Ps3 – If I stick a blank hard drive into the PS3 will it work

From How to upgrade your PS3 internal hard drive:

Things you will need

1. Larger SATA notebook (2.5″) hard drive (hd), 5400rpm or 7400rpm.

So unfortunately with your 3.5" hard drives you are out of luck - they won't fit into the PS3 and they are the wrong type (ATA vs. SATA).

However, all is not lost. From the same site there's a post on How to add an External USB hard drive to the PS3

If you have amassed plenty of videos, music and pictures on your computer over the years then why not stick it all on an external hard drive and hook it up to your PS3. Easier, and much quicker, than streaming files over your home network this is an ideal solution for users with massive hard drive needs.

With the advances in the PS3 software, many video types can now be played and nearly all music and picture formats are also available.

So if get hold of a 3.5" enclosure with a USB interface you should be able to use the drives like this.

Yes, you can backup the drive, assuming you can get it to bootup and run without getting the yellow light. Sony's User Guide on backing up states:.

Some types of backed up data can be restored on another PS3™ system. The types of data that can be restored on another system are as follows:

• Saved data from PlayStation®3 format software *1
• Image files under (Photo)
• Music files under (Music) *2
• Video files under (Video) *2
• Bookmarks added under (Internet Browser)
• Terms that were added using (Settings) > (System Settings) > [Add/Edit Term], or predictive terms that were "learned" by the on-screen keyboard

*1 Copy-protected data cannot be restored. Also, saved data that has been restored may not be usable in some games.

*2 Does not include copyright-protected data.

Most everything should backup and restore, except copy-protectd game saves, movies, and music.

Your best bet for getting your data to the new system is to transfer the data directly from the old to the new PS3 using an ethernet cable. Again, details in the PS3 User Guide. Unfortunately, both systems have to be functional for this to work. After the transfer, any old backups will no longer work. From the user guide:

If you back up data on a PS3™ system and then transfer data to another PS3™ system using the data transfer utility, copy-prohibited saved data that is included in the backup data cannot be restored on either system.

Unfortunately, you can't just swap hard drives between systems. According to this thread requesting this feature, it looks like the PS3 encrypts the internal drive with a key that is unique to each physical system. This key can't be transferred.

Good luck!