[mimicuk]

Hi... Was wondering if someone could help me? I have just purchased an 3.5 external HDD for my jailbroke PS3 and have put some games on it in a folder called GAMEZ, but everytime i go into Backup Manager to load the game it takes forever to load, sometimes it will never load and just stays on a black screen, am i better buying an external 2.5 HDD instead of a 3.5 or is there anything else i need to install on the external drive.

Thanks for any help

[noddy4life]

try open backup manager that works for me

[thefoolnz]

what drive is the external?

If it is a WD green , then you may have alignment issues
all the green drives support the new advanced format which is the 4096 physical sector with a logical remapping for backward compatibility

Since the ps3 does not support ntfs , i suspect you formated it to fat32
and depending on the tool it will have left your drive misaligned, as most old tools use the old chs alignment which aligns on a cylinder boundary, and that cause the partition to start on an non even 4096 boundary,

a bit of maths:
4096 byte sector = 8 x 512 sectors
in the old system there were 63 sectors per cylinder
now notice here that 8x8 =64 <> 63 and this is where the misalignment occurs

The fix:
unfortunately the only way to correct this issue is to reformat the drive correctly
this will involve:
1) removing the backups onto another drive for temporary storage
2) formatting the drive and having the drives first partition start at 2048 LBA, you lose a megabyte but gain performance , the chice of 2048 has been selected by a large number of people for raid/windows etc so hence why you should too
3) restore your games back onto the drive

using ubuntu/linux:

1) become root, enter your password
sudo -s
2) find the disk using
fdisk -l
3) for this example i will use drive sdh, your maybe different
here we turn of cylinder use and turn of dos compatibility
fdisk -uc /dev/sdh
4) learn how many partitions exist by displaying them
p <enter>
5) create an empty dos partition table (the MBR)
o <enter>
6) next i will assume you are only creating one partition for this example primary partition 1
n <enter> <---- create new partition entry
p <enter> <---- select a primary partition
1 <enter> <---- then select partition 1

at this point my display showed:
First sector (2048-3907029167, default 2048)
simply go with the default (ah 2048 exactly what we wanted)
so press <enter> twice once for the above and once for the
default size allocated which is all of the space which was:
Last sector, +sectors or +size{K,M,G} (2048-3907029167, default 3907029167):
in my case

7) you have now just defined your partition so you need to write the changes too disk and exit fdisk
w <enter> <-- this writes the changes to disk
q <enter> <-- this quits fdisk

8) all that is left to do now is format the drive to fat32
mkfs.vfat -F 32 -n PS3Backup /dev/sdc1

otherwise no other ideas spring too mind at the moment

[mimicuk]

What is the best program to use for the size of the LBA in windows 7?

[thefoolnz]

Originally Posted by mimicuk What is the best program to use for the size of the LBA in windows 7?

windows seven does not have this issue with ntfs as it uses the same 2048 as stated in my reply

if you have an older disk it will not be effected by this issue it is only at the moment effecting wd green drives, but it will effect more soon enough

if the drive is formatted to fat32 just check the drive that it starts on lba 2048

try using this tool to format:
http://www.download.com/Easeus-Parti...dlPid=10982635

[mimicuk]

How do i get EASEUS to show me if it starts at 2048?

Sorry for all the questions

[thefoolnz]

Originally Posted by mimicuk How do i get EASEUS to show me if it starts at 2048? Sorry for all the questions

normally the main display window will show the drive and partition details of existing partitions

you only need to check that the first partition starts at 2048
and if thats the only partition you are all done

if on the other hand it starts at 63 you need to fix its starting location too 2048

hope this helps as i don't use windows except for work and do everything i need with linux

the other thing you could do is is download a live ubuntu cd and run it live mode , not installing ubuntu

then you could use the commands out line in my first reply
once the ubuntu desktop has loaded goto applications->accessories->terminal

1) sudo -s
2) fdisk -luc

that would tell you all drives that are connected to your system and there lba layout
here is an example of one of my drives

Disk /dev/sdd: 1500.3 GB, 1500301910016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 182401 cylinders, total 2930277168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x0010103f

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdd1 2048 2930272255 1465135104 7 HPFS/NTFS


yes it is a WD green, and note the logical sector size of 512 and the physical sector size of 4096

it is also been left in its default format which is windows friendly
see how the first partition sdd1 starts at 2048

thats what you want too see

[mimicuk]

well i tried everything you said with ubuntu and re formatted my hdd but no luck

I think i might just get a large 2.5 HDD and put it in my PS3 Slim, the only worry i have is will the PS3 still have 3.41 on it after i put a new HDD in?

Will you need to backup up the existing HDD to an external? not bothered about the 2 games i have on the internal HDD as i have no save games, but what about the firmware?

I must be getting pretty annoying now but i'm all new to this

Regards Anthony

[thefoolnz]

Originally Posted by mimicuk well i tried everything you said with ubuntu and re formatted my hdd but no luck I think i might just get a large 2.5 HDD and put it in my PS3 Slim, the only worry i have is will the PS3 still have 3.41 on it after i put a new HDD in? Will you need to backup up the existing HDD to an external? not bothered about the 2 games i have on the internal HDD as i have no save games, but what about the firmware? I must be getting pretty annoying now but i'm all new to this Regards Anthony

before you start:
--------------------
1) if you game share and have used up the other 4 slots per game you may have issues
you need to deactivate your account on 3.41 before you do this or you may have activation issues

2) have you eliminated a buggy jailbreak firmware
grab a new version of the jail break firmware for your device and re apply

3) do you have the latest Backup Manager version ( i don't care which one)
make sure that this is placed in the root of your USB device
make sure your games has a directory called GAMEZ

4) you may have a buggy installation on the ps3
a quick fix for that would be too reapply the 3.41 firmware ontop of its self
that should remove all traces from the ps3 system point of view and allow you to
try and reapply the jailbreak

outlined below is the procedure
-----------------------------------------

if you get a new drive zero fill it (yeah again linux commands)
requirements: new 2.5 internal drive,an external drive, usb stick , ubuntu live cd, pc, ps3 , copy of 3.41 firmware

using your ubuntu live cd
1) become root
sudo -s

2) find the drive too use
fdisk -luc

3) for this again i will use sdh as the drive for this example, your maybe different
zero fill the drive using the below command
dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdh bs=128k

4) your drive is ready so first connect your external drive to the ps3 formated in fat32
use the transfer menu to transfer all settings etc and export every thing like photos,music,videos etc etc to the external for backup

5) while the backup is going on
format the usb stick to fat32 if it has not been already
create the folder structure:
PS3/UPDATE/ or PS3\UPDATE\ (windoze)
inside the UPDATE folder place the ps3updat.pup in ( this is 3.41 firmware)

6) while the ps3 is turn off at the back
remove the old ps3 hddd, you will need a torx 10 to undo the hdd
install your new blank hdd


7) make sure the ps3 is not connected to the Internet in anyway (precaution)
so remove ethernet cable and or turnoff wifi router ( you shouldn't need too)

8) turn on and the ps3, it will detect it needs too format the drive
if it needs the firmware update provided it from USB storage

9) your ps3 should be up and running with 3.41 (non jb)
now restore your games, photos,music and videos by connecting the external hdd
and restoring

10) now JB etc your machine a start again and hopefully all good


hope this has helped you

[hahahi123]

Hi. I am also encountering this issue myself. i do notice that it starts at 63. is it possible I can set lba sector 2048 through windows 7? iI have ease us but I cannot find any software or tutorial?