320GB 2,5" WD Scorpio WD3200BEVT SATA 5400rpm 8MB

I recently bought this as a replacement drive for the one in my 60GB PS3, which was filling up fast. The Scorpio, being a 2.5" laptop drive, is pretty small yet still looks impressively technical. Ok, so you're not going to see the thing when it's hidden away in the innards of your PC / PS3, but it does look like a quality piece of equipment. Mine didn't come with anything in the way of manuals or product literature, but anyone with minor computer knowledge (or access to the internet) should be able to fit it without any problems.

In order to replace the standard PS3 hard drive you first need to backup the information on it using the PS3's backup facility in `system settings' so, rather than letting the drive get too full with demo downloads and videos and having to endure a painfully long backup, I fitted the Scorpio while the stock drive still had quite a bit of space on it. Backing up my data still took around 20 minutes though, so if you intend to replace your PS3 drive, don't expect to do the whole thing in 5 minutes flat.

Fitting the drive into my PS3 was actually a pretty simple matter. Having backed up the existing drive, I switched the machine off and unplugged it, then prised open the drive slot on the bottom. I then undid the small blue screw that was holding the drive caddy in place, before sliding the caddy sideways to remove the drive from its ports - a small handle on the caddy makes this a lot easier. I then pulled the caddy out, which revealed the hard drive screwed into it with four (very delicate) screws. Undoing these (and stripping the head on one in the process - be warned, it is easy to do), I removed the drive from the caddy and fitted the Scorpio in its place, reversing the removal process to fit the new drive in place. The whole procedure is very easy to do but is also well documented on several websites if you'd prefer the added confidence of reviewing the instructions with photos before you started.

Once the Scorpio was fitted, I turned on the PS3 and formatted the new drive for use. I was a little disappointed to see that, after formatting but before adding my backed-up data, I was left with around 263GB of free space on the drive, as 35GB was being used as system space by the PS3. This left a 22GB discrepancy between the quoted size of the drive (320GB) and the actual size (298GB) although a quick search on the net revealed that, as computers don't count in decimal as we do, what to me was a 320GB drive was actually a 298GB drive to my PS3. It's a little disappointing that a product can be sold with a description that might technically be true but which doesn't really give you what you thought you'd be getting, nevertheless 263GB is still a lot of space and I certainly don't anticipate being able to fill it for some time.

On a final, positive note, the drive runs whisper-quiet and seems to have a transfer speed similar to that of the one originally fitted. I can't yet comment on its durability or its long-term reliability but as Western Digital is a quality brand I'm hoping for a lot of trouble-free use out of it. All in all, if you can put up with the discrepancy over the storage space (which I admit is probably the case with any hard drive), this is a worthwhile purchase and has been a very useful upgrade to my PS3.

100GBs was getting a bit tight for my MacBook Pro 15.4" so I decided to go for this Western Digital 5400 rpm 320GB HDD. Installing was a little fiddly (I recommend other MacBook pro owners look on the internet for a good installation guide) and will void warranty if still valid (in which case you need to get a certified Apple Engineer to do it). But after installation I am very happy - lots of space (about 298GB actual disk space), very fast and incredibly quiet - it makes the original Seagate drive seem quite antiquated. I highly recommend it.

Good PS3 upgrade but you must know a couple of things that are not explained on playstations website. (please us the following a guide only)

First back up your data in the back up facility use a FAT or FAT 32 such as USB stick or even ipod. You will need at least the exact same space as a minimum i.e. 15gb on your PS3 you need 15gb or higher device. The device will need a file path [PS3] - [EXPORT] - [BACKUP] save the data in backup folder.

Remove power cables etc and do the hardware bit i.e. replace hard drive its easy refer to manual, Google / youtube

Reconnect all cables once finished DO NOT TURN ON YET go to Playstation website download latest firmware update for your region to a USB device its only a small file so most should cover it - IMPORTANT you must save to file path [PS3] - [UPDATE] otherwise it will not recognise it.

Turn on the PS3 insert USB follow the messages and prompts until it ask for you to power of as it cannot find the hard drive hit start and select then it will read the update from the USB and allow you to format the hdd.

Once this is done you can restore the data via storage device by using the PS3's settings.

Please note available space on hard drive will be 298gb regardless, then the PS3 will use circa 10% straight away with the remainder being the size of the HDD before restore.

e.g

298 GB 10% will be 30 GB = 268 GB - say a 15 GB back up should leave you with around 250 GB

Hope this helps