PS1/2 Best PS2 USB Loader

[thebsharp]

Ok, I've been doing a little bit of research and haven't been able to get a definitive answer.

What would you all say is the best USB loader for the PS2 right now? My PS2's laser is starting to give out. It still reads games most of the time, but I want to have a backup.

HD Loader, while not USB, seems to have great compatibility. While I do have the network adapter, I don't have a spare IDE drive. and anything over 100 GB will be pricey.

I do, however, have a spare 500 GB USB drive. I've mainly heard about Open PS2 Loader and USB Advance/Extreme. Open USB Loader seems to have promise as it's open source and seems to get updated regularly, but compatibility charts seem to say that a lot of games have issues running off of USB (FMVs stutter, etc). I could be mistaken, but it seems that USB Advance's compatibility is a bit better.

Which do you all recommend?

 

[MFDC12]

at newegg, there is a 250 gb ide for about 40+shipping, however it is recertified, otherwise a 160 for about 43+shipping. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16822136577

however, if neither of those can be an option, i would probably go with open ps2 loader, for the fact that it is still updated. i have heard very bad things about usb advance when I was looking up softmods. but since I have used neither, you may want to hear someone elses opinion on both of them.

edit: please keep in mind that ps2 usb is version 1.1, which may not achieve speeds enough to do fmv's without staggering. but im not sure tbh

 

[thebsharp]

haha, I must not have looked very hard, because I thought I looked through newegg. That's a pretty good deal. I'll probably look into that. Thanks.

Though, if anyone else wants to chime in. I wouldn't mind second opinions. This will be my first time softmodding my PS2, so any advice will be appreciated.

 

[WiiPower]

The best usb loader for you? Connect an USB HDD to your PC and use Open PS2 Loader to load from it over network. Or just use an internal HDD on your PC. You will notice that this is slower than playing from disc, but usb is much slower.

 

[ZAFDeltaForce]

If I recall, the PS2 uses USB 1.1, thus the speeds are far too slow to accommodate playing games via USB HDD.

Try out HDLoader. It should suit your needs perfectly.

 

[WiiPower]

If I recall, the PS2 uses USB 1.1, thus the speeds are far too slow to accommodate playing games via USB HDD.

Try out HDLoader. It should suit your needs perfectly.

He aleady said that he doesn't have a spare IDE HDD. But i agree, loading from usb on a ps2, is really the last option to be considered, most games are just unplayable with it due to the speed.

 

[thebsharp]

Thanks for all the replies. The impression I'm getting is to get an IDE drive and go with HD Loader, haha. That's fine. I can wait a week or two to scrounge up the cash and get the drive.

Thank you, everyone.

 

[thebsharp]

well, I got the HD that MFDC12 suggested. It came in today. That was the good news

sadly, the HD doesn't quite fit into the network adapter. I'd say that the ide connector and the power adapter about 1/8 of an inch too far apart to connect to the network adapter. Kind of a bummer.

EDIT: I have done a little research, and I can probably get this to fit by removing the plating on the adapter... kinda figured it served as some sort of ground, though, but, then again, it's not like I have much to lose. I haven't used the network adapter in over 6 or seven years... I'll try it out tomorrow.

 

[cobleman]

well, I got the HD that MFDC12 suggested. It came in today. That was the good news

sadly, the HD doesn't quite fit into the network adapter. I'd say that the ide connector and the power adapter about 1/8 of an inch too far apart to connect to the network adapter. Kind of a bummer.

EDIT: I have done a little research, and I can probably get this to fit by removing the plating on the adapter... kinda figured it served as some sort of ground, though, but, then again, it's not like I have much to lose. I haven't used the network adapter in over 6 or seven years... I'll try it out tomorrow.

Maxtor or seagate hdd's for network adapter

 

[thebsharp]

yeah, I found that out just recently, heh. Should have done a little more research prior to getting this one. I've almost gotten it to fit, but I need to remove one more screw so that I can slide the power connector just a little more. Unfortunately, I don't have the screwdriver I need for it.

 

[Jakob95]

Do I have to patch/convert the games or something for them to play on open ps2 loader? Or I just can play the ISO straight?

 

[WiiPower]

Do I have to patch/convert the games or something for them to play on open ps2 loader? Or I just can play the ISO straight?

For network loading it needs to be named in a certain way, see the Open PS2 Loader thread on psx-scene.com for that. You might need to do that anyways to set it up correctly.

Internat HDD and usb loading in Open PS2 Loader use the same formats as the older/other loaders.

 

[Jakob95]

Do I have to patch/convert the games or something for them to play on open ps2 loader? Or I just can play the ISO straight?

For network loading it needs to be named in a certain way, see the Open PS2 Loader thread on psx-scene.com for that. You might need to do that anyways to set it up correctly.

Internat HDD and usb loading in Open PS2 Loader use the same formats as the older/other loaders.

No just the USB loading. What do you mean the same fomats as the older loaders? Is that the regular ISO? And if so which folder do I put the ISO in?

 

[WiiPower]

No it means for usb loading, it's using the same format as usb advance. That's FAT32 with special filenames + config file. I use "USBUtil v2.00 Full English, update DNAS Pack v2.1" to rename .isos for usage with usb loading.

PS: Maybe it works if you have other partitions on the same HDD as well, if you reformat the whole HDD for it, then make FAT32 the 1st. Open PS2 Loader _should_ be able to use it if it's the 2nd or 3rd, but you might want to try USB Advance as well, and i think that only works with the 1st. Hmm, and there's a formater somewhere that allows to format the whole HDD as FAT32, even if windows doesn't allow it, because "it's too big".

 

[Jolan]

I've tried OPS2L, it's amazing, it's just that...I can't get it to detect games on my Hard Drives. Apparently it's very picky about the contents of the device that you connect to the PS2, so I'd have to use an 8 GB flash card (which I lack) to play games, which is pretty damn annoying, considering you have to format it each time you want to put in a new game.

 

[Jakob95]

Well I have a game in my USB drive. But the OP2L won't see my game that I have in the root of my USB drive. My USB drive is FAT32.

 

[Jolan]

Like I said, OPS2L is very picky. Format your HDD and it should work.