APA Recovery Tool

apa-recovery

apa_recover.py diagnoses, and optionally repairs, a PS2 APA hard disk whose partition table root was damaged. That's the state wLaunchELF shows as "Connected: YES / Formatted: NO", and RiptOPL reports as code 402.

In that state the games are almost always still on the disk. Every APA partition has its own header, and the partitions form a linked chain. When the chain is intact, the __mbr header at LBA 0 can be rebuilt from it. Background: docs/APA-SAFETY.md.

Do not format the disk. Image it first if you can.

Requirements

• Python 3.8 or newer, with no extra packages
• A SATA/IDE-to-USB adapter (or a spare SATA port)
• Administrator (Windows) or root (Linux/macOS) rights to open the raw disk

Diagnose (read-only, the default)

python3 apa_recover.py /dev/sdX

python3 apa_recover.py disk.img

On Windows, from an Administrator prompt: python apa_recover.py \\.\PhysicalDrive2. Find the number in Disk Management; an APA disk shows as unallocated.

The report shows:

• whether LBA 0–7 would be accepted by ps2hdd, and what is wrong if not
• the partition chain: how many partitions, of which type, and a list of them
• whether the disk is repairable

Exit code 0 means healthy, 1 means damaged or not repairable, 2 means a usage or I/O error.

Repair

python3 apa_recover.py /dev/sdX --repair

1. Refuses to go on if LBA 1 holds a GPT header (a GPT/APA hybrid), the chain is broken, or the backup file already exists.
2. Backs up the first 4 MB (0x2000 sectors) to apa_backup_<time>.bin, or to --backup FILE. Unreadable sectors are saved as zeros and listed.
3. Writes LBA 0–7 only, as one 4 KB write:
   • A valid __mbr header is kept byte for byte. If only its links are wrong, only those are corrected.
   • A missing or damaged header is rebuilt: next = the first partition, prev = the last, the standard __mbr password, and a still-sane HDD-OSD boot area from the old header, if any.
   • LBA 2–5 are kept if readable; LBA 6–7 are zeroed.
4. Verifies: re-reads LBA 0–7, applies ps2hdd's own format check, and walks the whole chain again from the new header.

The disk is opened read-only for the whole diagnosis. Before anything is written, the tool shows the target (path, size and partition count) and asks you to type REPAIR; only then does it reopen the disk for writing. --yes skips that confirmation, so only use it when you are certain of the path.

A checksummed header whose next is 0 is taken as the real end of the chain, because deleting the last partition on a disk leaves that partition's old header in place. If an intact __mbr names a later last partition than the chain reaches, the tool refuses: the chain was cut short.

Tests

.github/scripts/test_apa_recover.py runs the tool against synthetic APA images:

• healthy
• table sector wiped
• error sectors dirty
• bad checksum
• stale links
• broken chain
• GPT hybrid
• existing backup file

It checks that a rebuilt header passes the IOP driver's write fence and ps2hdd's format rules, and uses the password ps2sdk computes. It also checks that nothing outside LBA 0–7 ever changes.

Image-file operation has been tested on Linux and Windows. Raw-device access (\\.\PhysicalDriveN, /dev/sdX, /dev/rdiskN and the disk-size ioctls) has not been tested. Reports from real disks are welcome.

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Source: pc/apa-recovery/README.md @ 3ce281b0793c.