1mo ago

Regarding video game consoles with internal HDDs, do we know if they benefit from any sort HDD maintenance?

Like, should I be booting them up once every few months, keeping them plugged in, running any sort of database rebuilding program like Sony consoles have, or pulling the drives and using DiskFresh on them every few years? I'm assuming the manufacturers didn't really plan for longevity beyond the 5-6 year console cycle so I don't know if they'd be utilizing any of the built-in tools HDDs have and I'm trying to think of how to do any sort of HDD preventative maintenance on them.

7 comments

DiskFresh sounds like placebo-ware.
You can benefit from replacing spinning HDDs with SSDs, or just newer HDD, but other than that there isn't much much that you can do to actually prolong the lifespan of them.

If there's something on them you care about then make backups of that, otherwise who cares they are just standard interchangeable computer hardware

You're stupid for caring in the first place and simply shouldn't bother.
jokes aside, knowing which console you're talking about would help a lot.

Would ask on r/DataHoarders but literally every Reddit post has a 80% chance that you'll just get 2-3 posts that say you're stupid for caring in the first place and not to bother.

At this point the price difference between a 2.5" SATA HDD and an SSD is negligible, or at least it was when I decided to upgrade my PSTriple's storage.

For a PS3? I'd replace the spinner with an SSD. It's fairly easy, just be sure to follow a guide as there are steps that have to be taken. I don't think you can brick it, but you can make it harder on yourself. It only very mildly improves loads in a small list of games, but spinning disks from that era are on their way out. For other ones, I'm less sure. If you can replace an HDD with an SSD, do. But some won't work with one, like the OG Xbox.
I don't imagine that any preventative maintenance will really help. Your main issue will be just hitting the end of their lifespan.
- Hey, it improves Gran Turismo 6's install time from 8 hours to like 2.
  Supposedly it also "fixes" Skyrim lmao

7 comments