PS2 Hard Drive questions - updated

[egparadigm]

Hi all,

Ive bought one of those ali express sata Network Adapters with a view to getting OPL up and running, playing my games from a HDD. I currently have tried a USB drive with OPL but of course that’s a tad slow.

It’s been years since I faffed about with 3.5 inch internal drives so I’m a bit rusty. I’m hoping to get a drive second hand from facebook or ebay or something but don’t want to make a mistake! Is there anything I should be looking out for? I notice there’s SATA I-III for a start, does that make any diference?

Cheers!

[speedlolita]

SATA-I is multiple times faster than the throughput of the interface the PS2 uses so don't worry about that. CeX isn't a bad shout for used drives as they offer a 2 year warranty on all used computer hardware.

[egparadigm]

Thanks speedy. Did a quick google which ties in with what you say. SATA I is the oldest but may as well stick to that as it’s the fastest a PS2 can handle/

[speedlolita]

That may be the case but I would probably suggest finding the newest drive you can for reasons of power consumption and heat output. A SATA-III drive is perfectly happy to function at slower speeds.

[MartyG]

Yes, SATA is forward and backward compatible - I wouldn't even bother with HDD tbh, despite not being able to take advantage of the speed, a 512GB SATA SSD can be had for £20 now, which would be plenty of space and run quieter and cooler. I wouldn't bother looking for used SATA-1 drives that will be close to dying given their age.

[egparadigm]

Thanks for clarifying both!

[egparadigm]

Got a network adapter and some hard drives and I've started getting my head around running games from HDD. I've been following video guides mainly from Blaine Locklair on Youtube and have a few fresh questions.

PS2 games

In the the first video I watched, Blaine formats the drive using LaunchELF and installs PS2 games via HDL Batch Installer. In a more video he uses a Beta version of OPL to enable exFAT compatibility. He installs OPL by overwriting the one he has on his memory card. Is it possible to install this Beta of OPL to a hard drive and get it to boot from there? From what I can tell, this doesn't look like an option, but haven't got my head around it fully.

PS1 games

In another video, Blaine installs PS1 games to a USB stick and runs them from there. In order to get this to work I had to overwrite the recent (Beta) OPL I was using on my memory card with the same version he was using (Anniversary, 1047_BD-TA). In the Beta version, there is no PS1 games option, unlike the Anniversary version.

When I did finally get it to show games, the first I tried (Tekken 3) didn't work. I presume there is some compatibility issue there, or maybe a setting I could tweak. However, I did get the 2nd game, Destruction Derby, to load successfully.

My questions are, is there a way to get PS1 games to load off HDD rather than USB? Secondly, is it possible to use a more up to date version of OPL to do this? Finally, can a PS1 compatible version of OPL be run from HDD rather than memcard?

Alternatively, is there a better way to start PS1 games than using OPL?

I shall be grateful for any help, as ever!

[Yakumo]

Here, watch this. I followed this guide and got mine up and running with zero issues or hassle. I'm only using a 2TB HDD though but in the future I can go to hundreds of terabytes. Not that there is ever a reason to do that but it is possible.

https://youtu.be/nKoRvWKojz0

[egparadigm]

Here, watch this. I followed this guide and got mine up and running with zero issues or hassle. I'm only using a 2TB HDD though but in the future I can go to hundreds of terabytes. Not that there is ever a reason to do that but it is possible.
https://youtu.be/nKoRvWKojz0

Hi Yakumo, thanks for the link. In this video, Tito runs OPL off of a USB stick. What I wanted to do was to run it from the Hard Drive. If anyone can confirm if this is/not possible, I'd be most grateful.

Since posting yesterday, I have learnt a little more about POPStarter. Firslty, I managed to get Tekken 3 working by adding a different BIOS to the POPS folder. Secondly, I understand now that when running PS1 games from HDD you are utilizing an emultor and the PS1 part of the PS2 is not engaged at all, which explains why there are so many compatibility problems. This is because the only way to engage the PS1 part of the PS2 is to run those games from discs.

Running PS1 games on PS2 from HDD (via emulation) seems a bit pointless. I think maybe I'll just run PS1 games on xStation PS1 or, if I want to play discs I can play these on the PS2.

[Yakumo]

I know that the new OPL can't run from the HDD which is a shame. What I did was mount the boot on to a micro SD card then put that in to one of those tinny USB micro SD readers. It can't even be noticed when plugged in to the PS2. I don't mind booting via the menu. Auto would be nice though..

[speedlolita]

Considering you can use exFAT with the PS2 now and plonk OPL onto the root of a drive (or anywhere else) and point at the file in the fmcb configurator I don't see why not?

[egparadigm]

Thanks for further replies. I’ll take a look at configurator. I think what I’m actually talking about is Free HD Boot, rather than OPL… I’ve tried to post a topic to PS2 Home. Looks like FHDB is rarely updated and nowhere near as often as FMCB.

[egparadigm]

Found a comment on the video I referred to earlier. Someone asked about FHDB on exfat drive and another replied to say “not yet”. Good to get confirmation.