H E L L C A T s R e c o v e r y F l a s h e r
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* recover semi-bricks * up-/downgrade your CFW *
* flash *ANY* CFW directely to 3.71-M33 or 4.01-M33*
all without Pandora
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[ D*O*W*N*L*O*A*D ]
What is this? And why?
========================================
Short version:
--------------------
- Flashes a fresh M33 CFW (3.71, 4.01)
for recovering semi-bricks or to up-/downgrade CFW
- does not use Pandora, runns from the recovery menu or the XMB
- does not use (as in launch) the original Sony Updater (only extracts
all required files from the original .PBP)
- runns fine on CFWs lower than 3.52-M33-3 - handy for upgrading older
FWs w/o the "need to go 3.52, then 3.52-3, then higher" odyssey :-)
- runns fine from TimeMachine (3.40-OE on Fat and 3.60-M33 on Slim)
- can backup the FW flash and restore selected parts (XMB theme,
settings, PSN activation)
Pandora Support
========================================
Since version 1.20 the recovery flasher also comes with an .ELF binary
that can be used from a DDC Pandora stick, so you can use the CFW
flashing functions of it from a Pandora boot.
For details on how to install and use it, see the readme in the
Pandora folder of this archive.
Long version:
--------------------
Back in the 1.50 based CFW days (up to 3.52-M33) the option "Launch
EBOOT at /PSP/GAME/RECOVERY/" was a very handy thing for recovering
semi-bricks or downgrading your PSP - in short, to repair or
completely re-flash your PSP.
Since the 3.xx (or higher) based CFWs this option became obsolete due
to missing apps that could run and do their job from there.
Here comes the rescue ;-)
Designed as a native 3.xx+ app, to run from the recovery menu's option
from recent CFWs on Fat and Slim PSPs - however, you can perfectly run it
from the XMB as well.
On 1.50 based CFWs (3.52 and lower) you must run it from the XMB,
since the recovery menu on those CFWs launches the EBOOT in 1.50 kernel,
but it uses systen calls not available from there.
You can perform the following actions:
- Flash a fresh 3.71-M33 (-1) to recover a semi-brick or to downgrade.
- Make a backup of all FW related flash content (filewise, flash0-3,
i.e. FW, settings, PSN store activation, e.t.c., it's not a NAND dump!)
- Restore various parts of the FW flash (VSH/XMB theme, settings, PSN
store activation....)
When installing a fresh 3.71 you can choose to reset all settings as
well, or to keep them if you know there's nothing wrong with them.
So the recovered/downgraded PSP can still have all your settings! :-)
All of theese functions also work from a 3.60 booted via TimeMachine!
Even from a 3.40-OE.
Why 3.71? Why not a lower or higher FW?
========================================
One purpose of this app is to downgrade the CFW of the PSP.
I define downgrading much as "go as low as you can" and 3.71 is the
lowest firmware that runns on both PSPs, Fat and Slim.
From there then, you have the freedom of upgrading to any other FW
you desire - thus no higher one for this.
However:
*** Since 1.20 you can also flash 4.01-M33-2 :-)
Installation
========================================
Painless and easy:
Copy the RECOVERY folder from the archive to /PSP/GAME/ on your
memstick, so that you get a /PSP/GAME/RECOVERY/ folder containing the
apps EBOOT on your stick.
Now copy the official Sony 3.71 and/or 4.01 Update EBOOT, renamed
as 371.PBP (401.PBP), into the RECOVERY folder as well, or into the
memsticks root folder.
The Recovery Flasher will first look for the updater .PBPs in it's
own folder, if it doesn't find them there, it'll look at the
memsticks root folder and use the files from there if they exist.
That eay you can use already existing .PBPs you have (for DDC or
whatever) for the Recovery Flasher as well.
*** NOTE ***
The Recovery Flasher MUST be installed in /PSP/GAME/RECOVERY!
Do not rename it's folder or it will fail loading!
If you have other apps you like to use from the recovery menu, you
can do so with Recovery Flasher's option "Launch another app" (see
below)
Done :-)
Usage
========================================
After launching the app, either from the recovery menu or via the XMB
you'll eventually get into the mainmenu.
Everything should be pretty selfexplanatory, you can flash a new
firmware, make a complete flash0 to flash2 backup or restore certain
things from your backup.
The option "Launch another app" will give you a list of the games/apps
you have in /PSP/GAME on your memstick.
You can then choose one and run it directely from Recovery Flasher.
Usefull to use some other apps on semibricks when you can't use the
XMB to launch them, or for those people who already have a preffered
app they use from the recovery menu but want to install the Flasher
as well.
Restoring a complete firmware from a backup
-----------------------------------------
Since v1.30 you can restore a complete firmware from your flash backup.
This can be almost any firmware you like and it doesn't matter what's
currently installed on the PSP (current firmware and firmware to be
installed can be different).
It could be a FW not natively supported by Recovery Flasher or a
premodded one, for example.
You can even flash the backup of one PSP to another one!
The signchecks, that usually prevent copying a flash0 between
different PSPs, are removed during backup and recreated while restoring!
REQUIREMENTS: There's only one tiny bit required in addition to your
backup: The original updater .PBP of the firmware you are going to
restore! Again, this can be either in the RECOVERY folder itself, or
in the memstick root, with the usual renaming applied.
The updater is required to load some special modules needed for
initialising the flash for the firmware that's going to be flashed.
Finally, take note that this is a bit more dangerous than installing
a fresh FW since we can't know what has been done to the files, and
if some are damaged or even missing it can result in a brick - so always
be cautious if using a backup from someone else!
NOTE: For restoring a 3.60-M33 on the Slim, use the 3.52 updater (352.PBP)
Backup Folders
-----------------------------------------
Since v1.30 you can also have multiple backups at once.
When making a backup you have the coice of overwriting an existing one
or creating a new one. When creating a new one, folders will be named
like "Backup_001", "Backup_002" and so forth.
You are then free to rename those folders to whatever you like to give
them more descriptive names for what's in there.
Recovery Flasher will show the renamed folders with no problems and
you can then use them to restore or save new backups in there.
You can also create folder with propper names before making a backup
and then "fill" the backup into them.
The backup folders are located in ms0:/flash_backup/
What else?
========================================
Well, that's pretty much it.
Here's some additional credits that should be noted:
- PSAR extraction is based on the M33 NEWPSARDumper - with lots of
modifications though.... (libpsardumper.prx and pspdecrypt.prx are
used for the actual extraction and crypto parts)
- IPL flashing routines are currently by DAX (iplupdate.prx)
(planning on getting my own code working for that part....)
- I have to thank the following people VERY MUCH for their hints, help
and patient answers to all my questions - without those, the creation
of this program would have taken a year longer (or two ;-)):
* JumpR * cory1492 * jas0nuk * all the other devs on LAN.ST *
I hope you enjoy using this as much as I did making it :-)
Leave comments, bug reports, or whatever in the release threads at
either eXophase.com or the qj.net forums.
This program has been tested by myself to successfully flash
a fresh 3.71-M33-4 and a 4.01-M33-2 on the following setups:
3.02-OE *) on Fat PSP
3.40-OE via TimeMachine on Fat PSP
3.60-M33 via TimeMachine on Slim PSP
3.71-M33 on Fat and Slim PSP
4.01-M33 on Fat and Slim PSP
4.01-M33 started via DDCv6 (kinda pointless to install a 4.01 then,
but hey, can't hurt to try
)
*) Note: On lower CFWs (early OEs, mostly) you may get warnings during
3.71 installation regaring assignments of flash1:
This is normal under theese FW versions, no need to worry.
The program will disable formatting flash1 in that case, so
everything should be fine.
[ D*O*W*N*L*O*A*D ]
So long! :-)
---==> HELLCAT <==---