Alright, quick formalities. I've been a "silent partner" on this website for a couple years. I can't figure out for the life of me why I haven't joined sooner. I started my modding experience with my X-Box v1.1 and my X-Bit v1.5 mod chip. I now see that messing with that system has perhaps done more to hurt how I learn to mod my PS2 than help :-P. Here's the situation:
I soft modded (exploited) my PS2 with an Action Replay, USB Flash Drive, and a PS2 memory card. I belive that method is called "the memory card exploit" or whatever. I used my trigger disk (Tomb Raider III) in conjuunction with my altered save on my PS2 memory card work through few trials and errors. I now have my PS2 running LaunchELF v3.41 successfully and have acces to my USB Flash Drive. I have a program on there I can access called COGSWAP. This is labeled to be one of the oldest and most trusted programs to use when reading PS2 back-ups. From what I see it works because it'll recognize and load original PSX and PS2 games. Through countless searching on how to make a back-up of my PS2 games I found a method that seemed quite popular with veteran modders. I use DVD Decrypter. I read that to back-up my games all I had to do was insert my orignal PS2 games into my DVD+-RW burner, click Mode, ISO, Read, and copy the game ISO to my hard drive. Then to burn the copy I was to click Mode, ISO, Write, and pick the ISO I just made. All was done perfectly as per instrustions (I even downloaded WNASPI32.DLL and implemented it into the program). The game I backed up is Gran Turismo 3 A-Spec. I popped in the back-up after LaunchELF loaded and ran COGSWAP. It doesn't read my back-up. I run into this every time. I don't know what I'm doing wrong. I know that a lot of you are going to say "google it, duh" or "check previous posts" but I have and anything that touches on the way I have my system set up doesn't explain anything. Things are just way too vague for me I guess. I think my problem is with the program I use to read my back-ups. I don't have a hard drive for my PS2 as every .elf file I need seems to just handily fit on the pen drive and I'm not looking to run emulators or media centers (my X-Box does this FLAWLESSLY). Any help on this would be rediculously apprecited. I'm sorry for the lengthy post but I want to be sure and be thourough for you guys as to not sound overly "noobish" hahahaha. Alright, thanks in advance guys!!!
what media do you use and how fast did you burn the game? I've never used cogswap so I'm not too sure but what exactly does it do when you said "I popped in the back-up after LaunchELF loaded and ran COGSWAP. It doesn't read my back-up.? That's too vague you need to be more specific.
Alright. Let me give you more details then. I use Imation 8x DVD-R's just like I use with my X-Box back-ups. Like I said, I've been modding my X-Box for a while so I just thought I'd use the same stuff, ya' know? The thing is, when I pop in my back-up nothing happens. COGSWAP won't recognize it and it doesn't react. However, when I put an orignal PS2 game while I run COGSWAP, it says "PS2 Format Game" right in the middle of the screen. I hit X and off I go! I noticed since my last post that I can actually run my orignal PS2 games right from LaunchELF itself. So, I figure you can run your back-ups from there as well. Just a guess! My PS2's serial number is SCPH-30001 if that helps. I had it sent in to Sony 2 times until they sent it back in with a new laser system they said wouldn't ever fail on me. I didn't have to pay for crap so good news for me, right? Hahahaha! Thanks in advance for helping me by the way.
Alright, I dunno' if I figured it out or not. I think what I need to do is put in aan original PS2 game in the tray to get the authentic code thing from it then swap it with a back-up. I modded my PS2 casing to have one of those flippy tops. I was going to go the tray swap way but I hear that way sucks and wears out your lens. All I have to do now is reassemble my PS2, try it, and I'll let you all now how I fared (even though I doubt you guys are still watching). If there's any other ELF program you know thyat would work instead of COGSWAP let me know.
I finally got it. I know how to use all these programs. I know how to burn back-ups. I know how to run back-ups from DVD, CD, and HDD. I kind of screwed up on my flip top though. I guess I'll have to buy one :-(. All well, I was REALLY close to doing everything 100% myself. One more question real quick. I noticed that Gran Turismo 3 A-Spec is quite the large game. That's what I use for my TOC disc. Is there anything bigger so I don't run into problems later on? Any more help than already given would be helpful.
You'll want to be careful with multiple posts in a thread... could get yourself banned for this. Use the edit button instead :)
As for game size, not too sure :( I never had to rebuild a game so I don't really notice how big one is, have a search here in the afterdawn forum though, I think I've seen threads talking about that
I don't know if it's possible to do the cogswap with a DVD-9 disc, but you could give it a try.. something like gt4,god of war,champions of norrath... if not then get a copy of crazy taxi.. I think that's what they use for swap magic.
Also, might be a good idea to get a better quality brand of discs.. even though the imations work, they could cause problems later, the ps2 is much more picky about media than the xbox.. get some taiyo yudens, verbatims or ritek g04/g05.
If you need any guides or help with anything, you can catch me or some other good guys over at xtreme-source.. there are links in my sig
