PS3 [REQUEST] Please Be on the Lookout for Playstation Home Cache Data

DeViL303

DeViL303

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PSX-Place Supporter
Callout to anyone who might have an old PS3 console that has not been formatted since 2015 or earlier and still has Home installed. Or maybe system backups from 2007 to March 31, 2015.

Also please, if you are ever buying/repairing/selling consoles, before formatting the HDD, do me a massive favor and check the PSN Category for the Home icon. To confirm Home is really installed as the icon can show on some firmwares even when its not installed, press triangle on the icon and go to 'Information' to see the size. If it allows you to do this and it shows a size, it means it's installed.

In my opinion, preserving PlayStation Home data is incredibly important for historical and nostalgic reasons. Between the JohnDrinkWater server dumps, Alphazone files, the portion of donated cache data that Destination Home has made public so far, and the stuff collected by Home Laboratory/Home Headquarters, Some of the data has been recovered, enough to rebuild a working online CDN which is a significant achievement. The online experience is really coming on in leaps and bounds.

If you do think you might have an old console lying around please note:

The important data is normally in dev_hdd0/game/NPIA00005/USRDIR/CACHE/ for open beta retail versions.

In rare cases you might have one of these folders which are for developer versions or closed beta stages.
  • dev_hdd0/game/NPEA00013/
  • dev_hdd0/game/NPIA00010/

Note as Home cache data can sometimes have thousands of tiny files, it can sometimes be difficult to dump it over FTP, if you have issues like there there is a small application here that might help: https://www.psx-place.com/threads/playstation-3-file-dumper-v1-00-http-needs-wmm.47119/

Here is our public archive of the data collected so far: https://huggingface.co/datasets/pebxcvi/PSHomeCacheDepot

You can see more detailed information on some of the data have have collected so far on this slightly PS3 XMB inspired site here, this is the content that is live in game now : http://psho.me
 
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Ok I have a ps3 fat model cechk01 with firmware version 4.55 and it has ps home version 1.82.

There is Is file size 3057 MB of data created 8/20/2013 it says, is this useful to the project?

If I update the firmware to latest evilnat 4.92 will the data be lost? Want to make sure of the correct action in order to retrieve any relevant data.
 
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Awesome, you can safely update it and then dump the full NPIA00005 folder from dev_hdd0/game/.

Thanks for thinking of us.
 
Status update ps3 updated to latest evilnat 4.92cfw (thanks for the fantastic tools as always bg).

NPIA00005 folder with 7100+ (3gb) over 170 minutes of files being copied to usb now using mmcm file manager. This Will take some time. Lol

There's another folder called NPIA00005data do you require this one as well???

Any other files I should look into as well for preservation?
 
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Nope, unfortunately only the one folder.

This is going to take a while...

Features request:

a tool that will scan the ps3 and skip known files and only add unknown files from certain folders for whatever preservation files we may be looking for based off of a database of known files. This would save a lot of time & duplicate content being copied and sent around.
Maybe an option allow direct upload and audit before adding to the database any new files found or save and compres for upload manually type deal.

Just a thought while I wait many hours for copy to complete.... Lol for the second attempt as something stopped the first attempt 1.25gb in and shut down the ps3.
 
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Oh damn, If you are having issues, I have another tool here made to dump the files via webman mods HTTP server, this can be better for all the small files sometimes.

https://github.com/DeViL303/Playstation-3-File-Dumper/releases/tag/PS3

You just need webman mod running on PS3 and then run that on a windows PC on the same LAN as PS3..

I must get a thread added here for that.


Edit: https://www.psx-place.com/threads/playstation-3-file-dumper-v1-00-http-needs-wmm.47119/

upload_2025-3-15_13-3-47.png
 
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Lol, I got it. I think a bad controller plugged in and connected caused the first abort. Just need to pack it and link it for you. I'll try and get that done this weekend.

Thanks for realeasing a tool that makes this more streamlined. I'll try it out next time. :) great job as always!
 
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