Why the Ps2 Tool has two drives

Drives as in dvd drives or HDDs ?
if you mean HDD's i want to know too since mine has 2.
for first is was under the idea that the second HDD is for the DVD emulator
but i don't even have the T14k board, so dunno. The bootup also doesn't even regognize the second HDD, so not a clue on what to do with it.

If it's 2 dvd drives, who knows if it's added afterwards, atleast the PCI815VE card has enough IDE slots to add all kinds of gadgets to the rig.
It could be just a normal drive to be used with the linux side ?

 

ask Parris or Unclejun, the gurus of everything PS2 TOOL.

 

...All TOOL's have a minimum of two drives.

 

my best guess is that its a software raid 1 mirrored disks

 

my guess is that they have mario64 copied as many times needed to fill the second drive in order to give playstation developers game ideas.

 

:lol:-=LOL=-:lol:

 

Linux generally will read anything, or should have additional software/"drivers" that will allow at the very least read-access to a filesystem. Perhaps a program such as GParted will at the very least be able to recognize a file system type and allow you to work from there? (Gosh, I love that program, they also offer a LiveCD for great justice.)

I was about to say "pics or it didn't happen" but then I realized I know nothing about TOOLs and that the drives are definitely not lying around on the outside.

Also, I assume you mean "two drives" as in you have spotted two physical drives, OR that you have two partitions accessable and mean/don't mean that.

 

@alecjahn: PS2 TOOLs have 2 physical HDDs installed inside (though you can connect an external HDD for the PS2 side to use, via the PCMCIA slot at the rear).

From what I remember on Parris' old thread, the second HDD contains a linux file system, that's bootable from the TOOL and which appeared to be a copy of the first HDD. No idea if that's absolutely correct, or if it is some kind of RAID/backup.

I'll probably be dismantling a TOOL fairly soon (with Parris' guide in hand), so I'll be able to take a closer look at the second HDD then.

In the meantime, unclejun will hopefully jump in, as he knows as much about these things as anyone I know!

 

For the sake of clarity I'll call the hdd connected to the SBC "hdd1" and the hdd connected to the MIF sub-board (the board with the pcmcia interface) "hdd2" even though when you open a Tool, they're not in that order...

The bootup can't recognize hdd2 cause it's not connected to the SBC, I thought that was obvious...

OE is right, Tools have 2 hard drives, even Tools with the emu board, in that case the other hdd is connected to the emu board and no hdd is connected to the MIF board, the Tool still work, so you can safely disconnect hdd2 and boot your Tool.

port187 is half right, hdd2 is a mirror of hdd1, if you connect hdd2 to the SBC, the Tool will boot as usual.
It can't be a raid configuration for two reasons, hdd2 has nothing to do with the SBC *and* it can be accessed by the PS2 hardware.

Barc0de, you are wrong, it is filled with the blue hedgehog megadrive games, Sony never ever thought for once second Nintendo would be a serious threat

ASSEMbler, the Tool is a linux box, so yes you can!
Unless you have the emu board, in that case you need the software to access the emu drive contents.

alecjahn, take a look at Parris's disassembly guide, plenty of pictures in it!

 

This whole thing mildly confused me now.

- so, the second drive is a clone of the first. OK
- it's plugged to the board that's under the PCI card, OK
- ps2 hardware can access it? . even without the emu board ?
and is it of any use like that even ? Or does it just serve as a backup of sorts.

sorry, mandatory wall of questions as usual
still havent' gotten the chance to get familiar with the tool much at all since all my time has gone in desperate efforts to repair it.

also, what software is needed to access it with the emu board ?

 

PS2 linux can access it, not with the default kernel though.
As for its purpose, I'm really clueless...

You can control the emu board behavior using a few commands under linux or the windows client.

 

I totally didn't even notice that thread. Thanks for the tip, looks like a very awesome read!

 

The other hdd is accessible from the PS2 side with the PS2 linux distrib.

 

what are the details of this?
I tried installing my copy of Linux and it doesn't see the internal second drive at all...
This was indeed my thought however, that this was either a prototype of the hdd interface that became standardized with the pcmcia card and/or a slave drive of sorts.

Do I need a custom kernel to get this to work?
more details would be awesome.

 

Yes, you need a custom kernel.
You can find most of the Tool related options during the config.

dmesg log from such a custom kernel, can you spot the interesting bits?

 

Very interesting...
The existence of the second drive really does seem like it was intended even more so as a development option before the final hdd kit shipped, yet, why was it still included even into the 2002 and later tools if the official libraries don't see this drive.....
.......or do they...?

thanks for the info

 

You missed some, they're not all Hdd related...
AIF: controller revision 3, use HDD, use RTC
Memory: 128056k/131064k available (1220k kernel code, 1720k data)
ee_powctrl: start DTL-T10000 Power Control.
ee_powctrl: registered character major 246