PS3 External USB Drive Games Not Showing in Windows

[justinak]

Bought an external Seagate 2TB USB drive yesterday from Bestbuy. Took it home and used h2format to format the entire 2TB in a single fat32 partition, worked great, ps3 recognized it immediately. Copied over a single game to test functionality (game was copied over via USB in Windows 7), Open Backup Manager saw it and mounted/loaded it without issue.

Assuming everything was OK I FTP'd over a few other games directly to the USB drive using the original PS3 FTP Server rather than copying them over via USB in windows. Again, open backup manager loaded and played them without issue. Now, I had a large section of games I wanted to copy over directly via USB rather than network since it seemed to be slower via FTP > USB.

Plugged the drive into my PC and Windows sees the drive but the only folder it sees is the initial game I copied over via USB and NONE of the games I FTP'd over are visible. However, the games are indeed still on the drive. The used/free space reflects this, and also, they still show up and play fine in Open Backup Manager.

Anyone else have an issue similar to this? Are the directories just not visible because of how the PS3 FTP Server writes the files?

[genius312]

You should see all the game in your drive if they are really there ! Maybe you copied the game from your PC FTP to the internal drive ?

You can use Open Manger to see where the game will be loaded from (at the bottom of the screen). If they really are in your Fat32 USB drive, then the game shald all be there !

I think it's gonna be in Game\OMANxxxxx\Gamez\your game !

[justinak]

No, they are indeed copied over to the USB drive and not the internal drive. The PS3 FTP server mounts any USB storage devices and you can FTP and transfer files to them just as you can to the internal drive.

I can see the games in backup manager and when logged into the PS3 FTP Client with Filezilla in the appropriate external 'GAMEZ' directory and not in the internal LAUNxxxxx/OMANxxxxx directories, but in windows, all the games I've FTP'd over to the USB device do not show up. But as I said, the data *IS* on the drive. The free space on the drive reflects this fact.

Again, its ONLY the game directories copied over to the USB device via FTP that do not show up when plugging the drive in directly to my PC. Games which are copied over via USB via a direct connection within Windows are visible without issue.

[kkbc]

Not sure but are the files hidden? I copy from PS3 to PC but never had an issue like this before. Thanks.

[justinak]

Not sure but are the files hidden? I copy from PS3 to PC but never had an issue like this before. Thanks.

Hidden how? Not sure what you are getting at, but I am not copying files from the PS3 to PC, its something different altogether. I know its kind of a goofy issue and hard to express properly in words, Ill try again.

When I copy games over to the USB drive when the drive is connected directly to my PC via USB, the game backups work, and the files are all visible within Windows Explorer.

When I copy games over to the USB drive via an FTP transfer, the game backups work but hooking up the USB drive back to my PC, none of the games sent to the USB drive via FTP transfer are visible within Windows, only the games copied over *WITHIN* Windows itself (and not via FTP) show up as visible files in explorer.

The game data and files are indeed still on the drive as the backups still load and play fine and the space windows shows free on the drive reflects the true number of games on there. I can also see all the directories on the drive when browsing the USB drive over an FTP connection in Filezilla. FTP'd files just don't seem to be showing up for me on my drive when browsing the contents within Windows. Was wondering if anyone else had an issue like this.

[bb01]

this has happened to me before, turned out when i formatted i converted the drive to xfat & then without even realizing, by not safely removing the drive, removed the drive letter, however the next time i plugged it in, the drive letter showed up..

However no contents.. The way i fixed it, was i downloaded the free ver of Paragon Partion Manager, checked the drive in there & then converted the drive to Fat32 & then it showed up..

[Kelv05]

The files seem to be hidden somehow, maybe because of you transferring them over ftp, i'm not sure. I always plug my drive in through USB, it's definitely quicker. Have you ticked show hidden files, folders and drives in folder options in windows?

[unsane]

open a command prompt

type attrib -s -h drive letter /D /S

change drive letter to whatever yours is

This will change the attributes of each file / folder on your drive to visible

[justinak]

The files seem to be hidden somehow, maybe because of you transferring them over ftp, i'm not sure. I always plug my drive in through USB, it's definitely quicker. Have you ticked show hidden files, folders and drives in folder options in windows?

I have show hidden files enabled in Windows. Hooked up the USB drive to the PS3 and FTP'd in. Transferred over all the games I had originally FTP'd over (these were the games that were not visible in windows) to my PC and then directly transferred them to the USB drive in Windows. Obviously I can see the files now. Still don't understand why FTP'd files to the USB device are not visible when reconnected that USB device to windows.

I know the PS3's FS is proprietary and unreadable by Windows. Your idea sounds similar to my original contention that when a FTP file transfer is initiated, the PS3 'tags' the file somehow and associates it with the PS3 FS therefore making it unreadable within Windows Explorer. No proof of this, however.