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

[wobbler]

The 2nd slot on my PS2 is not recognised, I suspect due to whoever did the modding buggered it up inside (I bought it already chipped off eBay).

So I have no way of transferring blocks between my 2 mem cards. Is there any adaptor for a PC that allows these cards to be managed?

Maybe it would be cheaper just to buy another cheap unchipped PS2 off eBay and use that?

Thanks

[Perseid]

1) Try wiggling the card a little to see if it starts to work. When I put my PS2 back togeter I was lazy and only put one of the controller port screws in. That was apparently a bad idea so I screwed them both in and it's much better now.

2) There is a device called a sharkport that is basically a USB to USB cable with transfer software for PC and PS2. This will let you copy to and from memory cards at will. Problem is I haven't seen one of these in a store for some time.

3) Maybe you could get a hard drive. You can't use it as a memory card, but you can copy saves to it as a backup.

[wobbler]

1) Try wiggling the card a little to see if it starts to work. When I put my PS2 back togeter I was lazy and only put one of the controller port screws in. That was apparently a bad idea so I screwed them both in and it's much better now.

2) There is a device called a sharkport that is basically a USB to USB cable with transfer software for PC and PS2. This will let you copy to and from memory cards at will. Problem is I haven't seen one of these in a store for some time.

3) Maybe you could get a hard drive. You can't use it as a memory card, but you can copy saves to it as a backup.

Thanks.

No, the old wiggle/waggle/prod/wobble trick did nowt. May have to go inside if no luck with 2) or 3)

HDD sounds a good plan, got loads of old drives, presumably takes a standard PC drive?
What would be a good site to go to for pointers as to how to put one in?

I'll see if there is a Sharkport on eBay

[wobbler]

There is a device called a sharkport that is basically a USB to USB cable with transfer software for PC and PS2. This will let you copy to and from memory cards at will. Problem is I haven't seen one of these in a store for some time.

Presume this is the correct little monkey:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Sharkport-PS2-...QQcmdZViewItem

$15 seems quite reasonable except that I am in UK, I will have to ask a friend there to buy for me and post here, what a pain.

[ps2dragon]

The 2nd slot on my PS2 is not recognised, I suspect due to whoever did the modding buggered it up inside (I bought it already chipped off eBay).

So I have no way of transferring blocks between my 2 mem cards. Is there any adaptor for a PC that allows these cards to be managed?

Maybe it would be cheaper just to buy another cheap unchipped PS2 off eBay and use that?

Thanks

I only have one Memory Card and use uLaunchELF to backup all my memory card saves. What you can use it for is backing up your saves to the HDD, a USB device or your PC, and then transfer them back to the memory card when you need to use them. It's not the same or as easy as just using a second or bigger Memory Card, but it does the job and doesn't cost anything extra. You can check out this program here, latest documentation is here.

Of course, if you use a HDD, you'll need to first format it for the ps2 using something like WinHIIP, DMS Format Tool or HD Loader. Although, I never tired formatting with HD Loader before. But, before any of that.. you would first need to exploit your ps2. Lots of info and help on this stuff if you think this would be useful to you.

[wobbler]

I only have one Memory Card and use uLaunchELF to backup all my memory card saves. What you can use it for is backing up your saves to the HDD, a USB device or your PC, and then transfer them back to the memory card when you need to use them. It's not the same or as easy as just using a second or bigger Memory Card, but it does the job and doesn't cost anything extra. You can check out this program here, latest documentation is here.

Of course, if you use a HDD, you'll need to first format it for the ps2 using something like WinHIIP, DMS Format Tool or HD Loader. Although, I never tired formatting with HD Loader before. But, before any of that.. you would first need to exploit your ps2. Lots of info and help on this stuff if you think this would be useful to you.

Right, I now have a HDD up and running in the PS2, used HDadvance to format it and have transferred some backup games via network cable, all seems hunky dory.
Now want to get back to my initial problem of managing the mem card and have read loads of stuff about the LaunchELF including the actual user manual.
Have seen loads of zips containing source files etc but I can't for the life of me work out how you are actually supposed to run it, how do you get it onto a bootable CD?
The v3.61 zip shows 'BOOT.ELF' and 'BOOTc.ELF' files with a 'LAUNCHELF.CNF' file. Will just copying these 3 files to a CD make a bootable disc?
Thanks

[ps2dragon]

Right, I now have a HDD up and running in the PS2, used HDadvance to format it and have transferred some backup games via network cable, all seems hunky dory.

Ok, perfect. I also wanted to correct myself with what I said about the DMS Format Tool. It can't be used to format a HDD, instead it's used to manage PS2 HDD Partitions.

Now want to get back to my initial problem of managing the mem card and have read loads of stuff about the LaunchELF including the actual user manual.
Have seen loads of zips containing source files etc but I can't for the life of me work out how you are actually supposed to run it, how do you get it onto a bootable CD?

You did say you have a chipped PS2, so what chip do you have? If your chip can boot in DEV1 or DEV2 mode, then you can transfer your BOOT.ELF to the Memory Card (DEV1) or the HDD (DEV2) using an exploit installer cd created with Independence Compiler v4.1, which you can get here.

Personally, I just run uLaunchELF off my memory card, but you can also run it off the HDD. You can also run it off a CD with a mod-chip or swap method, just read this post and thread to get more info on how to create a bootable cd. You can get the CDGENPS2 v3.0 and Dummy File software here.

The v3.61 zip shows 'BOOT.ELF' and 'BOOTc.ELF' files with a 'LAUNCHELF.CNF' file. Will just copying these 3 files to a CD make a bootable disc?
Thanks

This post explains the difference between BOOT.ELF and BOOTc.ELF, with some other helpful info. Basically, BOOTc.ELF is just a compressed version of BOOT.ELF. The reason they still include the BOOT.ELF file isn't completely clear to me and I couldn't find the post I read about why. So just use the BOOTc.ELF, and rename it to BOOT.ELF (uppercase) if you ever plan on running it off your memory card, or rename it to boot.elf (lowercase) if you plan on running it off your HDD.

EDIT: I apologize if anything I said sounds confusing. I was trying to figure out the difference between creating a bootable cd and creating the exploit installer cd, while writing this post, since they are not the same thing.

[wobbler]

Ok, perfect. I also wanted to correct myself with what I said about the DMS Format Tool. It can't be used to format a HDD, instead it's used to manage PS2 HDD Partitions.


You did say you have a chipped PS2, so what chip do you have? If your chip can boot in DEV1 or DEV2 mode, then you can transfer your BOOT.ELF to the Memory Card (DEV1) or the HDD (DEV2) using an exploit installer cd created with Independence Compiler v4.1, which you can get here.

Personally, I just run uLaunchELF off my memory card, but you can also run it off the HDD. You can also run it off a CD with a mod-chip or swap method, just read this post and thread to get more info on how to create a bootable cd. You can get the CDGENPS2 v3.0 and Dummy File software here.

This post explains the difference between BOOT.ELF and BOOTc.ELF, with some other helpful info. Basically, BOOTc.ELF is just a compressed version of BOOT.ELF. The reason they still include the BOOT.ELF file isn't completely clear to me and I couldn't find the post I read about why. So just use the BOOTc.ELF, and rename it to BOOT.ELF (uppercase) if you ever plan on running it off your memory card, or rename it to boot.elf (lowercase) if you plan on running it off your HDD.

EDIT: I apologize if anything I said sounds confusing. I was trying to figure out the difference between creating a bootable cd and creating the exploit installer cd, while writing this post, since they are not the same thing.

Thanks for your advice ps2dragon, I am getting there slowly.
I think my PS2 is quite old chipped-wise compared with what seems to be about currently. It has the 'NEO4' chip which loads CD backups and DVD backups via a disc swap with a large TOC'd game, but no devolution mode.

I couldn't make head nor tail of the 'Make a Bootable ELF.zip' from that link, but the 'LaunchELF.iso.zip' burnt ok. Then I found it wouldn't load, failing as a non-PS2 disk, couldn't use the disk swap ploy as that only works for DVD disks.

So I loaded up HDadvance in server mode and transferred the LaunchELF.iso over the network onto the HDD, rebooted with HDavance in normal mode and ran ELF from the HDD.
Fine, could see all the game saves in the MEM card 1, but it couldn't access the hard drive (well it could access it, saw the root folder, but couldn't see any of the installed games) - I suspect as it was initialised using HDadvance?
So maybe I should try reinitialising/reformatting the HDD again using either WinHIIP or DMS Format Tool as you advised earlier, instead of HDadvance?

When the PS2 is HDadvance loaded in server mode, network access is gained from the PC using a 'client' program 'hdl_dumb'.
Would I be correct in assuming some similar ELF-compatible client is needed for the PC to access the PS2 when it is running under ELF?

Thanks again.

[ps2dragon]

Thanks for your advice ps2dragon, I am getting there slowly.
I think my PS2 is quite old chipped-wise compared with what seems to be about currently. It has the 'NEO4' chip which loads CD backups and DVD backups via a disc swap with a large TOC'd game, but no devolution mode.

Ok, then that just means you need to use an original PS1 game to boot the exploit on your memory card. You can use uLaunchELF to transfer your TITLE.DB and BOOT.ELF files to the mc0:/BxDATA-SYSTEM folder. The x represents your PS2's region (I=Japan/Asia, A=America, E=Europe).

The TITLE.DB file needs to be created using one of your original PS1 game disks and a program like Title.DB Generator or Title.DB Maker, since that PS1 disc will be how your going to boot the BOOT.ELF file from your PS2 MC. Once you get those two files in the mc0:/BxDATA-SYSTEM folder, your all set. You can transfer them using uLaunchELF with a USB device, HOST (with 'ps2client' or 'RadHostClient'), or FTP and an FTP program on your PC.

Fine, could see all the game saves in the MEM card 1, but it couldn't access the hard drive (well it could access it, saw the root folder, but couldn't see any of the installed games)...

uLaunchELF isn't programmed to see your HD Advance partitions, it hides those partitions to protect users from accidentally corrupting them, so that's normal. You can use DMS Format Tool to create additional partitions that can be seen with uLaunchELF though. So you don't need to format your HDD, and again I need to point out my mistake in thinking you can format your HDD with DSM Format Tool as I mentioned in my previous reply. Hope this clears things up some more.

EDIT: You can also use a backup of a PS1 game to boot the BOOT.ELF from your MC, but that's only if your chip allows you to play PS1 backups, which it sound like it can't... so you'll need to use an original PS1 game if that's the case here.

[wobbler]

Ok, then that just means you need to use an original PS1 game to boot the exploit on your memory card. You can use uLaunchELF to transfer your TITLE.DB and BOOT.ELF files to the mc0:/BxDATA-SYSTEM folder. The x represents your PS2's region (I=Japan/Asia, A=America, E=Europe).

The TITLE.DB file needs to be created using one of your original PS1 game disks and a program like Title.DB Generator or Title.DB Maker, since that PS1 disc will be how your going to boot the BOOT.ELF file from your PS2 MC. Once you get those two files in the mc0:/BxDATA-SYSTEM folder, your all set. You can transfer them using uLaunchELF with a USB device, HOST (with 'ps2client' or 'RadHostClient'), or FTP and an FTP program on your PC.


uLaunchELF isn't programmed to see your HD Advance partitions, it hides those partitions to protect users from accidentally corrupting them, so that's normal. You can use DMS Format Tool to create additional partitions that can be seen with uLaunchELF though. So you don't need to format your HDD, and again I need to point out my mistake in thinking you can format your HDD with DSM Format Tool as I mentioned in my previous reply. Hope this clears things up some more.

EDIT: You can also use a backup of a PS1 game to boot the BOOT.ELF from your MC, but that's only if your chip allows you to play PS1 backups, which it sound like it can't... so you'll need to use an original PS1 game if that's the case here.

Right thanks, you are losing me now, at first I thought it was a typo when you starting bringing the PS1 into the equation, my NEO4 blurb still refers to the PS1 as the 'PSX' and says it boots original and backup games ok, but, I don't understand what you mean by 'boot the exploit on your memory card' ?
Exploit?
I don't think my NEO4 supports booting from the memory card anyway as it doesn't have DEV modes.
Also, is uLaunchELF what I have been referring to as LaunchELF, or are they different programs?
- and, although I'm not sure I will get this far, when you say transfer the PS1 files to mc0:/BxDATA-SYSTEM folder, where is this folder?

Yes I see what you mean about the HDD, I went back and could copy/paste game saves between the MEMcard and the HDD no problem, although, how are you supposed to know what is what, the names aren't exactly meaningful are they!

Thanks for your help and time!