Hi all, I've been doing some research on USB Extreme for the slim PS2 consoles. Is it any good? I want it more for convenience really. If I take the little chap anywhere with me I can keep all my games on it to save carrying a load of discs. I've heard due to the limitations of the USB port on the slim PSTWO that the data transfer rate is slower than using a disc and cut scenes etc. can be jerky and not display properly. Does anyone know if it's worth getting? Cheers Dickibow
I have no clue, but I just want to give you a thumbs up for not being a cheap bastard who decides he's too good to pay for recent games. (I understand some people live in countries with horrible distribution and whatnot. That's not my argument here though.)
Well I heard its rather slow when plaing games off the usb hdd,if you want I can try it out,I have a modded fat PS2 and a 200gb usb hdd.
Thanks for the response peeps. I don't care if it's slow as long as it doesn't jerk up on FMVs. It's only for when I work away from home and I'm stuck in a boring hotel room, I'll use the discs when I'm at home. Pikon - I've heard that the fat PS2s have USB 1.1 but the newer slim models have USB 2.0 so checking on a fat PS2 may not be that accurate but if you have it already set up then it would be good to hear what you think.
I think your right,I didn't think of that one.But I can still try it out.I really dont have anything important to do today-ha ha But also I found a pretty good guide. http://www.modchipstore.com/support/index.php?_m=knowledgebase&_a=viewarticle&kbarticleid=119&nav=0,2
The USB harddrive method indeed suffers from USB speed issues and likely similar comptibility issues the regular HDLoader software has. Even if the PS2 Slim systems claim to have USB 2.0, USB extreme may not utilize it. Speed issues would most likely happen in games that do heavy streaming like free roaming enviroments, and load times may increase. Unfortunately I can not tell you from personal experience as I never used USB Extreme as I bought my PS2 when they were still suitable for IDE harddisks and I use that which is excellent. I'd highly recommend a FAT PS2 with the memory card exploit to use HDLoader so you don't have to haul around discs with you. The performance and compatibility is quite good. The USB extreme could still do a good job depending on the game. I'd think something that just streams music during gameplay should be fine. But I'd avoid it if you can do IDE instead because I did the GameCube steaming over BBA and it was pretty painful. I'd test for you if I actually had a USB HDD at my disposal. Edit: I did alittle bit of searching and it seems no one can really confirm the slimlines have USB 2.0 and have transfer rates that match DVD loading speed. So don't spend alot of money on it. You might be better off with a FAT PS2 with IDE.
Yeah I found that too after more extensive searching..... I won't pay much so don't worry - think I may as well just take the discs in a wallet instead! Cheers guys!
I have tried only metal slug4, the music skips often and the loading times are awful. I think the fmv are very choppy and a lot of games are incompatible, as with the bba loading method on the cube, the games that work the best are fighting games and racing ones, as long as you turn the music off, of course...
The USB "solution" is not as good as the normal one. Compatibility is very small. The latest HD Loader version (0.8b + DMA selector) is not compatible with 13.4% of PS2 games. USB Extreme is not compatible with 94.1% of all PS2 games. h: This according to http://list.ps2hd.com/ (where people submit the games they tested). Like MottZilla suggested, get the normal PS2 if you want to use the HD. You can use it with the MC exploit, the codebreaker exploit, or if you can, use with the DEV2 mode with a modchip (just hold a button on the controller when the console is booting and it will load the HD Loader directly from the HD).
depends on the revision too. later PS2 Slims don't have the IDE capability. good thing to look into. make sure you know which slim you have before you try though
You need one of the first versions of the slim PSTwo in order to hook up an IDE cable, and then you need a DMS4 Pro modchip installed with the right software loaded. I thought about getting the USB-HD Extreme but it only transfers at 1.5Megabits/sec which is a lot less than 4x DVD data transfer and no faster than an 8x CDROM drive. You're better off getting a cheap PS2, replace the laser module, install the BBA and an HDD Loader. That uses standard IDE transfer rates. However, this hasn't been said before so I'll say it, PSX games don't work, incase anybody did not know that. Reading the manual will say if it has USB2.0 or not. I'm not home, so I can't check at the moment, but I am sure its 1.1 spec (hence the 1.5Mb/s transfer rate).
Hey mottzilla, what is the mem card exploit of which you speak. I have a Fat PS2 with the network adapter and some spare hard drives. I thought the only way to boot games from the HDD was if you used some special software you had to buy??? Can you please tell me more, I would love to be able to slap a 120 gig HDD in there and leave games on it ^^' EDIT: also forgot to say, I have one of thos Action Replay Max things that uses a USB Mem stick if that can help me out with this in any way.
Hey Micjohvan,I used the exploit on my friends PS2,basically you need to transfer the exploit to a memory card,I have a modded PS2 so for me to transfer the exploit to my freinds memory card was no problem.Also you need to use a ps1 game to execute the exploit to boot up hdd loader.And you have action replay so you could copy the expoit to your memoey card Also here is the site,you should help you out alot. http://www.mikestyle.com/tutorials/exploit.htm
Ya that's pretty much it. A special memory card file is copied to your memory card, which requires ofcourse some method or copying it on to your memory card such as a modded PS2 or a swap trick to boot a disc containing the program. But once your Memory Card is shiney, whoever put the file on their for you should have a list of Playstation 1 titles that will execute the exploit (which should launch HDLoader). Forinstance mine will launch that PS2menuk file browser when my GameShark Lite PSX disc is inserted. Then I can go to the HDLoader.ELF file stored on my HardDisk or MemoryCard and launch it. You could make it easier by just having it launch the HDLoader directly however by launching the browser it allows me to have multipule versions od HDLoader and makes it easier to copy a new version onto my HD from a CDROM. Anyway, read up on that site. Once you've got the files you need on your memory card and a PSX disc see if the HDLoader will launch. HDLoader will format for HardDisk the first time you start it up. Use the fully patched HDL version 7c or better. If you use a drive larger than 120gb you'll need the 48bit lba patch that is in the fully patched thing. PS2HD.com is a place you could find more info on it, as well as a large compatibility list.
I would replace PS2menuk for uLaunchELF if i were you. Not only it's better (uLaunchELF can make FTP connections with the PC, create new partitions, launch ELFs from HD, MC, CD, DVD and even USB,...) but it keeps getting updated, while PS2menuk hasn't been updated for ages. With it you would not need to burn a CD everytime you wanted to put anything on the HD or to replace /update one of the ELF files... Just a USB Pendrive. I use DMS HDD Explorer as my BOOT.ELF in DEV.2 mode (because i'm just to lazy to update, and it looks cool anyway), but from there i run uLaunchELF and then i can do pretty much everything. I have 3 versions of the HD Loader on the HD, (The original HDLoader FREE, HDLoader 0.7b and the latest HD Loader 0.8b + DMA Selector), SMS lets me play MP3 and DivX videos that i have on USB or the HDD, Codebreaker 9.0 let's me make backups of my saves through USB... PGen and WonderStation also run great from the HD. Plus i run all PS2 homebrew games directly from the USB pendrive. Geotron, Rick Dangerous, Flashback, Beats of Rage... I just need to select the MASS: directory on uLaunchELF. :icon_bigg Not to mention some games become better with the HD. Mercenaries is a great game, but playing it from the disc is annoying... The HD fixes that.
Is a waste of time, since the USB is 1.1 tranfer speeds are abysmal, and you may have to rip the FMVs of some games since some may even not work at all. Anyway, if you got some mad soldering skills (and a lot of free time) and you REALLY want to carry your games around in a HDD, theres only one solution: the IDE adapter.
Ok, I have been looking into this and it seems like I have all I need to for a test run. However I have one question left. I know I can boot games from the HDD but will this exploit allow me to run DVD-R backups, or just HDD backups? Thanks for the help fellas!
