As far as I know, it's just an unknown PS3 encryption. I believe you can take out the hard drive, put in in a pc, format it, and use it like normal, but if you want to put it in the ps3 again, you'll have to format it with the ps3. This forum is looking at patterns in the raw data to find the encryption I believe, if it's any help to you.
http://www.ps3news.com/forums/ps3-hd...nts-64646.html