PS3 : How to backup PS3 game save files to memory stick / sd / cf

Contributor Icon Contributed by seamonkey420 Date Icon August 19, 2007  
Tag Icon Tagged: Games

This recipe explains how to backup your PS3 game saves to a memory stick (MS Duo, CF, SD, MMC). Note, some game save files are copy protected (ie NDFS: Carbon); you can backup these a different (but LONGER!) way which will be briefly touched on.


Even though the PS3 failure rates are very low vs the Xbox 360 (red ring of death), its never a bad idea to have a backup of your game save file to a memory stick. This recipe will walk you through this and explain briefly how to backup game saves that are copy protected.

Backing Up Game Saves to Memory Stick

1. On the XMB (cross media bar), go to the Game section.
2. Go to Game Saves
3. Put in your memory stick (cf, ms duo, sd)
4. Find the game save you want to copy/backup, highlight it and hit the Triangle button.
5. Choose the menu option to Copy
6. Hit the X button on the memory stick and let it copy.

Voila, easy backup of your game save file you prob put hours of playing into!

A few games have copy protected game save files. To backup these files you can’t just copy them to a memory stick, you will need to do an actual system backup.

To do a full system backup (this will basically copy ALL of the photos, music, videos and game save files and settings on the PS3 to a backup folder; you will need to have an external usb harddrive or thumbdrive w/enough space on it).

In the XMB, go to System
Go to Settings > System Settings > Backup Utility
Then choose Back Up
Finally, pick the device to backup too (memory stick, usb harddrive, etc).

To help save space on the full system backups, I usually will backup all of my photos, music, videos to a seperate harddrive and then delete them from the PS3 harddrive prior to a backup.

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  • Sandman989
    I resently had the pleasure of my Disc drive failing this past weekend and I need to send my system for warentty repair. I tried to do a system back up to an external hard drive (via USB) but it would not recognize the drive. Has anyone ever had this problem or is there something special I need to do?
  • Bob
    your external hdd needs to be formatted as FAT32. only these discs are recognisable.
  • Ooh, thanks for this guide. Very helpful!
  • dude
    thx man
  • Ian
    if i do a full backup it will include my save game files??? so i dont need to save them seperatly???
  • Jason
    to my knowledge it will, but your trophies will not be backed up. You will need to export that information seperately. When you begin the backup process, your PS3 should inform you of that as well (that you'll need to backup your trophies seperately).
  • Jason
    correction...you don't need to export your trophy info...it's stored with the PS3 account that you have gained the trophies with. Just sync them back up with the server after you have performed a restore or wipe and you should be set.
  • Ivan
    Hi,

    Thanks for your help. I was wondering something though. Does system (not PSN)account matter when backing up files? I bought my PS3 from somebody else, and never bothered to restore the system when I got it.

    Now I have game saves (protected) and demos on the system, and would like to reformat the HD, and create an account of my own and of course reinstalling what I have. And I couldn't find the original owner, so I have no information about the password etc (it's always kept as 'save my password' so I can just sign in automatically) Stupid I know.. But I learned my lesson.

    Is this a possibility? I heard that you won't be able to get the backup to work on another machine. In this case, it's the same machine, but different account.

    Any help appreciated.. Thanks!
  • freq1cy
    @seamonkey420: Have you tried the full system backup? I did the full system backup last night, because i bought a larger hard drive, but i'm reluctant to install and restore because i've been reading that copy-protected data won't backup. Do you know if the full system backup will definitely backup copy-protected data?
  • MIKE
    A few games have copy protected game save files. To backup these files you can’t just copy them to a memory stick, you will need to do an actual system backup.

    To do a full system backup (this will basically copy ALL of the photos, music, videos and game save files and settings on the PS3 to a backup folder; you will need to have an external usb harddrive or thumbdrive w/enough space on it).

    In the XMB, go to System
    Go to Settings > System Settings > Backup Utility
    Then choose Back Up
    Finally, pick the device to backup too (memory stick, usb harddrive, etc).


    THIS DOES NOT COPY, COPY PROTECTED SAVE DATA, AS I HAVE ALREADY TRIED!!!
  • Stephen
    Um, yes it does, but I need a way to copy just my Save Data because something in my system is causing my PSN to not function properly. I won't go into it, but regardless if I format my HDD and start the PS3 fresh everything works, but as soon as I restore my backup, it doesn't get online properly anymore. But my game data and save data are there. I'm thinking I may have to use Windows and pull the drive out of the PS3 and copy to a PC my Saved Data, then format the PS3 drive again, then pull it out again and copy the Saved Data back. I wonder if that will work ? I hope so.
  • Nospheratus79
    I have had same problem.

    PSN does not work to play online, I format my PS3, PSN starts to work. Restore the backup, PSN stops again.

    My worst nightmare comes with the SFIV saved game what is copying protected. Ironically, who's corrupted my PS3 system file was the latest SFIV update.

    I related to Capcom my problem, and I'm looking forward their answer here (user Nospheratus79):

    http://www.capcom-unity.com/tech_support/go/thr...
  • Drew
    For some reason my PS3 has been glitching and just freezing up so i'm going to reformat my whole hard drive, and so i had this external hard drive and i'm goin to put everything on there. It was originally NTFS but you have to convert it to FAT32 for it to be able to recognize your external hard drive and for you to be able to do that, you have to download an application called SwissKnife. I just followed this guys instructions... http://boardsus.playstation.com/playstation/boa...
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