After a few days of research on this and other sites, I'm a bit confused about how to run backups off a HDD... Advice requested:
Current setup: Unmodded V1 PS2. I use factory pressed Swapmagic 3.6 CD/DVD (depending on the backup media) and slide card to load backups - works great. Now I would like to put all games on 120G Maxtor internal HDD. I've found a guide which gets me all the way through formatting drive, and copying games over using Winhiip... even to the point of installing the drive. That's where I get confused with all the discussion about HDLoader, MC exploits, etc. So here are my questions:
1) Can I download HDloader iso, then use Nero to burn it to CD, or do I need an original factory pressed one? I would assume Factory pressed. I did burn it, and tried to boot it using Swapmagic (like I would any other backup), but HDLoader would not be recognized by as a valid PS2 disc. Assuming I have a factory pressed HDLoader, is it as simple as booting the PS2 with it, then selecting one of the backups on the HDD to play?... thus eliminating Swapmagic from the equation?
2) I also get the impression that HDLoader can somehow be saved on a memory card, and then triggered by booting up the PS2 with a factory PS1 game? Hence a factory pressed HDLoader would not be necessary at all... only the PS1 game? Correct? And if I want to play that PS1 game (not that I ever would, as I think it is an Elmo game), I could just remove the MC before turning on PS2?
3) It appears the only way to NOT require an external boot up process to get to the backups on the HDD would be to have a modded PS2?
Thanks for the help... please assume I am an idiot when answering to avoid any confusion :)
The easiest way, IMO, is to use the MC exploit. I'm not going to go into detail on how to do the exploit, though. Do a search for "independance exploit" on google and you will find gobs of info. I will tell you this though. Use an exploit compiler, which you should be able to get from here. http://www.sksapps.com/index.php?page=mis.html Scroll down till you see independance compiler 4.1. You should be able to boot the Exploit CD with your swap magic. Here is a tutorial.
http://www.sksapps.com/index.php?page=exploitmaker.html Should be enough to get you started. You will need some space on the mem card though. My exploit originally took up 2.5 meg. I have moved all of the elfs on to a partition on the HDD, so it is significantly smaller now.
Good luck, and post back with some results.
~Rich
Edit: Answer your other questions.
1) Sm should boot the burned HDLoader. I dont have SM, so I cant help you here. A pressed HDLoader disc boots directly to the HDLoader screen and lets you boot/install/rename/delete games from the hdd.
2)See top half of post. Yes, just remove the MC and you can boot the PS1 game.
3)I have a completely unmodded, warranty sticker still in tact V1 with a 120 gig drive and all of my games copied to it. I use the MC exploit to boot KeyLauncher 0.5.3 as my boot.elf. (I used an AR Max to install my exploit BTW)
