER tool didn't seem to work) and that's my point exactly is that I said to do this with Wii Backup Manager after diskpart but you proceeded to use different tools that other people had recommended to follow my instructions... and that's probably why it didn't work.

Using diskpart to clean the drive, create partition primary, quick format as FAT32 and then re-format to FAT32 with 32kb/64kb clusters with Wii Backup Manager should have been all the tools that you had to use... and for reference, I only use diskpart and WBM because they are the format tools that I trust to get the job done right and they usually always do.

ALL FORMAT TOOLS handle drives differently from each other and to some, me saying that might just sound like an opinion but 90% of the time those 2 programs are all I need to format anything properly. WD Formatter is more for restoring WD Externals to their default structure which diskpart is just as capable of doing... and even after using Western Digital's tool, it should be a simple re-format as FAT32 again with 32kb clusters using WBM (Since, I'm just going to speculate that I was wrong when I told you 64kb OR 32kb)

and if someone believes that all tools handle the formatting of drives in the same manner then please tell me why there are packs of 32GB/FAT32 pendrives that you can buy at Walmart, that once they are formatted as NTFS the drive space will be reduced to 16GB and even if you completely clean these disks and reformat using diskpart or any of the tools that I've mentioned here, they will be stuck on 16GB no matter what. (Or that you can corrupt a drive to 0B and almost nothing in the world will work to fix it)

It's the fault of 1,000's of different USBs and harddrives by different brand-names that all instances of formatting something is not going to work the same for everyone because no drive is going to have the same structure of a different brand-name drive even if both drives being compared are FAT32 PNY vs FAT32 Kingston or NTFS Sandisk vs. NTFS whatever.

In the end, the drive structures may not be identical even though it seems that way. whether they're initial stock structures or successfully modified/changed for the 1st time.

When I formatted the external to FAT32 with WBM, I formatted over the fs it came with in-box

I did not previously format it with anything else. (So maybe is just because WBM has been previously programmed to trick stock WD externals because I have not heard of this instance working 100% when performed with any other tool) Who knows, maybe I'm full of shit.

 

[Yo_Yo]

WD Formatter is more for restoring WD Externals to their default structure which diskpart is just as capable of doing... and even after using Western Digital's tool, it should be a simple re-format as FAT32 again with 32kb clusters (Since, I'm just going to speculate that I was wrong when I told you 64kb OR 32kb)

Hm there is a lot of good info here. I think the main point when using my method is the PS3 likes MBR. When researching I was pointed to this reference here:

https://blog.fosketts.net/2010/10/05/hitachi-gst-advanced-format-hard-disk-drive/

Since WD pushed advanced formating it seems to work great for me. That is why I recommend WD Quick formatter with "Windows XP compatibility mode." to utilize advanced formatting. It's not just to get it to a certain format type, but to get advanced formating and compatibility. There are many other tools that can create a format type but might also be the reason why so many people have issues with consistent results while formatting with the PS3.

Also I'm not sure why you would want to use Fat 32? I'm not too big on PS2 games so those go on the internal HDD. While all PS3 games go on ISO and external. I don't even use prep ISO for webman mod with NTFS. So I'm not sure why you are against using WD Formatter?

 

[SKEPTiCK]

Hm there is a lot of good info here. I think the main point when using my method is the PS3 likes MBR. When researching I was pointed to this reference here:

https://blog.fosketts.net/2010/10/05/hitachi-gst-advanced-format-hard-disk-drive/

Since WD pushed advanced formating it seems to work great for me. That is why I recommend WD Quick formatter with "Windows XP compatibility mode." to utilize advanced formatting. It's not just to get it to a certain format type, but to get advanced formating and compatibility. There are many other tools that can create a format type but might also be the reason why so many people have issues with consistent results while formatting with the PS3.

Also I'm not sure why you would want to use Fat 32? I'm not too big on PS2 games so those go on the internal HDD. While all PS3 games go on ISO and external. I don't even use prep ISO for webman mod with NTFS. So I'm not sure why you are against using WD Formatter?

No, I wasn't trying to bash WD Formatter... just that OP has been mixing answers to get results

(Instead of following one post at a time, using multiple diff. tools and methods in unison, rather than following 1 whole post exactly.)

It doesn't matter who can answer it, I'm just starting to wonder when the grand answer will finally be acheived.

I don't care for prepISO either, my only goal is to keep ALL GAMES on the external as much as possible. I do not have a problem with the amount of time it takes to copy PS2ISO's from external to internal, takes a couple minutes but still not as long as it takes to copy files on a Dell XPSGen5 with Windows7. (PS3 is still going to copy alot faster than that.)

The only games that I keep on internal are in BD-ROM format (because these games have certain mods that only work if the game is inside the internal GAMES folder). Everything else, PS3ISO, PS1ISO, Off-console ROMS, I play from external.

and again I don't have a problem with copying PS2ISO's to internal and then deleting them back off when I am done playing because I don't play most of my PS2 games anymore anyways. Or, I could just play them via disc with any of the 5 different PS2's that I have.

I guess I use FAT32 because it plays my 52 PS3ISOs, 76 PS2ISOs and 300+ PSXISOs just fine... with nearly all CFW XMB apps as well as DEX/CEX mods from 7 different loaders.

albeit, the only things I ever have to copy to internal when I want to play are PS3 games in BD-ROM format or PS2ISOs..