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[jiggle]

Just got the maxtor 160gb from Fry's for $70 out the door.

Tested it out immediately.

V1 PS2 w/ MessiahII Pro and the broadband only Network Adapter.

Got Houshin Engi 2,and Katamari Datamashii installed with no problem.
Gonna go for the master of load time next, Popolocrois III.


Should I be concerned about the HOT harddrive? I have my fan blowing at it right now. Am I just being paranoid?

 

[Defensor]

Should I be concerned about the HOT harddrive? I have my fan blowing at it right now. Am I just being paranoid?

The HDD will get hot and could pose a problem in the longterm scenario. I would get a fan like you are doing or buy a PS2 usb fan at some online site or at EB.

 

[brandonnn]

I just installed Damacy -- got the preliminary error message about 80% through, but proceeded to install anyway. I think I ended up with errors in the 10k's, but the game booted normally and appears to be working fine.

I'm wondering if it grabbed Transformers' TOC because that's the one I swapped it with? And once the KD data was finished copying, it copied over blank space up to the Transformers disc size, complaining all the while? I'm only guessing. But I'm gonna try putting Greg Horror and Taiko 1 back on to see if maybe these errors don't really mean squat.

Obviously if Jiggle's KD worked fine it's something in the swap process that's giving it hell.

 

[jiggle]

PS2 have USB fans? I definitely need to look in on that then.



Yeah, Katamari installed and played fine for me, with all modes diabled.

Houshin Engi works until I try to load from a memory card(or start a new game)>_<
Trying out all those modes right now. Hope it'll work.

 

[Defensor]

 

[seismologist]

I'm getting spoiled having all my PS2 games on the HD. This just rocks.

 

[bobbyconover]

Just got the maxtor 160gb from Fry's for $70 out the door.

Interesting! Did you price-match CompUSA or are they offering that deal themselves now?

 

[jiggle]

Ooo, only 9.99 too, thanks for the link!

Interesting! Did you price-match CompUSA or are they offering that deal themselves now?

It's the 4th of july sale that just started today. No price match needed. 69.99 before tax. You can price-match that at other places to get it cheaper even. But I hate doing that

 

[jiggle]

Is this normal?:

With two games installed, I have 121gb/127gb left.

I couldn't get Houshin Engi to work, so I "removed" it.
But it still list my storage space as 121gb/127gb????

 

[Defensor]

HDLoader will only show/list 127gb max on any HDD higher than that #.

 

[The Faceless Master]

man i picked the wrong week to order a HD...
apparently fedex is taking monday off...
so i wont get my HD till wednesday...
monday's not even a holiday!!!

4th of july is on sunday, and i'm gonna go to a barbecue
but it's on sunday man, how can they just give people monday off!?


anyway, my current plan, now that i already tried HDLoader out with a 10GB HD is...
when 200GB HD arrives, ghost my current PC HD (120GB) to the 200GB...
then take the 120 out and put it into the PS2!

i hope they don't pull a UPS on me...

 

[pilonv1]

Those PS2 fans are very loud, but they seem to work well. I'm not that keen on sticking it to my system though.

 

[Brannon]

wOOt!

Come home and find my HDLoader in the mailbox. Abuse of power; ME.

 

[Synbios459]

Well, finally got my HD Loader in the mail from Devinio (sp?) and I really think it rocks. Anyway, sorry to bring this back up, but has anyone had trouble installing GTA:VC? When I try to play it, it just stays on a black screen. Admitedly I haven't tried all the modes, but I want to keep from doing that if at all possible.

 

[Drexon]

How do you change modes again?

 

[Synbios459]

Nevermind, scratch that. It works this time...Weird!

 

[Synbios459]

Press select.

Does anyone have an updated list of games that absolutely DO NOT work with the HD Loader even when you change modes, as well as what games require modes?

I went to hdloader.com but I don't think they have all the games that don't work with it, considering they don't have Xenosaga listed.

 

[Wario64]

Yeah, I want to see an updated list too. I still haven't ordered the HDloader cause I'm afraid some of my games won't be able to load

 

[pilonv1]

http://www.ps2nfo.com/ps2hdd.html

 

[tenchir]

Is this normal?:

With two games installed, I have 121gb/127gb left.

I couldn't get Houshin Engi to work, so I "removed" it.
But it still list my storage space as 121gb/127gb????

It's normal. You have to be careful how you install and remove some games. If you remove a game after you installed another game, you wouldn't be able to retrieve the disc space back. For example, if you installed Samurai Warrior and ICO, then remove Samurai Warrior because it didn't work, you wouldn't get your 4 gig back. I think they did it that way to keep the image files from fragmenting.

Edit: There are a couple of ways to get your disc space yet but I haven't tried it. The first way is if you have the official sony HDD with the utility disc, use the utility disc to retrieve the space back. The second way would require you to somehow boot a burn disc because you would have to burn a DMS/HDDTool boot it.

 

[Lord Error]

I've got mine the other day, and have been putting it through the paces. It's really, really good, and works as advertised. One game where I've noticed big speed increase in loading was SSX3, which now loads in about 3-4 seconds, where it used to be 12-15 per mountain hill. All other games I've tried have visible load time decreases as well, but most games I play regularily have snapy load times anyways so it's not as noticeable. Still, it's very nice when rooms in Oni 3 or MGS2 load in 2 instead of 4 seconds, etc, etc.

R&C:GC - is a game that does work, but seems to have no visible improvement in loading speed. The thing is - the game has pre-set loading sequence (where the ship flies through the space) and that sequence cannot be skipped. So basically, no matter how fast the data is actually loaded - you still end up watching the same sequence, just as you would have to if you loaded from the DVD.

I was pretty disappointed that Amplitude and Karaoke Revolution simply don't work, no matter the settings. Damn... I imagine it will be the same for Karaoke Revolution 2 as well. Looks like Harmonix has some special loader now (their first game - Frequency - works, though) Other than those two games, everything else I've tried worked without hitch.

 

[tenchir]

Yup, Karaoke Revolution doesn't work. I thought it worked when I installed it onto the HDD and let my sister play, but it turns out she was booting from the game disc rather than from the HDD.

 

[Lord Error]

Well, maybe they will figure out Harmonix's loader in the next release, heh, if there ever is one. I'm counting on Divineo to continue selling this, as they are Canadian company, and laws for this kind of gray area inellectual property are much more lenient here.

Question #1 - I've installed Champions of Norrath - without any mod chip, any layer merging or anything. Just put it in the drive and installed it, set the compatibility setting #3 to enabled (as per Divineo page) and it works! How is that possible? Installed game is only 3 or 4 GB on the disk, though. Shouldn't it be more, if it's a two layer game? Perhaps only the first layer got installed so it will crash at some point if I continue to play it? I've played it from the beginning for may five or so minutes and it works perfectly.

Question #2 - I was installing and removing games, and now I'm left with 7GB of free disk space, but when I just add the sizes of installed games, I should have 14GB free. I tried using the HDD optimizer from the utility disc (I have the official HDD), optimizer did it's thing, but I still have the same 7GB free. Apparently that method doesn't help. Should I just remove and re-install all the games that I want to keep on it permamently? Will that give me the right amount of free space?

 

[The Faceless Master]

well, i got my 200GB HDD last night...

ghosted the contents of my 120GB HDD onto it...

seems to be working okay...

as soon as i'm sure this 200GB is stable, i'll toss my old 120GB into my PS2...

then the real fun begins!

now the only question is what do i do with the 10GB HDD in the PS2 currently...

i guess it goes back to being a paperweight...

 

[Lord Error]

I just wanted to answer the question earlier in this thread:

If you have an official HDD - installing games with HDLoader does NOT disrupt, destroy or in any way influence your 'officially' installed games (such as FFXI), or the save files that you copied over from the memory card. 'HDloaded' games appear just as another file/icon in the HDD browser interface.

Now, can anyone look into my questions above and try to answer them?

 

[Spectral Glider]

Downhill Domination (DVD) USA/PAL Not Working
Twisted Metal Black (DVD) USA/PAL Not Working
War Of The Monsters (DVD) USA/PAL Not Working (1 Player Mode Only)

Damn, what's this thing got against Incog games? Or vice versa? That's kinda disappointing.

 

[Traumahound]

Question #2 - I was installing and removing games, and now I'm left with 7GB of free disk space, but when I just add the sizes of installed games, I should have 14GB free. I tried using the HDD optimizer from the utility disc (I have the official HDD), optimizer did it's thing, but I still have the same 7GB free. Apparently that method doesn't help. Should I just remove and re-install all the games that I want to keep on it permamently? Will that give me the right amount of free space?

This is just a guess, but I think they round down on the sizes. No game is going to be exactly 2GB or 3GB they are more likely to be 2.4GB or 3.2GB or something else. Hell, if they are simply rounding down, they could be reporting the size of a 3.9GB game as 3GB. I have no proof that they are doing this, but it seems likely.

 

[DarkCloud]

Just got mine today...very impressive so far. Most of my PS2 games are at the other house so I've mainly tested it on games that my brother had.

So far SFEX3, DBZ2, Burnout 2, FFX-2, Megaman AC, Unreal tournament, and Fatal Frame 2 all work perfectly...though I had some slight skipping during multiple subjob changes in FFX-2 (was there ever a reason given why that has to be in mode 3?)

Load times are improved extremely in SFEX3 and DBZ2 (that's a 4 gig game?)...Can't wait to try it with Grandia 2 and GGX

 

[akihara]

So did most of you guys order from Divineo.com? They still have it listed as available on their page, but what about the supposed Sony Cease and Desist?

 

[Sho Nuff]

Will this work on a Japanese model of the PS2?

For that matter, are Network Adapters region-free?

 

[DarkCloud]

So did most of you guys order from Divineo.com? They still have it listed as available on their page, but what about the supposed Sony Cease and Desist?

Avoid divineo if you can...they've jumped the price up and it took over 2 weeks just to get shipping confirmation on an in stock item slated to ship in 3 days. Not worth the time wasted.

Worst company i ever ordered from

 

[akihara]

Avoid divineo if you can...they've jumped the price up and it took over 2 weeks just to get shipping confirmation on an in stock item slated to ship in 3 days. Not worth the time wasted.

So who should you order from instead?

 

[DarkCloud]

no idea...the more warezy sites would be more likely to have it but will be more of a credit risk. I'm sure someone in here will be willing to PM you an url to a place.

Or try Ebay

 

[DJ Demon J]

Anyone else tried installing Fight Night 2004? It doesn't load up for me.

 

[tenchir]

Anyone else tried installing Fight Night 2004? It doesn't load up for me.

Enable Mode 3.

 

[MoxManiac]

Anyone tried MvC2? Do they fix the horrid load times?

 

[Lord Error]

So did most of you guys order from Divineo.com? They still have it listed as available on their page, but what about the supposed Sony Cease and Desist?

Divineo is a Canadian company. They have a good chance of survival in this whole deal, but I wouldn't bet any money on it...

Damn, what's this thing got against Incog games?

Heh, yeah, it sucks when one developer uses the same loader all the time, so when one their game doesn't work, next one probably won't either (see also: Harmonix ...)

 

[PanopticBlue]

Anyone tried MvC2? Do they fix the horrid load times?

Load times on MvsC2 are about 2-3 seconds now.

 

[DarkCloud]

This is just a guess, but I think they round down on the sizes. No game is going to be exactly 2GB or 3GB they are more likely to be 2.4GB or 3.2GB or something else. Hell, if they are simply rounding down, they could be reporting the size of a 3.9GB game as 3GB. I have no proof that they are doing this, but it seems likely.

They definately round down. Burnout 2 and Guilty Gear X2 both clock in at 3.98 gigs in the HD browser (official Sony HD here) yet list as 3 gigs each in the HDDLoader menu. It also rounds down your free space as well...It says I have 5 gigs free yet the HD menu says 6.20

 

[tenchir]

I just found out how HDLoader choose the size of each partition. The partition that HDLoader creates can only be multiples of 128 megabyte. Other installable games follow this limitation too such as Resident Evil: Outbreak(1024MB) and SocomII(256MB). I installed Marvel Vs Capcom which is about 212MB and it's partition on the drive is 256MB. I browse the drive with HDDTools and sure enough, all partitions are multiple of 128MB.

 

[The Faceless Master]

so i finally put my 120GB HD in and it's even more awesome than the 10GB i was testing with...

i installed a few games and they all work so far, and since i have a DMS3, i also installed DMS Explorer and the stuff that comes with that...

still got 90GB free after installing a decent amount of stuff...

 

[Defensor]

Finally got mine in the mail and I have to say I am impressed. Loaded Marvel vs. Capcom 2, Tekken Tag, Stuntman, and Tekken 4 so far. That 40gb HDD that came with the PS2 Linux kit came in handy!

What's my game of the year? THE PS2 HDLoader!

 

[Lord Error]

There is something fishy with the disk space calculation on PS2, though... Sure, now we know that sizes are rounded down, but that is not all.

Yesterday, I have removed all the installed games, deleted all the game saves that I copied from the memory card. I got something like 35.7GB free (disk is *completely* clean, no files at this point!). Just for the kicks, I re-format it using the provided utility disc, and lo and behold, new free space is 36GB! That's 300 megabytes that was wasted on nothing just a moment ago!! Now, I have installed the games back, tracking the disk usage for each of them, and yeah, it rounds down - I've finished installing, and left with the exact same amount of free space as I had before, when I was installing and de-installing randomly.

 

[The Faceless Master]

Finally got mine in the mail and I have to say I am impressed. Loaded Marvel vs. Capcom 2, Tekken Tag, Stuntman, and Tekken 4 so far. That 40gb HDD that came with the PS2 Linux kit came in handy!

What's my game of the year? THE PS2 HDLoader!

C-

 

[Defensor]

Quick test with Stuntman...

I have to play around with the enable combinations(since the game sometimes crashes after a stunt), but so far the load times for each stunt when you fail them are now 2-4 secs! I'm trying this with Default mode, so if anyone has Stuntman and could help me out with the switches, that would help. These fast loadtimes makes Stuntman more bearable to play.

 

[JohnDoe8865]

Also an update, I've gotten it, works very well so far with a Maxtor 120GB 7200 RPM drive. I've installed all of my games I own, no interest in piracy really. The load times in ESPN Baseball were horrible for PS2 before, now they are very good. If you can find it now, I recommend the product!

 

[Truelize]

I loaded Red Dead Revolver and it plays fine but the sound is screwed up. The actions sounds play fine but the background and voices don't play at all. Does anyone have any suggestions?

 

[DarkCloud]

Why is Xenosaga listed as a non working title? I installed it (3 gigs detected but installed as 4) enabled mode 3 and disabled the other two (2 was enabled already for some reason).

And it started just fine. Loaded up my old save which was at the cutscene where Kosmos takes over the ship from the captain...and everything played fine. no sound sync problems and the load times are reduced as far as I can tell.

I already had a prior save and a non Greatest Hits copy of the game if this helps anyone.

 

[Wario64]

Xenosaga is a DVD-9 game....the game is actually 8 gigs or whatever. Obviously it didn't copy the whole game, but that's weird that the game still ran

 

[Defensor]

Update:

Wip3out Fusion and Mega Man AC works fine with just default mode. Ridge Racer V finally works after playing around with the enable modes. RRV would crash after the opening FMV and sometimes after you choose your car/music track before the grand prix. I think I enabled mode 1 and 3 and RRV boots up normally.