hmm my ps3 stuffed up before, it wouldnt boot past the playstation logo, then is about to load the menu but just failed
turned out the hdd was corrupted, i ran some disk check thingy in the recovery menu (restore file system or something) and that fixed it.
hey if you do a full system backup, does it back up the save games that are "copy prohibited"? because like half my games are copy prohibited savefiles and it'd suck massive balls having to do those all again.
also, im guessing you can't use a 3.5" external hard drive as a USB, i tried with mine and it didnt recognize it its a shame cos one i have is only about 30% full...maybe i'll get a 2.5", or il get a new iPod classic for Xmas since I think the battery is going on my 30GB video one.