Setting other people up w/ HDL to restore broken PS2s... Install to IDE from USB?

[CZroe]

Is there still no software for installing games to the IDE HDD from a USB MASS device?

If so, I hope it's not because of the "WinHIIP or FTP is better/more convenient" argument, because that does not apply to everyone. For example, I use WinHIIP, but my niece does not have a PC and can't use it or FTP. My netbook only has an 8GB SSD and no optical drive, so I can't do it for her when I visit. Even if I could, I imagine that many other people with old broken PS2s are in a similar situation, so it seems like a useful option (they could take their game discs to a friend or neighbor with a PC). I mean, if I set up random strangers with it, I'm not going to come back everytime they get a new game to install, even if I could help.

It would be even cooler if a utility could install from a USB optical drive. That'd be like completely fixing an old PS2 with a bad drive.

[ffgriever]

But you do know that most usb devices are doing ~300kB/s read on PS2 (actually, you can't make much higher... some crappy usb devices are doing just 50-100kB/s sustained read)? Installing ~4GB game at that speed would take almost 4 hours. Probably none of the devs is insane enough...

[CZroe]

But you do know that most usb devices are doing ~300kB/s read on PS2 (actually, you can't make much higher... some crappy usb devices are doing just 50-100kB/s sustained read)? Installing ~4GB game at that speed would take almost 4 hours. Probably none of the devs is insane enough...

PLAYING off of USB would then be insane. Installing is a once-only deal. As it stands, install times from disc to HDD are not negligible in the first place (30mins plus for Resident Evil 4).

Anyway, that's way lower than USB1.1's 12mbps. Any idea why it would be so slow?

[ffgriever]

PLAYING off of USB would then be insane. Installing is a once-only deal.

It's not that bad... Loadings are few times slower than from DVD, but it's bearable in most of the cases. Movies/FMVs are very choppy, but the speed (or slowness, shoud I say) is just one factor. The real culprit (well, at least the most significant, IMO) is that USBAdvance/Extreme doesn't implement any real method of asynchronous reads. If it was implemented properly, the overall experience with USB game playing would be so muuuuch better.

As it stands, install times from disc to HDD are not negligible in the first place (30mins plus for Resident Evil 4).

Indeed, it's CAV, so it reaches 4x just near the very end of the disc. Most people are using winhiip or hdldump/hdldumb anyway...

Anyway, that's way lower than USB1.1's 12mbps. Any idea why it would be so slow?

Because sony did it this way. First, it's just a substandard of USB1.1. Second, the IOP is quite slow. Third, you can't just dma your data out as in DVD and HDD case.