ps2 PS2 Hard Drive More Questions Than Answers

[Classic Pac]

About a year ago when I got my FAT PS2 I thought adding a Hard Drive should at least be simple. Except I am just as confused as I was when I started this mess. Yes I seen the video on how to add one. Which is why I decided to buy a Free Mc Boot instead. I did get the right kind of hard drive, and managed to do what everyone said had to be done in Windows, making it active and etc. Plugged it in to the Network Card and I used the MISC tools in Free McBoot to format it. My question is what is next? I don't even know how to add games, or why can't the PS2 transfer games save to it. Really I need some friendly advice. 

[Tempest]

When I did this years ago I had to plug the hard drive into my pc and use a special program to install games onto the hard drive.  It was kind of involved but not too difficult. 

[RARusk]

The program you're looking for is Winhiip and I highly recommend that you format the drive and install games with it since the DVD-ROM drive on the PS2 is slow and crappy which tends to result in botched installs. As for playing off the hard drive I recommend Open PS2 Loader which is way superior than HDLoader.

[Tempest]

Winhiip!  That was it.  I seem to recall it being easy enough to use, but hooking up a scsi hard drive to a modern computer can be a pain .

[+HatNJ]

https://www.ps2-home.com/forum/app.php/portal?sid=80523dde3374f5df166e40ff95016515

 

this site answered most questions i had when i did 2 PS2's earlier this year

[RARusk]

21 hours ago, Tempest said:

Winhiip!  That was it.  I seem to recall it being easy enough to use, but hooking up a scsi hard drive to a modern computer can be a pain .

You mean IDE since that is what the Network Adapter uses. There are also off-brand versions with SATA now which will make it easier to use SSDs and such.

[davidbrit2]

As I faintly recall, my basic setup process is something like this, there are likely lots of other variations that work just as well.

 

Things you need:

 

1. FreeMCBoot memory card - This is your foot-in-the-door. Don't use this for game saves. Ever. Think of it like your recovery boot disk. And maybe make yourself a backup copy.

2. uLE (uLaunchELF) - A simple shell for running programs from any attached storage device, doing file system and disk maintenance, etc.

3. OPL (Open Playstation Loader) - The program that boots and runs PS2 ISOs from a hard drive (or flash drive or Windows network share)

4. WinHIIP - PC program for installing ISOs onto a PS2 hard drive attached to your computer.

 

What to do:

 

1. Boot your FreeMCBoot memory card.

2. Use uLE, likely installed on the FMCB memory card, or from a flash drive, to format your hard drive.

3. Download the latest FreeMCBoot installer and copy it to a flash drive. Run it from uLE to install FreeHDBoot onto the hard drive. Now would also be a good time to install FMCB to another memory card so you have a backup copy.

4. Download the latest version of uLE (which I think is actually not called uLE anymore) and OPL and put them on a flash drive.

5. Boot up uLE again, and copy the latest uLE and OPL over to the appropriate partition on the hard drive. I forget which one you're supposed to put custom binaries on - I think it's "config" or "system" or something. Check the installation instructions for those two utilities. You may also want to copy the newer version of uLE to your FMCB memory card.

 

At that point, you should be able to boot up the hard drive, and use the FMCB menu editor to add OPL and uLE to the main menu.

 

Of course OPL isn't all that useful if you don't have any ISOs installed. I generally use WinHIIP + IDE-to-USB adapter to do this. Make sure you configure WinHIIP for 128-bit HDLoader the first time you run it! Once WinHIIP is all set up and the drive is connected, choose your PS2 drive from the drop-down menu. WinHIIP will read the partition map, and you can then install games either directly from a DVD/CD drive, or from an ISO file. When you're done, close WinHIIP, safely disconnect the drive from Windows, and pop the drive back into your PS2.

 

OPL for some reason isn't configured to activate any storage devices by default, so the first time you launch it, it won't see your hard drive, and you will stare in silent dismay. Go into the config menu, set the hard disk to auto, and make sure you press the correct button to save your settings to your memory card (it's really easy to cancel by mistake). I think you may also have to set it to browse the hard disk by default so you don't have to dismiss the menu every time.

 

Once you're all set, it's as simple as booting the PS2, running OPL from the FMCB menu, and choosing a game from the list.

 

I know this sounds like a complicated pain in the ass, but it's really not all that labor intensive, and having a jukebox of 300+ GB of PS2 games at the ready is an absolutely worthwhile payoff.

[+-^CrossBow^-]

This is the video I followed a few months ago when I finally soft modded my PS2. All the links etc still work in this video and if you exactly what he does, you should be golden. Only difference is that I created my own FreeMcBoot with a spare magic gate mem card I had laying around and this video even walks you through how to do that as well. I found it easy to follow and in fact a few weeks after soft modding, I wanted a larger HDD so I could rip my entire library of PS2 games I own to it. Purchased a replacement adapter for the IDE to give me SATA ports instead and I'm still up and running.

 

 

[+HatNJ]

I watched that one too and this youtube channel has alot of info

 

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPj1he37PRDbmwccEtB9eCA