PS2 HDD Booting Results with DMS3 v9
Since there is a lot of confusion in the last 24 hours about booting issues with the HD, I would like to clarify what I have found so far, seeming I have been a Beta Tester for FFXI and know the interface of PlayOnline and the HDD as good as anyone. I ask a mod please sticky this please as to accentuate it from the other newbie posts going around about the HDD, as most do no know the whole process.
A DMS3 is REQUIRED to play backups with the HDD installed. Sorry cheapmod users, shoulda upgraded like me, I saw this coming when I had my Magic 3.1 with the Beta kit :) . As CJ said, you can also use a flippy top instead of a DMS3.
With the DMS3 for v9 with flash v1.8, the following things are true:
-PS2 Backups will ONLY boot when Fast Boot mode is used (holding down Select during bootup). Unlike CJPC at the other site, I have found this to work flawlessly. However, if you have backups of any HDD enabled games such as SOCOM II, the HDD features on it will not be usable, as Fast Boot mode skips the initialization of the HDD. I tested the Beta v1.00 disc floating around on EFNet, and that CD-R boots just fine, no problems reported.
-PS1 Backups will not work with the HDD installed. Sorry. No Fast Boot mode for PS1 Backups yet.
-For PS1 Originals, PS2 Originals, DVD Movies, and CD Audio, put your modchip in sleep mode (hold the eject button down until the SCEA logo disappears). This will do the trick.
-For any HDD installed content and games, boot the modchip in sleep mode also.
This worked for me using HDD v1.10 drivers (the default ones). I did not require the Beta v1.00 drivers that I have at my house and that are circulating on IRC. I have found the v1.00 drivers are much more unstable and were not designed to work with the retail versions of these games. If you want to use a Swap Magic and boot them and install them, be my guest.
**Also another weird thing, it seems that when my HDD was factory formatted, I could NOT access the HDD content pre-installed (PlayOnline viewer, FFXI, TetraMaster). I don't know what this was caused by, faulty formatting of the HDD, or a modchip detection issue (I don't think that would be the case though since I booted everything in sleep mode before even trying to use HDD content, hadn't even tested Fast Boot mode yet at the time). After formatting the HDD using the v1.10 disc it came with and installing PlayOnline Viewer and FFXI and TetraMaster again, all of them work fine. I will test again later to make sure Fast Boot doesn't trigger something in the HDD that makes future HDD access impossible, once my FFXI updates complete.**
**UPDATE ON THIS ONE: Fat_Mike has informed me you need to insert the PlayOnline disc before accessing pre-formatted HDD features, this is for security reasons. Helps to read the instruction booklet! So it seems you do not need to reformat the drive.**
I am currently downloading updates for FFXI as we speak, so once that completes, later tonight I will test more PS2 backup compatibility further, trying DVD+R's, CD-R's and a DVD9 Silver. I will report those findings later tonight, in approximately 8-9 hours hopefully.
