Tldr:I have used uLaunchELF a few times.
Originally i followed a reddit guide (https://amp.reddit.com/r/ps2/comments/b23dev/guide_to_installing_up_to_2tb_of_ps2_games_onto/) for a 2tb batch transfer. Each time i tried to connect my hdd it would not initiate the transfer using hdl_dump...
Reviewing the hdd in easuse partition master, the drive would be unallocated so i tried a few things, different PC's and different hard drives.
HDLBatch recognised a hard drive (2tb toshiba).
I found your program which seems to be the best solution but it's not initiating the transfer. I feel there's something I've overlooked or need to tinker with to get the process started.
Thank you for your support and alternative to hdldump.
Can you post a screenshot of how far the program gets right up to the point where you are having issues? (You are running it with admin rights correct?)
I've got issues this end with the batch programme too.
I have a 2tb HDD for my PS2 which I formatted in uLaunchElf. It shows up fine on my PS2 and shows up on my PC when I use HDD Dump Helper GUI v2 and I can even add individual games to it using that. The PS2 HD is recognised by the PC as HDD0 so I have changed this according when I edit the HDLBATCH.BAT file.
I've got my PS2 games on an 5tb external HD so I have all my HDLBatch files in the same folder as my PS2 iso files. When I run the HDLBATCH.BAT as admin it pops up straightaway with select your PS2 HDD option. I select option 1 which is hdd0 and then it asks use titles from gamed.txt I select "Y" and as it starts scrolling through the games and as it starts going through the titles it says "hdd1:: APA partition is broken, aborting"
Any ideas?
EDIT: ok sorted this. In the end I put the PS2 HDD into an external housing as originally it was plugged into a spare SATA socket and power in my PC. With the PS2 HDD in an external housing it seems to be working. Will see what happens when it’s finished!
I have a 2tb HDD for my PS2 which I formatted in uLaunchElf. It shows up fine on my PS2 and shows up on my PC when I use HDD Dump Helper GUI v2 and I can even add individual games to it using that. The PS2 HD is recognised by the PC as HDD0 so I have changed this according when I edit the HDLBATCH.BAT file.
I've got my PS2 games on an 5tb external HD so I have all my HDLBatch files in the same folder as my PS2 iso files. When I run the HDLBATCH.BAT as admin it pops up straightaway with select your PS2 HDD option. I select option 1 which is hdd0 and then it asks use titles from gamed.txt I select "Y" and as it starts scrolling through the games and as it starts going through the titles it says "hdd1:: APA partition is broken, aborting"
Any ideas?
EDIT: ok sorted this. In the end I put the PS2 HDD into an external housing as originally it was plugged into a spare SATA socket and power in my PC. With the PS2 HDD in an external housing it seems to be working. Will see what happens when it’s finished!
Last edited by 2die4,
So did you, or did you not actually add any games using HDD Dump Helper GUI? The reason I ask is because it uses an older version of HDL Dump, which doesn't respect the partition naming scheme as specified in the official Sony SDK. Nor all other installers that use older versions of HDL Dump (leading to naming collisions). HDL Batch uses HDL Dump 0.9.2, which does respect those specs. The whole point of HDL Batch is to avoid all those "other" problematic methods outright, so mixing things up defeats the purpose.
Did you format your HDD using uLaunchELF on the PS2? If not, then that needs to be done first. Then make an +OPL partition big enough to hold your VMCs and then proceed to install.
Last edited by rs1n,
Quick question with regard to installing multiple revisions of the same game on a HDD using HDLBATCH.
For instance, is there a way to to use HDLBATCH to install both Resident Evil - Outbreak (USA) (v1.01) and Resident Evil - Outbreak (USA) (v2.00) on the same HDD?
So far my attempts have not worked. I have each file starting with their game id. In the case of the revision, I started it with a fake id and plan to use the customelf function to apply the original id to it. I then edited the game id text to add the revision number to my installed games and then added the fake id to the list with it revision number.
Doing so still applied the original game id and name to the partition and wouldn't let the duplicate partition to exist. I'm assuming I need to edit another value to ensure I could install the two revisions.
I'm new to PS2 softmodding, but have been working with most systems for years now. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Frosty
For instance, is there a way to to use HDLBATCH to install both Resident Evil - Outbreak (USA) (v1.01) and Resident Evil - Outbreak (USA) (v2.00) on the same HDD?
So far my attempts have not worked. I have each file starting with their game id. In the case of the revision, I started it with a fake id and plan to use the customelf function to apply the original id to it. I then edited the game id text to add the revision number to my installed games and then added the fake id to the list with it revision number.
Doing so still applied the original game id and name to the partition and wouldn't let the duplicate partition to exist. I'm assuming I need to edit another value to ensure I could install the two revisions.
I'm new to PS2 softmodding, but have been working with most systems for years now. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Frosty
Last edited by Frosty32,
The game ID is inside the ISO itself, and in fact the file that "boots" the game is named after the game ID. So changes in the file name and gameid.txt file will likely not resolve the issue. You would have to patch one of them to change the boot file and the cd/dvd info (which hdl_dump uses to determine the game ID).
I̶t̶'̶s̶ ̶d̶e̶t̶e̶c̶t̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶m̶y̶ ̶d̶r̶i̶v̶e̶ ̶b̶u̶t̶ ̶s̶i̶n̶c̶e̶ ̶I̶ ̶h̶a̶v̶e̶ ̶m̶o̶r̶e̶ ̶t̶h̶a̶n̶ ̶o̶n̶e̶ ̶d̶r̶i̶v̶e̶ ̶I̶ ̶c̶a̶n̶'̶t̶ ̶s̶e̶e̶m̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶s̶e̶l̶e̶c̶t̶ ̶i̶t̶ ̶(̶o̶n̶l̶y̶ ̶h̶d̶d̶ ̶1̶ ̶2̶ ̶a̶n̶d̶ ̶3̶,̶ ̶m̶i̶n̶e̶'̶s̶ ̶h̶d̶d̶5̶)̶.̶ ̶W̶h̶a̶t̶ ̶s̶h̶o̶u̶l̶d̶ ̶I̶ ̶d̶o̶?̶
EDIT: Disregard this. If you have this issue and want to fix it then you either have to remove drives or add some lines of code in the batch file like I did. It's a weird fix b̶u̶t̶ ̶i̶t̶ ̶w̶o̶r̶k̶s̶ ̶f̶o̶r̶ ̶m̶e̶.̶ ̶S̶o̶r̶r̶y̶ ̶f̶o̶r̶ ̶b̶u̶m̶p̶i̶n̶g̶.̶ Nope, it installed all my games but now OPL is infinitely loading + ULE's HDDManager says Reading HDD Information... and is stuck. I have multiple games with the same first few characters installed in different partitions so it won't conflict with anything. What happened? Is it my filenames?
EDIT: Disregard this. If you have this issue and want to fix it then you either have to remove drives or add some lines of code in the batch file like I did. It's a weird fix b̶u̶t̶ ̶i̶t̶ ̶w̶o̶r̶k̶s̶ ̶f̶o̶r̶ ̶m̶e̶.̶ ̶S̶o̶r̶r̶y̶ ̶f̶o̶r̶ ̶b̶u̶m̶p̶i̶n̶g̶.̶ Nope, it installed all my games but now OPL is infinitely loading + ULE's HDDManager says Reading HDD Information... and is stuck. I have multiple games with the same first few characters installed in different partitions so it won't conflict with anything. What happened? Is it my filenames?
Last edited by ENunn,
Did you format the drive using ULE's HDD Manager? If ULE's HDD Manager is stuck on "Reading HDD Information" then the problem is more likely a hardware issue. Did you make sure to always unplug the PS2 when removing or inserting the drive as directed by the directions? Are you using a Gamestar adapter?
EDIT: If you follow the video instructions, you can at least test if the hard drive itself is fine by simply listing the partition table. If it looks like the one in the video, then the problem is very likely your adapter and not the installation.
EDIT #2: Also, if you look at the partition names, the installer keeps everything unique by including the game ID as part of the partition name to comply with the official Sony SDK naming scheme. See EDIT above for more info.
Last edited by rs1n,
I use Windows 10. The video link walks you through it. Make sure to format the drive with uLaunchELF and to use “Run as administrator” when installing. And don’t forget to change the setting in the batch file to do a real install.
Last edited by rs1n,
sorry to be a pain but I'm not sure how to format the drive with ulaunchELF I take it I just plug it into the back of my ps2 turn it on fire up ulaunchELF and then I'm lost lol sorry
sorry to be a pain but I'm not sure how to format the drive with ulaunchELF I take it I just plug it into the back of my ps2 turn it on fire up ulaunchELF and then I'm lost lol sorry
All button operations are shown either on the main menu displayed on screen or at the bottom of the screen. By default you should see the option for “browser” assigned to a button. Open the browser and find the MISC folder. Inside are programs one of which is Hddmanager. This is what you use to format the drive. Press R1 inside Hddmanager to bring up commands that include formatting and creating partitions. After formatting make sure to create a partition named +OPL large enough to hold artwork and virtual memory cards for each game to plan to install. Note the case and the plus symbol in the partition name. After this switch over to your computer and attach the HDD to it. Make sure to always power off your PS2 completely when removing or inserting the HDD!
Last edited by rs1n,
How would you remove games? ULaunchELF -> HDDManager and delete whichever game partition? I'm assuming that would cause fragmentation eventually though. WinHIIP throw a memory error with 2TB drives, otherwise that would be easier for removal I'd assume, but it might just do the same thing.
To delete, you can use HDDManager and delete the partitions like you described. Or you can also use OPL, turn on the Enable Write Operations setting, and then use the on-screen buttons in the games list menu to delete the selected game.
As for Winhiip, it only works on drives 1TB or smaller. But even when it works, it has many issues because it is so outdated. If you should happen to have games that are very similarly named (e.g. multi-disc games), Winhiip can be extremely destructive when using its "defragmentation" or "repair" option. The reason why is that it uses the game's title to rename partitions. So when you have many titles that are similarly named, what can happen is that they are all viewed as the same game (because partition names only allow so many characters, and the partitions are named after the game titles). So all these unique games will collide, and you may very well end up with all the games overwritting each other into a single game. (Winhiip does not make use of game IDs to create unique partition names, contrary to the official Sony SDK specifications. The latest HDLDUMP used in HDLBATCH, however, does use the game IDs in the partition names, resolving the issue above.)
Fragmentation is really only an issue for playing via the USB port (using an external HDD) because the bandwidth is extremely low. So a fragmented external HDD would make any bandwidth-related issues even worse. On the internal disc, games are installed using a parent partition, and (if necessary) children partitions. Ideally, these parent-children partitions would be next to each other. However, even if they are not, it really is not an issue because the partitions themselves are allocated in such a way that you have minimal partitions, each of maximal size. So unlike a fragmented file that might be split all over a platter, or multiple platters, on an HDD, the partitions are fairly large and you usually only see a handful of them, and only for very large games. And with HDD speeds being vastly faster than the optical drive, fragmented partitions really do not pose any issue.
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