Hard Disk corrupt? - Game save Data & Trophy not recognized

[Cypher_CG89]

So resigning save files is not enough, apparently i also needed Brute force to decrypt PFD files. I used Aldos tools.

Yep, you got it. But as @Berion says some are not protected by this but the Data shown in Brute force Save data about each save will tell you as such.

And this is another thing which I said before: You can if You are the owner...

I wonder if i can restore my old trophies (i have already backed up trophies folder on my PC). But i don't really care about that. I was more interested in saving game save files, which i think now i have figured out.

IF copying them back to your PS3 and after a Database rebuild they do not work then you can use "Trophy Is Good" to give yourself ownership back of your trophies by editing the Global Config file within the tool and adding the IDPS, NP ID and user account number the same as Save data tool as trophies contain an encrypted PFD file with this info in as well.

 

[Berion]

Why peoples resigning saves in the first place? In Rebug, it is sufficient to change one option in XMB; and in case of backup restoration on another console (in assumption that user want be real owner) is a matter of changing one value in xRegistry.sys. Why going through all this hell? In case of trophies, resigning is even more annoying as user must launch every games at least once to allow PS3 to rebuild trophy index for him.

 

[Cypher_CG89]

Why peoples resigning saves in the first place? In Rebug, it is sufficient to change one option in XMB

Yes its easier to use "fake Save Data owner" but this is a Development tool ment to be used in conjunction with the game So all devs working on the project can use the same files, pass them about to debug, edit or what ever they need. Its like one dev found an issue in a part of the game> pass the save file through the network to another who can then solve the issue but is using another PS3.

I use Fake save data owner myself as I am always on DEX and have transfered all my save from my HEN PS3 well before HEN was a thing so I could use them for certain things.

in case of backup restoration on another console (in assumption that user want be real owner) is a matter of changing one value in xRegistry.sys

Saves are also signed with the PSID and IDPS of the PS3 they came from this is how S@ny stopped people from sharing their saves about and it will will come up " You are not the owner of the Save " because the PSID and IDPS do not match the console its on. Editing the registry will do nothing in that case becasue all you are doing is changing the user number not the PS3's IDs.

Why would people be using Backup and restore? That process takes forvever compared to copyin from PS3 to PC, press a few buttons and put them back on another one of your own PS3's through USB or FTP PS3.

 

[Berion]

I know that, I was working in dev company. But it doesn't change the fact, that it is useful for similar purpose on CFW user side.

If user at least once connected to the SEN, then ownership based only on NPAID. If never connected which means he doesn't get this ID, then ownership based on PSID+UN. I moved that way saves and trophies to different consoles and PS3 understand the data, displaying them.

I never mentioned about system backup/restore which is literally junk and users should never use it. I meant about restoring backup by hand via i.e file manager which is also time consuming but with full control over the process. I could design tool for that purpose if someone have will to write it. ^^

 

[snkplkn]

If user at least once connected to the SEN, then ownership based only on NPAID. If never connected which means he doesn't get this ID, then ownership based on PSID+UN. I moved that way saves and trophies to different consoles and PS3 understand the data, displaying them.

After PS3 system restore, all my save files have account id as Blank. Earlier i had 617xxxxxx id because i connected to SEN earlier. Does doing PS3 system restore deletes SEN ID / NPAID? Why?

Is NPAID permanent? If i sign into SEN, will the same id 617xxxxxx allotted to me again?



I am on Ferrox 4.84. I have not used Rebug. I think Rebug toolbox is for Rebug.

Also i don't know why Sony has made such complicated and idiotic lock system for save files. What is the purpose of it? I have lost save data of nearly 50 games and trophies of more. I have all the backups but no simple way to restore. But thanks to developers there is an alternative.

 

[Berion]

"Restore PS3 System" option in recovery mode is tend to delete ALL user data, so it is normal that all the settings are default, including deleting all logins, passwords and ids. Why? Because it is the official option used to factory reset the console.

Not permanent... NPAID is per user signed to SEN, so each get different if they glued their console account to SEN user account. This specific id is unique per registration (not per console and not per installation) in Sony network and the same across all the consoles (I checked and my users on PSV, PS3 and PS4 have exactly the same). As I... already said. ;p You are recognizing in Sony network by this id, not by nick or anything else. Banning user means blacklisting in servers his NPAID plus eventually all IDPS of consoles of this user (i.e getting You banned on PS3 end also with ban PS4; at least this is how users reporting having multiple consoles).

So, if You again login to SEN and don't be banned, then You restore Your NPAID just by doing this (in parallel You get activation data in "$home/exdata/").

Toolbox have nothing to do with such option, but debug XMB. So You need any CFW with debug XMB (I heard only about CFW Rebug which mixing CEX and DEX firmwares) or any debug CFW (but also You need then convert Your console to debug unit).

Because they offering paid option to make save backup easy, called PlayStation Plus. Yeah, that's a dick move indeed. But still better from what they did to PSV. And on i.e PS4, You will not backup and/or restore your saves without network connection. This was done also to block saves sharing which could abuse trophy competition system.

Simple way to (not restore them but) recognize them is writing proper NPAID to system settings. If You have kept this file, You could just overwrite the new one...

 

[snkplkn]

But save game files and Trophies are two different things. I don't think Sony should have any reason to lock in game saves. What is Sony loosing if some users are sharing their game saves? But of course Sony is monetizing even the simple features just to earn $$$ wherever they can.

What locks and protection will Sony do in PS5? Trophies and Game saves tied to Biometrics of console owner/user?

 

[Berion]

They are related. Imagine situation when someone share save right before last battle on hardest mode in Dead Space. The only thing which user should do to earn this damn hard trophy is defeating last boss instead to carefully playing whole game to achieve such goal. That's the main reason how save files could abuse trophy system.

Sony also leave a way to lock save protecting from copy to USB. And more of that, all saves transferred to cloud and transferred back have Copy Prohibited parram... I could agree that all this crap is annoying as hell and really piss me off. That's why I considered not hacked modern consoles useless piece of vendor lock junk. And speaking of which: You can remove this parram from SFO, then of course rebuild PFD.

I think they stick in PS5 to PFS protection because it is well designed (from security point of view, from user it is total disaster enormously enlarging file size and risking corruption if container doesn't unmounted correctly - this is why some PS4 games have or have in the past problems with broken saves).

 

[snkplkn]

From a developer point of view, i think its not hard to create a system which differentiate save data and trophies.

Simple example ( there can be many other ways also )

Every save file can be tied to one console id (but open to sharing while stamp of original user remains intact). So every trophy will be locked to one console id. And all trophies are synchronized online.

So if i have original file and kills some BOSS of game, i unlock trophy which is tied to my console id. And this trophy unlocking is in sync with PSN. Now i can give my save data to any other user, and Sony should permit this save game to be run on other console. But when other user kills the same boss to attain same trophy, he can't unlock it because original user has already unlocked that trophy and synced it with PSN.

So one save file - tied to one console id - synced with PSN - But save file open to share among users.

Only original user can earn the trophy in sync with PSN while other users of save file can use it on different consoles without trophy unlocking.

 

[sandungas]

What locks and protection will Sony do in PS5? Trophies and Game saves tied to Biometrics of console owner/user?

A DNA sample (peripheral not included in the bundle)

The PARAM.PFD is like the "police officer" of the folder, it contains a list of hashes of the other files in the folder
Is like an anti-tampering protection, if you modify the other files the PARAM.PFD detects it and the whole folder becomes invalid

The list of the files supervised by PARAM.PFD is optional... you could have a savegame composed by 20 files but only 5 of them are protected by the PARAM.PFD
But the PARAM.SFO is always protected by the PARAM.PFD

To transfer savegames and trophies we need to change the user id's in the PARAM.SFO and this is when we are hitting with PARAM.PFD

The "pfdtool" made by flatz have an option that simply does an "update" of the PARAM.PFD. The way how is intended to be used is in this order
1) modify the other files as much you want
2) update the PARAM.PFD
3) profit

Is as simple as that, to decrypt/encrypt the PARAM.PFD is needed the EID root key of the PS3
The bruteforce savedata tool does this internally (and more things)

For the trophies is the same principle, you need to change the user identifyers of the PARAM.SFO... then do an "update" of the PARAM.PFD


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And btw, the golden rule to remember when is needed to rebuild the database is...
If you are adding some file using non-official functions + and that file needs to be displayed in XMB = then is needed to rebuild the database

But if you use official functions, then is not needed to rebuild database, as example, the savegames can be exported/imported from USB by using the official functions, this "indexes" them well in the database

There are some exceptions to this rule though, is better to avoid them but could be handy sometimes, as example, if you have X content already indexed in the database you can replace his files by non-official functions... and then when you try to boot/load it in XMB is going to display an error because there is a mistmatch in between the database info about that content and the real files

But inmediatly after that error (no need to rebuild database) the conntent is fixed, the XMB displays it fine and everything fine with it
This happens because the dabatase have been updated at the same time that appeared the error on screen

So.. you are forcing a single entry in the database to be updated
Yeah, in a dirty way, it works, but should be avoided just incase the database cummulated some garbage caused by the error

 

[pinky]

another one of @sandungas metaphors or in this case similes. I always love reading those.

 

[snkplkn]

Can Sony detect Trophies unlocked by these tools?

 

[pinky]

Can Sony detect Trophies unlocked by these tools?

I've never heard of people using those unlock apps and getting caught. however, it's a risk. tbh, it doesn't seem like sony knows what's going on with anything online related.

 

[Berion]

@snkplkn Your point of view is like replacing HIV by Ebola. Not only is useless as current PFD security on compromised system, not only the same why annoying and possible to change ids, but also overload servers traffic.

None saves, nor trophies should have any kind of protection. Not copy protection, not user sharing protection, maybe just only edit protection if developer have such will. They are just a f*g saves, not codes for nukes. They are our data, not Sony data.

Besides that, Sony bought achievements from Microsoft, and named them Trophies. They even exactly the same point system (invisible to the user, but under skin there are the same points).

Sony cannot detect unlocking trophies on resigned saves because trophy system have not any connection with them. Trophy system works monitoring in memory changing values which game developers specifying. If You i.e have collected 999 gold bars, and trophy is for 1000, then it will unlock if You collect at least one more. If You load game with 1000+n gold then nothing happen, and trophy will be locked until You start new game/new save game profile and fulfil requirements.

Trophies can be unlocked manually by two ways: one on debug XMB and one hacking set indexes on PC. First one is for sure ok but such trophies are flagged as debug and doesn't count in statistics, yet synchronize ok in both ways. Hacked trophies are not edited properly so I don't know, never did that.

@sandungas No, not always. PFD can protect nothing.
No, ERK is not needed.

;p

 

[snkplkn]

I agree. I don't care about the trophies. All my trophies are gone and i don't care. I am only interested in fixing them just to learn how to do it.

But Trophy system is important for some multiplayer games i guess. Some games have rating system to challenge users with certain expert level. I think Soul Calibur has some kind of system like this.

 

[sandungas]

@sandungas No, not always. PFD can protect nothing.
No, ERK is not needed.

The purpose of the PFD is to protect the other files, i dont get what you mean when you say the PFD can protect nothing

I made a mistake when i mentioned the eid root key because i wrote it from memory, what is needed is the console_id, anyway both are an unique identifyer of your PS3, that was my point, you only need that key because you can grab all other keys from internet

All other keys are static, all the PS3's uses the same
And the keys dependant of the game... same stuff, if you and me have the same game then that game uses the same keys, so we can "share" that keys and are going to work for everyone that have that game

 

[snkplkn]

I don't care about the trophies and many people don't. But Trophies are an important part of PSN ecosystem. Users like to compare trophies and interact with friends with similar interests on PSN (i don't). Sony should act like central database and an intermediary that safeguards Trophy System (for those who like Trophy system).

But Sony should've differentiated between Save game files and Trophies. Save game files belong to users and Sony should have no authority to interfere in it.

 

[snkplkn]

Is there some Batch utility that can edit SFO/PFD of multiple saves and multiple trophies? I have like 100 files and editing each of them is hard.

 

[Berion]

Why You just don't change NPAID in settings?
Uwziął się na to przepisywanie i trzyma się z uporem maniaka jak pijany płotu...
If You want batch, stick to FlatzTools as they are CLI applications so You can make easily list of operations in *.bat.