Hello everyone, you may or may not know that my PS3 died recently, and I managed to pick up a really cheap PS3 Super Slim using an auction site (RRP is $400 and I got it for $189). Sadly I haven't been able to get my saves/profile back from my old PS3 yet but in the meanwhile I'd like to play some games I haven't started yet, so the saves wouldn't matter.

My question is: Because I had to make a new profile to get this PS3 up and running, when I eventually get my PS3 saves back, will they merge together or will they be separate? I'm not sure how saves work between profiles because I've only ever had one.

Thanks for the help.

Your console user profile is different from your PSN account. Do you have PS+ and save any of your game data to the cloud servers?

@hailinel: No, I only have a normal account.

Well then, if your old PS3 has completely bit the dust, you may be out of luck. If your old PS3 was still functioning, you could perform the steps to complete a data transfer to the new console, but that obviously isn't an option. I'm not sure what else might be able to help.

@hailinel: Well I'm planning in getting it fixed so I can get my saves off the PS3, but when I restore everything it won't clash with any new game saves I have right? What would happen if say I started playing a game that I have a save for and then transfer over my old one, will it overwrite it?

The system transfer utility completely overwrites the data on the target PS3, to my knowledge.

@hailinel: Oh man, really? That's a huge bummer. I guess I'll have to wait to start playing Beyond: Two Souls now.

@nekusakuraba: Or start playing Beyond: Two Souls now and get PS+ so that you can back up your Beyond save before you overwrite everything with your restore. Even if you only get PS+ for 3 months you'll be able to back them up. If you unsubscribe and resubscribe at a later date your saves are still in the cloud.

I never managed to get my saves off my broken PS3 but that was back in 2010. I'm pretty sure that like three months later they released an update that lets you put your HDD in an external drive and restore from that. Unfortunately for me the HDD in the external and internal drives both needed the update.

is your profile tied to a specific system? my system died and I will need a new one does that mean I will have problem's with it?

@laserguy: Your account will transfer just fine. If your save files aren't backed up somehow then that could be a problem. Also, older games purchased on PSN can be downloaded on up to 5 PS3s, newer game purchases can be downloaded on 2 PS3s. If you want to reset this number you can go to account management and select Deactivate PS3s. You can only do this once every 6 months though.

my save files are on the hard drive. when the system died the first time i restored it and bought a new HDD. but thta was on the same system.

So long as the saves are not locked you should be able to easily back them up to a thumb drive and put them back after the transfer, just hit triangle and look at the information to see if it is locked, and if they are locked you either need PS+ or use system restore/backup to transfer them. And i assume by making a new profile you just mean the one on the system and are using the same PSN account right? If so the system profile doesn't really matter and you should be fine, but otherwise the saves are linked to the PSN account and will block trophies.

@lego_my_eggo: Hey, thanks for the help.

Yes I meant the system profile, not my PSN account. I'll have a look to see if Beyond: Two Souls saves are locked, if they aren't I guess I can't just play it now and back up those saves then put it back on once I've done the system restore.

Fingers crossed!