You will need:
• HDD formatted with the “BD Emulator Format HDD” from the console (NOT ps3gen);
• A HEX editor that supports disk editing (for this guide a use WinHEX)
How to edit the size of HDD
If you do not want to dedicate an entire HDD to PS3 backup, with this guide you can edit the size of the ps3gen partition and have one that you will use with Ps3Gen and one that you can format in FAT32/NTFS or in another format of your choice to be used normally.
Tutorial:
1. Connect the HDD to your PC;
2. Start a HEX edit of your choice;
3. If you use WinHEX, from the menu bar select “Tools -> Open Disk Drives”;
4. Now open “Disk Management” (“Start -> Right click on Computer -> Manage”, go to “Disk Management” in the left menu) and browse to your HDD.
5. Now you have to select your HDD from the window of the “physical disk” , NOT logical units;
NOTE: If you fail to select the HDD and change the wrong values could compromise your system, it would be your responsibility.
6. Go to ‘Offset “1CA”, you can use the command ALT + G (with WinHEX);
1 sector = 512 bytes
Size my HDD = 500107862016 bytes
500107862016 : 512 = 976773168 sectors
Convert 976773168 into HEX = 3A386030
Reversed bytes 3A|38|60|30 -> 30|60|38|3A Maximum size of partition 2TB
7. Now using the above procedure we can choose the size that we want to give our PS3 partition.
Example:
My HDD is 500GB and I want to dedicate the 300GB PS3, so I will do so
a. Size that I want to give to the partition = 300GB -> 322122547200 bytes
b. Transform the bytes into sectors 322122547200 : 512 = 629145600 sectors
c. Convert sectors into HEX 629145600 -> 25800000
d. Reversed bytes 25|80|00|00 -> 00|00|80|25
e. Finally, I replace it and save the changes.
Bypass the 4 slot limit of Ps3gen, and edit the size of slots and HDD’ s partition
NOTE: If you want to partition the slots so that they take up less space on the hard disk, you will have a newly formatted HDD from PS3 and if you want to partition it must do so before following this guide, why do it later may not allow proper backups.
1. Follow the guide above until step 5.
2. Go to ‘Offset “2000B”, you can use the command ALT + G (with WinHEX);
3. To increase the number of slots you have to replace the number 04 with the number of slots that we want (I did not understand how it works because if I enter 20 I create 31 slot and not 20, not too bad
) and for each slot we have to add one 0B and its size in HEX.
4. Now I will explain how to get the HEX to partition the slot of the size we want.
Example:
We want the first slot occupies 10gb
a. Convert gigabytes into bytes 10gb -> 10737418240 bytes
b. We divide the bytes to 512 (bytes per sector) 10737418240 : 512 -> 20971520 sectors
c. Convert the value obtained in HEX 20971520 -> 1400000 HEX
d. 1400000 is divided in this way 01|40|00|00, we start from the right and divide every 2 digits, zeros are added at the end in order to always have 4 pairs.
e. It replaces and save the changes.
Here you have a screenshot of my HDD Slots partitioned. Slots are in order, the first at the top coincides with the 0 and so on.
The other numbers occurring on the screenshot are automatically generated from Ps3Gen
NOTE: Once you have partitioned the slot, if you edit the dimensions again, the games in the successive Slots not start.
The guide is a bit ‘long, but I hope I explained well enough for even the least practical of these changes. For any explanation do not hesitate to ask questions.
Sorry for my English, but I hope there are not more write errors.
10-05-2012
04:36 AM
Nice
I'm sure this will be of use for many people.
Sent from my speak'n'spell using Tapatalk HD
10-05-2012
05:21 AM
Very good tutorial.
With this clear information no doubt someone will shortly make a simple utility that does the formatting according to custom partition sizes specified by end user. Surprised nobody has already as only very basic knowledge of programming languages would be required.
Great work
10-05-2012
06:04 AM
Very good tutorial.
http://www.ps3hax.net/showthread.php?t=43039
10-05-2012
07:46 AM
[MENTION=242385]bebou007[/MENTION] I have read your thread now for the first time. You have found the method before me, but in your post you don't explain how to convert the bytes in HEX. It seems that you have found the size in HEX by chance.
10-05-2012
11:31 AM
this is exactly what I did not have the hex values corresponded but I knew how to find a randomly using the partition table I could determine the value round
5GB
10GB
15GB
20GB
just put the value I give
this is my 3141card that explain what my thread has corresponded values
this is his that I've said very good tutorial as it explains well
Now what we need is an app to change the game by default directly from the ps3
select the game by default and offset 0x2000F
10-06-2012
01:17 PM
very nice
thx alot...
[MENTION=244833]gledian[/MENTION]:
thx for the clearup
first couldn't get it working, no wonder(missing steps/calculate/wrong hex values), now after following ur guide, works great man, 4 games on 32GB bdemu, crisis times, we need all the space we can get hehe..not bad and all games working..thx again for the clear and nice guide, doing this by hand is always best
10-06-2012
01:49 PM
[MENTION=138171]haz367[/MENTION]
"the reverse bytes" is only to do when you have to modify the hdd size in offset "1CA" and not when you modify the slot size.
10-06-2012
02:25 PM
Remember this thread for people with broken blue-ray drives ?
http://www.ps3hax.net/showthread.php?t=40854
Combine = win
The idea is to use a USB pendrive (with an empty but valid "fake disc image" of the smaller size possible) to be mounted as the real blu-ray
Now with this new method to make partitions they can try to see if it works, also, they can "hide" the USB pendrive inside the case permanently (a ghetto blue-ray fix)
10-07-2012
05:52 AM
[CENTER][FONT=Arial Black][COLOR=red][Guide] How to bypass the 4 slots limit of Ps3gen, and how to e... [Read More]
10-07-2012
09:10 AM
> if I enter 20 I create 31 slot and not 20, not too bad
20 is hex, it's 32 in dec.
10-07-2012
10:10 AM
Stupid question here, but does this mean we can play games on 4.21 dex and 3.55 dex from the same external hard drive?
I have a 3 TB external for media and 2 TB for 3.55 cex games. Didn't want to go to dex before cause my ps3 only has 2 usb ports and gettin another hard drive seems like it would be overkill anyways. I have no excuse not to try it now if that's the case.
10-07-2012
10:40 AM
hey guys,
When I try to replace the hex value in step 7.E. I get the following error:
"An exception of type 216 occurred at memory offset 0040CED7. It is recommended to save your work and restart the program."
I cant seem to be able to write the new value using WinHex despite restarting the program, restarting windows, disabling antivirus program..
Any suggestions?
10-07-2012
02:38 PM
[MENTION=96894]S_U[/MENTION]
You're absolutely right, I forgot to update it and explain how you can have up to 255 games which corresponds to "FF" in HEX
[MENTION=232428]bendoverdarling[/MENTION]
You have to partition the 2TB HDD, one partition in FAT32 and the other in BD-EMU.
Before to do this you have to format the HDD with PS3 DEX -> HDD FORMAT BD EMULATOR
[MENTION=187023]saeedoo[/MENTION]
Did you run the program as "ADMINISTRATOR"?
10-07-2012
02:47 PM
Yes I was running Winhex as administrator..
10-07-2012
03:00 PM
which version of winhex do you have?
10-07-2012
03:13 PM
version is 16.7
10-07-2012
03:26 PM
Try to use this
http://mh-nexus.de/en/hxd/
is freeware.
Before to use it disable read-only from extra-option and try.
10-07-2012
07:18 PM
I actually got the 16.6 version and it worked fine...Something was probably wrong with the newest version..Thanks for your efforts. I appreciate it
10-07-2012
09:58 PM
[MENTION=244833]gledian[/MENTION]
Yea I figured that much, I've just read somethin about the ps3 only being able to recognize one partition per external hard drive before. Now that I'm thinkin about it again, it was prob some one trying to put 2x fat32 partitions on one external that wouldn't work.
Anyways, thx! I'll just make sure i read up on how to get back to cex before I convert tho, chances are that new cfw will be released soon after I make the switch lol.
10-11-2012
01:21 AM
Would this information possibly help us to change the partition size of a retail (unconverted) PS3 hard-drive?
I only ask because I have a 1TB internal drive and as many others have discovered only 827GB are actually available due to the system reserving 10-12% of the total drive capacity.
I saw this and thought maybe there would be a chance at manually increasing the size of that 827GB partition using this method.
Maybe I am dreaming here but please respond, anyone who has some insight into this problem or any known way of regaining some of that lost space. Thanks!
10-11-2012
02:29 AM
This info wont help you achieve what you want but there are some ps3mfwbuilder tasks that can do what you want although I do not know if they work on firmwares greater than 3.55. search the ps3devwiki for ps3mfwbuilder and you will find the tasks I am talking about.
10-20-2012
07:10 AM
Well I finally had a chance to mess with PS3 MFW Builder. Is this the "task" I need to use?:
--patch-emer-init-gameos-hdd-region-size-xxgb-smaller
I built a MFW using this option, installed from recovery menu, and re-formatted the hard drive but it's still showing 827GB free.
BTW I am using the official CobraUSB 3.55 CFW on a CECHA01.
10-20-2012
07:29 AM
just to inform: I have succesfully converted my bdemu 640 gb external harddrive, to a hdd with a 300gb partition for bdemu, 28gb ntfs, and the rest of hdd space(250gb or so) to fat32. i just replaced/inserted the hdd size string to "00|00|80|25"(like in the tutorial) so it allocates 300GB for bdemu.
I'm not sure if its just me, but it initially corrupted the bdemu partition ( because games images on the drive rendered corrupt), but after wiping all games that where on the bdemu partition (with aldo's partitionbdemu drive tool) and re-copying the games to the drive again, all was well.
games loaded fine again from console.. this time from my 300gb dedicated bdemu partition. and the best thing... my ntfs and fat32 partions work also, alowing me to load 3.55 backups on the same 640gb drive
10-21-2012
12:29 PM
WARNING:
If anyone makes a custom partition for bdemu(like i did(see above post of mine)) with this guide.
DO NOT SET ACTIVE BDEMU GAME WITH MULTIMAN, AS IT WILL RENDER YOUR CUSTOM PARTITION TABLE USELESS
however you can recover, if you set the string back to the value u use beforehand in winhex(to allocate size), and use a partition recovery software to recover the ntfs and fat32 partitions.