PS3 / PS4 HDD Tool

A .NET 10 and Avalonia application for browsing console hard drives and raw disk images on Windows, Linux, and macOS.

Captured from the application using synthetic test images.

Guided setup — choose an image or physical drive, import its key, and mount the filesystem.

PS4 read-only browser — select a partition, browse folders, inspect file details, and extract files to your computer.

PS3 browser — browse and extract files, with the existing PS3 write tools and fake-write toggle available.

Images can use .img, .bin, .dd, or .raw extensions. These are raw sector images, not compressed or virtual-disk containers. Physical disk access may require administrator/root privileges. The reader requires 512-byte logical sectors.

1. Choose Image file or Physical drive on the setup screen. A full PS4 disk is recognized from its GPT partition table.
2. Click Import .bin and select your console's 32-byte keys.bin or eap_hdd_key.bin. You can also enter 64 hexadecimal characters directly. Obtain the key separately; this application does not dump it from the console.
3. Select user or eap_user in PS4 partition, then click Mount Partition.
4. Expand folders, select a file or directory, and click Extract to save it to your computer.
5. To switch partitions, choose another partition and click Mount Partition again.

Key byte order and XTS IV mode are detected automatically: the reader tries the supplied key and reversal within each 16-byte half, with either zero IV offset or (GPT slot - 1) << 32. Each candidate must yield valid little-endian UFS2 geometry and a valid root directory. Disk offsets and partition-relative XTS sector numbers are handled separately.

PS4 sources are opened read-only. The partition reader rejects every write operation, and PS3 write/PKG installation actions are unavailable. PS4 keys are not added to the PS3 key/profile database or written into activity logs.

Current limits:

• Full internal-HDD images with an intact primary GPT are supported; standalone partition images and backup-GPT recovery are not implemented.
• update and eap_vsh are shown but require a FAT reader. Other encrypted partitions require different keys or formats and cannot be mounted by this feature.
• USB extended storage, PS4 PKG processing, writes, and deleted-file recovery are not included.
• Extraction handles regular files and directories, including sparse files and single/double/triple indirect blocks. Source symbolic links and special files are skipped during folder extraction.
• Names that cannot be represented safely on the destination platform produce an error. Extraction does not follow existing destination symbolic links. Existing regular destination files are overwritten.

References: PS4 mounting guide, PS4 partition types, UFS structures.

Open a disk, import its EID Root Key or pre-derived HDD keys, and click Decrypt and mount. The EID Root Key is 48 bytes: a 32-byte AES key and 16-byte IV. Pre-derived XTS keys contain 16-byte data and tweak halves; CBC imports use the existing 48-byte combined format. The key importer also accepts separate data/tweak files.

The existing PS3 features include UFS2 browsing, extraction, image previews, saved keys and drive profiles, file/folder writes, directory creation, rename/delete, and PS3 PKG extraction/installation. Fake writes on is enabled by default. Image files currently open read-only; actual PS3 writes use writable physical disks.

The Workbench interface uses a charcoal/orange theme, guided setup, a resizable file browser, and a collapsible Log. Right-click files for extraction, copy path, and (PS3 only) rename/delete. Eject returns to setup; the five most recent sources are remembered for reopening. Recent-source storage contains paths and sizes, not encryption keys.

Install the .NET 10 SDK, then:

dotnet restore PS3HddTool.sln
dotnet build PS3HddTool.sln
dotnet run --project PS3HddTool.Avalonia

To publish a self-contained Windows executable:

dotnet publish PS3HddTool.Avalonia -c Release -r win-x64 --self-contained

Other runtime targets include linux-x64, osx-x64, and osx-arm64.

The executable test project returns a nonzero exit code on failure:

dotnet run --project PS3HddTool.Tests

It covers GPT validation and slot numbering, XTS/key/IV combinations, partition bounds, write rejection, both UFS2 byte orders, sparse and indirect extraction, PS3 crypto compatibility, mount lifecycle, and headless window bindings. Generated fixtures and rendered window previews go under ignored artifacts/ps4-tests/ directories.

Optional real-image verification (opens the source read-only):

dotnet run --project PS3HddTool.Tests -- "ps4hdd/User.img" "ps4hdd/keys.bin"

This browses both supported partitions and extracts up to two files of at most 32 MiB per partition. Extracted hashes are compared with an independent block-by-block reader. Source length and modification time are checked afterward. Real images and keys are not bundled with tests.

• PS3HddTool.Core: disk I/O, PS3 crypto, PS4 GPT/mounting, UFS2 reads/writes, PS3 PKG support.
• PS3HddTool.Avalonia: UI, disk lifecycle, partition selection, browsing and extraction.
• PS3HddTool.Tests: synthetic regression tests and optional real-image checks.
• docs/PS3_UFS2_Filesystem_Reference_Final.md: existing PS3 filesystem reference.

See LICENSE.md.