Took a break for a while, and now I'm back. What to do?

Hey guys, so the last time I fired up my PS3 was to play FIFA 13 last year, and then school and other work started up piling up and I also built a PC which has been taking up some of my time. But I want to get back into making use of my launch-day 60 GB PS3 which is currently on 3.55 CFW. I especially want to play The Last of Us and don't mind signing up for a premium account to get it.

My question is, what should my plan of action be? I want to upgrade my internal hard drive, probably to 1 TB like this one:
http://www.amazon.com/WD-Blue-Mobile...pr_product_top

And then I'm guessing I should just FTP all my games over to the internal? Right now they're sitting on an external that I have to unplug from the PS3, plug to my computer to download and extract the games, and then plug back into the PS3. It's a bit of a hassle and I'd much rather have everything on the internal PS3 drive.

Can I back up what's currently on my internal drive? I don't mind starting new with a 1 TB fresh start.

Also, what's your 'workflow' like? Just so that I can be the most efficient with downloading and getting games to the PS3.

And is it currently possible to play online with CFW? I've been playing offline ever since I got 3.55 CFW so I have no idea.

Any thoughts and suggestions are greatly appreciated. Thanks!