PSX HDD Experiments? (Prev: Looking for DESR File Dump)

Hey everyone, some of you may remember me from my PSX thread a few years back: https://assemblergames.com/threads/psx-hdd-failure.56727/

I've recently started poking at the PSX again, and now have a working Sony 40GB HDD formatted and usable via ULaunchElf. I have tried running an ESR backup of the update disc only to end up at a black screen and also via OPL off of a flash drive which ends in a white screen (assuming the PSX does some checks before letting the update run and they fail since it's not a legit disc). What I want to try next is to get a file dump (not an image, but the actual files from the 40GB partition) from a working PSX and copy them over using ULaunchElf.

My PSX is a 5100 and I'm pretty sure it was running v1.31 before the original HDD failed. I probably need a v1.31 dump if it has any chance of working, but I'd be happy to try a v1.20 as well.

 

I have plenty of em, don't know if it helps you but take a while, I'll upload them. The only thing I ask you - never write full hdd image from another DESR HDD. It will make your faulty HDD even more useless, it won't be recognised as genuine anymore. I tested that twice. Damn.

 

OPL will replace CDVDMAN and CDVDFSV, but these modules do not implement the functions that most games do not use. And hence it will be unlikely that any utility disc of any sort will successfully boot under OPL.

Depending on how the disc was made, it is also possible that the updater cannot be booted without the actual disc. For the normal PlayStation 2 utility discs, some files were hidden within the disc, with some help of their hardware-based DRM.

Did you manage to recover the disks? Not even if you formatted the disk with LaunchELF, and copied the files from a good HDD onto it?

 

https://yadi.sk/d/lvB3gMD03U4Efq

 

Oh, wow. Thank you so much! I'm at work ATM, but I have them downloaded and will try them out as soon as I get home.

 

IT LIVES!

I used a file dump from a DESR-5000. You have to delete the registry.db file from a backup before it'll work on another system, otherwise it freezes soon after the XMB shows up, but everything else seems to work so far! If anyone wants me to try some experiments on this resurrected, 40GB DESR, I would be happy to try some.

--Edit--
The only issue I've found so far is the XMB freezes when selecting Network Settings. I'm guessing network hardware got updated between 5000 and 5100? Going to try to patch some files in from the 7100 dump.

--Edit 2--
Didn't help any, I have no idea why Network Settings is freezing.

--Edit 3--
Aaaand it's bootlooping. Tried the repartition option in XMB to see if it'd make the PS2 space smaller to give me something for DVR functionality, didn't fail, didn't finish, just bootlooped on a black screen. Everything on the HDD is still there, even tried wiping it and re-installing the files with no change. Assuming the on-board flash has something to do with it and won't let it proceed until it finishes doing whatever it's trying but can't do. Going to try putting the dead 160GB back in to see if it does anything with it, otherwise I'll have to get access to the flash.

--Edit 4--
No dice, still bootlooping. I have access to ULaunchElf and FMCB works as intended, it just refuses to boot to HDD now for whatever reason.

 

@sp193 Any chance you have a copy of uLaunchElf that can access xfrom?

 

I think SMAP should be the same (since it has to be the same on all PlayStation 2 consoles for compatibility)....

Unless other people who replace their HDDs with the SCPH-20401 do not experience this issue, it might be caused by something that cannot be done with this disk. For example, it cannot possibly have a "lba48" region because the disk does not support 48-bit LBA and is only 40GB anyway.

I doubt it would have worked anyway. This disk has no support for 48-bit LBA - if the "lba48" region requires 48-bit LBA support to be supported. This region is where the DVRP would store recordings.
Conversely, the "lba28" region is where the system files are stored (can be configured to be either 2GB or 40GB).

No, sorry. I never made one.
Maybe I'll make one this weekend.

 

I've been poking at it some more and was able to get it to stop bootlooping by putting the dead 160GB drive back in with only the __system://xosd/packages/boot_0/ folder (w/ files in it) on it (trying to put any more folders/files on it would corrupt it immediately). The 160GB drive reports itself as a 2GB drive in ULaunchElf now, was 40GB before. However, putting the good PS2 40GB back in will cause it to bootloop all over again.

I'm guessing there's some kind of flag system in place for usable HDD size and if the drive doesn't match, the DVRP tries to make it match, but the PS2 HDD can't be resized like the PSX HDD? Missing firmware command? LBA48 required for resizing? Any way you put it, my PSX is expecting a 2GB drive and won't attempt to boot XOSD on anything else ATM...

This could mean any other PSX that was flagged to 2GB before HDD failure is unrecoverable using a 40GB PS2 drive as well until this issue is figured out.

 

2gb limit is an old msdos limit, check the jumpers

 

Jumpers have nothing to do with the actual problem. PSX expects PS2 partition to be either 2GB or 40GB, changed via DVRP. PS2 40GB HDD can't be reduced to 2GB in a PSX, so causes bootloops if DVRP expects 2GB. These drives also are too new to have a 2GB jumper if that's what you mean, maybe a 32GB one.