N00b TOOL Q's

The inside hdd is an ibm 30GB, I doubt it has the Sony hdd firmware found in the official ps2 hdd...so official games and apps supporting the hdd wouldn't work, unless you're using the PA.

 

I think my TOOLs use 40GB Seagate drives for both internal HDDs, but nevertheless you are almost certainly right regarding the firmware.
Has anybody ever managed (or at least tried ) to reverse engineer the communication protocol? If this were the case, it might be possible to create an adapter to make any regular HDD behave like an "official" one (e.g., by intercepting and emulating the ATAPI commands used when the console detects the drive). Just dreaming...

I know there is a way to convert a certain kind of regular drive (which is the retail/OEM version of the drive Sony used for its "official" ones), so the console can use it without any further modification; however, that involves swapping the controller PCB between the drives temporarily, as well as using a special flash application to dump/reprogram the firmware :evil:.

The PA has an expansion bay-type connector instead of the PCMCIA one, right?

By the way: the second internal HDD (connected to the IDE port near the PCMCIA slot) has a DOS partitioning scheme, just like the HDD connected to the CPU card. I think the PS2 uses a different scheme for the official drives, so the 2nd internal drive is probably not intended to be used by the PS2 side. Nevertheless, I would still be interested in what this drive is meant to be used for; or, for that matter, why its connected to that specific part of the hardware ;-).

 

Silverbull:
Man... I said I was itching to test...

WOW !!! The little frog worked with HD Loader. That little tool of yours never cease to amaze me... So now it's easy-peasy to dump the HDL "core" from memory...:dance:

Now, about HDDs. Few years ago I managed to hack some retail Maxtor 4D040H2 into a Sony HDD by mixing some firmware modules from the japanese 10K PS2 HDD I have here (also an Maxtor 4D40H2). Because it's too far away for my knowledge I didn't fix the firmware CRC and it won't work with DNAS stuff ... (FFXI and PSBBN) But the OSD, utility discs and games without DNAS don't seem to notice it's a hacked drive.

 

h: I'm amazed as well, hadn't expected it'd work. Seems I guessed a really good load address for the core :icon_bigg.

Oh well, now I not only have to get a TOOL out of storage, but I have to convert this program into a real debugger, too (and fix that annoying 1394 communication bug). Too much work for too few time...

Very interesting. Do you have any information on how the PS2 distinguishes an "official" drive from an off-the-shelf one? Does it use some special ATAPI commands? As I wrote above, I'd love to build an adapter that, when inserted into the IDE line between the network adapter and a regular drive, would make that drive usable like an official one.

 

Actually he has!
http://psx-scene.com/forums/ide-hdd-discussion/57772-hdd-firmware.html

 

I have an DTL-H20400 HDD Case. But no Hard Drive Inside. Musst be an 40GB Drive. For witch deploy was this Ext. Hard Drive ?

 

For the Tool and PS2 units with a pcmcia port on the back (scph-10k, 15k and 18k) and the TEST dtl-h10000(s).

 

Sure, but only an extension? My Tool has two HDDs inside so i wonder why he made an ext. Drive...

 

Yes it's custom commands, but I think it would be a bit complex to make it work. I think there are protections to keep people from doing that on the DNAS part. Maybe you could get as far as what I did with the firmware modules ...


Jackhead:

I think that to develop HDD compatible titles the programmer need the external HDD kit connected to the tool. So I believe that the internal HDDs cannot be used the same way as a 3000x series PS2 uses it's internal HDD.

The TOOL is based on what Sony calls "A-Chassis", basically the SCPH-10000. Hence why it's called DTLH-T10000.
Same Emotion Engine, same Graphics Synthesizer, same IOP... It's just that memory, software and hardware configurations are different. And a lot of hardware was added.
The "A-Chassis" uses a PCMCIA slot as network adapter bus.


The complete retail HDD kit consist of:

HDD Utility disc (Red envelope disc. Newer ones come with PSBBN.. Mine came with PSBBN 0.20)
SCPH-10200 12v Power supply for SCPH-20400
SCPH-10190 PCMCIA Network Adapter card
SCPH-20400 External Hard Disk Drive (40GB)

I'm sure that DEV versions exist but I believe their only difference will be on the stickers and the possibility of them being of older revisions.

 

Thank you for the detailed Info! I like to add your List. It cames with 2 Power Supplys for Pal and NTSC.
Sell someone here an Japanese standart Power Plug for Tool? I use my Plug from my Jap. PS3 but the Unit has an damn Drive Error and I sell it. Its hard in Germany to buy an Jap Plug . I find one on yahoo.jp but shipping costs for this single item is...