YLOD happened to my PS3 while playing FFXIII. I was around 25 hours in at chapter 11.

Ok heres the thing. I want my savegame before i sell the YOLD PS3 and then buy a new one.

So far i changed the password of my PSN Account via PC, in order that the automatical login process wont work anymore.

I exchanged my hdd i was using with the old, delivered, blank 40gig hdd.

Now i have some questions you might be able to answer and help me with:

For the selling part:

Is it now safe to sell the PS3? or do i need to perform further actions, regarding privacy and sorts? 

As it seems a PSN account can hold up to 5 Ps3s. Now i want to deactivate my YOLD PS3 from it. How am i doing this? Probably easier as soon i got a working PS3 again, right?

For the backup part:

Do i need to format my hdd before any other ps3 recognizes it? Or can i use my hdd from the Ylod one, without problems with the next one?

As it seems i have to make my Ylod PS3 running one more time in order to back up my stuff ( i know how im supposed to do that-> with new warm paste and an "industrial hair dryer"). Is this the only way possible to perform a back up without paying for a repair?

thx for your help!

Unless you or Sony can get your particular ps3 working again, you cannot recover your data.

The HD you took out of your 40gb ps3 will have to be formatted before it can be used in another ps3. Unless you actually used the backup utility or copied your save files to an external drive while your ps3 worked, all your data is probably gone.

sorry to hear that... i myself am in the same spot as you... my ps3 yloded on me and i want my game saves... you will have to put it to work again... your hdd is no good without its original PS3. if you going to sell it, there is no harm in open it and repair it, so go for it... disabling accounts just can be done in the XMB, there is still no other way...

thx for the fast replies!

so i assume i should get it to work again, do a back up, disable my accounts, format hdd and then im free to sell? or did i forget something?

@ameratsu: as i have heard, sony is going to format my hdd anyway. so i should send the original one (the one i never used) in. BUT they send me a different, refurbished model back, arent they? so i cant use my in-use-hdd again or am i wrong?

Can't you hook the hard drive to a pc and grab the saves? Don't know, just asking. And have you looked into disabling accounts from the PSN webpage using a pc? Again, don't know, just an idea.

ps3 hdd's are all encrypted and just work with the ps3 that formated the hdd in the first place. there is no way other then the original PS3 to access the information on the HDD.

If you dont get your original PS3 working again your saves are gone :'(

If money is no object, get a third party to repair the PS3. All of your saves and game data will remain intact.

BTW... how do we deactivate accounts that count for the PSN limit of 5 downloads per PSN item? if we delete the user account is enough or we have to access PSN store and do something special??

That the best option. If you get it working again, get PS3 Slim, use the data transfer utility and (using ethernet cable to connect both consoles) all your saves including the protected onessnnwill be moved to new PS3. Then you can sell your old phat PS3.

Im going to do it at some point but my 60gig B/C is doing well since Sept 2007. Will get PS3 slim maybe in the summer.