PS3 backup hack kinda clarified, still kinda sketchy

There was (and still is) plenty of buzz surrounding StreetskaterFU's recent hack that enabled Blu-ray games to be played back from the PlayStation 3's internal hard drive, and now it seems like details are beginning to seep out. Fellow hacker ATOC has released an admittedly sketchy step-by-step guide for getting a number of backups to boot from the PS3, though it has only been thoroughly tested on Warhawk and Call of Duty 3. Hit up the links below for instructions, but think long and hard before you make any irreversible decisions and come dangerously close to destroying the universe.

[Thanks, Bob]

[Serial 8-Ball Mouse @ Aug 25th 2008 2:16PM]

Yellow teeth.

[pwnetheus @ Aug 25th 2008 2:16PM]

Yea, this method is insane.

[Blaine Oliver @ Aug 25th 2008 2:49PM]

Maybe if the discs were a reasonable size like Xbox discs, then you could fit a lot more onto the hard drive.

[Frankenstein Black @ Aug 25th 2008 2:17PM]

MEH! There is another way to save on the expensive cost of titles:
http://www.gamefly.com/
It can also save the potential of a “BRICKING” nightmare
on your not so cheap hardware.

[Saad Rabia @ Aug 25th 2008 2:27PM]

Kinda not real, and kinda will not happen. Face it, Blu-ray disks are unhackable, for at least the coming year.

[Striker @ Aug 25th 2008 2:32PM]

Where have you been, rtard?

[h0mi @ Aug 25th 2008 2:32PM]

"Now instert Warhawk Disc and wait for the .png to show,right pull the Hdd out and swap the warhawk disc with motorstorm and the hdd with your clone"

Oy vey. I saw this and started laughing because there's no way in hell you're going to persuade me that this is a good thing to do.

[Erwos @ Aug 25th 2008 2:39PM]

I read it like he wants folks to switch the HDD while the PS3 is _on_, which strikes me as 100% insane.

[Striker @ Aug 25th 2008 2:48PM]

Well it is SATA, which means it is supposed to be hot swappable, but I don't know if the PS3 is necessarily designed to, um, put that feature to use lol.

[Uejji @ Aug 25th 2008 3:09PM]

Welcome to the world of hot-swappable SATA.

[Erwos @ Aug 25th 2008 3:24PM]

The PS3's SATA controller supports hotswap? The PS3 OS supports hotswap? I greatly doubt it. Just being SATA doesn't mean you can hotswap.

[Uejji @ Aug 25th 2008 4:06PM]

I won't claim to know the specifics of the PS3, but the PS3 *is* a modern 21st century device, so there is no reason to assume that the PS3 does not support SATA hotswap. Since by now hotplugging has been incorporated in all consumer-grade SATA controllers it would be silly for Sony to have a custom made controller that does not support hotplugging. As far as the PS3 operating system goes, there isn't really any pressing reason to assume that it doesn't, as other hotswappable devices also work as expected.

[Striker @ Aug 25th 2008 4:50PM]

@Erwos

Hot swappability is part of the SATA standard, so the PS3's SATA controller must support it, but there is really no need for the OS to support it, as there will not be many HDD swappings going on while the system is active.

[Matt Ferens @ Aug 25th 2008 2:33PM]

The steps involved here don't seem too bad, although the usefullness seems a little limited as of now. Once they get it to run every game off the hdd without all the swapping, I'll be amazed. However, this is impressive none-the-less.

[KarlW @ Aug 25th 2008 2:40PM]

From the instructions, this looks quite useless. This involves playing the game through a proxy disc, but you need the original game disk anyway.

If it ran unsigned files on the HDD using this method, then you could say it's useful, as a hacker could create a custom firmware and do the same with a disc-based upgrade tool.

If Sony let us play PSX/PS2 imports, I wouldn't even be interested in this tool. Titles are well spaced enough that I can afford to buy the ones I want, and save money on a BluRay burner and discs, and not look like a goon pulling random stuff out of my PS3 at the exact right time.

[plake @ Aug 25th 2008 2:42PM]

Reminds me of early PSP cycle when you had to swap the memory sticks.

[iamsoinsane @ Aug 25th 2008 4:01PM]

....and the old ps1 swap trip for backup games =)
still remember watchin the disk changing speeds and swapping disks..... hehe

[Harvey Chan @ Aug 25th 2008 3:03PM]

Their grammar is grade-school level, at best.

[Totalfixation @ Aug 25th 2008 3:09PM]

You guys are all missing the point. This is an accomplishment, just to be able to hack something for the enjoyment is all that really matters. Some of you think as if it was development for your own benefit which is clearly pirating. Sometime people do it for recognition. At least this is one step better than the last.

[tuaamin13 @ Aug 25th 2008 10:42PM]

Actually, I don't think this is an accomplishment at all.

Warhawk will continue to play regardless of whether or not you take the disc out since all it does is check for the disc [assuming you have the Blu-ray copy], then run off the harddrive. It's a game feature so you can play a WH LAN with only 1 disc. The PSN version simply lets you run it from the harddrive without the disc check.

So it doesn't matter if you have a proxy disk in there. If you have Warhawk, try it. Start up the game, then eject the disc. It'll still play, you can still join games, etc. No need to try to hot swap an identical harddrive or anything.

[rahul @ Aug 25th 2008 3:11PM]

i

[rahul @ Aug 25th 2008 3:14PM]

for whatever reason my above comment just show's up as 'i'...

neways..

i love hackerz :)

[strang @ Aug 25th 2008 3:14PM]

Well this will eventually mature into a devhook and we'll have an easier time to boot off the HD.

All of my friends are on the 360 because it's so easy to modify the firmware. If the PS3 were to be easily modded then I'd totally switch platform. Right now my PS3 just sits in the living room collects dust. It gets booted once in a while when I want to stream a movie off my PC.

[Matt @ Aug 25th 2008 7:15PM]

Sketchy.... I didn't start saying sketchy until I started smoking weed.

That means Engadget must be a bunch of....... oh nevermind.........