Click to expand.My PS2 is modded with Matrix Infinity and a 80GB Samsung HD. All i need to do was to enter the modchip settings menu and enable the Auto ATAD Patching mode. Then with the HDD Utility Disc 1.10, i formatted and installed the Browser 2.0. The PS2 recognizes the HDD on startup (yellow led blinks beside the controller ports) and the browser 2.0 is loaded.This way the HDD shows up on the PS2 browser and i can backup PS1 and PS2 saves and use the options for games with official HDD option (example: RE Outbreak File 1 and 2 install, ESPN NBA2K5 install, Socom 2 extra maps.). Of course i can only use those stuff offline. To play online, i have to turn off the modchip, thus not making the HDD visible.
Plus all HDLoader games installed show up, but you can't load them from there. People mentioned my name here.Let me say what I know about this stuff.First, it's a well known fact that SONY HDDs use customized firmware.I have seen HDDs from the following families:Maxtor 4D040H2 ('Romulus' DSP family) Commercial name is 'Diamond MAX'This drive I know fairly well. Assembler, the APA partition system is based on the concept of an unlimited number of partitions with minimal granularity of 128MB.
Pfsshell
What I have seen is they create small (128, 256 or 512 MB) partitions for small games/programs or create multiple 1024MB blocks and a smaller last block then bind them together on a single file system. The PSF filesystem sits in a higher layer of the software and is driven by it's own driver which in turns sits atop of the APA/ATAD drivers.For example, Final Fantasy XI uses eight blocks of 1GB.Now regarding the drives contents, a way for you to get a listing is hook it up on a PC and run the command line application 'HDLDUMP' with the following parameters:c: hdldump queryqueries all existing hard drives and scans for APA formatted hard drives. Even drives mounted on.removable. enclosures will be detected and used as long APA formatted.c: hdldump toc type exactly as shown on the result of the query command.
For example 'hdd3:'That tool was made specifically for HDL games but it works quite well for giving you a list of what is on the hard disk or even for 'un-delete' of APA/PSF partitions. It works on partition levels. It won't allow you to see what's inside of the partitions but at least it will list where each partition starts/ends.That helps if you feel like trying advanced forensic stuff such as data carving.When I said that PSF looks like reiser FS I meant it looks like such, not that it's identical. I don't think they would just pick a open source FS implementation and use as it is considering how they like the concept of 'security by obscurity' lol.P.S.:Since recovery tools saw no contents on the drives in question there's two possibilities:They're APA formatted (PS2 native format) and the recovery tools you tried tools did not like it.They were wiped.If HDL Dump tool don't find anything then the drives are really empty.Download HDL Dump here.
Click to expand.Since i don't bother about FFXI, the way it is fine for me. I can install any options for any game that support the official HDD on a unnoficial one.I even got the extra maps for Socom2, since i have the OPM disk. Can't play online, but can play it offline.PS: What would be the safest way to delete official game partitions. For example, if i want to delete RE Outbreak install partition.
Would ulaunchelf do it safely? Remember that my HD is full of stuff like Emulators, SMS, uLaunchelf, HDLoader, PS1/PS2 save backups (done with the Browser 2.0), ESPN NBA2K5 installed partition, Socom2 extra maps installed partition, Codebreaker (for making backups of saves through USB).
ADDED:Toolstrip Menu in PFSViewButtons to transfer files beetwen host and PS2HddCustom Made 'InputBox' class to get input for folder and partition names CHANGED:Some function names in PS2HDD classRenamed Second TabFIXED:if you created a partition or file wit 'spaces' on its name, the program would freezeREMOVED:Debug Button and TextBox on the windowlast codes using 'CurrentPartition'TODO:Implement Go buttonImplement re-initialize codeImplement toolstip Get ButtonReimplement File explorerIdentify game ISO`s with the game icon.