Internal memory cards

Internal memory cards on the PS3 are used to store Playstation and Playstation 2 data (e.g. PS2 game saves). A PS2 card stores up to 8MB, and a PS1 card up to 120KB.

Because these cards emulate the older Playstation hardware, they have been given a concept of slots. It works in the same way you would plug a physical memory card into a slot on a PS2; now you assign the Internal Memory Card to a virtual slot. A card must be assigned to a slot to be available for use when playing PS/PS2 games.

Create an internal memory card

  1. Go to the “Game” menu and choose Memory Card Utility[Screenshot]
  2. Choose New internal memory card[Screenshot]
  3. Choose which card type of want—Playstation (PS) or Playstation 2 (PS2)[Screenshot]
  4. Enter a new name for the card if you wish (you can always change it later)[Screenshot]
  5. You will be informed that the card must be assigned to a slot to be used[Screenshot]
  6. The new card will now be showing in the menu[Screenshot]

Assign a card to a slot

  1. Find the card you want to assign and go to its options (Triangle controller button)
  2. Choose the Assign Slots option[Screenshot]
  3. Assign it to Slot 1 or Slot 2[Screenshot]. If it’s already assigned you may choose to Remove it here
  4. The memory card will now be shown in the menu with a number next to it (a circled “1″ or “2″)[Screenshot]. This allows you to browse the cards you have and see which are currently assigned

Browse card contents

  1. Select the memory card you want to browse
  2. If the card is empty you will get a “There is no saved data” message[Screenshot]
  3. Otherwise you should see the content items, like game save files[Screenshot]. Each file should have a title and show its filesize and modification date. PS2 game saves typically have small 3D models that correspond to the game, like a prince from “We Love Katamari”
  4. Go to the options (Triangle controller button) of an item to Copy or Delete it. You can copy to a new memory card, an existing memory card, or a USB drive

Related articles

Screenshots

  • “Memory Card Utility” in Game menu
  • Create a new internal card
  • Select the type of the card
  • Give the memory card a name if you want
  • Message that the card needs to be assigned to a slot
  • Newly created card now showing in menu
  • New PS1 card showing in menu
  • Browsing the new, empty memory card
  • Internal memory card options
  • Assign the card to a slot
  • Card now assigned (note the circled number “2″)
  • Browsing a card containing data
  • Options for a game save file
  • Game save information/details
  • Delete data confirmation
  • Select copy destination

Comments

  1. 1
    Fruition • November 8th, 2007 at 9:32 am

    Does anyone know… Is it possible to get the virtual memory card file off of the PS3? Say, for example, I wanted to share my internal memory card with another PS3. Could this be done?

    Furthermore, does anyone know the file extension of the virtual memory card file for the PS1?

  2. 2
    Flame • November 8th, 2007 at 5:40 pm

    Hi Fruition. That’s a good suggestion for a PS3Explained article!

    You can copy the individual files off an internal memory card to a USB drive–go to the options of each file and choose Copy, selecting the USB device as destination.

    Then you can find the USB device listed under Memory Cards. Browse it and you can copy the files back to an internal memory card.

  3. 3
    Flame • November 8th, 2007 at 7:14 pm

    Also, when I copied a PS1 save (Crash Team Racing) to USB it had a .psv file extension, same as a PS2 file.

  4. 4
    MainManMoon • November 25th, 2007 at 2:04 am

    For those that dont know, to get the save from a USB, you must frist make 3 folders. Frist being a PS3, next called EXPORT inside that folder and the next called PSV inside that folder on the USB or Flash Disk drive. Simply place the .psv files in the PSV folder and then you will be able to access them on the PS3

  5. 5
    Ben • November 30th, 2007 at 3:14 pm

    Does anyone know where to download .psv files?

  6. 6
    dan • February 4th, 2008 at 8:50 pm

    if i deleted my card can i get it back

  7. 7
    Flame • February 4th, 2008 at 10:39 pm

    dan, no there is no undo…

  8. 8
    Brendon • February 23rd, 2008 at 6:51 pm

    I recently bought a Playstation 1 game called Final Fantasy Chronicles which is FF 4 and Chrono Trigger. I have also created an internal memory card through Memory Card Utility for PS. I have it assigned to slot one and it is empty. I play the game and I do not see any save feature in the game itself so I figure it must auto-save. But when i go to check my internal memory card for Final Fantasy Chronicles data there is no save data. Can anyone help me successfully save my Playstation 1 game?

    Thanks

  9. 9
    MoreGrease • February 24th, 2008 at 12:57 am

    Old games rarely (or perhaps never) autosave, as the save space was limited and thus would require you to choose what blocks to save in, usually. Check the manual, if you have it, for how to save those games.

  10. 10
    Flame • March 7th, 2008 at 10:20 pm

    Brendon: The Final Fantasy games I’ve played don’t have auto-save but “save points” at various spots in the game. Often the first save point is quite a way into the game! e.g. 30-60 mins. You’ll know it when you get the option though.

  11. 11
    Azn • April 25th, 2008 at 4:10 pm

    Okay, here’s a question. How can you take save files used off an emulator (like .gme or .mcr format) and convert them to .psv format which is the only type of format ps3s recognize. I’ve recently come across a few game saves online that I’d like to try out but it seems that the save files aren’t recognizable by the ps3. Can anyone help me?

  12. 12
    neji50 • May 6th, 2008 at 5:54 pm

    i was just wondering if there is a way to take a saved data from an internal memory card created for ps1 games to an internal memory card created for ps2 games like if i wanted to take suikoden 2 saved data and upload it to suikoden 3 it needs to be on my ps2 memory card cause i cant figure out how to get both cards in the slots at one time?

  13. 13
    Flame • May 6th, 2008 at 7:11 pm

    neji50: Well PS1 saves/cards would not be compatible with PS2 games. Even if you could move the file to the memory card, the game would not read it.

  14. 14
    John • June 2nd, 2008 at 6:28 am

    Hi, I wonder if you can help me. I’ve searched everywhere and can’t seem to find any mention of this problem: I’m trying to create an internal memory card on my PS3. I follow the steps but each time I reach the stage of naming the card nothing else happens after, it just returns me to the naming screen (this happens when I try NOT renaming the internal memory card too…). I never get the option of assigning a slot - I’ve never seen that screen before seeing the picture above.

    So, any ideas please? Any help would be greatly appreciated, my gf wants to save her Crash Bandicoot game and I’m getting it in the neck because she can’t…

    Thanks,

    John

  15. 15
    Gi • June 3rd, 2008 at 12:04 pm

    Is it possible to use a ps1-emulator-save game on a ps3? I want to play FFIX again, but my ps3 fails to read a few parts on cd 1 which my dvd-burner reads without any problems.. I really don’t want to buy FFIX a third time just because one cd is damaged..

  16. 16
    Elle • June 12th, 2008 at 6:58 pm

    I’m having the same problem as John…any help would be most appreciated

  17. 17
    John • June 13th, 2008 at 7:23 am

    I’ve solved it Ellie. Embarrassingly enough, I simply had to enter the name, press start, and then in the screen where it shows the new name you’ve given the internal memory card press down - so that the “Ok” becomes highlighted - then press X.

    Previously I’d been pressing X when the memory card’s name was highlighted - which then obviously just takes you back into re-entering the name. Whoops… Hope that helps anyway.

  18. 18
    Joe • June 19th, 2008 at 3:21 am

    I’m having the same problem as Gi, but with Final Fantasy 8. I actually managed to convert my saved game from psv to mcs. Using a very cool program called psv exporter. I then managed to convert the file to the PC version of the saved game file using PSXMemTools. I got past the part my game was freezing at. Now I just need something to go back to psv or some other format the PS3 will recognize. Anyone got any suggestions. Thanks in advance.

  19. 19
    Jess • July 19th, 2008 at 10:26 am

    I’m having a problem with saving God of War 2. I’ve created an internal memory card, assigned it to a slot, and it’s totally empty. However when I get to the first save point, it says ‘No Memory Card Found in Slot 1 or 2.’ At the same time, under the PS menu and under ‘Assign Slots’ it says ‘There are no internal memory cards.’ Any ideas? I’m getting really sick of playing the first stage over and over again! Thanks!

  20. 20
    charles • August 6th, 2008 at 1:26 pm

    I have recently bought a ps3 and have been playing my old ps1 games and was wondering where i could get a ps3 virtual memory save for FF:Anthology and FF:Chronicles(mainly Chrono TRigger)?

  21. 21
    Ryan • September 23rd, 2008 at 1:11 pm

    hi im having a problem witn my virtual memory card. I downloaded final fantasy 7 in psv format. It shows on the memory card bit but when i start the game up the data isnt there. Can anyone help me?

  22. 22
    Anto • September 24th, 2008 at 10:27 pm

    I’m Wondering Where do you Download psv Format. Because i want a Crash Bandicoot One and More.Can Any One Help Me????

  23. 23
    Cortez560 • October 6th, 2008 at 1:11 pm

    Yeah can anyone tell me a site where i can download psv files ?
    I’d like to play with Nitrous Oxide in ctr, cause i’ve never tried it…

  24. 24
    cemozge • October 20th, 2008 at 2:51 pm

    I have the original 60gb PS3 that was released & have recently been playing PS2 game Devil May Cry 3 on it. I created the internal memory card & was saving the data without any problems for about 6 missions. For some reason, the last couple of times i’ve gone to play it, it wont auto load the data & says ‘no memory card inserted’. I get the same message if i try to manually load. But if i look at the saved data in the PS3 menu, i can see it there. My friend is having the same problem with a different PS2 game.
    Does anyone know what this could be?

  25. 25
    Jonno • October 25th, 2008 at 5:21 am

    hey i have just downloaded a psv file for final fantasy x done all the folder things and have copied to the ps3, but when i actually go into the game the save file does not appear in any of the slots….please help as i thought this was meant to be an easy process

  26. 26
    Ben • December 18th, 2008 at 4:07 am

    hello.
    My brother has a problem with his PS3; it seems that his games won’t load their memory files anymore.. I think my brother or someone had created a ps1/2 internal memory card slot.. and then deleted it.. The PS3 no longer loads files. I’d save Call of Duty 4 file… then the next day when I attempt to load it; it won’t load.. it’d take me back to the start. Help would be much appreciated.

    Cheers, Ben.

  27. 27
    Hayley • December 21st, 2008 at 1:40 am

    I’m having a problem with my internal memory card. At first I tried to use saved PS2 data but it said there was no memory card in slot a. So I followed the instructions to make a new one, and it just keeps loading. After I name it I press ok and then screen is blank except for the graphic that is always in the background. Its been that way for about an hour.

  28. 28
    Jester • December 29th, 2008 at 1:23 pm

    Does anyone know where to get new internal memory?

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