Recovery Flasher

***wraggster*** · August 5th, 2008, 16:44

News/release from Hellcat:

H E L L C A T s R e c o v e r y F l a s h e r
========================= ========================= =====
* recover semi-bricks * up-/downgrade your CFW *
* flash *ANY* CFW directely to 3.71-M33 *
all without Pandora
========================= ========================= =====

[ D*O*W*N*L*O*A*D ]

What is this? And why?
========================= ===============

Short version:
--------------------
- Flashes a fresh 3.71-M33 - 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)

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!
NOT from a 3.40-OE though.... (that also counts for any FW bellow 3.52-
M33-3 installed in the NAND)

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.

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 Update EBOOT, renamed as 371.PBP, into
the RECOVERY folder as well.

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.

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 :-)

Download and Give Feedback Via Comments

**ashamanmiller** · August 5th, 2008, 17:01

nice... however from my understanding it takes any cfw u have and upgrades/ downgrades to that particular cfw? any chance that if u make a new release that ull at least have a choice of which cfw we want? just a suggestion... cool release tho!