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How to Format External Hard Drives for PS3

If you've had your Sony PlayStation 3 for a while, the internal hard drive on your PS3 is probably running out of space. The good news is that you can use an external hard drive with your PlayStation 3 for more storage. The only problem with using an external hard drive is that the PS3 will only recognize it if you have formatted the drive under the "FAT32" file system. Formatting an external hard drive is not difficult. Once you have formatted the drive properly, your PS3 will recognize it with no problem.

Instructions

- 1
  Plug your external hard drive into one of the available "USB" ports on your computer. Wait for your computer to recognize the external hard drive.
- 2
  Click on the "Start" button and click on "My Computer." Under the section for "Hard Disk Drives," select the external hard drive that you want to format. Right-click on the drive and select "Format." Under "File Type," select the "FAT32" option from the drop-down menu.
- 3
  Click on "Start" in the formatting window to begin the process. Once your computer has successfully formatted the external hard drive, right-click on the drive again and select "Eject." This will allow you to safely remove the external hard drive without losing your data.
- 4
  Remove your external hard drive from the computer and plug it into a "USB" port on your PlayStation 3.
- 5
  Turn on your PlayStation 3 and the system will recognize the external hard drive.

PlayStation 3