PS2 HD Loader / Advance quickies...

[neoglow]

Hi, havent played on my PS2 for a while but got a couple games the other day and re-using the little black box, wanting to buy the HD Loader to cut those loading times, couple of quick questions...

* When playing GTA : San Andreas the game continually loads during levels and the slight stuttering is annoying, would HD Loader stop this?

* Is HD Loader compatible with the above game and Killzone?

* Is there any huge differecne between HD Loader and Advance?

* What Hard drives are people using and what size?

* Ive checked about, the main website is down, reccomend anywhere to buy it?

Many Thanks guys and gals, Mark.

[Pacman555]

*Yep, because instead of having to slowly load it off the DVD, it can stream it off the HDD fast. But . . .

*I don't think it is compatible with San Andreas, unfortunately, as SA is a DVD9 . Not sure tbh though.

*Yeah, I consider Advance a better product, as if your PS2 is unmodded, you can use a slide card to rip import (or indeed *cough* backup) games to your HDD. Loader won't work properly with a slide card I don't think.

*120GB is pretty good, about 80 games ish. Plus not too expensive, especially from somewhere like Ebuyer. Get a Seagate Barrucuda, they're only about ?60.

*Not sure what you mean mate, http://www.hdadvanceuk.com/ seems fine to me. Try here though.

[Siri]

*I don't think it is compatible with San Andreas, unfortunately, as SA is a DVD9 . Not sure tbh though.

If I recall correctly, DVD9 games can work, it's just that to do so you would have to use the method that requires a PC to rip the game to the hard drive.

[nips]

Is HDD modding a PS2 a messy job... Not physically, but as you suggest, there being many methods to reach the same end, but with varying success. It sounds to me like Freeloader x100 annoyance.

"You need HDDLoader boot method V.12b with the PC rip hack V3.0 flashed over to the PS2 using a modded USB lead... Make sure you hold down R2 and Square other wise it wont work though!"

[Mayhem]

Got GTA:SA on my HDD so it's definitely not a DVD9. That or HDAdvance can do DVD9 discs.

As my PS2 is chipped anyhow, no worries about trying to rip anything to it. Killzone works with it, but you need to invoke Mode 3 in the software to boot.

[Mr Ono]

Got GTA:SA on my HDD so it's definitely not a DVD9. That or HDAdvance can do DVD9 discs.

As my PS2 is chipped anyhow, no worries about trying to rip anything to it. Killzone works with it, but you need to invoke Mode 3 in the software to boot.

Ditto the above.

[mid]

If you only need an 80Gb, the Maxtor that many people recommend is just ?35 + postage at scan.co.uk, so it's probably around that most other places, too.

I considered doing this myself, but neither Gradius V nor Psyvariar work with it, and those are the two games I have with the most annoying disc access. They're both on CD, and the spinning disc makes a right old racket.

[neoglow]

I've done some research, you can get DVD9 disc's working on the HDD so your ps2 can play them. First an image has to be made of the game and using software to 'flatten' the two layers into one long layer and transfer it to the HDD and plonk it into your ps2. The hard part is actually transfering the data! Using an FTP program you can link your ps2 to your PC / router with ethernet cable, the same method to do ps2 online play. Configure all the right settings, eg, ip addresses and the like and then copy the game / data through the cable directly to the Ps2 HDD. Im guessing in order to do this you have to have a particular program on the ps2 HDD in order to copy the game accross, the only way to get that little program on the HDD is puting it on a CD, which as you can guess is a burned disc and therefore for this whole process to begin you will need a chipped ps2.

some useful info here... http://www.ps2hd.com

M.

[Reef]

Do a google search for WinHiip or because I'm feeling kind go here

HERE

This is what I use to get all DVD9 onto hard disk and works a treat! You can just put your PS2 original in the DVD tray of your PC - it will read that so no need to make iso (although it is much slower to transfer!)

[Reef]

Also go

HERE

to find out how to run this from your mem card which I do (as I only had a copied HDLoader and wanted to use an official disk to boot it up)

[neoglow]

Do a google search for WinHiip or because I'm feeling kind go here

HERE

This is what I use to get all DVD9 onto hard disk and works a treat! You can just put your PS2 original in the DVD tray of your PC - it will read that so no need to make iso (although it is much slower to transfer!)

Reef, does WinHiip copy the disc (DVD9) image straight to the PS2 through an ethernet cable into the ps2 network adaptor. If this correct, heres a silly question, the ps2 obviously has to be switched on at the same time, do you have to load up HDLoader when copyng the file over?

M.

[Reef]

I connect my PS2 hard disk to my PC as a slave drive and select that drive when I load up WinHiip - the side of my PC is always exposed so only takes 30 secs to take hard disk out of my PS2 and into my PC.

I don't know how it works with the ethernet cable I'm afraid - although I have heard it is dead slow (like 2mb/sec transfer)

where as straight from DVD drive is about 15Mb/sec

upload from an iso is the quickest at 35-40 mb/sec

[neoglow]

Ah, I see, in a way that is good because doing it the PC way I can understand it more. So later today Im going to buy the HDD, do I connect it to the PC first? Presumably I will not have to format the drive or anything, just put the game onto the HDD using WinHiip and then connect it all up on my ps2 and away I go?

M.

[Reef]

You do have to format the drive to PS2 specifcs...not sure if WinHiip can do this but HD advance will do this for you when you connect it up to your PS2 and load up HD advance / HD loader.

Failing this download HDL DUMB which should be able to do it. But HD Loader / HD Advance with the Hard drive in your PS2 is your best bet.

I used HDL Dumb and now WinHiip as my copied version of HD Loader wouldn't let me copy my PS2 games to the hard disk using my PS2 - only way to get them on there was using the PC. Now I have the mem card exploit it works fine but use WinHiip for DVD9 games.

Remember to use this guide which shows you if you need to force mode 1, 2 or 3 (or none in most cases) during install.

[roobarb]

just a quick addition - I use winHiip and HDLoader (unchipped PS2 with Maxtor 120GB) and it's all working fine. I use a USB2.0 - IDE cable to connect the PS2 HDD to my PC, much simpler than opening the case, and pretty cheap!!