How to change PS3 HDD back to Normal HDD?

[Poraemon]

I have HDD 2.5" 120GB SATA and make it to PS3HDD. Now I need it back to normal use with PC. I try to format it with Partition Magic8, it didn't work, can't get into Partition Magic8 (Sector Not Found). Please tell me the way to get it back to normal HDD.

[hacked2123]

Originally Posted by Poraemon I have HDD 2.5" 120GB SATA and make it to PS3HDD. Now I need it back to normal use with PC. I try to format it with Partition Magic8, it didn't work, can't get into Partition Magic8 (Sector Not Found). Please tell me the way to get it back to normal HDD.

If you have an old windows 98 or 2000 cmd...there is a .1 chance you can boot into the command prompt from there and use fdisk...It should be stupid enough to ignore errors. If that doesn't work...there are many other programs out there. And I'm sure somebody has a better answer than me.

[Diverge]

Go to the HD manufacturer's website, and download their tools for the drive. They usually have programs that format their drives in a matter of seconds, and also have other utilities, like low level formatting, ect.

[hacked2123]

I agree with Diverge on the manufacture CD. Most of the time the only check it does on full format is if it is their brand.

Just wondering did you put the old hard-drive back in the PS3 and it worked just like it did before you installed the new hard-drive... or did it ask you to format it again?

[Poraemon]

Yeah, No need to format when put the old one back. It works like it did before. I dont try the Manufaturer Application yet, I'd like to backup GundamMusou first.

Thanks for your advices.

[hacked2123]

Yeah, No need to format when put the old one back. It works like it did before.

Good to know for when I get the new drive... thanks a lot for the info. Also this great information for if we ever figure out the file system of the PS3 because they can't protect information (our own information) from being on the system, in certain area, with certain commands, if the information was already there. (Like a demo)

(Will do work with Norton Ghost and such when I get the new hard drive)
Hope you can figure it out Poraemon

[eternal]

I thought PS3 used EXT3, or is that just the linux partition?

How hard will it be to crack the PS3 file system?

[hacked2123]

Originally Posted by eternal I thought PS3 used EXT3, or is that just the linux partition? How hard will it be to crack the PS3 file system?

I won't know till I have the system in hand... but considering the problems we had with pkg's....
Anyways good luck on reformatting the hard-drive with the manufacturer's disks.

[qtx999]

Originally Posted by hacked2123 I won't know till I have the system in hand... but considering the problems we had with pkg's.... Anyways good luck on reformatting the hard-drive with the manufacturer's disks.

anybody know where to get a spare drive cage?

i have used multiple utils with a ps3 partition... the drive comes up totally blank... encryption on the fly... ghost will not work even in sector mode as there isn't anything recognizable for it

perhaps something can be learned from the encrypted backup file... the backup file has really nice compression also

[Tsusai]

Personally, I would've unplugged my main drives, leaving the ps3 one in the computer. Then booted up the drive nuke program thats on sourceforge and wipe it all.