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Post by ParanoiaDragon on Jul 2, 2007 19:01:47 GMT -5
I picked up FF11 & the hard drive, solely to have more space to save game data, as it was cheaper to get this, then more memory cards! Plus, I thought I heard I could rip entire games onto my drive, to cut down loading.
Anyways, do I need the PS2 Network Adapter to use the hard drive?? I have no interest on going online, but it looks like I need the adapter, just to power up the hard drive.
Which is where my 2nd question starts, how does the network adapter, give power to the hard drive? All I've seen is diagrams of it being connected to the hd, but, how does it get powered on?
And lastly, since I'm pretty sure I need the network adapter, I'm bidding on one. Do I need the startup disk? Or will I be fine setting up whatever needs to be set up without it, or maybe with FF11?
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Post by FM-77AV on Jul 2, 2007 19:23:17 GMT -5
You got it all wrong. You can NOT save your games to the hard drive. You're going to have to buy more memory cards. Only a handful of games will allow you to save directly to the hard drive.
And yeah, you need a network adapter in order to be able to plug the hard drive in. However, with a network adapter, you can just plug in ANY hard drive, it doesn't need to be an official PS2 drive. The startup disc is needed in order to configure your PS2 to be able to connect to the Internet when playing online games.
The network adapter powers the hard drive, yes. You plug in the hard drive directly to that adapter, then you mount it on the back side of the PS2. If you take a look on the back of the PS2, there's a strange connector there. The network adapter draws power from that connector and powers up the hard drive that way. It's hard to explain, but you'll understand what I mean once you get that adapter.
You can put PS2 games on the hard drive, using HD Loader or HD Advance. By connecting the hard drive to your PC, you can even install games downloaded from the Internet and imports on it.
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Post by ParanoiaDragon on Jul 3, 2007 0:33:50 GMT -5
Well, that sucks. You'd think they'd allow you to save your memory on a hardrive, but, this way, Sony makes more money! Well, at the very least, I can have some games on my drive. Do imports in the hd automatically work, or do they have to be patched somehow?
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Post by Varion on Jul 3, 2007 1:30:55 GMT -5
Do imports in the hd automatically work? Yup. There's a few games in general that are incompatible that either need patches or just plain won't work (most online ones, for starters), but for the vast majority of games you can just rip them to the HD and they'll work regardless of region or anything else, with reduced loading times too.
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Post by FM-77AV on Jul 3, 2007 8:41:09 GMT -5
Actually, if you had a japanese disk of some sort, I know there's a program which allows you to save directly to your HD. Not so. There are, however, more games that support direct saving to the hard drive in Japan. Like, a second handful of games. There is NO WAY to use the hard drive as a memory card! Why this isn't possible has nothing to do with Sony. It's the developer's choice to make the game able to save to the hard drive. As this is a COMPLETELY different procedure than saving on the memory card which takes A LOT of work, almost nobody did it. Of course, the fact that the hard drive was a major flop and that Sony discontinued it in v13 and upwards of the PS2 (every slim model, and the last big model), even less developers wanted to use this "feature". There's one really bad method however, you can copy the contents of your memory card to the hard drive and keep it as a back up. HOWEVER, you won't be able to actually use these save files. It's just that if you want to delete something from your memory card, but still SORTA keep it, you can do that. Of course, in order to use these save files again, you'll need to copy the files over to a memory card again. Since the region protection is on the DISC, they are effectively removed by copying them to a hard drive. You can play pretty much 100% of the PS2's game library using the latest version of HD Loader (and even moreso using Toxic Loader, but then you'll need a DMS modchip as well).
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Post by Mejilan on Jul 3, 2007 19:50:14 GMT -5
You can back up the memory card saves to a properly installed HDD through the PS2's OS. But those are archival backups only, and cannot be accessed from within a game! I have something like 80 saves backed up to my PS2's HDD (also the FFXI one), and copy back to the memory card only those that tie in with games I'm currently playing!
As to using your HDD to install games straight from the disc and run them off that for reduced load times, all you need is a properly exploited memory card running the newest HDLoader and patches... no mod chip required! You don't even need a retail HDLoader disc (and in fact, you're better off without one, since they're pretty obsolete now!)
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Post by ParanoiaDragon on Jul 3, 2007 20:39:14 GMT -5
Ok, so I can atleast back up all the saves, that I'm not using, but want to keep. That's the main thing, I just want to have more room atleast on my memory cards for games I'm currently playing.
So, this HDLoader thing, it was at retail? I thought it was just something you download onto my computer.
As for ripping games onto my computer(or can I actually rip them onto my hardrive straight to the game, without my computer?), any recomendations on programs to rip them? Speaking of which, ripping PS1 games, does that work as well?
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Post by Mejilan on Jul 4, 2007 14:52:31 GMT -5
Yep. I use my HDD as a repository for ALL of my saves, and a single memory card to hold the saves of those games I'm currently playing. Moving data back and forth is rather painless, though there are SOME files which cannot be moved away from the memory card (Star Ocean 3 Trophy Data, for one example).
HDL did see an unofficial, unlicensed retail release some years ago. It was shut down by Sony, however. If you find a website still selling it, it's likely a pirated (and older) version. Exploit your memory card (the same one you'll use to hold your saves) to run unsigned code, then launch a more up-to-date version of HDL from there. It's much easier, and further reduces drive wear and tear. Using that, you can directly rip CDs and regular DVDs to your PS2's HDD without any issue.
The only games that HDL can't easily handle are DVD9 games. I think HDL can only rip the first layer. There are workarounds, such as ripping DVD9 games to your PC and then transferring them to your PS2 HDD afterwards, but they're more complicated than just using HDL. I've never bothered. Then again, I don't own too many DVD9 games...
Edit - And you'll definitely need a Network Adapter to use your PS2 HDD. It closes the electrical circuit, IIRC.
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Post by FM-77AV on Jul 4, 2007 15:04:57 GMT -5
You cannot easily exploit the PS2 without a HD Loader/HD Advance disc (if you know someone with a modchip, that's another story). The latest HD Advance is the latest HD Loader, but with a custom skin. Buy that. It's retail and works on an unmodified PS2.
There's a neat homebrew app called Launch ELF. It's basically an OS for your PS2 which lets you do all sorts of stuff, like connect your MP3 player (or any other USB storage device) to your PS2 and access data from that (or write data to it, like your memory card save files). You can put ROMs on it and play them with emulators and stuff. Useless, but kinda fun.
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Post by ParanoiaDragon on Jul 5, 2007 2:15:32 GMT -5
Ok, I just orderd HD Advance 3.0. It claims to be able to handle DVD9 games. I don't know if I have any, haven't bothered to check. Anyways, if I haven't said it earlier, I say it now, thank you guys for enlightening me on this subject!
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Post by ParanoiaDragon on Jul 10, 2007 0:42:46 GMT -5
Ok, um, how do I transfer over my saves? Is there something special I need?
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Post by CrazyJo82 on Jul 10, 2007 22:19:56 GMT -5
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Post by CrazyJo82 on Jul 10, 2007 22:21:44 GMT -5
Oh, for ripping games, I recommend using whiip... but you need to take the HD out of the ps2 and connect to the computer. either internal or externally via hd enclosure. it takes less time to transfer and less error then a direct read on the ps2.
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Post by ParanoiaDragon on Jul 11, 2007 3:27:18 GMT -5
Ok, I have it all connected & set up right. But HDL_Dumb is telling me that my PS2 is actively refusing the connection between my PC & PS2. Any suggestions? Ok, downloaded an older version of HDL Dumb, & it seems to be working, wierd. Though, now my personal PC won't connect to the net, as, since I was instructed to mess with the TCP, I screwed something up in the process, I have no idea what
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Post by CrazyJo82 on Jul 11, 2007 19:58:31 GMT -5
that's why i use whiip btw, how are you connecting your hhd?
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Post by ParanoiaDragon on Jul 11, 2007 21:24:52 GMT -5
Wait, my hard drive? It's connected internally in the PS2. Or do you mean how is my PS3 connected? I have that connected with an ethernet cable to my router.
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Post by CrazyJo82 on Jul 12, 2007 20:06:05 GMT -5
i mean when you transfer files from PC to PS2...
I don't think it's recommended to transfer file through ethernet from PC to PS2... it takes a LONG time, i heard up to an hour... direct disc to PS2 hard drive takes 20min... while putting the hard drive into the computer or through an usb enclosure, it takes 5 min
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Post by sideshow on Jul 12, 2007 20:42:38 GMT -5
Just go to this site and it will tell you everything you need to know about using a harddrive with your PS2. The compatability list is very helpful to find out what games work, have issues, dont work, etc. www.ps2hd.com/list/
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Post by ParanoiaDragon on Jul 13, 2007 23:48:06 GMT -5
It took 3 hours or so, to transfer Champions of Norrath to the PS2 from my PC(7 Gigs). But, it's the only game I needed to do that on. However, I may look into one of these usb enclosure things you talk about.
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Post by sideshow on Jul 15, 2007 16:18:11 GMT -5
3 hours? Thats a long time. I could put a DVD9 game on my PS2's hard drive in less than a hour reading from the PS2 laser. I recommend getting a USB enclosure. You should be able to transfer games in 10 minutes or less.
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