Hey EP!^^

I want to format my PS3's HDD to get rid of Linux (I booted it once back in the day and then never again...) and to avoid redownloading everything I just want to make use of that full backup option via a USB HDD.

Though I still have a few game shared accounts and games from when the activation count was still 5 and I don't want to lose them, will they be restored normally?

To put it simple, is backuping and restoring a PS3 like cloning a HDD?^^

Thanks for any help in advance

It backs up everything pretty much, I would just do a seperate backup of savedata onto a USB drive as well. For safety.

I think it even remembers the theme you had installed before xD

All games, pictures, videos, music, savedata, account info is backed up and restored. It is pretty much exactly how it was before the format.

Trophy information is not backed up and you must make sure it is synced with the PlayStation server prior to performing a backup/restore.

Alright thanks for the infos guys, I'll make sure to make a separate save backup and sync! So if I understand you all right my PS3 won't notice any difference regarding content activation and game sharing, that's all I wanted to know thanks^^

Oh and it won't backup Linux too, right?

i sincerely doubt it xD

I hope so The backup is almost done, then I'll put my savegames on a separate USB stick, press "format HDD", set up a new user account and then "restore backup" is that right?^^

What the fudge you... I restored my PS3 completely and it still show Free: 64/74GB, I don't want to full format it as that takes 5 hours according to the PS3 =_=

Okay just as a heads-up, it's not possible to reclaim the Linux space once you left 3.15 via the PS3, you have to connect the HDD to a PC to do it, nicely done Sony!

That's not all, I've started the restore process yesterday around 11pm, I left it running for 13 hours so far and it's at 92%... for 51GB of Data...