HDLoader Troubles

[jsbarone]

Hey Guys,

I just recently got a deal on a 300GB Maxtor Hard Drive, and figured it was time to replace my 120GB Playstation Drive. I downloaded the newest version of HD Loader (I had an original copy before), followed this guide (using a Parasite Eve 2 Disk I had lying around) and tried to run it.

I ran into a couple problems which I'll describe as best I can.

A) There are A LOT of .ELFs out there, and for the life of me I couldn't figure out which ones were the most useful. I'll probably only use the HDLoader because of my gamefly subscription, so I'm not too worried about HDL-Dumb server or anything like that, but I am curious. What ELFs does most of the community use? Is there anything that I'm missing out on? What do you guys do with your PS2's other than play games?

B) I have 120GB of games on the other drive. I really don't want to lose them. How can I copy games from one hard drive to another? I tried HDL_Dumb and it didn't seem to have the feature, and WinHiip doesn't run on Vista Beta 2. I do need to reinstall XP, but I was hoping to have this done today. Is there any other tool that will help me accomplish a full hard drive transfer?

C) The exploit that I downloaded seems pretty old. The way that I'd like the process to work is to put in the dummy cd (PE2) and have it load HDLoader directly with no input required. The only way I can get it to work with the exploit method that I used is to load into a grey menu called "Adam and (somebodies) HDD Menu". I don't like the interface at all and would really rather it went straight in. Is there something I can read somewhere that will tell me how to do that?

Sorry about all these "n00b" questions, I just really want this to work smoothly.
Your help is greatly appreciated!

JSBarone

[Bounty Bob]

Well, to answer your questions in order:

A) IMHO, the only elf files you can't do without are Ulaunchelf and, of course, HDLoader. Execftps is useful, but since Ulaunchelf can also do ftp transfers, you don't really need it, then. Besides, considering you can do transfers with a USB key that you already own (also supported by Ulaunchelf) you probably won't ftp much, anyway. I only play games on the PS2. Watching movies or playing music, the computer or DVD player can do that better. Emulation stuff, I only do on the PC. But it's up to you, really.

B) I'm afraid the best way to do this is Winhiip. If it doesn't work on your PC with Vista, find another computer with WinXP installed, connect both PS2 HDs temporarily, and do the transfer from drive to drive. 120GB will take some time, but it's not too bad. Once you're done, disconnect the HDs from that PC, and everything will be back to normal.

C) The exploit will run a file on your MC (in your BADATA folder) called BOOT.ELF. It so happens that your BOOT.ELF file is currently PS2Menu, an old app, indeed. Get the latest version of Ulaunchelf (latest version is 3.78, I think) from this board. Check in the homebrew apps section, it's easy to find. In the file you will download, you'll find a BOOT.ELF file, which is the compressed version. Replace the old BOOT.ELF with the new one, and bingo, you will boot to Ulaunchelf. In case you're wondering, you can't rename HDloader.elf to BOOT.ELF. It won't run directly with the exploit. You need to boot Ulaunchelf first, then launch HDLoader with it.