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Is there a way to back-up your saved games on the PS3 in case they are overwritten?

averyzoe
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5 Answers5

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To back up the save from a particular game there is an easier way than backing up your entire hard drive. Just use a thumb drive in the USB slot, and go to the "Saved Data Utility (PS3)" item in the PS3 menu (it's above "Trophy Collection"). Then select a save file and press triangle, then select copy. You should see the thumb drive listed as a destination.

Kip
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    This doesn't work for protected saves. A list of games which used save protection can be found here: http://community.eu.playstation.com/t5/PlayStation-3-General-Discussion/Locked-PS3-Game-Saves-Compilation-List-is-Now-Available/td-p/9269692 – YellowMegaMan May 05 '11 at 02:58
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    Protected games should be storable on the PSN+ cloud storage service - of course, as the PSN is down at the moment, this is probably a moot point :) – soulBit May 05 '11 at 12:07
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    Is there anyway to backup up all saves (besides the full system backup) or do you have to select each file and save it? – James McMahon Oct 03 '11 at 02:41
  • @JamesMcMahon: as far as I can tell, you have to do it one at a time, or do a full system backup – Kip Oct 03 '11 at 18:30
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Also, saved game backup is one of the features included w/ subscribing to PlayStation Plus

Bob
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Yes, you can back up your PS3 data to an external hard drive. Watch the following video to show you how to do it from the system menu.

DarkShiva
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    This also does not work for protected saves (or other protected content, for that matter). See the link I posted to Kip's answer. – YellowMegaMan May 05 '11 at 02:59
  • To be clear, this does backup protected saves, but they may only be restored on the same PS3. – Kip Oct 03 '11 at 18:32
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Be aware that backing up saved games to a USB thumb drive, and potentially to an external hard drive, doesn't always guarantee saving all of the associated data-- games with online components, like Rock Band, can restrict the ability of a user to backup the data associated with the saved content. I found out about Rock Band's issue the hard way...

wicker95
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If you use the full PS3 backup it appears to back up protected game's saves also as I have Dragon Age Origins and after upgrading my PS3 hard drive this weekend I still have the game data. It's possible that having the Dragon Age Complete collection that was released is unprotected making my anecdotal evidence invalid.

Chris Marisic
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