Can You Retrieve Game Data Off an Old PS3 HDD on a New PS3?

[MEEfO]

Hello all!

I write this out of desperation.

Last summer I bought a 60Gb PS3, along with Resistance, Oblivion, and later Ratchet & Clank Future. A couple of weeks into Ratchet & Clank, the PS3 shut itself down mid-game and never powered on again. I had the system for less than 4 months before it died completely.

My dilemma is that I had not backed up my savegame data. I can make no excuses for that. I just never had that mindset about a game system before. I am 120 hours into Oblivion, I have played through Resistance 3 times (Normal, Hard, Nightmare modes), and I was 2/3 of the way into Ratchet & Clank. Not to mention progress made on my various PS2 games over the last few months. The HDD was fine and was not the cause of the system crash.

I returned the PS3 to Sony, which was replaced under warranty. I kept the old HDD in hopes of restoring savegame data once the new machine arrived. As you know, the PS3 prompts to reformat the old HDD when I swap the new one out, so I can't read the data that way. I have also tried powering on the PS3 with the new HDD intact, but connecting the old HDD via SATA > USB cable (effectively treating it like an external HDD), but to my surprise, the PS3 won't even recognize there is a device connected, making it (seemingly?) impossible to restore my old savegame data.

I am at a loss. Have you folks run across anyone who has experienced a similar problem? I find it baffling that no one else seems to have run into this issue before but I can find no record online. Aren't there people who have taken their HDD out and tried to connect to another PS3?

Is there a way to alter System files or processes to bypass the encryption check on the HDD so that it doesn't attempt to force me to reformat? Is there anything that can be done with the SELF file?

Any enlightenment or creative ideas you may have would be a godsend. It's an interesting problem, entirely over my head at this point..

Thanks in advance for any suggestions!

MEEfO

[MEEfO]

Bumping this post. Please if anyone has any ideas even I'd be grateful. Thanks in advance!