PS3:Creating Game Backups

Circumventing DRM mechanisms and/or creating backup copies of games and media for personal use is a right granted only in some countries. It is your sole responsibility to stay up to date with the law in your respective country. The information provided within this wiki is solely educational and its editors take no responsibility for the use or misuse of this information.

A great feature of custom firmware is the ability to create backups of your physical and digital game copies. You can create an ISO, PKG, or extracted folder copy of your game that is playable from a storage device on a PS3, or from a PS3 emulator such as RPCS3. You also have the desire to create a folder version of your game instead of an ISO for a smaller file size, due to ISO dumps copying the entire disc with the original padding.

Creating Game Disc Backups

Making Backups (with Multiman on a PS3)

To backup a game to your internal or external hard drive, insert your disc into the PS3. Highlight the game disc in Multiman, press Triangle, and select "Copy". It will ask you to choose whether you want to backup your game to your internal hard drive, or an external. If the game has files greater than 4 GB and your external drive is formatted as FAT32, it will automatically split the files and the game will be unplayable until you move it to your internal drive. Alternatively, you can format your external drive to NTFS and use prepISO (previously known as prepNTFS) to bypass the 4 GB limitation.

• Alternatively, you can select "Create ISO" to make an ISO version of your game. This will take up more hard drive space.

Making Backups (with PC)

If you have a Blu-Ray drive that supports PS3 games, you can rip a Blu-Ray disc by downloading PS3 Disc Dumper, putting the game into your PC's Blu-Ray drive, and following the on-screen insturctions of the app. PS3 Disc Dumper will also dump your game as decrypted. If your PC only displays images in the disc's directory, it is not a supported Blu-Ray drive. From there, you can play the game in a folder format, or create an ISO out of the files using GenPS3ISO GUI, which is bundled with AldosTools.

• It's recommended to delete the PS3_UPDATE folder from the backup. It will reduce the total file size and prevents the game from prompting you for an update if you are on a lower firmware version.

List of confirmed supported drives:

• ASUS BC-08B1LT
• ASUS BC-12B1ST
• ASUS BC-16D1HT
• BENQ BR1000
• HL-DT-ST BD-RE BH14NS40
• Lite-On DH-4O1S
• Lite-On iHBS112
• LG BD BH14NS40
• LG BD BH16NS40
• LG BD BH16NS48
• LG BD BH16NS50
• LG BD BH24NS40
• LG BD BH26NS40
• LG BD UH12NS30
• LG BD WH12LS30
• LG BD WH24LS30
• LG BD-RE WH16NS40
• LG BD-RE WH16NS48
• LG BD-RE WH26NS40
• Samsung DVDWBD SH-B083L
• Sony Optiarc BD 5300S
• Stock PS3 Blu-Ray drives with adapter

Suspected supported drives:

• Lite-On ETDU108-32
• Lite-On LH-20A1S
• Lite-On SHM-165P6S

Requirements for a Blu-Ray drive to be able to fully read PS3 games are that it uses a Mediatek chipset and a +6 read offset.

Playing Backups from DVD/Blu-Ray Disc

You can burn a PS1 or PS3 ISO to a DVD/Blu-Ray disc and play it on your CFW PS3 by inserting the disc and launching it from the XMB. If your CFW does not have Cobra, you can mount it with the latest version of WebMAN. If you do not have Webman, you can launch it using the application DiscBOOT.

• Ensure that when you burn the disc, you include the PS3_GAME folder and the PS3_DISC.SFB file.

Creating a PSN Game Backup

In the event that you want to move your PSN games to another console, you have the option of creating a RAP file, making an installable PKG with TrueAncestor, and then installing and activating it on the second console with >=8.2 Cobra CFW or PS3HEN. You can create a backup of a PSN game with the following tutorial.

Backing Up Licenses

1. Download and extract RIF2RAF.
2. FTP into your PS3 and navigate to /dev_hdd0/home/0000000#/. The number will depend on your profile number; you may have to guess which is the account with the purchased PSN content. Copy the .RIF file of the desired game to the "data" folder inside of the R2R folder.
3. Navigate to /dev_hdd0/home/0000000#/exdata/ and copy the act.dat file to the "data" folder.
4. Open Multiman and select System Information. Write down your EID0 IDPS number.
5. Download and run HxD. Create a new file and type in your IDPS number, starting from the very left number. Save this file as "idps" inside of the "data" folder in the R2R folder.
6. Run R2R.exe. Type "N" when prompted to use RAP2RIF. Type "Y" when prompted to use RIF2RAP.
7. An EDAT and RAP file will be generated.
   • To install the RAP on a new system, put the RAP file on dev_usb000/exdata or dev_hdd0/exdata and launch the game with the syscalls for Cobra or PS3HEN enabled.

Getting the Game Files

Method 1: Getting the PKG Entitlement Links from a PSN account

With PSDLE, it is entirely possible to get the PKG download links directly from your account without even needing a modified PS3.

1. Download the PSDLE browser extention from the extention stores for Firefox or Chromium based browsers.
2. Sign into your PSN account on PlayStation.com and navigate to this link. PSDLE will change the page to show a detailed view of all of your PlayStation purchases, including options for platform categorization. You can hide all of the platforms that aren't for PS3, since that is what this guide is for and will reduce the size of the list.
3. Click the Export View button on the top of the page. On the pop up window, click Import.
4. Paste the following into the text field pop up as one line:
   • [{"property":"platform","title":"Platform"},{"property":"name","title":"Name"},{"property":"pkg","title":"PKG direct link"},{"property":"id","title":"Content ID"},{"property":"size","title":"File Size"},{"property":"baseGame","title":"Alternate Name"},{"property":"productID","title":"Product ID"},{"property":"url","title":"Store URL"}]
5. Once these properties have been pasted, you can export the list of your purchases as a CSV or JSON file. From there, you can see the PKG links from Sony's CDN in that exported database file and can be easily downloaded with a computer.

Method 2: Getting a PSN Title Backup from the PS3's HDD

Since the data from unpacked PKGs are extracted into their own folder in /dev_hdd0/game, you can play them as folder format with webMAN MOD by putting them into a folder called GameI on PS3:ps3netsrv or external storage. When played on internal storage, you can instead keep the backup inside /dev_hdd0/game/ like where they're normally installed to. Rebuilding the database with the new backups in that path will also add the icon to the XMB, but this will also remove any custom folders you previously created.

If you wish to dump untouched PKG bubbles downloaded from the PlayStation Store, they will be stored in /dev_hdd0/vsh/task/XXXXXXXX.

If you did a direct folder backup of official PSN content from the hard drive, make sure you have the matching RAP license for your backup placed inside dev_usb000/exdata or dev_hdd0/exdata. TrueAncestor can also allow you to re-pack a backup in this format back into a PKG file.

If you wish to remove the requirement for a RAP license, you can also convert your PSN game into a DRM-free ISO or a folder format game by using PSN Liberator.

Method 2.1: Creating a PKG from a Folder Backup (TrueAncestor)

1. Download and install TrueAncestor 2.20 (or later).
2. FTP into your PS3 and navigate to /dev_hdd0/game/. Select the game you wish to backup and transfer it to the "game" folder inside of the TrueAncestor directory.
3. Move the EDAT file from the RIF2RAP process into the edat folder, and the RAP file into the raps directory inside of the TrueAncestor directory.
4. Under the Switch section, check that Patch PARAM.SFO is set to [ON], if not, type in P and press enter.
5. Under the Switch section, check that Resign EBOOT.BIN is set to [ON], if not, type in R and press enter.
6. Type 4 for "Repack Pkg" and press enter.
7. Type the number corresponding to your game in the list and press enter. The newly built PKG will be in the "pkg" folder.

You can now transfer the PKG to the secondary console and install it, and activate it using the generated RAP file.