New user, read but still a little confused

[theone964]

I've been reading the forums for a while now and i guess it just boils down to me being an idiot because I just can't get my back ups to work. The Free MC boot screen comes up and then the ESR public beta revision 9b logo comes up and then the screen just stays black and the disc still keeps spinning. No sound, no video, no flashing colour screens or anything.

I have FMCB v1.8 installed on my memory card with the ESR public beta revision 9b direct DVD and have created an ISO of Black from the original at 4x using ImgBurn, then patched it with ESR Patcher GUI 0.24a. Then i burned the ISO at 4x using ImgBurn again.

Also on another note: I had/have Swap Magic v3.6 which i used before I tried the FMCB method. With that method as you are aware there is no need to patch the games. So i have a bunch of backed up games that aren't patched and i was wondering if there is a way for me to still use all these games without having to go up to the attic and digging out the originals to copy again.
Maybe a way to run swap magic or something directly from the memory card instead of having to run the original swap magic disc every time (which is getting really beat up and damaged at the moment).

Oh btw I'm using a Slim PS2 with the SCPH-79001 and I used RiData DVD-R disc's.

If I'm missing any information that is needed to help me ( which most likely i am) just let me know and i'll p\reply promptly since I've been trying to get this to work for 3 days

[TehJawknee]

Apparently the best media to use are Verbatim and Sony DVD-R's.
I haven't heard a single complaint about them. You might want to give them a try.

[theone964]

Apparently the best media to use are Verbatim and Sony DVD-R's.
I haven't heard a single complaint about them. You might want to give them a try.

I'll give that a try but i've heard many people on other DVD related sites say that RiData is better than the sony ones...but still i'll give the verbatim ones a try

Any ideas how to run the swap magic software from a memory card so i can preserve the already bad state of the original swap magic disc?

[Northbear]

The SM elf wouldn't fit on a normal MC, but you can copy it to a USB device. I suggest to compress it with ps2 packer to reduce the loading time of it. You could also look for COGSWAP or uLE for swapping methods.

[theone964]

The SM elf wouldn't fit on a normal MC, but you can copy it to a USB device. I suggest to compress it with ps2 packer to reduce the loading time of it. You could also look for COGSWAP or uLE for swapping methods.

i'm getting a 128mb and 64mb MC in a few days so the space isn't a problem...could u direct me to the SM elf and the COGSWAP, i've found the ps2 stacker but have not yet used it.

thank you

[Bootlegninja]

fair warning. china clone cards are unreliable.

[PS2Quality7]

The SM elf wouldn't fit on a normal MC, but you can copy it to a USB device. I suggest to compress it with ps2 packer to reduce the loading time of it. You could also look for COGSWAP or uLE for swapping methods.

I have an SM 3.8 DVD elf file that's 694KB in size and a SM 3.3 CD elf file that's 1714 KB in size. Both fit on a regular memory card. In fact I have FCMB, SM DVD elf, and SM CD elf all on the same 8 MB card.

The filename of the 694 KB elf is pkd_SM_3.8DVD.ELF. There's also a much bigger one I think called unpkd_SM_3.8DVD.ELF. The pkd_SM_3.8DVD.ELF loads just fine.

For any SM elf file to work, you have to have an original PS2 DVD / CD game in the drive (depending on whether you run the SM DVD elf or SM CD elf) when you boot Free McBoot. Sometimes also, certain backups will only boot with certain originals in the drive at startup. I think it has to do with TOC size, but you just have to try different originals.

[theone964]

I have an SM 3.8 DVD elf file that's 694KB in size and a SM 3.3 CD elf file that's 1714 KB in size. Both fit on a regular memory card. In fact I have FCMB, SM DVD elf, and SM CD elf all on the same 8 MB card.

The filename of the 694 KB elf is pkd_SM_3.8DVD.ELF. There's also a much bigger one I think called unpkd_SM_3.8DVD.ELF. The pkd_SM_3.8DVD.ELF loads just fine.

For any SM elf file to work, you have to have an original PS2 DVD / CD game in the drive (depending on whether you run the SM DVD elf or SM CD elf) when you boot Free McBoot. Sometimes also, certain backups will only boot with certain originals in the drive at startup. I think it has to do with TOC size, but you just have to try different originals.

thanks PS2Quality7, where can I download these files? i just searched the forums and came up with nothing. So to make sure i'm understanding you clearly; I would need to have an original disc in the ps2 before i turned on the system and then it would load swapmagic from the mc then i would just take out the original and insert my backup and hit x to run it.

Oh btw i think i might have found my problem....i switched over to Ubuntu like 3 weeks ago and i created some backups of my latest games for the swapmagic method but never got a chance to check them out since i was finishing up my old games. Well it turns out that the new backups wont even run with swapmagic, so i must be backing up the game incorrectly. I thought using Imgburn under Windows and Ubuntu through wine was the same method. Maybe i just need to find the tutorial to show me how to backup.

thanks

[Northbear]

Any link to such ELF would be deleted so don't post any. If you have an original SM disc compress it by yourself. The bigger cards are not good a idea, Bootlegninja said that already. These bigger MC's are slower in any case !
In any case regardless how much space you have on your MC its the best to have any other ELF which most of the time are bigger like SM, Codebreaker and similar ELF's on an USB device. Every app will start faster if you have started it from USB device.

For any SM elf file to work, you have to have an original PS2 DVD / CD game in the drive (depending on whether you run the SM DVD elf or SM CD elf) when you boot Free McBoot. Sometimes also, certain backups will only boot with certain originals in the drive at startup. I think it has to do with TOC size, but you just have to try different originals.

In fact both SM elf would be identical in the way they work the only difference would be the GUI of them.

COGSWAP would also work the same way for CD and DVD based games.


Anyway every new backup you make should be patched with ESR patcher. In any case this would help to keep the laser unit healthy.

WINE as emulator for windows programs are under the term "Do it at your own risk" since wine can't use every dll which the programs use or need to fulfill certain tasks.

[theone964]

Any link to such ELF would be deleted so don't post any. If you have an original SM disc compress it by yourself.

oh sorry about that lol. ok i inserted the sm disc but don't see any .elf files. is there a quick guide to do this or can u tell me roughly where to look to find the elf files? i searched google but those places look a little shady to me lol

Edit: OK well just redid a backup and did everything right it it worked. yay....it loaded some colour screens before it worked, it that normal? I'm sorry but i forgot to write down the colours it flashed.