Roy Tang

Posted on r/PlayStationSolutions: [PS3] Error on startup, file system keeps wanting to be restored

It’s a 300Gb PS3 slim, I think it’s the latest model. This is kind of a long story, so bear with me.

So a few days ago, my brother left the PS3 on overnight to download the Destiny Beta. When he woke up, the PS3 had hanged and he had to do the thing where he holds down the power button until it turns off. Then he reboots and there’s a screen where he’s asked to connect a controller via wire and then press the PS button, then we get the ff message:

http://imgur.com/hcDiDer

Okaaaay. After pressing the PS button again, it proceeds to boot, but VERY SLOWLY, it takes a long time (5-10 minutes) at the wavy blue screen before finally booting up (the wavy blues lines are moving though). And the PS3 can be used normally at this point, but sometimes the XMB menu lags so badly (like 20-30 seconds to switch menu items)

When we tried to shut it down, it took a long to shut down as well. The display turned off promptly then the green light kept blinking for a couple of minutes before finally going red.

Then we start it up again, and the same error happens on startup and same problems observed.

Then my brother tried reinstalling the 4.60 update (as per the error message), but the error still persisted after that.

After a few reboots still didn’t help, I went ahead into the safe mode/recovery menu and started with “Rebuild file system”…that went fairly quickly (15-20 mins) but after rebooting, same problem.

So I took the next step: “Rebuild database”; this one took forever, I started it before lunch and when it was time to sleep it was at around 11%; when I woke up the next day it was at 19% then it seemed to stay that way the rest of the day. I figured it was stuck so I turned it off again (by holding down the power button) and attempted a second rebuild database.

The second attempt got a bit farther, 29% but still really slow and it looked like it was stuck again by next morning, so I shut it off again.

And I was like ok, screw it, I’ll reformat the PS3 (I didn’t mind losing the data too much, cloud saves, etc). So I reboot it again, but I forget to go into the recovery menu, and it has the error message again and it attempts to boot normally, and then detects a problem with the file system and says it’s going to rebuild the file system and I’m like “Ok!”

But then I realize that’s not what I wanted to do (and here’s where I probably screwed up - or maybe we’re already past that point?), so I force turned off the machine while it was in the middle of file system recovery. After that when I tried to reformat the PS3, it said it couldn’t access the system storage.

Okaaaay. So I went into safe mode and tried rebuild file system again, but after choosing the option this time I got a completely blank screen; I left it alone for like 30 minutes to an hour but still no action. It took a couple of reboots and retries with similar problems, but finally I managed to start the reformat.

Okay, reformat succeeds and I have to input my settings again and stuff, then okay, the XMB boots and loads, etc. Then I try shutting down the PS3, and this time the shutdown takes forever - the green light is blinking continuously for a LONG TIME. (I switched to WiiU and managed to finish a Twilight Princess dungeon during that time)

Eventually I decided to hold down the power button again until it shuts off then restart the system. On startup, same error again (the one in the image), and then it won’t even boot, it says the file system is corrupted and wants to rebuild.

I leave it overnight rebuilding the file system (it’s much slower this time) and when I wake up in the morning the PS3 is already off so i just assumed it finished. Tried starting up again - same error.

I did the file system rebuild 2 more times (once during the day while I was at work, and one more time last night and I another one just now); the last 3 cases were all the same: same error on startup, did not want to boot, PS3 off by the time I came back (except for the ongoing one of course)

Okaaay, that was a long story. Hopefully some of you stuck around to help. What are my options now? I doubt this current rebuild file system is going to work.

Should I attempt to repair or replace the hard drive? Should I take it to a shop to be looked at? Is there some other option I can try first? (I’m hesitant to take it to a shop because the nearest shop is a bit inconveniently out of the way)

Thanks very much for anyone who can help or offer advice!

TLDR; PS3 doesn’t want to boot anymore, keeps wanting to rebuild file system.

Edit: I took the HDD out and scanned it on a PC, there’s a bunch of errors that I can’t repair. Ended up having to replace the HDD. On the upside, more space! Thanks for reading!