Not likely.

there are people that have already decrypted the ps3 hdd

but its not very useful at the moe

exFAT is not the file system of the PS3, or you WOULD be able to get ISO files larger than 4GB on to the HDD; RIGHT NOW.  However, the The file system, for PS3 is only Fat32 derived.   exFAT (Extended File Allocation Table), is for VISTA, and is suited especially for flash drives that were introduced with Windows Embedded CE 6.0.

exFAT is used where the NTFS file system is not a feasible solution, due to data structures overhead.

Extended file allocation table (exFAT) is a new file system that is better adapted to the growing needs of mobile personal storage. The exFAT file system not only handles large files, such as those used for media storage, it enables seamless interoperability between desktop PCs and devices such as portable media devices so that files can easily be copied between desktop and device. In addition, exFAT can be adopted with minimal effort. The exFAT file system encapsulates standard FAT and TFAT functionality.

The exFAT system offers the following advantages:

    * Enables the file system to handle growing capacities in media, increasing capacity to 32 GB and larger.
    * Handles more than 1000 files in a single directory.
    * Speeds up storage allocation processes.
    * Removes the previous file size limit of 4 GB.
    * Supports interoperability with future desktop OSs.
    * Provides an extensible format, including OEM-definable parameters to customize the file system for specific device characteristics.

ohhhhh sandymac drops the bomb. man u always jus pop in every once in a while

Hi Guys,

My Friends PS3 died recently so have been looking around about trying to access his Harddrive to recover the saved games.
I obviously realise now that it is not possible to read the PS3 Harddrive on your PC due to Encryption but i was just wondering, Could the PS3 read the HardDrive?

By this i mean, If you put the old Harddrive into a HardDrive Caddy and connected it to the PS3 via USB do you think the PS3 would read the drive......Has Anyone Tried this???

Many Thanks
Alan

PSN: ZONALRIPPER

Hey powerslave (asking an honest question), why is that Sony does allow us to access the files placed on the HDD. I find it stupid because some games (like rockband 2) and "copying prohibited" - which btw is retarded - and wouldn't it make more sense to just allow you to take out your HDD and place it into another one...if you are like me and had your ps3 die on you recently.

JoN- wrote:

Hey powerslave (asking an honest question), why is that Sony does allow us to access the files placed on the HDD. I find it stupid because some games (like rockband 2) and "copying prohibited" - which btw is retarded - and wouldn't it make more sense to just allow you to take out your HDD and place it into another one...if you are like me and had your ps3 die on you recently.

They obviously have something to hide...

I can't speak on the following as I never tried it. I've never seen anything come of this though, so the data must of been boring or everyone was too lazy to do it. The PS3 uses a CPU based common key for most cryptography operations hence the reason the data is exclusive per unit; the x360 uses the same type of common key configuration just for the record.

haxnetwork wrote:

1.) Make a dump of your PS3 HDD (connect to your PC via SATA)
2.) Plug HDD back to your PS3
3. Copy a large-dummy file to the HDD
4.) Unplug HDD from PS3, and plug it back into your PC
5.) Dump the HDD image again
6.) Compare the two dumps you know have, and locate the encrypted dummy data (use HxD or any hex editor to do this)
7.) Replace the encrypted dummy data with sections of the data you want to decrypt
8.) Place the HDD back into your PS3
9.) Copy dummy data from PS3 to external media (USB drive/flash drive)
10.) Inspect the dummy file on PC from USB stick/flash drive.

Last edited by 0m1kr0n (2009-06-25 11:54:05)

Since I have an active thread in the hack and cracks section I thought I'd go ahead and post a new conclusion of mine:

Even If you where handed the high level source code for everything on the HDD and NAND/Flash you still couldn't do anything on the PS3. The loader is in the CELL PPU and it uses a common key also in the CELL to check against what it loads from the start, and that sig checks and so on. The X360 is the same deal. It takes manipulation of a handler from a DMA attack to get it to hop to some unencrypted and unlocked segment in RAM. If it wasn't for a type size error in the x360 it's still be secure too.

PS3 boot order:
1.Finger to power
2.Power to PPU(and other chips)(loader and encryption routine in PPU non-volatile memory that uses the common key to decrypt what it loads next, and then that process which is a kernel checks stuff; it can be updated too and encrypted with the common key when the update is installed; keeping the secure boot loader encryption working without touching the code on the cell. It has more memory than the xeon on the x360 to do stuff with.
3.A Bare metal kernel is loaded into the PPU memory that handles bus signals and makes a memory map to buffer DMA, and most likely do real time encryption, and if no NX bit, allocator security.

From there it's all like userland stuff for both gameos and otheros. It's all decrypted upon loading in memory buffers. They almost certainly use a firmware VM for otheros with no hardware virtualization. All the RISC you see compiled on otheros is pcode. The locked SPE might be a hardware accelerated lexical analyzer/tokenizer that's somehow used by the PPU. The SPE from what I read only does vector operations, and no application instructions.

Last edited by 0m1kr0n (2009-06-26 02:53:48)

DasFox wrote:

This isn't true, I took the hard drive out of one PS3 and stuck it in another and it worked...

no you didn't. or it asked you to format