PS3: Backup Manager – multiMAN
I must start this post off saying that I do not condone software piracy.
Let me repeat that – I DO NOT CONDONE SOFTWARE PIRACY.
Please Don’t Pirate Games – Support The Developers By Buying The Games.
I do however feel that if you have legally purchased a game you should be allowed to make a backup copy of the media in case you manage to damage the disc…which btw I have a Uncharted 2 disc that has developed a few cracks in the middle from being taken out the cover a few to many times…
The reason why I loaded CFW onto my one Playstation 3 was to be able to load a backup manager so that I could backup all my games – which currently stand at 70x Playstation 3 Games.
The backup manager that I found to be the easiest to use, that worked like a charm and was being updated with new features at an incredible rate was multiMAN, which is created by a guy named Dean.
This is what the interface looks like (not my image) and it is only one of the many layout options available.
Now I was busy drawing up an instruction post on how to setup multiMAN, but the excellent website (that I check on a daily basis for PS3 news) called PS3Crunch.com, beat me to it and has an excellent easy to follow tutorial here which contains links to files that you will need.
I took a Samsung 1Tb drive (I will NEVER touch another Seagate drive) and put it into a external USB enclosure (Agestar 3UB3A8), this was on special when I purchased it and yes I know it is really overkill. I then formatted the whole drive with FAT32 (read here for the tutorial if you use Windows), and plugged it into one of the USB ports of the PS3 that had the CFW and multiMAN loaded.
Now what is really great about multiMAN is its simplicity. You can insert your PS3 game into the drive, fire up multiMAN, hit the [CIRCLE] button and it will give to options to either backup the game to the internal drive or external USB drive (obviously USB is the route that I went). Then press [X] to launch the game from either the backup drive or from the game disc itself.
Needless to say that backing up my PS3 games collection took quite some time – two weekends and about 4 hours each evening in the week – but it is finally done. I now only have 300Gb free on the 1Tb drive… Backing up takes on average about 15-25 minutes dependent on the game, as some vary from 2Gb in size to just over 30Gb.
Now if you want to see a list of the games that are compatible running from the multiMAN backup manager have a look here. Here you can see if the game will run from either internal or external (usb) drive, or even discless. More games are added to the list with each new version so keep a look out!
I will still create another post listing all my games I have (my wife still wants to know why I have so many when I hardly have time to play) but this will take some time. But for the meantime I am at least able to play some of them easily without having to take the disc out the cover thanks to multiMAN.
Thank you Dean for a job well done on developing multiMAN to the awesome app it is today! Keep up the great work!
DISCLAIMER: The above post is for educational purposes only! I do not condone piracy or hacking, but believe that if you purchase hardware you have the right to use it as you please. I also believe if you buy a game you have the right to make and use a backup copy of it to ensure your original media does not get damaged. Please Don’t Pirate Games – Support the Developers!
