Inspirated

One of the common issues gamers are facing in transferring their backups between their PS3 and PC is the filesize limits for FAT32 filesystems (which happens to be the only one recognized by Backup Manager on external USB drives). Fortunately, a workaround exists for transferring >4GB files to PS3 from USB storage. First of all, you’ll need Comgenie’s Awesome Filemanager. Once you’ve got it up and running you can split any large file in the following manner:

Big.file
Big.file.1.part
Big.file.2.part
Big.file.3.part

Comgenie’s package comes with a file-splitter which splits following the pattern mentioned above. However, the utility runs only on Windows or Wine integrated with Mono. Fellow *nixers can use the handy split to the same effect. Here’s a shell script which I wrote for automating this task:

ps3split.tar.gz

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#!/bin/sh
 
if [ "$#" -lt "1" ]
then
    echo "Usage: ps3split inputfile"
    exit 1
fi
 
if [ "$(readlink -f .)" == "$(dirname "$(readlink -f "$1")")" ]
then
    echo "Cannot split files in the same directory as original"
    exit 1
fi
 
split --verbose \
      --bytes=4294967295 \
      --suffix-length=1 \
      --numeric-suffixes \
      "$1" "$(basename "$1").part."
 
old="$(basename "$1").part.0"
new="$(basename "$1")"
echo "renaming file \`$old\` -> \`$new\`"
mv "$old" "$new"
 
for old in $(basename "$1").part.*
do
    new=`echo $old | sed 's/^\(.*\).part.\(.\)$/\1.\2.part/'`
    echo "renaming file \`$old\` -> \`$new\`"
    mv "$old" "$new"
done

Use the script by providing it the path of a file you want to split:

[krkhan@orthanc ps3split]$ ./ps3split /mnt/bluray/PS3_GAME/USRDIR/TEKKEN.psarc

creating file `TEKKEN.psarc.part.0′
creating file `TEKKEN.psarc.part.1′
renaming file `TEKKEN.psarc.part.0` -> `TEKKEN.psarc`
renaming file `TEKKEN.psarc.part.1` -> `TEKKEN.psarc.1.part`

Transfer all the splitted files to your external harddisk and then copy the first part (`TEKKEN.psarc` in this case) using Comgenie’s Filemanager. It will automatically recognize the subsequent parts and join them together on the internal harddisk of PS3. I’ve tested the script on Tekken 6 and Red Dead Redemption and it worked flawlessly for both.

Paraphrasing the definition from The Devil’s Dictionary which was the primary motivation behind the blog name Inspirated:

“PIRACY, n. Commerce without its folly-swaddles, just as God made it.” — Ambrose Bierce

PS3, meet backups. Backups, meet PSGrooPIC:

(Click on the thumbnail for larger version.)