PS1/2 HDLBATCH: A batch installer for adding games onto a PS2 HDD

[rs1n]

Update is here: https://gbatemp.net/threads/hdlbatc...s2-hdd-batch-installer-using-hdl-dump.551420/
TL; DR at the bottom.



For those using Open PS2 Loader (or HDLoader) with a Network Adapter and internal HDD, installing games can be a hassle. There are several outdated methods for installing games, of which I will mention a few: WINHIIP, HDLGameInstaller, and HDLDUMP (and variations).

• WINHIIP had been my go-to installer for a long time because of its speed. By connecting the PS2 HDD drive to a PC, one could batch install games very quickly (up to a limit of 255). However, it has a number of additional limitations: some games do not install properly, the partition naming scheme does not conform to specs outlined in the official SDK, it cannot handle 2TB drives, and as previously mentioned is limited to 255 games.
• HDLGameInstaller is mainly a network installer, and is limited to about 7MB/s. All games, including CD games, must be in ISO format.
• HDLDUMP has a number of flavors: HDLDUMB, HDL Dump Helper GUI, HDL HDD Batcher. HDLDUMP is a command-line toolkit for installing and managing games, and HDLDUMB is a GUI interface for HDLDUMP, but lacks batch installation. It is similar to HDLGameInstaller in terms of network installation, but seems to be slightly slower (~5MB/s). Batch installs can be done using HDL Dump Helper GUI or HDL HDD Batcher (the latter being a command-line interface). HDL Dump Helper GUI seems to be broken on more modern systems (claims of missing Java runtime environments despite the existence of one; can still be launched via command-line with admin rights). Still, who wants to have to install a Java runtime environment just for one app?! (I personally have no other use for Java.) Moreover, batch installs requires adding titles one at a time -- ugh! Both Helper GUI and Batcher, however, seem to use HDLDUMP 0.9.0, which seems to be extremely slow when using USB adapters (for me, anyway; ~7MB/s using a USB 3 SATA adapter). Moreover, Batcher was quite limited (had to install CD games separately, first; DVD9 installs would always break due to a bug in the batch code).

HDLBATCH attempts to combine the advantages of the above while addressing some of their shortcomings. Using a more recent version of HDLDUMP, speeds through USB3 improved to around 40MB/s -- up from ~7MB/s, though this will certainly depend on the USB adapter. When connected to the PC directly, speeds ranged between 100MB/s and 150MB/s for DVD installs, and around 100MB/s for CD installs. Since many OPL users also enjoy having game art (boxart, backgrounds, screenshots), OPL Manager is a natural choice for managing art as well as games, especially for those who use OPL over network via SMB. However, more recent versions of OPL Manager (as of the writing of this post) have started requiring game file names with game ID prefixes. These prefixes are invisible to SMB users. But anyone wishing to transfer their games to the PS2 HDD will then have to rename all their game files; otherwise the file names get used by the installers above as the title of the game. So if "SCUS_973.28.Gran Turismo 4.iso" were transferred to the PS2 HDD, it would show up in OPL as "SCUS_973.28.Gran Turismo 4" -- OPL's alpha sorting of games becomes rather useless. Currently, OPL Manger does not provide an option to revert the file names; one has to make use of a batch file to rename all the files. (This naming scheme also makes it extremely tedious to maintain individual game files.) HDLBatch will strip this prefix -- but only if it matches the actual game ID inside the game file -- and used the stripped name for the game title. Games may be in CUE/BIN or ISO format.

TL; DR:

Instructions (old version removed; see link at top for updated version)

1. Connect PS2 HDD (pre-formatted with uLaunch) to your PC. Fastest speeds obtained by connecting the drive directly to your motherboard. USB adapters will work, but speeds will depend on the quality of your adapter.
2. Place all the games you wish to install into a single folder. CD games may be in CUE/BIN form, or even ISO (if you converted from CUE/BIN, for example, in order to make use of OPL Manager). DVD games will obviously need to be in ISO file format. Games whose filename is of the form SLUS_XXX.YY.GameTitle.ISO -- i.e. starts with game ID info from OPL Manager -- will have the game ID stripped so that only GameTitle is used.
3. Unzip hdlbatch.7z into the games folder. Right-click on the HDLBATCH.bat file, and select "Run as Administrator", choose your target, and that's it.

Limitations

• The batch file does NOT check to see if the game being installed already exists on the PS2 HDD. This could potentially be an issue in instances where a game and its translation (FFXII International Zodiac Job System and its English translation) may collide because the game IDs would be the same, and long file names may not lead to unique partition names after the file name is truncated. Using shortened, unique file names should resolve this issue; e.g. "SLPM_667.50.FFXII IZJS (JPN).iso" and "SLPM_667.50.FFXII IZJS (USA).iso" or even place (JPN) and (USA) at the start of the game title in order to ensure that partition names are unique. (To my knowledge, only HDLGameInstaller has a check for existing games, but it will ask to overwrite the existing game without an option to do otherwise.)

 

[Ryccardo]

Great effort (though I won't be able to check it out anytime soon...)

Just wondering, are you creating partitions with the standards-appropriate names? ("PP.SLES-12345.whatever" or "PP.SLES-12345.whatever1.whatever2" - the titleid matters for HDDOSD users!)

 

[rs1n]

Great effort (though I won't be able to check it out anytime soon...)

Just wondering, are you creating partitions with the standards-appropriate names? ("PP.SLES-12345.whatever" or "PP.SLES-12345.whatever1.whatever2" - the titleid matters for HDDOSD users!)

The batch file calls HDLDUMP (0.9.2) which installs partitions using the PP.XXXX-nnnnn.MAGIC.APPLICATION scheme as defined in hdd_rule_3.0.2.pdf from the official Sony SDK. For example, "SCUS_972.28.Gran Turismo 4.iso" gets installed as PP.SCUS-97228.HDL.Gran Turismo (the "4" gets truncated).

 

[cvskid]

Is it possible to use a ethernet connection with this to transfer games from the pc to ps2 hdd?

 

[rs1n]

Is it possible to use a ethernet connection with this to transfer games from the pc to ps2 hdd?

My original intent was just to make a batch file that installs directly to the HDD attached to the PC (since it is the fastest method). If you wish to do network installs, it is actually not that hard to do. Just change all instances of "hdd4:" (no quotes) in the batch file to the IP of your PS2. This will make the 4th target option a network install. For example, if your PS2 has IP 192.168.0.2, then change

if errorlevel 4 set hdlhdd=hdd4:​

to

if errorlevel 4 set hdlhdd=192.168.0.2​

I have not tested this, but I can tomorrow with a spare drive.

EDIT: You'll also need to run a server on your PS2 (not sure if this needed to be written explicitly). Get hdl_svr_093.elf from here: http://www.ps2-home.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2307

 

[kublai]

Do you still have to format your hdd with Winhiip?

 

[rs1n]

Do you still have to format your hdd with Winhiip?

You must format with uLaunchELF

 

[kublai]

You must format with uLaunchELF

I could not find the hddmanager to format the hdd, is that built into uLaunchELF or do you have to install another app?

Edit: I found the hddmanager as it's in a folder called MISC

 

[MalcolmArt]

Hi,
I would like to say I love your youtube videos and was watching one of your videos on PS2 2Tb Internal HDD - HDL Dump GUI - make installing ISOs easy peasy.

And I wanted to know it is possible to clone the PS2 Hard drive I have read up on reedit that it is possible but would have to save the image file to the windows hard drive.

 

[willstring]

Awesome work here! This is a really nice program and works great.

One quick question: Is it possible to have it work when each game is in its own folder? That is, eliminate the need to dump all the bin/cue/iso files in the directory as the script.

I tried changing line 118 to:

for %%f in (*/*.iso */*.cue) do

But my experience in windows scripting is limited.

Thanks!!

 

[MRsonic699]

This is just what I need! However I have a lot of drives connected to my computer. As such, the PS2 HDD ends up being hdd8. As far as I understand, HDL BATCH doesn't let me select anything beyond hdd3. Is it possible to work around this without disconnecting all of my drives?

 

[EddieZ78]

You must format with uLaunchELF

I can not get my windows 10 pro to read drive formated by uLaunchELF

 

[rs1n]

I can not get my windows 10 pro to read drive formated by uLaunchELF

I'm not sure what you mean by "read" the drive. No version of Windows will be able to read any data on the drive without special software. However, it should at least detect the drive (under Disk Management). The batch installer uses hdl_dump, which is the special software that talks to the drive.

Or did you mean something else by "read" the drive? Is your computer not even detecting the disk at all?

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

This is just what I need! However I have a lot of drives connected to my computer. As such, the PS2 HDD ends up being hdd8. As far as I understand, HDL BATCH doesn't let me select anything beyond hdd3. Is it possible to work around this without disconnecting all of my drives?

You can just rename the option for hdd1 to hdd8 within the batch file instead of disconnecting drives.

 

[daytrader666]

what does it mean if it says input or output not supported?

 

[rs1n]

what does it mean if it says input or output not supported?

That usually refers to an issue with the drive that was selected. How many hard drives do you have attached to your computer? Did you have to modify the batch file (e.g. your HDD is listed as hdd10: whereas the original batch file assumes much lower drive numbers)?

 

[Drambit]

Can you use HDLBatch to install new games on a PS2 HDD that already has a bunch of different games on it, without reinstalling all the games on the hard drive? Anything I should watch out for trying this?

 

[BullShifter]

Can you use HDLBatch to install new games on a PS2 HDD that already has a bunch of different games on it, without reinstalling all the games on the hard drive? Anything I should watch out for trying this?

Were you able to do this without issues?

 

[Drambit]

Were you able to do this without issues?

Yup. I just loaded all the different games into a folder with the HDL batch files, ran it, and it inserted the new games only directly onto the drive without corrupting anything. Works Great.

 

[ulao]

"Place all the games you wish to install into a single folder." -- but the newly formatted drive is not usable in a PC, so this step is not possible? Did you mean a folder on the pc not the newly formatted drive?

ok right I see you mean a folder on the PC as this copies to the ps2 drive.

 

[Drambit]

"Place all the games you wish to install into a single folder." -- but the newly formatted drive is not usable in a PC, so this step is not possible? Did you mean a folder on the pc not the newly formatted drive?

ok right I see you mean a folder on the PC as this copies to the ps2 drive.

Yeah, hdlbatch just inserts them itself.