Hard drive based games - How to read the firmware on the drive?

[animesuperj]

The "motherboard" in question here is a Japanese PS2. I have another working DDR Super Nova CPU here that I'm going to pull the hard drive from and put it in the other machine to see what it does. I expect that its going to boot which would mean that they are NOT married.

It's a slightly modified japanese ps2, it's not the same one you would get off the shelf with the i/o on it.

If you just swap the drives from one python unit to another, it won't work; I know people that have tried.

The drives aren't specifically "married" to the python unit, otherwise you wouldn't be able to buy upgrade kits from SN1 to SN2. The reason you have to send back the entire motherboard and drive, is because there is some encryption between the two units. It's low level enough that you need to know certain commands and have specific access to sectors on the drive. You're not going to be able to crack it. Your best bet is to either ship the stuff back and have it repaired; or buy new hardware all together.

So in order to replace a bad HDD you have to buy the whole motherboard setup ?!?
That is insane.......

That protects konami from people pirating the game, which in this case is what is trying to be done. I understand that the game is just trying to be backed up, or transfer; but think about it. If you can do that as easily as we'd all like, what's to stop someone from just copying a drive and giving it to another person with python hardware? That's bad business for Konami, hence why you can't just "copy" a drive and stick it in some other unit.


All it comes down to, is you're not going to be able to copy the drive. Like I said, I see two options. 1. Send it out and get it repaired. 2. Downgrade to a 573 unit and play 3rd-extreme; or else stick something else in that's new hardware.

 

[KevinMullins]

The drives aren't specifically "married" to the python unit, otherwise you wouldn't be able to buy upgrade kits from SN1 to SN2. The reason you have to send back the entire motherboard and drive, is because there is some encryption between the two units. It's low level enough that you need to know certain commands and have specific access to sectors on the drive. You're not going to be able to crack it. Your best bet is to either ship the stuff back and have it repaired; or buy new hardware all together.

If a specific motherboard only works with a specific HDD then they are "married" for all intense purposes as far as I'm concerned.
So does an upgrade "kit" to go from a SN1 to a SN2 just a HDD swap or something?

That protects konami from people pirating the game, which in this case is what is trying to be done. I understand that the game is just trying to be backed up, or transfer; but think about it. If you can do that as easily as we'd all like, what's to stop someone from just copying a drive and giving it to another person with python hardware? That's bad business for Konami, hence why you can't just "copy" a drive and stick it in some other unit.

A $50-60 HDD or a $1000 system......who is getting screwed on this deal ?
That is what it boils down to for an OP who has several machines that constantly fail.

I'm not arguing that Konami has the right to protect their stuff, but ordering JUST a HDD with the serial number off a motherboard would suffice if it saved the OP a buttload of money every time one of these failed. (i.e no need to buy a complete $1000 hardware setup because of a bad HDD)

I honestly don't know diddly about these DDR machines, this thread just caught my attention because of the HDD copying aspect. Nice to learn what different companies do. I've only done some simple Megatouch HDD making myself.

 

[animesuperj]

If a specific motherboard only works with a specific HDD then they are "married" for all intense purposes as far as I'm concerned.
So does an upgrade "kit" to go from a SN1 to a SN2 just a HDD swap or something?

I'm not 100% sure on the upgrade, if it's just a swap of an HDD. I've never dealt with anything but system 573; which is what my DDR machine is. With that, all you need is the security cart and new install disc. Once everything switched to the python hardware, they had to have some way of enforcing security for the system.

Like I said before, I know you can't just switch harddrives into new systems. I know someone who took two python units each with their own hdd, and switched the hdd's; and it didn't boot. This means that there is some security between the python and hdd. What that is, I don't know. I also forgot there is the Magicgate for the units as well (which again, I've never actually used a python unit, but I've read a lot on them and have had friends deal with this on their machines) which is a memory card. This probably adds some security between validating the harddrive and motherboard.

A $50-60 HDD or a $1000 system......who is getting screwed on this deal ?
That is what it boils down to for an OP who has several machines that constantly fail.

I'm not arguing that Konami has the right to protect their stuff, but ordering JUST a HDD with the serial number off a motherboard would suffice if it saved the OP a buttload of money every time one of these failed. (i.e no need to buy a complete $1000 hardware setup because of a bad HDD)

Sorry, I might have misread what was said before when I responded. I don't think they need to buy new hardware AND a drive when it fails; just send back the drive for repair. I know a lot of people complain about the quality of these drives and that they break a lot. I'm pretty sure they would only need to get a drive repaired, but that would have to be sent out; they couldn't just copy the drive to a new one. Again, I apologize if I misread or responded on that; I was at work while reading this (and skim over a lot sometimes).

Basically, all I was trying to add, is that there is going to be no way for a owner to copy the drive and have it work. Whatever Konami added for security, you can't do it. So, that's where I said either send out the drive to get fixed, or just upgrade to something else. I don't know if they make kits for bemaniPC type 4 to run DDRX/X2 in a SN cabinet, but that'd be a possibility. If it were me, I'd just downgrade to a system 573, since they're easier to deal with, and Extreme (or Max2) are still good mixes.

 

[gamefixer]

If a specific motherboard only works with a specific HDD then they are "married" for all intense purposes as far as I'm concerned.
So does an upgrade "kit" to go from a SN1 to a SN2 just a HDD swap or something?

A $50-60 HDD or a $1000 system......who is getting screwed on this deal ?
That is what it boils down to for an OP who has several machines that constantly fail.

I'm not arguing that Konami has the right to protect their stuff, but ordering JUST a HDD with the serial number off a motherboard would suffice if it saved the OP a buttload of money every time one of these failed. (i.e no need to buy a complete $1000 hardware setup because of a bad HDD) .

The Super Nova 1 to Super Nova 2 kit consists of graphics, 2 new security dongles and a restore DVD. Thats the part that pisses me off... They INCLUDE a restore DVD but it only works on the Drive that the PS2 came with. Thats a super huge load as far as I'm concerned.

Konami has every right to protect their software but I too have a right to a good working backup and I'm not getting that.

Ugh, what are we going to do??