Tutorial
Updated
Use VITA-1000 Without Official Sony Memory Card!
WARNING:
THE FOLLOWING TUTORIAL CHANGES BOOT DATA REGIONS.
CAUTION IS ADVISED AND A CHANCE OF PERMA-BRICK EXISTS IF ANYTHING IS NOT DONE CORRECTLY!
THIS IS FOR ADVANCED USERS ONLY THAT FEEL CONFORTABLE PERFORMING ADVANCED AND RISKY STEPS ON THE SYSTEM.
NOT MY RESPONSIBILITY IF YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING!
Needed:
Hardware:
- VITA-1000 Model with USB cable connection (preference) with h-encore and VitaShell pre-installed
- Official Memory Card (only for initial setup. For all intents and purposes, it is impossible to install anything without having access to one of these in the first place, at least once. Ask a friend to, for example, borrow his card for you to make all this. Deleting the ID from root of the card can make the card interchangeable. This can all be done in around 1~2 hours, if that much)
- SD2VITA card adapter with microSD card of size of your choice (I have a 32GB sony card, so I did with a 32GB microSD). (how to format card here: http://wololo.net/2017/07/20/setting-sd2vita-adapter-formatting-microsd-can-done-windows/)
Software:
- IMCUnlock (https://github.com/SKGleba/IMCUnlock)
- StorageMgr (https://github.com/CelesteBlue-dev/PSVita-StorageMgr/releases)
- finalhe (https://github.com/soarqin/finalhe/releases/tag/v1.5) (only finalhe is needed)
- Instructions for finalhe: https://vita.hacks.guide/installing-h-encore
How to:
1) First, make sure you are on firmware 3.68 with h-encore pre-installed. (You need h-encore pre-installed no matter what.) Also, this tutorial was made with tai on ur0 in mind. Keep that in mind if you have tai folder on ux0.
2) If you have plugins enabled, backup or rename your current config.txt file, and enter h-encore » reset tai configs.
3) Carefully follow instructions for IMCUnlock (I skipped step 2 (ur0 backup), but that's up to you). On size selection, go with "100MB - Creates a ~100MB imc partition, pd0 is resized to 150MB, requires formatting the new partition via settings or safemode."
4) Since we are on h-encore, on the end of partition, just reboot the Vita.
5) Now, after rebooting, access settings and select format, and select format INTERNAL (leave external as is. DO NOT FORMAT IT).
6) Now, enable h-encore and after, go to VitaShell. (Yes, pd0 WILL STILL SHOW 300MB, NO PROBLEM THERE).
7) Triangle to open the side menu. Select mount imc0. If everything goes OK, imc0 should now be mounted with the ~100 MB size.
OK, now that we have imc0 ready for usage, turn Vita off and remove official memory card.
1) Turn on Vita, and now you should have access to the 100MB imc0 created, just like a Vita 2000, but only 100 MB.
2) Time to install h-encore again. Download finalhe, connect Vita to PC via USB, and follow instructions of finalhe.
Instruction should be easy, but if unsure, you can always consult here: https://vita.hacks.guide/installing-h-encore
2a) Make sure to install VitaShell after installing h-encore.
3a) If you had h-encore configs previously installed on ur0, you can mantain them after re-installing h-encore into imc0. You just need to delete the ux0:tai folder, if it even exists. If you renamed your original config file in the begining, you should have a new config.txt on the tai folder on ur0 partition. Just delete that new config.txt and rename back your old config.txt to get back all installed plugins.
3b) If you didn't had h-encore, and it's a clean install, I recomend following the guide from that mentioned page until the end (clean-up step).
4) Now, you should have h-encore and VitaShell installed and working correctly from imc0.
5) If you didn't had StorageMgr installed previously, now we need to add it to the config of h-encore. Go to the site and follow instructions to add the plugin to your Vita h-encore config. This will enable you to simply:
» Boot Vita
» Run h-encore from imc0
» When exiting h-encore, all plugins and patches will be loaded, and SD2VITA will auto-mount on ux0.
... and that's it!
If I didn't forgot any step, everything should be up and running OK.
If you had to make a backup of your original sony card to the microsd card, the vita will refresh the database during this setup. After everything is configured, and you copied all files from sony mc to your microsd, after mounting the microsd as ux0 automatically, just go to vitashell and Refresh livearea, and all the games should be available again for usage.
THE FOLLOWING TUTORIAL CHANGES BOOT DATA REGIONS.
CAUTION IS ADVISED AND A CHANCE OF PERMA-BRICK EXISTS IF ANYTHING IS NOT DONE CORRECTLY!
THIS IS FOR ADVANCED USERS ONLY THAT FEEL CONFORTABLE PERFORMING ADVANCED AND RISKY STEPS ON THE SYSTEM.
NOT MY RESPONSIBILITY IF YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING!
Needed:
Hardware:
- VITA-1000 Model with USB cable connection (preference) with h-encore and VitaShell pre-installed
- Official Memory Card (only for initial setup. For all intents and purposes, it is impossible to install anything without having access to one of these in the first place, at least once. Ask a friend to, for example, borrow his card for you to make all this. Deleting the ID from root of the card can make the card interchangeable. This can all be done in around 1~2 hours, if that much)
- SD2VITA card adapter with microSD card of size of your choice (I have a 32GB sony card, so I did with a 32GB microSD). (how to format card here: http://wololo.net/2017/07/20/setting-sd2vita-adapter-formatting-microsd-can-done-windows/)
Software:
- IMCUnlock (https://github.com/SKGleba/IMCUnlock)
- StorageMgr (https://github.com/CelesteBlue-dev/PSVita-StorageMgr/releases)
- finalhe (https://github.com/soarqin/finalhe/releases/tag/v1.5) (only finalhe is needed)
- Instructions for finalhe: https://vita.hacks.guide/installing-h-encore
How to:
1) First, make sure you are on firmware 3.68 with h-encore pre-installed. (You need h-encore pre-installed no matter what.) Also, this tutorial was made with tai on ur0 in mind. Keep that in mind if you have tai folder on ux0.
2) If you have plugins enabled, backup or rename your current config.txt file, and enter h-encore » reset tai configs.
3) Carefully follow instructions for IMCUnlock (I skipped step 2 (ur0 backup), but that's up to you). On size selection, go with "100MB - Creates a ~100MB imc partition, pd0 is resized to 150MB, requires formatting the new partition via settings or safemode."
4) Since we are on h-encore, on the end of partition, just reboot the Vita.
5) Now, after rebooting, access settings and select format, and select format INTERNAL (leave external as is. DO NOT FORMAT IT).
6) Now, enable h-encore and after, go to VitaShell. (Yes, pd0 WILL STILL SHOW 300MB, NO PROBLEM THERE).
7) Triangle to open the side menu. Select mount imc0. If everything goes OK, imc0 should now be mounted with the ~100 MB size.
OK, now that we have imc0 ready for usage, turn Vita off and remove official memory card.
1) Turn on Vita, and now you should have access to the 100MB imc0 created, just like a Vita 2000, but only 100 MB.
2) Time to install h-encore again. Download finalhe, connect Vita to PC via USB, and follow instructions of finalhe.
Instruction should be easy, but if unsure, you can always consult here: https://vita.hacks.guide/installing-h-encore
2a) Make sure to install VitaShell after installing h-encore.
3a) If you had h-encore configs previously installed on ur0, you can mantain them after re-installing h-encore into imc0. You just need to delete the ux0:tai folder, if it even exists. If you renamed your original config file in the begining, you should have a new config.txt on the tai folder on ur0 partition. Just delete that new config.txt and rename back your old config.txt to get back all installed plugins.
3b) If you didn't had h-encore, and it's a clean install, I recomend following the guide from that mentioned page until the end (clean-up step).
4) Now, you should have h-encore and VitaShell installed and working correctly from imc0.
5) If you didn't had StorageMgr installed previously, now we need to add it to the config of h-encore. Go to the site and follow instructions to add the plugin to your Vita h-encore config. This will enable you to simply:
» Boot Vita
» Run h-encore from imc0
» When exiting h-encore, all plugins and patches will be loaded, and SD2VITA will auto-mount on ux0.
... and that's it!
If I didn't forgot any step, everything should be up and running OK.
If you had to make a backup of your original sony card to the microsd card, the vita will refresh the database during this setup. After everything is configured, and you copied all files from sony mc to your microsd, after mounting the microsd as ux0 automatically, just go to vitashell and Refresh livearea, and all the games should be available again for usage.
Last edited by MDashK,
like a 250 dollar kit back when DDR4 was Intel only
