Anyway to "freeze" my game/system profiles for recovery later?

Okay, so piggybacking a bit on my previous topic regarding my job and soon-to-be financial troubles, I might have to end up selling my consoles and games to make up for rent at some point in the near future. Since I like playing games and I'd like to have my profiles with me, is there anyway to transfer my profiles for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 onto a USB stick, or some other drive and keep it with me, so that if I do end up getting a new console in the future, I can just easily recover it by plugging it in?

Also, might there be a way to reset the consoles to factory settings might somebody attempt to recover my profile on the console I was using? I'd like this to be as secure as possible. I'm using a very old white 360 as well. I do know factory settings for the dashboard is the very first update, (the blades).

I've never been through this process, transfer and recovery and licenses and all that stuff, so any help would be greatly appreciated. While I'd rather my situation not come to this, at some point it's all about survival, so I will do what I must.

Any help is appreciated. Thanks, guys.

PS. Also, to make things easy: I'm not a gold member and not subscribed to any online features, so that won't be an issue.

Thank you. <3

With the 360 just plug in a USB stick and format it to the 360's system and then transfer your profile over. Not too sure about the PS3.

Okay so basically just a get a jump drive or a memory stick for Xbox 360. Plug either be in. If its a jump drive you'll have to format it. The Xbox would tell you. Move any thing you'll want to keep. Delete everything else. I pretty sure there's a reset to factory button in the settings. Then you'll be good. They would need to know your gamer tag email and password to get your account. If you bought any dlc later if you decide to get another Xbox you can just go to Xbox.com. There would be a tool that lets you transfer your purchases to your new Xbox. Edit: to reset to factory settings for Xbox 360... http://www.zollotech.com/2011/01/13/how-to-reset-your-xbox-360-to-factory-default/comment-page-1/

Oh and to recover it on the jump drive just plug it in the new Xbox. Then just move the stuff over. I have no idea for PS3 though...

Have you never noticed the giant backup/restore and format in the system menu on the PS3?

@Geurge said:

With the 360 just plug in a USB stick and format it to the 360's system and then transfer your profile over. Not too sure about the PS3.

Make sure you have a good USB stick. The 360 has some weird restrictions on stick speeds etc. Anyway I had bought some cheaper Rocketfish I think 16gb USB a while back when I wanted to backup all my stuff and after I had moved all of it on there - the next time I put it in the 360 it was all corrupted. Also for some reason it moved my stuff instead of copying it so I basically lost 3 years worth of saves.

On one hand it was sort of freeing as it means I'll never be tempted to re-purchase some older games to play them because I'm not starting from scratch. On the other I had lost my entire Mass Effect save block with multiple run throughs of ME1 and ME2 - had to start a fresh character for ME3 and that certainly sucked since for some reason they take out all the people from previous games and put in generic stand-ins.

@SexyToad said:

Okay so basically just a get a jump drive or a memory stick for Xbox 360. Plug either be in. If its a jump drive you'll have to format it. The Xbox would tell you. Move any thing you'll want to keep. Delete everything else. I pretty sure there's a reset to factory button in the settings. Then you'll be good. They would need to know your gamer tag email and password to get your account. If you bought any dlc later if you decide to get another Xbox you can just go to Xbox.com. There would be a tool that lets you transfer your purchases to your new Xbox. Edit: to reset to factory settings for Xbox 360... http://www.zollotech.com/2011/01/13/how-to-reset-your-xbox-360-to-factory-default/comment-page-1/

What the hell is a jump drive? Are you using some kind of faster-than-light starship engine to save your data? I'm half joking, I assume it is some kind of portable memory device, I've just never heard that term before.

PS3 is pretty simple, you just create your profile and login on a new PS3. All your saves will be gone though, unless you've moved them, and a lot of games don't actually let you move saves.

@Humanity: Rocketfish is just a terrible brand, really.

after you've backed up your PS3 stuff, make sure to DEACTIVATE the accounts on that system cause while activated, it is tied to that specific console. Account activations on PS3 are limited to two systems at the same time.

http://uk.playstation.com/psn/support/ps3/detail/linked236637/item308379/Activate-Deactivate-your-PS3/

oh and yes, there's always a way to reset a console to factory settings (usually-> format hard drive)

just scroll through the options.

If you have PS3, don't forget to deactivate your account before you wipe the hard drive. Under Account Management -> System Activation.

I didn't do it properly when I traded in my old PS3 and now I'm at the 2 console limit :(

@clstirens: I knew that but it was going to be a one time move and I didn't want to spend $50 bux to move my saves once to a new console.

Anyway I guess being stingy cost me a better Mass Effect 3 experience and never finishing Resonance of Fate cause after like 40 hours spent on that game, I'm never playing all that from beginning with just 2 bezels..

@mitsuko_souma:You can now deactivate your account linked to a PS3 online, but you have to do it to all your consoles and only every 6 months.

@Lego_My_Eggo said:

@mitsuko_souma:You can now deactivate your account linked to a PS3 online, but you have to do it to all your consoles and only every 6 months.

Thank you for the info and link! :)

I used it to deactivate my accounts, it was a pretty easy process.