Backup Xbox 360 Saves to Flash Drive

You can copy saves for many games from your Xbox 360 to a flash drive. This process doesn't work with every game.

Note #1: This tutorial assumes that you are using an Xbox 360 console updated to the newest available version at the time of this writing (May 28, 2013).

Note #2: The 360 sometimes saves game data as part of your console / Xbox Live profile. Because you cannot copy this profile, this tutorial will not cover profiles.

Preparing the Flash Drive

You need a flash drive that is supported by the Xbox 360. According to info from the 'Configure USB Device' screen (discussed below), this flash drive must be 1GB or larger. All flash drives used with the 360 must be configured before copying save data.

If you have an oddly-shaped flash drive, you may need to plug it into the back of the system if there are any available USB ports.

Plug-in your flash drive and turn your system on. From the home screen (where you'll see stuff like 'Open Tray' and multiple advertisements):

1. Press RB ('Right Button') six times
2. Using the left thumbstick (or pad), select 'System' by pressing A
3. Select 'Storage' from the menu that appears
4. Select your flash drive from the list (should say 'USB Storage Device')

If options are grayed out, it means that you cannot use the flash drive with your 360.

There should be two options available.

• Configure Now will wipe your flash drive & use "up to 32 GB" (according to the option text) of your flash drive
• Customize will not wipe your hard drive and you can devote a specific amount of space to 360 storage

From Hard Drive to Flash Drive

Plug-in your flash drive and turn your system on. From the home screen (where you'll see stuff like 'Open Tray' and multiple advertisements):

1. Press RB ('Right Button') six times
2. Using the left thumbstick (or pad), select 'System' by pressing A
3. Select 'Storage' from the menu that appears
4. Select 'Hard Drive' 
5. Select 'Games and Apps'
6. Games that you have save data for will be shown: select a game
7. Select your saved game
8. Select 'Copy' and the 'Memory Unit' device

If you select a saved game that cannot be copied, the 360 will show an error message.

From Flash Drive to HD

To restore saved games, you mostly follow the steps from the 'From Hard Drive to Flash Drive' section. Instead of selecting 'Hard Drive' at step 4, select your memory unit.

Where Are My Saves?

Your saves will be located in the XBOX directory of the flash drive. Due to how 360 saves are stored, save files are not individual stored as separate files.

Backup Wii Saves & Channels To SD Card

Backing up saves and channels for the Nintendo Wii is an easy but fairly time-consuming process. It also won't allow you to backup every save file (more on this later). If you own a Wii Mini (the red & black one), you are probably out of luck because the Wii Mini has no SD card slot.

You will need a SD card compatible with the Nintendo Wii. Nintendo Wii General Information has details on what the Wii supports, but you have to click on 'SD Cards' and then 'Which SD Cards are Compatible With the Wii Console?'

If you have a compatible SD card reader for your PC, you can read the save files off of it after you transfer them.

Make sure that you insert the SD Card into your Nintendo Wii before starting.

Copying Saves from System to a SD Card

 From the Wii Menu / Main Menu:

1. Hover over 'Wii Options' (lower-left corner) and press A to go to the Wii Options screen
2. Go to 'Data Management'
3. Go to 'Save Data'
4. Go to 'Wii' (the Wii tab of the next page should already be highlighted)
5. Select a save file & follow the on-screen prompts (you will likely want to Copy the save)

Copying Channels from System to a SD Card

From the Wii Menu / Main Menu:

1. Hover over 'Wii Options' (lower-left corner) and press A to go to the Wii Options screen
2. Go to 'Data Management'
3. Go to 'Channels'
4. Select a channel & follow the on-screen prompts (you will likely want to Copy the channel)

As far as I know, saves are not included with channels. You have to backup the save for each channel that you 

Copying Channels or Saves from a SD Card

The process for restoring a save/channel is mostly the same as copying it in the first place. When you get to the screen with your saves (or channels), select 'SD Card' in the upper-right corner of the screen.

Where Are My Saves?

On your SD card, your saves are located at:
private\wii\title

It gets a little complicated after that. It seems like every game has a four-letter folder name associated with it.

What Saves Can't Be Transferred?

Many saves cannot be copied or moved to a SD card. Examples include Mario Kart Wii, Super Smash Bros. Brawl, and Dr. Mario Online RX. All of the non-copyable games that I own have online play, so the save files are possibly locked-down to help prevent cheating. Cheating still occurs, so I don't quite know what Nintendo were thinking...

Backup Playstation 3 Saves

For the most part, backing up individual Playstation 3 save files is easy. And believe it or not, backing up saves for 'normal' PS3 games and minis is very similar to how you Backup PS2 Classic saves and how you Backup PS one Classic saves.

 I say "for the most part" because you cannot backup certain types of saves individually. I will get to that in a little bit. For now, I'll walk you through the PS3 save backup process.

What You Will Need

You will need a flash drive with enough space for the save(s) you are saving. Save file sized can vary wildly. Some are around 100KB (kilobytes) in size, while others can be much larger.

Make sure that this flash drive is formatted as FAT or FAT32. You can check this on your computer before starting.

Backup Individual PS3 Saves

 From PS3 to Flash Drive

Make sure that your system is on.

1. Connect your flash drive to the PS3
2. Go to the Game menu on the PS3 menu
3. Using a controller, scroll-up in the Game menu until 'Saved Data Utility (PS3)' is highlighted
4. Press X
5. Keep pressing Square until individual saves appear (no folder icons except for 'Online storage')
6. Select the save file you want to copy
7. Press Triangle and select the 'Copy' option with X
8. Follow the on-screen prompts (your flash drive should be near the top of the device list)
9. Remove the flash drive from the PS3

Games will commonly have multiple save files. You'll have to backup each individual one that you want to keep. For example, WipEout HD has individual save files for 'ghost ship data,' so you'll want to back those up if you want to keep your ghosts.

From Flash Drive to PS3

Make sure that your system is on.

1. Connect your flash drive to the PS3
2. Go to the games menu on the PS3 menu (the header just says 'Game' and shows a controller)
3. Using a controller, scroll-up in the Game menu until 'Saved Data Utility (PS3)' is highlighted
4. Press X, highlight the device (should be 2nd from top), and press X again
5. Highlight the game that you want to backup
6. Press Triangle and select the 'Copy' option with X
7. Follow the on-screen prompts
8. Remove the flash drive from the PS3

Backup Individual 'minis' Saves

The process for backing-up and restoring saves for minis games is the same as the process for backing up 'normal' saves. They are located in the 'Saved Data Utility (minis/PSP)' folder.

Where Are My Saves?

The backup process creates a 'PS3' folder in the root of your flash drive. Your PS3 saves are located at:

PS3\SAVEDATA\

Each save has its own folder with multiple files.

I'm not sure how minis are backed-up. I'll update this article once I do.

What Cannot Be Saved (Individually)?

There are saves for certain games that cannot be backed-up individually. These are located in the 'Game Data Utility' folder. Some of the items in this folder aren't even save games: installed data and DLC are also included. LittleBigPlanet and LittleBigPlanet 2 have locked-down saves, presumably because they also contain DLC data.

To backup these files, you must use the Backup Utility.

Backup PS1 Saves on Playstation 3

The process for backing-up PS one Classic (PS1) save files on PS3 is very similar to how you Backup PS2 Classic Saves on Playstation 3. The only major difference is how the PS3 presents your PS1 saves: they're not organized by game. Instead, each individual save file has its own picture and name. This is how PS1 saves looked on previous systems.

What You Will Need

You will need to use a flash drive with enough space left for your saves. PS1 saves are usually very small, but in the unlikely event that your flash drive fills during backup, the PS3 will show an error.

If your flash drive is NTFS, you will need to reformat it to FAT or (preferably) FAT32. You'll lose all data on your drive when you format it, so please backup your flash drive's data.

Backup Individual Saves

 From PS3 to Flash Drive

Make sure that your system is on.

1. Plug-in your flash drive
2. Go to the Game menu on the PS3 menu
3. Using a controller, scroll-up in the Game menu until 'Memory Card Utility' is highlighted
4. Press X, then highlight your internal memory card which is probably called 'Main Memory Card (PS1)'
5. Press X again and select the save file you want to copy
6. Press Triangle and select the 'Copy' option with X
7. Follow the on-screen prompts
8. Remove the flash drive from the PS3

From Flash Drive to PS3

Make sure that your system is on.

1. Plug-in your flash drive
2. Go to the games menu on the PS3 menu (the header just says 'Game' and shows a controller)
3. Using a controller, scroll-up in the Game menu until 'Memory Card Utility' is highlighted
4. Press X, highlight the device (should be at the top), and press X again
5. Highlight the game that you want to backup
6. Press Triangle and select the 'Copy' option with X
7. Follow the on-screen prompts
8. Remove the flash drive from the PS3

Where Are My Saves?

The backup process creates a folder named 'PS3' in the root of your flash drive. Your PS one Classic saves are located at:

PS3\EXPORT\PSV

All of the PS one saves that you transfer will be in the PSV folder, and each save file has a .psv extension.