PS3 HDD dying - Any way to use a PC to copy/clone it?

I have a PS3, it's running Rebug and I have dumped it's keys so I can read the harddrive on a PC if I need to... probably I have the proper programs (I have no idea what apps are available for this).

It's internal HDD is dying and I am having a mountain of issues attempting to get the data off of this thing. The backup kept failing, though I did get it to work once but I am not sure if the backup is corrupt or not due to the fact that the "HDD Exchange Utility" that Rebug offers you in Debug options didn't seem to work. Like the Backup would fail, but the one time I managed to get it to work, the PS3 rejected the HDD saying it was corrupt and it needed to be reformatted, so I am worried the Backup is corrupted too even if it completed the backup.

I tried using Multiman to write directly from the HDD to a USB HDD as well, and I could not get it to mount NTFS (some of the files on the internal HDD are over 4GB). I tried using FTP, but not only was is to slow that it took about a week, I had several disconnects and errors attempting to do so, so I am worried THAT data isn't intact either. (Not to mention, I have no idea how to properly put this data manually back on the new HDD in a way that the PS3 would be able to use).

Basically, I am worried that accessing this HDD from the PS3 itself is a no-go since it appears to be dying and the PS3 just plain can't cope with this, so I was hoping that accessing it via a PC might be a better method, but I have no idea what tools are available for the PC to read and especially to clone a PS3 HDD. Again, I do have the key dumped so the drive beign encrypted is not an issue (though I don't know if the encryption keys are unique to just the PS3, or even different from harddrive to harddrive even if used in the same PS3).

Any suggestions on what I can try to do?

 

How about sector cloning the disc?
As you already have the keys, you can use them too unlock the new disc?

Never tried this on a ps3 hdd though, but should work right?

 

If you're worried about it failing, definitely make a raw dump. I don't know how to do anything with it afterwards but if you make a raw dump then that's the best you can do to preserve it. Maybe someone can chime in with how to access it with keys via PC.

 

From my understanding, that would result in the new drive being detected as the same size as the old one. Old drive is 250GB, new one is 1.5TB.

 

I doubt you'd be able to simply clone the drive AND expand its size. It's not a well-known format unlike other formats like NTFS.

 

I've done this before and yes copying it to a bigger hard drive will result in it being the same size as the original.

If you happen to have a second PS3 you can do a transfer to that PS3 swap the new hard drive in you're normally used PS3 then transfer the data back. That's what I did to my launch Model to add a 1.75TB, almsome a year ago.

You can also try backing up to an external drive but I'm not sure if it will copy everything over or not, either way I would definitely recommend deleting install data that's standard from a game disc and just leave download content and updates.