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Help needed with ps3 drive decryptor

sdobbie

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Jan 13, 2021
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Hi everyone, I am using the ps3 hdd decryptor mentioned in this forum but it always says that ps3.img is not found even though its right there in the folder with the program. The image is from a hard drive which the ps3 can't read anymore and it contains really precious memories from years ago which I really need to get back.

I am running it on windows 10 as adminUntitled.pngUntitled1.png
 

Tdijital

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It looks like the error you're getting from hdd_decrypt may just be inaccurate. I tested and I get that error if what I'm passing as the encrypted HDD img isn't an encrypted HDD img. Are you sure that HDD img is encrypted? It's also possible some other error is being hit and you are getting that same fall back error message.
 

sdobbie

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It looks like the error you're getting from hdd_decrypt may just be inaccurate. I tested and I get that error if what I'm passing as the encrypted HDD img isn't an encrypted HDD img. Are you sure that HDD img is encrypted? It's also possible some other error is being hit and you are getting that same fall back error message.
It definitely is a hard drive image obtained from the PS3 drive using DD in Linux. Sadly, I had initialised the disk in Windows before I had learned that the PS3 encrypts the drives so maybe I have buggered the filesystem to an extent.
 

Tdijital

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It definitely is a hard drive image obtained from the PS3 drive using DD in Linux. Sadly, I had initialised the disk in Windows before I had learned that the PS3 encrypts the drives so maybe I have buggered the filesystem to an extent.
Ah that could explain it. I’m guessing hdd_decrypt does some check to verify it’s a ps3 img before decrypting and if it doesn’t pass you get that error. Initializing the drive in Windows maybe changed something that causes it fail the check. Let me run this past someone that knows much better than me, they may know a way around this.
 

Tdijital

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It should still be possible to decrypt it. It would just take a bit of custom work. Some tools for ps3 recovery are currently in the works. If you could share the hdd img that would be awesome. Depending on what exactly Windows does when it initializes a drive I’m hopeful we could work around the issues it causes.
 

mementomori

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Initializing a drive in Windows pratically screws up the drive immensely making recovery much more difficult. It is very possible that a ton of stuff was lost from this. I hope any attempts that are made result in something being found but I have my doubts.
 

Doubles Advocate

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I can confirm that initializing the drive essentially makes it impossible, I had the same thing happen to me on an old DECHA00A of mine (thankfully it was almost unused so I doubt there was any data ever on it) .
It will also happen to drives that are formatted for the PS3 but are mismatched with the eid_root_key file.
 
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