Any way to read/write mem card on a PC?

Thanks guys.

I think I am sorted now, I have several boot CDs which load the exploit and I have just copied the ISO of one of them to the HD so I can load the exploit from there after starting the PS2 with HDadvance.

Gave up with DMS HDD as it wouldn't FTP to the HD, and as has been said, I can just copy game data from the MC to the __BOOT partition which I can see from uLaunchELF.

One thing I don't understand - if I load the FTP server function in uLaunchELF and connect to it from the PC (I use CuteFTP) I can copy game data from the MC to the PC, but I get really weird failures if I try to write them back to the PS2 HD. I am obviously doing something wrong here.

Cheers and thanks for the help

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by wobbler

Thanks guys.

I think I am sorted now, I have several boot CDs which load the exploit and I have just copied the ISO of one of them to the HD so I can load the exploit from there after starting the PS2 with HDadvance.

Gave up with DMS HDD as it wouldn't FTP to the HD, and as has been said, I can just copy game data from the MC to the __BOOT partition which I can see from uLaunchELF.

One thing I don't understand - if I load the FTP server function in uLaunchELF and connect to it from the PC (I use CuteFTP) I can copy game data from the MC to the PC, but I get really weird failures if I try to write them back to the PS2 HD. I am obviously doing something wrong here.

---

Are you sure you are mounting the HDD partitions properly ?
I have no idea what kind of support 'CuteFTP' has for such commands, but if the partitions are not mounted before FTP use, there will always be errors.
The easiest way of mounting them is of course simply to browse to that partition in uLaunchELF (this mounts the partition for FTP too). Then you should be able to FTP stuff into the matching PFS path.

EG: Lets assume you want to copy a save from PC into "hdd0:/__common/MC_Backups/". Then you need to mount the partition "hdd0:/__common/" as pfs0:, which you can do simply by browsing to "hdd0:/__common/" (or any folder in it) in uLaunchELF. Then you use the FTP client to browse to "/pfs/0/MC_Backups/" and use that as destination for the save you send from the PC.

But I really don't see why you use FTP for all this, if that save comes from an MC to begin with. Just use the Copy+mcPaste operations of uLaunchELF to back the saves up directly from MC to HDD instead. That is both faster and safer.

Best regards: dlanor

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by dlanor

Are you sure you are mounting the HDD partitions properly ?
I have no idea what kind of support 'CuteFTP' has for such commands, but if the partitions are not mounted before FTP use, there will always be errors.
The easiest way of mounting them is of course simply to browse to that partition in uLaunchELF (this mounts the partition for FTP too). Then you should be able to FTP stuff into the matching PFS path.

EG: Lets assume you want to copy a save from PC into "hdd0:/__common/MC_Backups/". Then you need to mount the partition "hdd0:/__common/" as pfs0:, which you can do simply by browsing to "hdd0:/__common/" (or any folder in it) in uLaunchELF. Then you use the FTP client to browse to "/pfs/0/MC_Backups/" and use that as destination for the save you send from the PC.

But I really don't see why you use FTP for all this, if that save comes from an MC to begin with. Just use the Copy+mcPaste operations of uLaunchELF to back the saves up directly from MC to HDD instead. That is both faster and safer.

Best regards: dlanor

---

Thanks for that advice, didn't know about mounting the PN - I did wonder what pfs0 was for!
As you say, not really necessary, it was just when I was in FTP fiddle mode and trying stuff. Was thinking of extra backup from the PS2 HD to the PC HD in case the PS2 drive died, but not really necessary.
In your examples you use __common, I have been using __BOOT and creating folders for backups in there, does it matter which is used?

Cheers.

Another hint: When FTPing to the PS2 make sure your FTP client is NOT in passive mode ! Weird things happen if the FTP client is on passive mode.

__common is the folder used by SCEI Browser 2.0 to store memory card saves. (The original HDD utility disc which comes with Sony's HDD install the browser 2.0 on the HDD, allowing the PS2 native access to the HDD partitions at the memory card browser)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by wobbler

Thanks for that advice, didn't know about mounting the PN - I did wonder what pfs0 was for!

---

With the PS2 filesystems all normal file access on HDD is done through PFS mount points. So it's not just for FTP but for other access too.

But in most cases uLaunchELF takes care of this for you, so that you can apparently work directly in the hdd0:/xxx paths, though uLaunchELF is in fact doing the work through PFS paths. (As required by the filesystem drivers.)

Quote:

---

As you say, not really necessary, it was just when I was in FTP fiddle mode and trying stuff. Was thinking of extra backup from the PS2 HD to the PC HD in case the PS2 drive died, but not really necessary.
In your examples you use __common, I have been using __BOOT and creating folders for backups in there, does it matter which is used?

---

No, that is optional.

Those partition names mainly relate to how those partitions would be used on an original Sony drive, when using the Sony HDD utilities and the Linux kit.

For those of us not using those tools, there is little meaning in those names, except that modchips which use Dev2 booting normally use hddo:/__boot/boot.elf. But that only involves a single ELF file, so what you do with the rest of that partition is up to you. And if you don't use Dev2 booting, then you can do as you please with the entire partition. (Though I'd consider it a bad idea to remove it.)

Best regards: dlanor