PS2 [Testers Needed] OPL internal exfat 2TB+ HDD and multi-BDM devices

[grimdoomer]

It keeps bringing up "221: Hard drive not detected" error on startup despite having HDD disabled in BDM Settings. I also have to set devices to manual start or it won't load both storage devices with it set to auto (just the hard drive games list appears IIRC).

My storage devices:

1. MX4SIO - Bitfunx adapter - Samsung 256GB EVO Select, formatted in exFAT/32kilobytes
2. USB external HDD - This enclosure: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/363196049057 - 250GB 2.5" HDD, formatted in exFAT

I've confirmed the issue with error 221 and have that fixed. I need to dig into the part about setting devices to manual as all the testing I have done had them set to auto which worked just fine.

 

[djhazardous]

221 refers to the internal HDD, not a USB-HDD.

I know that, which is why I should not get the error, especially when HDD is disabled in BDM settings.

 

[djhazardous]

I've confirmed the issue with error 221 and have that fixed. I need to dig into the part about setting devices to manual as all the testing I have done had them set to auto which worked just fine.

Now I am at the PS2. I just tried v1.2.0.1. It is still showing the 221 error on boot (but understand you may not have applied the fix in 1.2.0.1?).

Now, regarding the starting of multiple devices issue:

Even with manual device start enabled, it would not detect the MX4SIO with the USB HDD plugged in.

I have to start OPL with the USB HDD unplugged, then it will detect the MX4SIO and then I can plug in the USB HDD and start that. This is the only way I have been able to use both at the same time.

 

[popio]

Are you using OPL.elf or OPL_DEBUG.elf? 5400 RPMs is quite slow for a HDD, and if it doesn't support UDMA 4 speeds then it's most likely running slower than the disc drive would normally. I'd recommend using a 7200 RPM drive, or an SSD (though the SSD is overkill imo).

Update
no more stuttering while playing GOW 1 & 2 after defragmenting the HDD.

for Klonoa2 - after i enable the game mode 1 - no issue on audio on opening scene.

PS2 50K model
running internal SATA HDD 500GB - Exfat format

 

[nikeymikey]

Just seen Macho Nacho's video on this. Gonna dig out my PS2 and wipe the HDD and have a play around with the new version now. Great work and thanks OP.

 

[johnyept]

Just seen Macho Nacho's video on this. Gonna dig out my PS2 and wipe the HDD and have a play around with the new version now. Great work and thanks OP.

Same here! I've been postponing setting up a 1TB or 2TB HDD in my PS2, exFAT support is exactly the feature I needed to finally take the plunge. Keep up the good work on this awesome piece of software!

 

[SG-17]

Would this work with one of those SD Card to IDE adapters?

 

[KingGiddra]

I had an existing OPL setup with the old version that was working normally.

I was able to load your new OPL version and load games successfully using the old setup for OPL (loading games via winhiip).

I first attempted to format the drive to exFat using a USB to SATA cable. The PS2 was unable to detect the SSD after trying that. I checked the sector size and System Information reported 512 (after seeing this as a potential issue from Nacho's video).

I connected the SSD to my motherboard directly and formatted it again. I was able to load OPL after reformatting it this way.

USB-to-SATA Cable
amazon[dot]com/Drive-Adapter-Cable-Support-Black/dp/B07S9CKV7X
I had this connected via a USB 3.0 port.

Disk Drives

NVMe
Samsung SSD 980 PRO 2TB

SATA
Samsung SSD 870 QVO 4TB
Samsung SSD 860 EVO 1TB
WDC WDS400T2B0A (Western Digital Blue 4TB SSD)*

PS2
Samsung SSD 850 EVO 500GB

*WD drive was disconnected in place of the SSD for the PS2 SSD when formatting via SATA. It was normally connected when using the USB-to-SATA cable.

 

[popio]

here is the link of the 2.5" usb enclosure that i have.
hope this will helps on some people

https://www.ugreen.com/products/usb-c-2-5-sata-iii-hard-drive-enclosure?variant=39915667062846

no problem on hard drive sector sizes since on some folks has an issue on this as mention also by @grimdoomer

 

[johnyept]

Would this work with one of those SD Card to IDE adapters?

The SD Card is seen as an HDD so I suppose it works as well. I also have one of those and will definitely try it with a 1TB HDD and a 128GB SD card this weekend.

 

[TnA]

Those IDE2SD adapters seem to be limited to 137GB/128GiB.

 

[johnyept]

Has the filename length limit been changed? What is the length limit including folder (CD/DVD), filename and extension .iso/.bin/.cue, for the games to be recognized by OPL with an internal exFAT HDD?

 

[psxnoob42]

As requested, testing games on an APA formatted HDD. Hardware is SCPH-30002 and Samsung 500GB SSD. Software version 1.2.0-beta-1980-22bdcc. The HDD normally boots freehdboot but for these tests booting a freemcboot 8GB memcard and running OPL from a 16GB USB stick.

All these games load and play correctly from APA.

18d8aa4240648c4dfce8f0f809eab1f9 Beyond Good & Evil (Europe, Australia)
55be5c3d6b62b06ad95e8a92b3366b61 Burnout (Europe) (En,Fr,De,Es,It)
c9e2bbb6c39284e54d7627e84f1d2372 Devil May Cry (Europe) (En,Fr,De,Es,It)
be60e1509c05231ae76144949e7bab53 Final Fantasy X (Europe, Australia)
6b8b8dd72f50b7264f7418b641591c11 God of War (Europe, Australia) (En,Fr,De,Es,It)
26a95962a62f996d7458ebea6fd8a8b1 Gran Turismo 3 - A-Spec (Europe, Australia) (En,Fr,De,Es,It) (v2.00)
d56ce6840bc51eaa389cb8eb64d46a0c Metal Gear Solid 3 - Snake Eater (Europe) (En,Fr)
c72652c461819c72f3ab2987802443f5 Ookami (Europe) (En,Fr,De)

Good result, no regression. But an exFat HDD is too tempting, I'm going to test exFat on a spare HDD and if everything works I'm switching. The only benefit with APA for me is freehdboot but I'd much rather have the convenience of exFat. This is a killer feature you've added. Respect!

Has the filename length limit been changed? What is the length limit including folder (CD/DVD), filename and extension .iso/.bin/.cue, for the games to be recognized by OPL with an internal exFAT HDD?

I had to rename a few games to get them to work. For example...

renamed 'Gran Turismo 3 - A-Spec (Europe, Australia) (En,Fr,De,Es,It) (v2.00).iso' -> 'Gran Turismo 3 - A-Spec.iso'

Before renaming it was missing. After renaming it appears and launches correctly.

 

[Doublehawk]

I haven't tested this extensively yet, but it appears there is an issue with the network adapter in this build. Here is my experience so far testing out Gran Turismo 4 Online Public Beta:

Using this OPL build, my APA formatted 200GB HDD loaded and ran the game just fine as expected. I could connect online and played a bit offline without any problems that I could tell. 1080i mode worked fine too.

I then formatted a 1TB SSD that I have sitting idle to exFAT and loaded it up with the same library and VMC. The drive was detected and showed the entire library no problem. So far so good. I then ran the game again and, while it did load the game, I could not connect online as the game claimed that there was no network adapter.

This was technically the first time I was trying out this Bitfunx SATA adapter, so I wasn't sure if this was just a hardware fault (though I don't see how it could be, since it only replaces the PATA hardware and all the networking is on the main board). I went and formatted the SSD to APA using wLaunchElf, installed the game through hdl_dumx, and tried the game again. This time, the game could connect online just fine.

So I went back and formatted the SSD to exFAT for a second time. This time, I encountered a few issues. I had OPL hang on boot once, not sure what caused that, but I had to reset the console. Additionally, launching games takes an extra 30 seconds to 1 minute to start now, being stuck on the "Loading config" part for an abnormally long time. The game does eventually boot, but I'm not sure what causes this. So I started up GT4 once more and it still does not detect the network adapter.
Just to confirm, I also tried running .hack//fragment, and trying to connect online, it claimed that it was unable to load the network config, though it could access it just fine in the network config editor.

Just to see what would happen, I was able to access my SMB share from OPL (though I didn't actually try running a game over SMB).

I'd be happy to run some more tests if you gave me some direction. The network adapter is genuine, just modded with the Bitfunx SATA adapter as mentioned above.

 

[skullz23]

can you just drop all the boxart onto the drive as well?

 

[TnA]

Yes, but this is not a thread for help...

 

[skullz23]

thanks for the reply. i was merely asking a question like everyone else and not looking for help.

 

[psxnoob42]

Testing games with an exFat internal HDD. Hardware is SCPH-30002 and WD RED 6TB HDD. The adaptor is an original Sony IDE adaptor modded with the Bitfunx IDE-SATA kit. It has a functional ETH port but I do not use it. OPL software version 1.2.0-beta-1980-22bdcc. Using freemcboot 1.966 on an 8GB memcard mc0: and running OPL from mc0: as well.

WD was formatted on Windows using a USB adaptor (recycled adaptor from a shucked Seagate Expansion USB HDD) then created the CD and DVD folders and copied across my ISO backups.

First problem. For this new setup there's no OPL config so I set BDM to Auto, ART to enabled, then Saved Changes. It reports saving config to mass: which I would assume is the exFat HDD. Then chose Games List and it freezes on a black screen. Reboot back into OPL and its forgotten the config. Through trial and error I discovered with a 16GB USB stick in addition to the exFat HDD the USB stick gets a skeleton directory of ART, CFG, VMC and now Games List works. There's some underlying bug with the auto-location logic in OPL that's breaking with exFat HDD as a mass: unless there's an additional USB stick also as mass:

Second problem, in this hybrid setup with OPL on mc0: and OPL directory structure on the USB stick, the ART and VMC directories on the USB stick are ignored. I figured out there's a second OPL directory structure on the exFat HDD which is what's actually being used. The folders on exFat HDD are invisible to uLaunchElf so I moved the HDD back to a Windows PC to populate them. The artwork then appear correctly in OPL.

Testing now running smoothly. All my usual games load correctly off exFat HDD, identical performance as with freehdboot and APA formatted HDD. One improvement is Gran Turismo 4 now works on HDD. I could never get this title to work with an APA formatted HDD.

Created a VMC for Gran Turismo 4 and this is created on the exFat HDD. This is exactly what I want so that's good, and it appears to work which is also good, but I can't copy my saves over from a real memory card (mc1 because uLaunchElf doesn't currently recognise the exFat HDD. Support for exFat HDD in uLaunchElf is definitely needed.

Despite the minor issues above, this new setup is a massive improvement. The HDD is now cross compatible with Windows, Linux and PS2. No need for a special "+OPL" partition on an APA formatted HDD. No more mucking about with WinHiip and hdl_dump. Games that didn't work before (GT4) are now working. And although I've only been testing for a few hours, so far no deal breaking bugs, every game loading correctly, IGR works correctly, and performance identical to APA formatted HDD.

Amazing work. You've really pulled a rabbit out of the hat with this one. I think this is a huge improvement for OPL and the PS2 mod scene.

 

[KingGiddra]

After successfully getting the PS2 to read the SSD once yesterday, I have been unable to get it to read the SSD again.

It can load OPL and I see the device selection with the IDE selected, but it will not load a list of games.

I did not change anything between powering off the PS2 on the last successful attempt and the subsequent attempt where it failed to load. I disconnected the drive from the PS2 and it was readable on a PC.

Additionally, I try to save the settings of OPL in mc1, but it does not save the changes.

I'm running OPL from mc1.

 

[Technokoi]

Set this up yesterday and my drive gets found in OPL and the games boot fine but I've noticed there's no music audio in Crash Nitro Kart during races.

Also if you go into adventure mode, AkuAku will not talk to you he immediately comes up and then goes away, some sorta sound bug.

Mode 1 tested and doesn't make a diff.