HD Loader

[mike boss]

Anyone ever use HD loader for the PS2 ?
Thoughts ?

I took my PS2 out of storage the other day so my visiting niece's could play some Guitar Hero/Rock Band.

It had been quite some time since I used the PS2. But HD loader is a snap, simply pop in the disc then select my game.

I can't for the life of me remember what the deal was with the memory card & PS1 game the bundle game with.

I deleted some damaged save files off the memory card that I think could have been for the install of HD loader itself.

I'm kinda sweating this, but after original install I dont think I'd need these anyway.

[Sydric]

There were two versions of HD Loader--the official retail release, which only saw a single release before being shut down - and then the "ps1" trigger discs. Basically, exploiting a weakness in the system, the PS1 game could trigger "patch" code located on the memory card. The patch code in this case, was HD Loader itself or usually a menu that would in turn load the software.

Later enhanced versions of HD Loader that supported larger hard drives and more games were patched and made, but could only be used with the PS1/Memory card trick.

So basically, the menu on the hard drive was coded to the SLUS code of the PS1 game...when that game was inserted, the code on the memory card would execute getting you into HD Loader.

So you need code on the memory card and the APPROPRIATE PS1 disc to trigger it.

Make sense?

[mike boss]

Honestly, I'm kinda lost.
But I know I have a retail pressed disc.
It says you can leave the disc in the drive and when you power on the PS2 it goes in the HD loader menu. (and it does work as stated)

It had been such a long while since I played with the console that I thought I needed the memory card for something. (I say this because seller included this and a PS1 game)

But I guess since I get into the menu ok, and the games load it's all good.

Thanks

[Sydric]

If you are in the menu, you are in. There are two versions: a pressed disc version (the original) and then later updates that work with bigger hard drives and more compatibility that require a PS1 trigger disc and code on the memory card. That's it.

[RayB]

I have HD Loader 2. The PS1 disc is only for PS1 games.

[Sydric]

NO!!! NOT AT ALL -- the PS1 trigger disc is JUST for loading the CODE .... it works with PS2 games. TRUST ME - I know this product very VERY WELL!

[mike boss]

So the memory card and PS1 disc I have would have been for the original exploit. IE - used to get HDD loader onto the HDD ?

Now not needed as the program is installed.
I now use the disc to access the menu.

Am I correct ?

[RayB]

NO!!! NOT AT ALL -- the PS1 trigger disc is JUST for loading the CODE .... it works with PS2 games. TRUST ME - I know this product very VERY WELL!

Ah my mistake. I have "HD Advance 2" which is based on HD Loader but... a bit better (no memory card required).

carry on...

[Jorpho]

I guess you're talking about some kind of retail release?

I was looking into the downloadable version of HDLoader a while ago. Apparently all you really need is one of a particular number of games (007 Agent Under Fire is popular) and a burned copy of the game with a small alteration. Then you boot the game, swap out the disc (somehow), and crash the game, and the altered copy subsequently writes special code to your memory card which can be used to boot the PS2.

I was trying to investigate whether any of this could be used with the cheap and plentiful Compact Flash-to-IDE adapters that are available these days, rather than a proper IDE hard drive, but I never found a definitive answer and it's probably not as convenient anyway.

[Sydric]

HD Loader had an original retail release - I have the disc. HD Advance was a poor clone of it.

After Sony stopped the company legally, several hackers made other versions available that required the trigger disc - PS1.

HD Loader never required "Swapping" you are thinking most likely of Swap Magic.

[mike boss]

For my set up I don't know what exploit was used to get the software on the HDD. I just know that I put in the retail pressed disc and it loads up and displays whats on my HDD.

I assume the PS1 "trigger disc" and memory card exploit were used in the original install.

I'd actually like to find some other HDD's that would work with HD loader, this way I could have a stack of HDD's. One with all my Rock Band, Guitar Hero stuff...another with Fighters for example.

EDIT - I recall having to pick up an external HDD case to move contents onto the HDD itself. If I recall software existed that would allow you to format the HDD to the required format. But I think installing the HD LOADER onto the HDD itself was a lil tricky.

[Sydric]

There were products for EXTERNAL Hard Drives - but HD Loader itself was never compatible with external drives. There were products USB Advance, USB Extreme etc. but they were NEVER nearly as compatible as HD Loader and sooo much slower.

There was NEVER and would NEVER be a way (or point) of putting HD Loader itself on the hard drive. The program is very small - so you either had it on the retail disc (which loaded as if it was Crazy Taxi by the way) or you had it on the memory card and triggered the execution through the appropriate PS1 game (any PS1 game would do, as long as the code on the memory card was "coded" appropriately). I am starting to feel like a broken record saying this -- but this is HOW IT WAS. I was involved with the development of all this stuff and that's all I'm gonna say, if you feel like challenging me further go ahead

After all the development of that stuff ceased, there was another product (not retail) called Open PS2 loader - http://opl.sksapps.com/ which again you can load the ELF using any of the homebrew methods that also made HD Loader work (ie: PS1 trigger disc as the easiest).