Chosen Solution
I bought two broken fat ps3s off ebay, one had the broken motherboard and no display and the other one was missing a hard drive. I tried installing the hard drive from the first PS into the other one following the guide on this site but the systems have different connectors for the hard drives? The PS I took the drive out of had the connectors facing forward and the second PS had them to the left. How do I properly install the hard drive into the second PS? They are both fat models. EDIT: The broken model I’m taking the drive from is a CECHL03 and the second is a CECHG03.
I’m speaking from some pretty rusty experience, but I believe that different PS3 fat models use the same types of hard drives (2.5” SATA) but in different orientations. Some versions of the console have the drive slide in with the connectors facing the direction of insertion, while others have the drive slide in with the connector on the side. For the later, you have to slide the drive in, then over to get it to engage. The drive is supposed to mount in a caddy, which slides into the system. If the caddy is missing (which I’m guessing yours is), it’s difficult but not impossible to get a drive into one of the sideways-mounted systems. I’ve used some folded up paper to hold the drive in place once I’ve finessed it into the connector.
