Formatting drives
Formatting Drives & the 4GB Split
Before a USB drive can hold game backups, it needs the right file system. The format you pick decides whether large games can be stored whole, and whether you must split them into pieces the console can read.
Formatting a drive
- Back up any existing files — formatting erases the whole drive.
- On a computer, open your disk tool and select the USB drive carefully by name and size.
- Choose FAT32, exFAT, or NTFS depending on your manager and plugins.
- Use a clear volume label so it is easy to identify on the console.
Double-check you have selected the USB drive and not an internal disk. Formatting the wrong device permanently destroys its contents.
The 4GB FAT32 limit
FAT32 cannot store any single file larger than 4GB. Many PlayStation 3 games include data files well above that size, so on a FAT32 drive those files must be split into numbered parts — commonly named with a .66600 style sequence — that the manager rejoins on the fly when mounting.
| Format | Large files |
|---|---|
| FAT32 | Must be split into under-4GB parts |
| exFAT / NTFS | Can stay whole (NTFS needs a plugin) |
Managers like multiMAN and IRISMAN can split files automatically during copying, so you rarely need to do it by hand. note