PS4 [Question] HDD, NOR, and Syscon Backups - Console Restore?

engineer

engineer

Member
Hi,

I have a backup of the HDD, NOR (sflash) and syscon chip from a fat PS4 with FW 8.50/8.03 (Active/Inactive).

Case #1
Say I update to 10.0 (USB). So now I'm at 10.00/8.50 (Active/Inactive).

I am aware that I can revert (old or newer revert method) to FW 8.50. Then, I would have the option to update to any FW >= 8.50. Or, stay at 8.50.

What I'd like to know is, if I choose to not revert, but rather write back the 8.50/8.03 back-ups (HDD, NOR, and syscon chips). Would that essentially undo the 10.0 FW update, and restore everything to the initial state of FW 8.50/8.03?

Case #2
Say I update the now 10.00/8.50 (Active/Inactive) PS4 to 11.00 (online). So now the PS4 is 11.00/10.00 (Active/Inactive). Would writing back the 8.50/8.03 back-ups (HDD, NOR, and syscon chips) undo the 10.0 and 11.0 FW updates, and restore everything to the initial state of FW 8.50/8.03?

Simply put, with a matching trio of backups of HDD, NOR and syscon, would writing (back to the PS4) any of these trio of back-ups from past date x, restore the PS4 to this back-up FW state from past date x? Or, are there other locations/efuses that would limit us to only switch back to either of the two latest (on-console) active/inactive FW states?

CUH 1001A, SOP16 NOR (MX25L25635FMI-10G), and 100-pin (R5F100PLAFB) syscon IC. All original components.

Cheers
 
To answer my own question, yes you can.

I have a fat 8.50/8.03 (active/inactive) unit which I backed-up all three of syscon, sflash (NOR) and HDD (I'll refer to them as the trio). Then I updated (USB) this PS4 to FW 9.00/8.50. Power-cycled and all. Then I took a back-up of the 9.00/8.50 trio. Then I wrote back the 8.50/8.03 back-ups to the trio. PS4 booted fine and all. Did an online FW update to 11.02/8.50. Power-cycled, synced with PSN, etc... Then I took a back-up of the 11.02/8.50 trio. Then I wrote back the 9.00/8.50 trio. Again booted and everything is fine. Then I wrote back the 8.50/8.03 trio. Again everything is fine. Then I wrote back the 11.02/8.50 trio back, and again everything is fine.

In short, as long as you have matching FW back-ups of all three of syscon, sflash (NOR) and HDD, you can switch back and forth to any FW you have a back-up of.

I didn't need to change/modify any addresses in any of the binary images.

Cheers.
 
In case of HDD, high probably it is sufficient to copy only system_a/b partitions, not entire disk.
 
In PS4 HDD Decryption Helper You have commented areas in Mounter script. It should points to partition number in GPT table (they are always the same across all models, at least so far from dumps I saw).

If I remember correct, 9 (system_a) and 10 (system_b) but better check it Youtself.
 
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