One of the PS3's lesser known features is the ability to transfer data from one PS3 to another. Say your old PS3 breaks and you have to buy a new one. You want to keep all your saves and trophies so your only option is to use the Data Transfer Utility (which can be found in the system settings menu of the PS3). It's a great feature that ensures you won't lose everything in case your PS3 goes kaput, but any feature is a piece of crap if it doesn't work properly--which in this case--is the case.
The physical set-up of the process is annoying. You have to hook up two PS3's to the same TV and then connect the PS3's together using an
ethernet cable. Fortunately, since my 36o runs on
HDMI, it was simply a matter of swapping out the cable. Unfortunately, the PS3slim and the PS3phat don't use the same power cable, which meant I had to sneak behind some really dusty furniture just to pull out some cords. From that point on, you have to switch between video sources and make sure that each PS3 is on the right menu.
I ran the process for the first time and decided to go out for a run.
I return and its still transferring.
I take a shower.
I go back and there's an error.
I just wasted about an hour.
Time to go look up this "error" online.
As it turns out, a lot of people have been experiencing errors. Apparently the feature is not very stable. People have proposed all sorts of solutions and I tried all of them. I started this entire process at 5:00. By the time I finally got it to work, it was 2:00 in the morning. As you can imagine, the data transfer utility is a worthless feature that I give a grade of "D-" for. It's not an "F" because it eventually worked for me in the end, but the amount of mental stress and irritation that I had to endure is something that Sony can never make up for.
In order to make everything work, I had to delete a massive amount of data (which sort of goes against the idea of transferring in the first place) leaving nothing but Rock Band and Battlefield Bad Company 2 data (because I don't feel like
re-downloading patches and
DLC for those games). I reconstructed the database for the PS3 four times and deleted two pieces of corrupted data, one of which was hidden in a PS2 virtual memory card. I turned off the
internet and media sharing as well.
So after 6 failed tries and about 9 hours of work and research, I finally got all my stuff transferred.
I'm over it.
This is the world's smallest violin playing just for those poor gamers who didn't have the chance to download their free games. I don't think there's a more self-entitled group of consumers than gamers who will whine about every little thing that doesn't go their way, even when it comes to something like free games.
