Getting into PS2 modding ...

[PitViper401]

Sorry if this has been asked before, but I can't readily find any good answers to my questions. I'm going to be buying a new PS2, and I want to be able to play all my backups, homebrew, and imports from a hard drive. I don't care about online play or anything.

Does it matter if I get a fat PS2 or the PS2 Slim? I saw that you can connect a hard drive to the slim, does that work on all slims or should I look for a specific model?

From what I understand about the Memor32 and Memento, I won't need a modchip. Is there any advantage to using a modchip over the Memor32 + Memento? If so, what's a good modchip to use? (I don't care about skill level for installation or anything)

Again, I'm sorry if there questions have been asked before, I just need help making sense out of all the information.

[legendofphil]

Yes it matters, with a PS2 (thats the old style) you can fit a HDD no problem (unless its a v1 Japanese model obviously) all you need is the network adaptor. With a PStwo (thats the slimline) you can ONLY fit a HDD with a v12 or v13 if you buy a special case for it.

I haven't read that much about using Memor32 instead of a modchip, the only thing I can think of that is that it might not boot DL backups, though I don't see any reason why it wouldn't.

[toad86]

Yea, prefer fat PS2 model.
Though u can connect a USB-HDD to slim model, it's slower and i've read it does'nt support everything that IDE-HDD does.

Then, about modding,
I want to be able to play all my backups, homebrew, and imports from a hard drive. I don't care about online play or anything.
That's exactly the way i have my PS2 too, plus i can play online :)
I have fat PS2 with HDD, an PSX game, and bootfiles on normal memory card, and i can do everything with it, never needing to swap discs etc. just power it up and HDLoader boots.
That's made by:
-Friend have modded console, ask him to run THIS (http://sksapps.com/index.php?page=exploitmaker.html) CD while your memory card is in slot 1
-Or you own AR/Gameshark/Swap Magic etc. and boot the previous linked CD


But about adavantages with modchips over other things, is that u can boot backups discs directly, and no need to worry about swapdisc getting scratched, special memory card being lost. So not much major advantages.

About what's good modchip to use, well i haven't used any modchips, so i dont know about them. But i just found an open source modchip(ICE magic), and read that it's as good as all commercial modchips. I'm currently having it as fun-project :)

[lorin]

@Toad86:
This exploit you discribe (thx for the links btw!), is this the independent exploit? Am I correct that when you have the exploited ms you boot your ps2 with the psx game and the ms (specially adapted for this game)?
Can you run a ps2 backup from DVD with this exploit or only from HDD?

I have a psTwo with Swapmagix and I just bought a second hand ps2 with network adapter. I was thinking about a DMS4 Pro chip with Toxic OS but what you discribe sounds almost just as good and a lot simpler!

[toad86]

Yea, it is the independence exploit.

You can boot backup discs with that way, with a program named Cogswap. Just add the program in memory card, boot it, and swap original game with backup.
But to swap the game, u can't just press eject, u need to use a slidetool(search the term if u dont know), to open the tray, and then swap.

But doing that way continuously strains the PS2, so if ur gonna just play backup discs, u gotta get/make a fliptop mod, samelike cover than in PSX. Or just get a modchip :p

[PitViper401]

So to boot backups with the memory card exploit I need to swap discs every time? If I use the memory card exploit to load from a HDD, do I still need to do the disc swap? I'm also assuming that with a modchip you can just boot straight from the backups.

[lorin]

I've read the links Toad86 gave above. You just have to swap disc if you want to play from DVD. Otherwise you can just bood HDDLoader.elf and load all your games from HDD. Btw has anyone tried this with USBAdvance?

[xllzerollx]

So to boot backups with the memory card exploit I need to swap discs every time? If I use the memory card exploit to load from a HDD, do I still need to do the disc swap? I'm also assuming that with a modchip you can just boot straight from the backups.

modchip=straight to game
hdl=why swap if the game is in hdd lol
mc exploit= depends what method you use, but still need to swap i believe

[lorin]

Say, does anyone know if Toxic OS can also run from ms?
I read what their 'DMS firmware' can do and it's pretty amazing!
If I were able to use the Toxic OS with the independent exploit (Finally got it working!) I could use a HDD larger than 200gb.. or is this nowadays also possible with HDDLoader?

[PitViper401]

Say, does anyone know if Toxic OS can also run from ms?
I read what their 'DMS firmware' can do and it's pretty amazing!
If I were able to use the Toxic OS with the independent exploit (Finally got it working!) I could use a HDD larger than 200gb.. or is this nowadays also possible with HDDLoader?

from what I understand about the new versions of HDLoader, you can use a hard drive up to 2 TB in size.

[toad86]

from what I understand about the new versions of HDLoader, you can use a hard drive up to 2 TB in size.
Yep, it's called LBA 48bit patch, it's applied in newer versions.

mc exploit= depends what method you use, but still need to swap i believe
No need swapping, just put PSX game in to boot exploit. if PSX game is already in when u power up, exploit boots automatically.



We ppl in forums tell more detailed what to do once u have done something other than asking about getting into PS2 modding. :)

[lorin]

Thx everyone for all the information. The thing is; with all this new understanding come new questions :p
Like: I have the exploit working but I was wondering: what are the options of getting games on the HDD? I read you can 'dump' the games to HDD with HDD loader, you can use WinHiip to get it directly on the HDD with your computer, but is it also possible to get games on the HDD through ftp?
I don't feel like removing the HDD everytime I want to put a new game on it..

Btw what is the last version of HDDLoader (and is this the best program to load games of HDD of should I use HDDAdvance?)

[toad86]

Thx everyone for all the information. The thing is; with all this new understanding come new questions :p
Like: I have the exploit working but I was wondering: what are the options of getting games on the HDD? I read you can 'dump' the games to HDD with HDD loader, you can use WinHiip to get it directly on the HDD with your computer, but is it also possible to get games on the HDD through ftp?
I don't feel like removing the HDD everytime I want to put a new game on it..

Btw what is the last version of HDDLoader (and is this the best program to load games of HDD of should I use HDDAdvance?)

HDL_dump to get games by network on PS2 HDD
HDLoader has an installer so u can install from PS2 DVD drive
last version of HDLoader: 0.8b