How to upgrade your PS3 hard drive

The PS3 may not be hot news in the game world anymore, but we can guarantee you probably still haven't played half of its best titles. However, most models of Sony's last console don't have enough hard drive space to store all that many game installs.

Something like the digital version of Uncharted 3 will eat up a huge chunk of an older PS3's HDD. It's very easy to upgrade the hard drive yourself though. You can even use the default PS4 hard drive if you're thinking about supercharging your new console too. See how to do it in our PS4 HDD upgrade feature.

We're going to go through the process step-by-step. You only need to set a half-hour or so aside: it really is that simple.

1.  Buy an HDD {You need to make sure it's a 2.5-inch serial ATA}
2. Backing up {to just save all your save games go to the game header in the main menu, select save data utility and then copy multiple to save your games to USB. To do all the saves at once, though, you need a PS Plus subscription.}
3. Unleashing the Hard Drive {There are a few different variants of the PS3 out there. We're going to deal with how to take out the hard drive of the PS3 Slim and more recent PS3 Super Slim, which is the model you can still buy new today.}

Slim

To get the hard drive out of a Slim PS3, you need to turn it off, turn it over and pull off a little plastic flap on its underside. It should be pretty clear, sitting towards the front of the bottom plate.

This flap will reveal a little screw that keeps a piece of plastic in place just under the Blu-ray drive. Remove the screw using a Phillips screwdriver. This piece of plastic hides the hard drive.Now you need to slide the piece of plastic under the optical drive to the side just a little. After this you should be able remove it easily.

You should now see two little pieces of wire in the space where the flap was. Pull them lightly to remove the hard drive. It should slide out without much effort.The PS3's hard drive is fixed to a metal plate using four little screws on its underside. You'll need to remove all four to change your old PS3 hard drive for your new one.

When you've swapped the drives, screw the screws back in and re-seat the hard drive in the console. Make sure it's fully inserted, though, or the drive won't actually be attached properly.Now simply work your way back, putting back the plastic cover, putting the main screw back and re-seating the flap.