Copying Game data off of a broken PS3?


Recommended Posts

My brother's PS3 console has quit working, and we want to copy the game data off of the HDD.

The PS3 itself won't even start, and he already has his new one, it's one of the new "super-slims" or something like that.

We tried transplanting the drive, resulted in "wrong firmware version"

Windows wouldn't read it, and Linux wouldn't read it from the computer's motherboard port?

Is there a solution for this?

Sadly, there isn't a solution for this. :( I got the YLOD earlier this year, and I ended up losing most of my saves (I've got PS+, but most of the storage was taken up with UFC 3 replays I never knew about; plus there's also the odd protected save). The hard drive on the PS3 is formatted in an unusual way that makes it unreadable if you hook it up to a computer, and annoyingly, the only way to salvage any of the data on the hard drive is to get the original PS3 back up and running, which 9 times out of 10, is impossible. I tried the hairdryer trick on mine, and had no luck. Ended up having to pay ?110 for a replacement PS3 from Sony, which thankfully did arrive the next day.

there is NO solution other than to get the console to work again. the drive is encrypted and will not work in any other console.

if you want the data that badly you could do a reflow to get it working short-term and copy your data, other than that your S.O.L.

(youtube vid link to get you started:

)

btw, PSN+ offers saving to the cloud (or whatever they call it).

which 9 times out of 10, is impossible. I tried the hairdryer trick on mine, and had no luck.

9/10 times lol what are you talking about? every system I've reflowed has ended up working again, but only short term then it YLODs again.

and you need a HEAT GUN, not a hairdryer, lol hairdryer wouldn't nearly be hot enough, no wonder it didn't work for you.

This topic is now closed to further replies.
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
  • Posts

    • Windows 11 is technically Windows 10, It was going to be a Windows 10 feature update (Sun Valley) but alas, marketing had its way with it for a new version bump as opposed to yet another rolling release update and the UI design decisions made for the Windows 10 Sun Valley Update, pretty much ruined the launch of Windows 11. More about what decisions Microsoft is making at anytime rather than OS version at this point.
    • RTM is October 5, so this must be the release that software vendors could use and all.
    • 5 years old and still "work in progress"...
    • so? biggest release of all time... they could've changed it.
    • Microsoft adds new AI study and teaching tools for free to Microsoft 365 Education by Karthik Mudaliar Microsoft is expanding its footprint into the classroom with a new suite of AI-powered study and teaching tools for Microsoft 365 Education. Rather than pushing these features as premium add-ons, the company is rolling out many core features at no additional cost to existing customers. The update brings new tools such as 'Copilot Notebooks' and 'Study and Learn Agents' into Microsoft's Education suite. Copilot Notebooks is essentially an AI-powered workspace where students can ground answers with their own learning materials, similar to Google's NotebookLM. The study and learning agents would allow students to learn concepts more visually, along with interactive practices and real-time feedback. For the last few years, educational institutions have struggled to implement practical guardrails for the usage of large language models. The new tools from Microsoft are a push towards providing those guardrails natively within the apps that the students and teachers already use every day. For teachers, the new 'Unit Plans' within the dedicated 'Teach' agent would allow them to rapidly generate structured curriculum frameworks grounded in established learning science, cutting down hours of preliminary lesson planning. Microsoft is also introducing 'Learning Groups' in Assignments that would help educators automatically categorize students based on performance data. With 'Learning Zones', teachers can then tailor assignments to different comprehension levels. It should be noted that Microsoft is making Learning Zone accessible for a one-year trial across all Windows 11 devices, while quietly incentivizing school districts to upgrade their legacy hardware and lock further into the Windows ecosystem. Of course, Microsoft is doing this as part of a broader ambition. Just last year, the company made waves when it brought its 365 Copilot to the education sector for $18 a month, introducing premium tiers with standalone conversational agents. However, gating all AI features behind a per-user subscription left a massive gap of students without access to official, school-sanctioned AI tools. Now that the features are inside the base Microsoft 365 Education suite for free, the company is effectively subsidizing the AI training of its next generation of power users. Microsoft’s own data, released alongside these tools in its 2026 AI in Education Report, indicates that while over 90% of students are using AI, nearly 80% lack formal training. Lastly, Microsoft is also expanding its "Elevate for Educators" training program, developed in partnership with organizations like ISTE and ASCD. This ensures that the teachers tasked with policing and guiding this new technology actually understand how to use it themselves.
  • Recent Achievements

    • First Post
      Tom Schmidt earned a badge
      First Post
    • One Month Later
      D0nn13 earned a badge
      One Month Later
    • Rookie
      +ChiefOfNeo went up a rank
      Rookie
    • One Year In
      Tom Schmidt earned a badge
      One Year In
    • One Month Later
      Tom Schmidt earned a badge
      One Month Later
  • Popular Contributors

    1. 1
      +primortal
      451
    2. 2
      +Edouard
      177
    3. 3
      PsYcHoKiLLa
      123
    4. 4
      Michael Scrip
      85
    5. 5
      Xenon
      76
  • Tell a friend

    Love Neowin? Tell a friend!