PS3 Forcing me to format the System

saco_web

saco_web

Member
PS3 Super Slim
HEN 3.2.2
Webman Mod 1.47.45

Hello, I wanted to buy a game from the ps store, but I have not used my console for almost a year, so It told me I need to update the firmware, but because I have HFW a message appears that I should not do It or something like that, so I went to some of the hen tools, and downloaded and installed the update from there. Reset the console, tried to go to ps store and same message appears that I need FW update, checked FW version and It was 4.90 after the update (I knew I was in 4.89 before). So I downloaded the 4.91 FW from the PS page and installed It with a USB stick. Tried again and this time I could buy the game, tried to download it and it showed me an error message, I googled It and It tells to enter Safe Mode and do a Restore File System because It was safe, did all of that and when the progression bar reach 43% It tells me that It need to format the HDD...

Is there any way to save that data? Cloning or something like that? I have 10 years of games and saves, thousands of hours through all of those games T__T (I did a HDD replacement like 3 years ago so the HDD Its not that old)
 
A clone might work but you need to do a 1 to 1 clone and copy every block on the drive since its encrypted. You can go to the saved data utility under games and backup your saves to a usb or use the backup utility under system settings and backup the whole system
 
If you have psn+, you can retrieve your saves from the cloud. After losing all my saves on the switch, when the system failed, I vowed to have a PSN or NSO account at all times just for cloud saving. It's free on Xbox though.
 
If your drive has bad sectors or is damaged, it might already be too late. Plug it into a computer (do not initialize it) and check its S.M.A.R.T. values. I'm unsure if any superslim drive can be saved, iirc you can dump the eid root key on CFW only.

There are two types of people: those who make backups and those who will start making backups. May this serve as an opportunity to learn to make frequent backups of data important to you.
 
If you stuck in recovery without way to booting to XMB, then consider all data as already lost. Cloning will help nothing because broken logic structure will be exactly the same on cloned drive, so that advice was bad.

You can make sector by sector image of disk in current state and keep it somewhere safe, waiting for a day when you will be able read decryption keys and extract data from it, in a way like eg. described here:
https://www.psx-place.com/threads/tutorial-hdd-mounting-and-decryption-on-linux.23308/
 
Berion said:
If you stuck in recovery without way to booting to XMB, then consider all data as already lost. Cloning will help nothing because broken logic structure will be exactly the same on cloned drive, so that advice was bad.

You can make sector by sector image of disk in current state and keep it somewhere safe, waiting for a day when you will be able read decryption keys and extract data from it, in a way like eg. described here:
https://www.psx-place.com/threads/tutorial-hdd-mounting-and-decryption-on-linux.23308/
Click to expand...

Sorry for the extremely delayed response. Does this count as "booting to XMB"? :apologetic:

https://ibb.co/wpqVpGB
https://ibb.co/1X2Qpbn

Also why it could happen? what did i do wrong?
 
Last edited:
saco_web said:
Sorry for the extremely delayed response. Does this count as "booting to XMB"? :apologetic:

https://ibb.co/wpqVpGB
https://ibb.co/1X2Qpbn

Also why it could happen? what did i do wrong?
Click to expand...
This looks like a recovery screen so unless I'm wrong, no, it doesn't count as booting to XMB / main menu of PS3.
What did you do wrong? You probably did nothing wrong. Nothing lasts forever, and hard drives are no exception. Chances are an important sector of a drive has gone bad. Like I wrote in my previous post, you should check the drive's S.M.A.R.T. values to be sure.
 
Izofeu said:
This looks like a recovery screen so unless I'm wrong, no, it doesn't count as booting to XMB / main menu of PS3.
What did you do wrong? You probably did nothing wrong. Nothing lasts forever, and hard drives are no exception. Chances are an important sector of a drive has gone bad. Like I wrote in my previous post, you should check the drive's S.M.A.R.T. values to be sure.
Click to expand...

I did a full scan with HDD regenerator and it was completely ok, and its a 3 yo seagate HDD, little use. So I am almost sure that is not a HDD failure :(
 
saco_web said:
I did a full scan with HDD regenerator and it was completely ok, and its a 3 yo seagate HDD, little use. So I am almost sure that is not a HDD failure :(
Click to expand...

Izofeu said:
Plug it into a computer (do not initialize it) and check its S.M.A.R.T. values.
Click to expand...

Izofeu said:
Like I wrote in my previous post, you should check the drive's S.M.A.R.T. values to be sure.
Click to expand...

Repeating for the 3rd time: check S.M.A.R.T. values.
 
@saco_web Whatever happened to disk and data on it, you cannot get data out of it currently. That's because your PS3 not booting normally and because you cannot read EID Root Key due to HEN limitations (maybe in future it will be).

What you can do is making sector by sector disk image on PC (or mirror it to another drive, doesn't matter) and waiting for a day when you will be able to dump ERK key which allow you to decrypt disk image (which means also getting out saves etc.). After that, format HDD (after confirming its health is still good, which you didn't yet) and hack it again, starting from scratch with everything. Keep disk image in save place.

Lesson for you from that story is to start making backups, especially from environments you not controlling.
 
Btw, if the HDD has gone bad, you can set a couple hours as non-active kinda like windows' where your content will redownload on a new HDD during that time. Iirc, I think the PS3 will only download content while the system is on the xmb. The non-active hour time will turn your system on automatically at that time to download content or sync trophies or save to cloud. It's not as good as say the PS4 or 5, but it gets the job done. Funny thing is that my original switch died when I turned on the system to buy yooka-laylee from the eshop, so I was in the same boat. Not having NSO, I lost my saves. Only problem is PSN+ is a ripoff. They should have another, cheaper tier without the monthly games. Most are shit anyway.
 
I knew it wasnt a hdd failure, and I am still kinda pissed off by what happened, I did exactly what I was doing for years.
I remember I did a backup of some save files like 6 years ago, almost useless, but still. With this, I now have learned that I have to make backups every time I am going to update the firmware, thanks to all by the way. I will make a disk image clone, hoping one day I can recover those save files
 
I'm not sure what happened, but like I said, if you have psn+, you can do cloud saving daily at a two hour interval you specify. It also backs up trophies. The PS3 will turn on at some point in that interval and upload, then shut off unless you intervene. I realize PSN+ is a ripoff, especially if all you want it for is cloud saving, so that's why I wish they offered a budget tier without the free games, just for cloud and playing online.
 
A better idea is to learn to regularly make local backups yourself. They're free and you're not reliant on someone else's computer which is what cloud storage is. You can still get your account banned and have your saves go with it, but noone can take away your local backups :)
 
saco_web said:
and I am still kinda pissed off by what happened, I did exactly what I was doing for years.
Click to expand...
dev_hdd1 is partition which is daily used by games and updater. It have FAT32, which can be easily broken. Instead reformat it, PS3 want to reformat whole disk... Eventually dev_hdd0 which using UFS2 goes corrupted but that's hardly to do without turning off PS3 by force during writing.

On CFW that is fixable if user have ERK.
 
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