PS3 Is it possible to clone an internal PS3 HDD?

[gamba66]

As my Title suggests: I currently own a CECHA01 with Rebug 4.82 CFW and tons of games and homebrew on a 500GB internal that I swapped with the 60gb at some point.

Now I just build my computer and have a left-over 1TB drive and I would like to use it for the PS3.

Is it possible to directly clone the internal drive to the 1TB or do I have to manually backup the files and replay them on to the 1TB one?

Reason I am asking is because I have often found people writing it is not possible since the PS3 encrypts the drive.

I would be very grateful for any help

 

[stinger1011]

Yes you may use an external USB sata caddy, dex qa menu option debug for HDD transfer utility. So long as the destination drive(the one in the USB caddy) is larger than the one internally, and as long as the PS3 can use said caddy then yes u may copy from one hdd to the next I've done it myself many times. However it is relatively trivial to remove said internal HDD and copy it from a desktop computer or likewise, at least without the Eid root key, you would still need to dump the one hdd, install and prep the new HDD in the PS3, then get the Eid root key then copy the extracted contents from old HDD to new HDD if possible to write to new HDD(which I think only dumping is possible ATM via computer software because yes the PS3 uses a funky system and encryption methods) much much much easier to just use the inbuilt dex qa menu option to do the exchange.

 

[Berion]

@stinger1011 He ask about cloning HDD which indeed is impossible (for various of reasons) not moving data on fs. Only possible clone is SBS copy but he will end with the same size as on original which is pointless in this matter.

There is no reason to dump ERK every time You change HDD because it is the same. It is part of PS3 firmware, unique per console unit, not per installation of fw/HDD. Or maybe I didn't understood Your post.

 

[DUDUŚ]

@stinger1011 He ask about cloning HDD which indeed is impossible (for various of reasons).

it is possible only if u have a two the same SATA WesternDigital (Blue, Red, Black) HDD (with the same firmware and capaticy)... not SSD or SSHD ... as i remember u must flash firmware using hddhackr (yes that used for xbox 360 for more space). I know because I had two identical disks

@Berion u wrote some time ago, that ps3 store hdd ids on flash. therefore, it was the first thought that came to mind.

 

[Berion]

You didn't understood me or I wasn't precise enough. Technically You can always clone sector by sector devices, whatever they are (SSD included). But in PS3 case, You will not be able to extend "game partition" using free sectors because PS3 don't doing it and no one wrote homebrew for that on PS3 or PC side (also it is one of the partitions in the middle of drive so since PS3 fw doesn't support LVM, it demand to move "dev_hdd1" ( game/fw upd cache) and if exist "dev_hdd2" (OtherOS partition)). So if user will make SBS copy and write it on larger media, it will be in the same size as in old which is pointless in other purposes than data recovery scenario (which is pointless more if user have dumped ERK).

Cloning in meaning of copy data from occupied sectors written in fs tables is currently impossible because:

1. we don't understand whole logic (mostly VFLASH area which is device image written raw on partition and encrypted second layer; and empty islands (none encrypted areas filled by zeroes in most cases))
2. we don't know how to rebuild it from scratch
   
3. almost whole HDD is encrypted per console keys which must be dumped and algos depend of model family (excluding GEX units on which ATA and VFLASH keys are always the same and in the same way used for encryption)

- - -

X360 case is totally different. Their HDDs aren't encrypted and their easy to understand mappings, including FATX, is rather easy to crate from scratch. The problem with those HDDs are that console read they signing which based on i.e HDD fw version. We haven't private key used to forge that sign (put somewhere in MBR, don't remember now, so I could be wrong) so we cannot changed HDDs. Why then only WD? Because for few models their service software allowing to change some data in SA, allowing user to fake this information, matching to old HDD so X360 thinks it is the same drive. If we have that key, then we would be able to prepare any drive, including cloning (of course it still needs dedicated app for that, not any cloning software for PC stuff).

- - -

Well, in summary. Every platform have it's own "issues". Some are very hard to beat because they are part of security ecosystem (like i.e PS3 or X360), some easier like i.e NVidia Shield (which using GPT from last sectors, not first, so many peoples thinking that hard drive change is impossible ;p). Cloning is always possible if we goes strictly to this word meaning but limited usage by closed environment.

 

[stinger1011]

I understand that you don't need to dump erk every time just mentioned if you were to view extract info from the internal hdd on say a PC you nee the erk. You probably misinterpreted what I was saying about using the debug for HDD exchange option in the dex QA menu on cfw. I've used this option many times in fact I just used the option to swap a 20gb HDD I had been using to a 250gb one with zero data loss other than trophy info, retained installed games users and savegames etc. That's all I was mentioning about "cloning" the HDD as that's the only way I know it possible to clone most info off the PS3 internal as that option essentially clones the internal HDD to a USB caddy with a bigger HDD in it and allows you to install the USB HDD internally after running the debug exchange utility. I understand it probably wasn't what op was inquiring however this is the only way I found to essentially clone the internal hdd so you can swap it out with little to no data loss as you need to originally format any HDD you install internally into a ps3.

 

[H3N7R1K]

As my Title suggests: I currently own a CECHA01 with Rebug 4.82 CFW and tons of games and homebrew on a 500GB internal that I swapped with the 60gb at some point.

Now I just build my computer and have a left-over 1TB drive and I would like to use it for the PS3.

Is it possible to directly clone the internal drive to the 1TB or do I have to manually backup the files and replay them on to the 1TB one?

Reason I am asking is because I have often found people writing it is not possible since the PS3 encrypts the drive.

I would be very grateful for any help

I use the Orico HDD docking station to clone my drives if you clone to a bigger HDD let's say 80gb to 1tb you'll have to rebuild database afterwords for the drive to mount correctly

 

[Berion]

@H3N7R1K If You will clone (make SBS image and write it) from 80GB drive on 1TB drive, You will still have 80GB size capacity. And rebuild database will not help You because it is... unrelated. Databases describing abstracts from filesystem, while You need edit partition table and resize user partition to get rest of disk size, which not possible due to lack of tools.