For anyone having issues with your hard drive not showing games, when you go to settings make sure hard drive device start mode is set to auto, and then there's an option for block devices next to BDM start mode. Go to block devices and you have to turn on the hard drive in there. Back out and save settings, and that should do the trick. After several days of watching videos, excessive searching, and reformatting hdd/ssd's that's the one thing that seemed to make it consistently work.
Wow after 2 days of formatting different hard drives i find your advise. WOW ''Go to block devices and you have to turn on the hard drive in there'' was my problem. Thanks a lot :-)
Honestly the coolest thing about this is being able to just drag and drop ISOs! The current tool to install games into the old PS2 hard drive format takes foreeeveeerrrr
@@cortbelmont I don't know what you consider "not that slow" but I disagree. I did a lot of file transfers of maybe ~20ish at a time on a usb3 port and it still took like 45-60+ minutes a batch iirc.
The storage expansion is certainly phenomenal, but honestly I'm going to be getting a lot more use out of this just being able to manually add games without using that god-awful program we've had to use for the past decade lol
I’m sure with compression and cutting out releases (for example some games that were released both separately and on the same disc, or games that got definitive releases later on) you could fit the full library on a 16 tb drive.
@@Gold171 So I just checked and looks like that stat is out of date now anyway, there are currently 11110 total games, which if the average dump size stat is the same would be about 25.5 TB. There are currently 2470 America region games which would total about 5.5 TB. However keep in mind that includes MANY demos, betas, duplicates (sometimes 3 or 4 for a single game), etc. So the total size of just retail games without duplicates would be much smaller. I’d have to grab the DAT and dig into it to get the exact figures though. I’m just going off a quick look at their website.
This is incredible news! I feel like this is the best build for this system. And I’m so excited to start gathering parts for this! Huge thanks to GrimDoomer and everyone still working for such a beautiful useable outcome. And as always your videos are gorgeous and the soundtrack is so relaxing.
The fact that OPL finally supports exFAT with the internal hard drive setup makes it SO MUCH EASIER to copy ISOs across to the hard drive. I had a lot of issues with getting some of the old tools like hdldump to work reliably on my PC. Great stuff!
VERY helpful vid. If anybody is like me and couldn't get OPL to read games from my hard drive, I found this nugget from grimdoomer in his testers thread: (in OPL settings) You need to set BDM Start Mode to Auto, and under the Block Devices menu you need HDD set to ON. Block devices appears to the right once you select "auto" for BDM Start Mode.
@@MitraDaGalp the day that this replaces the default PS1 driver on boot I'll be ecstatic. Would also be amazing if booting PS1 isos from the HDD is possible, but unfortunately the creator said it will only work on Deckard (75000+) PS2s, which lack HDD support. If this changes to work on pre-deckard consoles, we will have definitely hit the jackpot.
@@Brodensson yes but fortunately PS1 games run perfectly well from USB despite it's 1.1 speed. The best thing for Deckard models is probably using the mini router, don't you think?
Any updates for thise of us wanting to do this mod in 2024? Just specifically the things you couldnt give more info on due to only doing this the one time?
Same here, looking at the 4TB seagate as bestbuy currently has it for 84.99 then I just need to switch out the baord on my original network adaptor. But I'm also having a hard time finding out which usb to ssd adaptor. It seems alot of ppl are running into the 4k problem on certain adaptors or enclosure's.
dude you are the man, i been searching all over forums and youtube video to get my 4tb to work and once i watch the video i got it to work thank you so much man
During your setup instructions... You can do the initialize and the format BOTH in the Disk Management Utility without having to open one program closing it then opening a second program. ALSO you can just right click the start button and then click Disk Management, instead of using search. Greatly simplifying your instructions.
OPL is amazing, I'm glad to see new features like this enhancing it further. Personally I just use OPL to load my games off my network storage since it's been super convenient for me to use.
I use SMB share for my slim PS2 as the laser is dead. I was going to use that on both my slim and phat but I'm going to go head first back into using internal HDD for my Phat PS2 once this version of OPL goes out of Beta.
Thanks for the video. This is unbelievable what has become possible with OPL. I tried it yesterday after this video with my PS2 and can confirm that with version 1.2.0 the video sequences in Fantasy XII are played almost smoothly and that from USB! This is a huge improvement compared to version 1.1.0. I am thinking about installing a hard drive in my PS2. Then all my games should be able to be played perfectly.
for connecting my Hard Drive to my PC without opening it and connecting it to the motherboard, I bought a cheap USB to SATA adapter from Amazon. Your milage may vary depending on the vendor you get it from, but the one I bought it branded as BENFEI and it works perfectly for moving all my games to the hard drive
Very cool. Thank you for also mentioning HD Boot as I really enjoyed loading straight from the harddrive without a memory card. So, good to know a workaround is being created.
I have that exact same Sabrent enclosure, great to know that its forcing this setting on my hard drives, thanks for the awesome video @MachoNachoProductions
The sector size problem with the JMicron chipset USB enclosures (most use this chip) has been fixed. You just need to install the latest firmware for it (available from the manufacturers website). I have the same enclosure as Tito and it formatted my 6tb drive just fine with 512 sectors.
Thanks for this. Saved me a ton of time dealing with the old software and having to buy a compatible drive. Just formatted an old 4 tb I had lying around and good to go.
This is amazing, not having to use external apps to transfer games is the best news for PS2 modding! It used to take days to fill a 2tb drive. This is amazing. Well done GrimDoomer!
Honestly, the RT5x is much better value for money. I guarantee you won't see the difference between a pure digital out and the RT5x in practical use, unless you like to game inches from the screen.
Awesome, I’m gonna give this a try over the next couple days. I probably won’t really use it but I love attempting these mods and being successful, just another project that gives a good feeling of satisfaction and accomplishment
Another awesome video, it's pretty insane that you can fit the entire library on one drive now. That being said I think we're going to start seeing the first petabyte drives in probably 15 years from now, maybe less.
Great video, super appreciate the info/tutorial on such an awesome update to OPL. I still had issues with games appearing in the OPL Games List and in the OPL Settings and in the BDM / Block Devices section turned HDD to Off - which seems counterintuitive but the games appeared! For CD games mine were all in Bin/Cue format and only OPL Manager worked to convert them into ISOs that showed up in the OPL list. I hope this helps someone out there! I'm now trying to figure out how game saves work as my FreeMcBoot Memcard in Slot 1 is almost full and most games don't seem to allow you to choose the Memcard in Slot 2. I've been physically switched after booting a game but its not ideal - any suggestions welcome!
Interesting, Mine also shows 512 sector byte size, and when I load up the OPL from the USB the IDE section is blank, and I also have the BDM set to auto. Going to go change it to off to see that that fixes it
Tried it but still not working for me. It sees the HDD but it is blank. exFAT, 512b. It is a 3TB but I decrease it to 1.5TB (I just need 1.3tb) hoping for more compatibility but still nothing.
you should do a video testing out usb port/i-link(firewire drive)and ssd loading times (comparing the same handful of games on all 3 vs disc) and see which loads fastest/slowest. would make for a super interesting watch
Seems to me like they could fix the issues by just making OPL compatible with 4K sector size. Mac default is 4K and I'd like to copy games as well without having to boot up a Windows PC. And if I'm doing that I might as well just use WinHIIpie. Oh well maybe when the next update comes in 2032 we'll get that.
incredible update to OPL! looks like i will need to pick up a 4TB+ hdd and move all my files over once again (sadly, i setup 2X 2TB hdd's less than a year ago thinking i was finally done with my archiving haha). i didn't think it would get any better than 2TB to be honest. my only concern at this point is compatability as i hope the larger capacity does not introduce game compatibility issues or bugs. i think i will wait this one out for a bit to ensure everything is working 100%.
Keep those 2 TB ones for archival purposes! Having them already set up is a great fallback option ... HDD and SSD are not at all immortal as we know ...
The biggest improvement IMO is not more storage, but being able to drag and drop ISO files. With an SD card setup it's even more simple even if storage size is limited since it's so easy to change games in the card. I'm guessing we can just copy over our +OPL folders in our currently PS2-formatted drives for a smooth transition to this new OPL release?
"What could possibly go wrong?"... Famous last words, lol. Anyway, what a weird error. I always thought that 4K drives were typically configured in manufacturing... Anyway, mad props to GrimDoomer for the innovation!
The drag and drop option is a game changer! Interested to research game compatibility differences on GrimDoomer's OPL versus Original OPL. Is there a working list at the moment?
That's very great news for every newcomer and games horder in the PS2 modding community! 🥳 However no FHDB support is a deal breaker for me until they work around that. I have my Slim set up with FMCB + USB but I love the simplicity of the Fat (once the HDD is prepared) being setup with FHDB only, which makes her look very clean and stealthy mod-wise, while my Slim looks very much modded from the outside. My personal collection/selection of PS2 games only is a little over 700GB and that's with some duplicate PAL/NTSC games and special editions like MGS2S+3S, so the extra capacity is no net worth for me, which only brings it down to FHDB vs Drag&Drop for me ... and I already have my HDD prepared the old method, so there is nothing gained by switching only lost ATM. When FHDB support is added to the new driver, then I will happily upgrade just for the sake of modernizing my setup, but until then, there is no reason for me to do so 🤷♂️ Now I am only waiting for a proper PS1 solution ... hope is small but I refuse to give it up just yet.
With all these new developments for the PS2 I hope that someone creates an open source alternative to the HDD enclosure as original ones are getting harder to find and like mentioned in the video the third party ones can be of dubious quality.
I've just updated my OPL version to GrimDoomer's version and the difference is astounding. The software is a lot faster than before, libraries load faster. The feature to put the full size ISOs directly to the drive saves a heck lot of time! I was using the Anniversary Edition and it didn't run 80% of my library. With this update, I've checked up to 70 of my titles that weren't working before, work perfectly now. One con however is that I can't run PS1 games on this version. Which for me is a huge setback.
This is so awesome thanks for the video! This also makes me happy that it supports sd card at the same time as the hard drive because I got the sd card based off of your video. Im also so happy that it supports drag and drop and you also dont have to split the large games in half anymore. Man this is an amazing update, good job everyone involved!
I accidentally lost a hard drive processing the old way of using OPL a few month ago (feet, wire, disc, floor while writing... 😭) This update will be such a life saver for later 🙏🏽
I’ve been thinking about modding my ps2 for a while and was finally thinking of getting around to it so it’s funny you upload this now. Maybe it’s a sign if one of my favorite RUclipsrs is posting it 😅
Wonderful! Each time you make a PS2 hardrive video the process improves so much. Back when you posted your first PS2 HD video I was so confused. It seemed like everyone had a different opinion of what software and setup was better. Looks like all my issues with it have ben solved completely. I can wait for the final version though.
I used to dream having all J2Me games on my 8mb nokia phone back on those games and now I can easily fit it all on my android sd card. PS2 is a different beast to tame and congrats for achieving it
when PS2 was release in the 2000, largest HDD (at that time) are 120 GB, of course it wasn't designed for "Multi terabyte HDD", but modders always have something to tweak, now we can put entire PS2 library on single hard drive.
I hope this adding a layer doesn't introduce any of the bugs that some games had when running from usb. The amount of green on the internal hdd column on the opl compatibility list always kept a 50001n as my everyday driver.
I have a recommendation: 5,25" Hot Swap Frame for 3,5" HDDs, internal and SATA of course. They are cheap and you can easily transfer stuff to and from the Drive. That's the way I transfer stuff from PC to PS2 drives (640GB and 1TB)
I always play straight through an SMB share over ethernet but this is a really awesome development. It might make me consider putting an HDD on my Fat PS 2 and maybe taking it with some games for a gaming night at the office.
You might as well consider testing out another upcoming feature. "UDPBD" will replace SMB for everyone who can run the server and it can probably be compiled into an OpenWRT-package.
Currently have a 2tb ssd in my ps2 but considering a regular 4tb HDD. At the end of the day the ease of transfer is a huge benefit. Using 3rd party software led to me having to reformat my drive if I wanted to write more. Not to mention having to split my art drive on opl due to how many files ulaunchelf can see. This leads me to a couple of questions. OPL creates the folder on the exfat drive correct? Also has someone made a SATA adapter that supports Ethernet connection? Removing and inserting the HDD can be a chore.
You dont have to use larger capacity to use this new version, you can still use your 2tb ssd with and have all the benefits, actually you will benefit the most by using cause windows will be able to use full ssd speed while also making it easy to transfer files, just format it to exfat and it will work , so it will have its benefits to stick to the 2tb ssd.
@@erwinamanciosilva7693 yeah but what if I want to put more games on it? Also if I have to delete games and add new ones it gives me writing errors which results in me having to reformat the drive.
This is amazing, I've been using Whinhip for years. I don't think I'll be touching my PS2 I use now to do this but I'll definitely consider doing this with my Second PS2 Phat I have.
Multiman/Webman has the ability to mount PS3 ISOs over a network share using a special program called ps3netsrv that works on Linux. So you could probably build yourself a dedicated NAS for this. It won't be portable unless you configured the network on both the PS3 and NAS to have a similar function to a massive external HDD, but it should still work.
Yeah it’s crazy the PS3 has an even lower limit (1.5TB) than the previous PS2 limit. PS3 games are much bigger it would be nice to have a bigger drive in there, though you’d still be limited by the 2.5in form factor… would be nice to at least be able to use a 4TB drive though…
@@tyisafk yeah I use my laptop as a nas to access media files and play them back on PS3. But running PS2 games HAS to be done on the PS3 internal hardrive at least as of right now.
@@MachoNachoProductions There are very slim profile flash drives by SanDisk that bump up the storage by like 256gb. But that's still not enough for everything good on PS3.
Incredible, I was waiting for this for years. I currently have 2 PS2 with 2TB in each to store my European fullset. Now it will become just a console with 4TB
Hi, I manage to (re)buy a fat PS2 in order to play old games! How does it work? How Can I download this version of OPL ? With this, Will I be able to put a 6 or more TB HDD in the PS2? Thank you!
Drag and drop from PC to PS2 HDD is awesome. It took me days to load my 2TB using the old way and many failed on first attempt. CHD support would be great as it saves so much space. Where do you put PS1 games? As for that dock, when you formatted, if you changed the default cluster size to 512, would that not have worked? I think 4096 (4kb) is the default size regardless. I have that dock. I've had mine for years and has a built-in cooling fan but really it is identical. I'll have to check out the formatting.
@@tnaplastic2182 That is what makes the old way better, PS1 support. If I'm not mistaken, you're still stuck to low resolutions that almost rules out all flat panels except old standard definition LCD TVs and monitors. You would need an upscaler like a retrotink (or just use an emulator). The copy speed is actually not so bad now with USB3 but you will need to run it overnight, the old method that is.
I finally got this mod going on my PS2 last night. I'm only using a 500gb hard drive, however because I don't need to convert, things actually work by dragging and dropping! Very nice, thank you!
Ok if you want some helpful advice and don’t want to have this thing running off of a USB stick the entire time drop it into the boot folder run it and save it and it should show up on your main list of games in fmbc I spent a day looking for this so I hope this helps someone
So I did this, ran it and clicked save but it still doesn't show up in the fmcb menu. Ic opted it to the boot folder like you said. Anyone what might be wrong?
@@soulreaperx7x did you try and run the opl in the menu or did it take you too the original one? Because for me it somehow replaced the one in the main folder and just worked but I can try and help
@@Velikann I managed to figure out eventually. Whatever I did it would always take me to the original OPL which in my case was OPL-v1.0.0. I tried filling replacing, renaming, copying in different areas etc. Nothing worked. I eventually looked up how to update OPL on fmcb card and I had to name the new OPL elf to OPL-v1.0.0 and now it finally replaced the old with the new. It still says the old file name but it is indeed the new OPL. If I try to name it to the new version number then it completely disappears from the fmcb menu list programs available. Name doesn't bother me but it is weird that that's the only way it worked. Anyways thanks for the response and offering to help though. Much appreciated.
I very recently finished setting up a 2TB SSD for my PS2 (666 games with space for a few more). Transferring the games wasn't too bad using HDL Batch Installer. The more laborious part was using OPL Manager to grab all the artwork, having to rename many titles from Redump into a compatible format, and even then artwork for some titles didn't display in OPL. It's nice to see the process of adding games just got easier. Hopefully grabbing artwork can be made easier too (unless I was just doing it wrong).
OPLM supports fetching the name and renaming your games. You can load partitions like the +OPL-Partition with PFS-BatchKit-Manager and then just drag&drop files as well. You can use OPLM to automatically fetch the Art for your games and let it place it in the right folder with the right name as well.
@@tnaplastic2182 Thanks for the pointers. I need to do more research. I don't mind reading, but even on the relevant forums, information seems somewhat scattered.
This is odd, I have the same exact Sabrent enclosure that you have (Bought 3~4 years ago) and I used it to set up OPL just fine. Mayhaps they changed the way it works?
Were you using the old tool to install PS2 games and not this new method? If you were it wouldn’t show up at a normal volume on your computer so the enclosure probably doesn’t mess with the sector size. Just a guess…
Fantastic update! I was just messing around with moving games to my PS2 recently and was wishing for a better way. My prayers have been answered! I'm updating immediately....provided it still supports running PS1 backups
Gracias Tito por tu video. Hasta ahora había sido un fastidio este tema y gracias a ti me he animado a probarlo de nuevo y todo el proceso mejora muchísimo (no tener qué usar aplicaciones para trocear las ISOs etc)
You should have tried doing the PS2 RetroGEM HDMI update on a FatPS2 with the 16TB drive + iLink/Firewire 2TB drive, just like a mod that uses all the possible bells and whistles.
@@MachoNachoProductions The fact we've reached the point where the entire 6th gen can have their entire libraries built into the systems kind of blows my mind.
@@ZontarDow I wrote "all discs"... All PS2 Discs... Games, Demos, Install-Discs, etc. from every region... Yes, that obviously includes games as their different region releases, but that still is the complete DB, to be precise.
@@tnaplastic2182 i feel like personally it is, atleast for me. Ive used about 100gb of that and im almost done using it. 2tb felt like overkill but 16tb is insanely overkill
Some people don't have access to a PC with direct SATA connections to be able to guarantee 512-byte sector sizes (e.g. laptop users). It'd probably be a better idea to update OPL to support larger sectors in the much more likely event of people having to use enclosures to plug the drive into the computer to transfer and not be able to change how the enclosure handles sizing.
They are a bit hard to find, but I found them you just have to do a bit of snooping into the version logs, and there will be a few downloads. I would recommend looking at the updates though because they change.
Man, amazing! Mostly for the drag and drop option. I truly hate using "transfer software". I hope it gets an official stable version soon. Very thankful for the dev. Great work. 😎
in your tutorial when you format the exfat partition, i clearly see you leaving the "allocation unit size" to default, thats where you are supposed to manually put 512B if you dont want it to be 4kB. could that be your issue and not because of the enclosure?
No, that is NOT the issue because *filesystem clusters* have nothing to do with *logical sector based addressing* on a Hardware-level. We can read pretty much any Cluster-size from 512Byte - 128KB without any issues. IDK about those above that... They are not thoroughly tested. It is btw. NOT recommended for ANY device to select a Cluster-size below 4K...
i really wish i could buy an upgraded ps2 like this one , it truly has the most varied library ever and most of them third person as opposed to the first person over saturation of today
I have this exact Sabrent enclosure. I'm glad you called it out, because I would have been going insane trying to figure out what was happening! i guess opening up the case and direct connecting SATA is my only solution for the moment because the Sabrent is the only external option I have.
You can write a raw mbr to the drive if you don't have a FMCB memory card, it boots the console straight into uLaunch which allows you to boot the FMCB installer, you can then install it either on the drive or the memory card.
Supporting XFAT is such an amazing feature! Really glad to see how sophisticated and easy to use PS2 homebrew has become in the last few years, even though it's not a console I follow too closely.
I understand this grimdoomer version of OPL is a fork of the main OPL project, and it doesn't support PS1 games. If this is true, is there a workaround that isn't overly complex to get PS1 games working on the HDD that has been formatted as exFAT?
I "own" the entire US region game library archive, for those who are wondering, it is 4.31 TB.
And your going to link for download? 😅😅😅 Please?!?!?!
Any chance at the above request?
Give us the link plz.
You guys think it is 1 link? 2000 games and y’all think it came from one place?
In .iso or .chd format?
For anyone having issues with your hard drive not showing games, when you go to settings make sure hard drive device start mode is set to auto, and then there's an option for block devices next to BDM start mode. Go to block devices and you have to turn on the hard drive in there. Back out and save settings, and that should do the trick.
After several days of watching videos, excessive searching, and reformatting hdd/ssd's that's the one thing that seemed to make it consistently work.
Wow after 2 days of formatting different hard drives i find your advise. WOW ''Go to block devices and you have to turn on the hard drive in there'' was my problem.
Thanks a lot :-)
Dude you are the fuckin man!! Thank you so much!
Thank you that worked
Can't get it to work. HDD isn't in that menu. Just USB, iLink, and MX4SIO, whatever that is
@@ScreamInVain Same with mine, did you figure it out yet?
Honestly the coolest thing about this is being able to just drag and drop ISOs! The current tool to install games into the old PS2 hard drive format takes foreeeveeerrrr
Agree! It makes the whole process super convenient!
WinHIIP is actually not that slow on a SATA drive, but drag and drop is a very welcome improvement
@@cortbelmont I don't know what you consider "not that slow" but I disagree. I did a lot of file transfers of maybe ~20ish at a time on a usb3 port and it still took like 45-60+ minutes a batch iirc.
Yea, this is big deal...
@@cortbelmont Was not slow at all
The storage expansion is certainly phenomenal, but honestly I'm going to be getting a lot more use out of this just being able to manually add games without using that god-awful program we've had to use for the past decade lol
The drag and drop nature of adding games is amazing and super convenient!
That is what I'm most excited about as well.
I'm in the same boat. Amazing stuff
This !! So much this !!
@@BrendanRaymondKoroKoro Just like on USB, MX4SIO and Firewire.
Wow, this is impressive, you could theoretically have a drive with the entire PS2 library on it!
I’m sure with compression and cutting out releases (for example some games that were released both separately and on the same disc, or games that got definitive releases later on) you could fit the full library on a 16 tb drive.
@@einsteinx2 Do you have that same statistic for NTSC-U releases?
@@Gold171 Those are probably all of the Regions combined.
@@Gold171 So I just checked and looks like that stat is out of date now anyway, there are currently 11110 total games, which if the average dump size stat is the same would be about 25.5 TB. There are currently 2470 America region games which would total about 5.5 TB.
However keep in mind that includes MANY demos, betas, duplicates (sometimes 3 or 4 for a single game), etc. So the total size of just retail games without duplicates would be much smaller.
I’d have to grab the DAT and dig into it to get the exact figures though. I’m just going off a quick look at their website.
In CHD form, just US releases minus crap like Barbie, I fit all games on to a 2TB drive. CHD frees a lot of space so might need 3-4TB for ISO.
This is incredible news! I feel like this is the best build for this system. And I’m so excited to start gathering parts for this! Huge thanks to GrimDoomer and everyone still working for such a beautiful useable outcome. And as always your videos are gorgeous and the soundtrack is so relaxing.
The fact that OPL finally supports exFAT with the internal hard drive setup makes it SO MUCH EASIER to copy ISOs across to the hard drive. I had a lot of issues with getting some of the old tools like hdldump to work reliably on my PC. Great stuff!
VERY helpful vid. If anybody is like me and couldn't get OPL to read games from my hard drive, I found this nugget from grimdoomer in his testers thread:
(in OPL settings) You need to set BDM Start Mode to Auto, and under the Block Devices menu you need HDD set to ON.
Block devices appears to the right once you select "auto" for BDM Start Mode.
I have these settings and my games still do not load consistently in OPL.
Dude, I had the same problem until I read your comment! Thanks a lot, bro!
Hey I can't find the Block devices option on my OPL settings.
Thanks for the awesome tutorial, just got this working for myself!
UGREEN USB 3.0 to SATA III Hard Drive Adapter worked for me.
Did it work for any tb pass 2 tb?
@@yungOG.johnavon UGREEN usb 3 sata hdd encloseure not working for me.
Knowing I no longer have to jump through hoops to get my hardly stable 2TB drive to work has me literally in tears
The future of ps2 homebrew is exciting!
@@MachoNachoProductions There is much more stuff in the works.
@@tnaplastic2182 Dkwdrv ❤
@@MitraDaGalp the day that this replaces the default PS1 driver on boot I'll be ecstatic. Would also be amazing if booting PS1 isos from the HDD is possible, but unfortunately the creator said it will only work on Deckard (75000+) PS2s, which lack HDD support. If this changes to work on pre-deckard consoles, we will have definitely hit the jackpot.
@@Brodensson yes but fortunately PS1 games run perfectly well from USB despite it's 1.1 speed. The best thing for Deckard models is probably using the mini router, don't you think?
Any updates for thise of us wanting to do this mod in 2024? Just specifically the things you couldnt give more info on due to only doing this the one time?
Same here, looking at the 4TB seagate as bestbuy currently has it for 84.99 then I just need to switch out the baord on my original network adaptor. But I'm also having a hard time finding out which usb to ssd adaptor. It seems alot of ppl are running into the 4k problem on certain adaptors or enclosure's.
dude you are the man, i been searching all over forums and youtube video to get my 4tb to work and once i watch the video i got it to work thank you so much man
Thanks GrimDoomer for the awesome software and Tito for sharing it with us!
During your setup instructions... You can do the initialize and the format BOTH in the Disk Management Utility without having to open one program closing it then opening a second program. ALSO you can just right click the start button and then click Disk Management, instead of using search. Greatly simplifying your instructions.
I can't tell you how many times I've had people ask me what right click was. Oof.
Looks like it's about time I updated my old opl setup on my ps2. Amazing that people are still working on this stuff in 2023.
OPL is amazing, I'm glad to see new features like this enhancing it further. Personally I just use OPL to load my games off my network storage since it's been super convenient for me to use.
the smb share is another great method to load games!
I use SMB share for my slim PS2 as the laser is dead. I was going to use that on both my slim and phat but I'm going to go head first back into using internal HDD for my Phat PS2 once this version of OPL goes out of Beta.
@@MachoNachoProductions I am glad that my idea is of use. 😅
(I was also the first User of SMB and OPL/USBLD. Good old days...)
@@OtakuAnthony It's not even in the Betas, but a seperate test-branch for now.
@@tnaplastic2182 RIP PSX-SCENE...
Unreal. Every week I'm just blown away by how far these devs are pushing our old beloved consoles!
wish they sold them to the market, sadly we are just modern slaves unable to do anything against the system
Thanks for the video. This is unbelievable what has become possible with OPL. I tried it yesterday after this video with my PS2 and can confirm that with version 1.2.0 the video sequences in Fantasy XII are played almost smoothly and that from USB! This is a huge improvement compared to version 1.1.0. I am thinking about installing a hard drive in my PS2. Then all my games should be able to be played perfectly.
for connecting my Hard Drive to my PC without opening it and connecting it to the motherboard, I bought a cheap USB to SATA adapter from Amazon. Your milage may vary depending on the vendor you get it from, but the one I bought it branded as BENFEI and it works perfectly for moving all my games to the hard drive
Very cool. Thank you for also mentioning HD Boot as I really enjoyed loading straight from the harddrive without a memory card. So, good to know a workaround is being created.
Let's see...
Tito can't stop making absolute amazing videos with such great presentation! Keep up the amazing work!
Ran this set up and have all the working titles on here now plus I have all working ps1 games to boot win win. Thanks
I followed all the instructions, but I had to start OPL three times until the Games on the HDD would show up. Works great now!
The production value, combined with Titos's phenomenal hosting makes this channel a joy to follow.
I have that exact same Sabrent enclosure, great to know that its forcing this setting on my hard drives, thanks for the awesome video @MachoNachoProductions
Init a formatting issue lol
It’s amazing how much love the PS2 still gets!
it was an awesome console!!
It’s often in the debate for best console of all time, and rightfully so.
i still have ps2 fat and slim ps2 the best
Regarding the sector size problem, I guess having a removable sata frame in the pc bays is always good. I use it for making backups.
That should work 👍
@@MachoNachoProductions if I use a 2.5 HDD I can just connect it to the PC with a SATA to USB 3.0 cable, right?
The sector size problem with the JMicron chipset USB enclosures (most use this chip) has been fixed. You just need to install the latest firmware for it (available from the manufacturers website). I have the same enclosure as Tito and it formatted my 6tb drive just fine with 512 sectors.
@@davidcameron648 Hi, is it the "Jmicron FW Update" on the sabrent website?
Thanks for this. Saved me a ton of time dealing with the old software and having to buy a compatible drive. Just formatted an old 4 tb I had lying around and good to go.
This is amazing, not having to use external apps to transfer games is the best news for PS2 modding! It used to take days to fill a 2tb drive. This is amazing.
Well done GrimDoomer!
This is insane work, kudos to all involved! Just waiting on a good HDMI mod to come out :)
Honestly, the RT5x is much better value for money. I guarantee you won't see the difference between a pure digital out and the RT5x in practical use, unless you like to game inches from the screen.
Won’t have to wait much longer. The crew at pixelfx has great stuff in the works :)
You can use diskgenius to format the hdd with 512 sector size instead of 4K. Tested with baseus/ugreen usb 3.1 enclosure.
Awesome, I’m gonna give this a try over the next couple days. I probably won’t really use it but I love attempting these mods and being successful, just another project that gives a good feeling of satisfaction and accomplishment
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Another awesome video, it's pretty insane that you can fit the entire library on one drive now.
That being said I think we're going to start seeing the first petabyte drives in probably 15 years from now, maybe less.
Rock on! I'll be waiting for that official update to do this. Thanks Grimdoomer and Tito! :)
Great video, super appreciate the info/tutorial on such an awesome update to OPL.
I still had issues with games appearing in the OPL Games List and in the OPL Settings and in the BDM / Block Devices section turned HDD to Off - which seems counterintuitive but the games appeared! For CD games mine were all in Bin/Cue format and only OPL Manager worked to convert them into ISOs that showed up in the OPL list. I hope this helps someone out there!
I'm now trying to figure out how game saves work as my FreeMcBoot Memcard in Slot 1 is almost full and most games don't seem to allow you to choose the Memcard in Slot 2. I've been physically switched after booting a game but its not ideal - any suggestions welcome!
Interesting, Mine also shows 512 sector byte size, and when I load up the OPL from the USB the IDE section is blank, and I also have the BDM set to auto. Going to go change it to off to see that that fixes it
BRO!!!! Thank you! This just got my games to show. Glad I combed through the comments, was about to give up on this drive.
@@DoubleDguitarglad it helped you out! Was honestly close to giving up
Tried it but still not working for me. It sees the HDD but it is blank. exFAT, 512b. It is a 3TB but I decrease it to 1.5TB (I just need 1.3tb) hoping for more compatibility but still nothing.
you should do a video testing out usb port/i-link(firewire drive)and ssd loading times (comparing the same handful of games on all 3 vs disc) and see which loads fastest/slowest. would make for a super interesting watch
This is great news. PS2 is one of my favorite systems of all time and it'll be nice not to have to pick and choose what games to put on a hard drive.
Seems to me like they could fix the issues by just making OPL compatible with 4K sector size. Mac default is 4K and I'd like to copy games as well without having to boot up a Windows PC. And if I'm doing that I might as well just use WinHIIpie. Oh well maybe when the next update comes in 2032 we'll get that.
incredible update to OPL! looks like i will need to pick up a 4TB+ hdd and move all my files over once again (sadly, i setup 2X 2TB hdd's less than a year ago thinking i was finally done with my archiving haha). i didn't think it would get any better than 2TB to be honest. my only concern at this point is compatability as i hope the larger capacity does not introduce game compatibility issues or bugs. i think i will wait this one out for a bit to ensure everything is working 100%.
Keep those 2 TB ones for archival purposes! Having them already set up is a great fallback option ... HDD and SSD are not at all immortal as we know ...
The biggest improvement IMO is not more storage, but being able to drag and drop ISO files. With an SD card setup it's even more simple even if storage size is limited since it's so easy to change games in the card. I'm guessing we can just copy over our +OPL folders in our currently PS2-formatted drives for a smooth transition to this new OPL release?
"What could possibly go wrong?"... Famous last words, lol. Anyway, what a weird error. I always thought that 4K drives were typically configured in manufacturing... Anyway, mad props to GrimDoomer for the innovation!
The drag and drop option is a game changer! Interested to research game compatibility differences on GrimDoomer's OPL versus Original OPL. Is there a working list at the moment?
The videos are always so well structured.
It's only March and we already have Time's Person of the Year. 👏
That's very great news for every newcomer and games horder in the PS2 modding community! 🥳
However no FHDB support is a deal breaker for me until they work around that. I have my Slim set up with FMCB + USB but I love the simplicity of the Fat (once the HDD is prepared) being setup with FHDB only, which makes her look very clean and stealthy mod-wise, while my Slim looks very much modded from the outside.
My personal collection/selection of PS2 games only is a little over 700GB and that's with some duplicate PAL/NTSC games and special editions like MGS2S+3S, so the extra capacity is no net worth for me, which only brings it down to FHDB vs Drag&Drop for me ... and I already have my HDD prepared the old method, so there is nothing gained by switching only lost ATM. When FHDB support is added to the new driver, then I will happily upgrade just for the sake of modernizing my setup, but until then, there is no reason for me to do so 🤷♂️
Now I am only waiting for a proper PS1 solution ... hope is small but I refuse to give it up just yet.
The problem is not a driver, but that FHDB can not *boot* from an MBR or GPT/GUID formatted drive!
What is FHDB?
With all these new developments for the PS2 I hope that someone creates an open source alternative to the HDD enclosure as original ones are getting harder to find and like mentioned in the video the third party ones can be of dubious quality.
I've just updated my OPL version to GrimDoomer's version and the difference is astounding.
The software is a lot faster than before, libraries load faster.
The feature to put the full size ISOs directly to the drive saves a heck lot of time!
I was using the Anniversary Edition and it didn't run 80% of my library.
With this update, I've checked up to 70 of my titles that weren't working before, work perfectly now.
One con however is that I can't run PS1 games on this version.
Which for me is a huge setback.
Since this video is already a year old, I'm wondering if there are even newer updates to OPL?
I don't own a PS2 anymore (I simply emulate it these days), but it's awesome to see the scene take such a monumental leap!
Are you planning on making a video showing how to use an SD card larger than 128GB on the PS2 Slim?
This is so awesome thanks for the video! This also makes me happy that it supports sd card at the same time as the hard drive because I got the sd card based off of your video. Im also so happy that it supports drag and drop and you also dont have to split the large games in half anymore. Man this is an amazing update, good job everyone involved!
I've had a lot of similar issues with SATA -> USB enclosures like that. I've found using an enclosure with an eSATA connection avoids such issues.
Could you add a link to the one you are currently using?
I accidentally lost a hard drive processing the old way of using OPL a few month ago (feet, wire, disc, floor while writing... 😭)
This update will be such a life saver for later 🙏🏽
This is one of the very best channels in this hobby. Thank you for your consistently amazing vids.
I’ve been thinking about modding my ps2 for a while and was finally thinking of getting around to it so it’s funny you upload this now. Maybe it’s a sign if one of my favorite RUclipsrs is posting it 😅
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Wonderful!
Each time you make a PS2 hardrive video the process improves so much.
Back when you posted your first PS2 HD video I was so confused.
It seemed like everyone had a different opinion of what software and setup was better.
Looks like all my issues with it have ben solved completely.
I can wait for the final version though.
I used to dream having all J2Me games on my 8mb nokia phone back on those games and now I can easily fit it all on my android sd card. PS2 is a different beast to tame and congrats for achieving it
I’m having an issue where opl sees the games, but won’t play them. I load the game and the screen turns funky colors, then stuck on black screen
Same issue did you ever find a solution?
when PS2 was release in the 2000, largest HDD (at that time) are 120 GB, of course it wasn't designed for "Multi terabyte HDD", but modders always have something to tweak, now we can put entire PS2 library on single hard drive.
I hope this adding a layer doesn't introduce any of the bugs that some games had when running from usb. The amount of green on the internal hdd column on the opl compatibility list always kept a 50001n as my everyday driver.
Thank you everyone who's worked hard to extend the life of such a iconic console.
I have a recommendation:
5,25" Hot Swap Frame for 3,5" HDDs, internal and SATA of course.
They are cheap and you can easily transfer stuff to and from the Drive.
That's the way I transfer stuff from PC to PS2 drives (640GB and 1TB)
Do you have alink to one on Amazon?
I always play straight through an SMB share over ethernet but this is a really awesome development. It might make me consider putting an HDD on my Fat PS 2 and maybe taking it with some games for a gaming night at the office.
You might as well consider testing out another upcoming feature. "UDPBD" will replace SMB for everyone who can run the server and it can probably be compiled into an OpenWRT-package.
As for sector size all you have to do is format the drive under in file explorer and choose "exFAT" and set allocation size 512KB. done.
Can you do that while using the enclosure he used? Also what would be a good enclosure to use that don't force the wrong sector side?
Currently have a 2tb ssd in my ps2 but considering a regular 4tb HDD. At the end of the day the ease of transfer is a huge benefit. Using 3rd party software led to me having to reformat my drive if I wanted to write more. Not to mention having to split my art drive on opl due to how many files ulaunchelf can see.
This leads me to a couple of questions. OPL creates the folder on the exfat drive correct? Also has someone made a SATA adapter that supports Ethernet connection? Removing and inserting the HDD can be a chore.
You dont have to use larger capacity to use this new version, you can still use your 2tb ssd with and have all the benefits, actually you will benefit the most by using cause windows will be able to use full ssd speed while also making it easy to transfer files, just format it to exfat and it will work , so it will have its benefits to stick to the 2tb ssd.
@@erwinamanciosilva7693 yeah but what if I want to put more games on it? Also if I have to delete games and add new ones it gives me writing errors which results in me having to reformat the drive.
This is amazing, I've been using Whinhip for years.
I don't think I'll be touching my PS2 I use now to do this but I'll definitely consider doing this with my Second PS2 Phat I have.
I wish this could be done to the PS3 one day
Multiman/Webman has the ability to mount PS3 ISOs over a network share using a special program called ps3netsrv that works on Linux. So you could probably build yourself a dedicated NAS for this. It won't be portable unless you configured the network on both the PS3 and NAS to have a similar function to a massive external HDD, but it should still work.
Yeah it’s crazy the PS3 has an even lower limit (1.5TB) than the previous PS2 limit. PS3 games are much bigger it would be nice to have a bigger drive in there, though you’d still be limited by the 2.5in form factor… would be nice to at least be able to use a 4TB drive though…
Would have been cool if they had a larger bay for 3.5 inch drives
@@tyisafk yeah I use my laptop as a nas to access media files and play them back on PS3. But running PS2 games HAS to be done on the PS3 internal hardrive at least as of right now.
@@MachoNachoProductions There are very slim profile flash drives by SanDisk that bump up the storage by like 256gb. But that's still not enough for everything good on PS3.
I go to the OPL link. The zip files when extracted do not have an OPL.ELF file
im having the same issue the files no where to be found
Has anyone had this issue? I'm trying download the opl update and the GitHub it's on doesn't have the update
Yeah.... Just as I reformatted my hard drive that had a ton of games on it :(
To me the biggest game changer is the fact that we can use now direct fat32 drives instead of passing by the hddmanager of the ps2!
exFAT*
Incredible, I was waiting for this for years. I currently have 2 PS2 with 2TB in each to store my European fullset. Now it will become just a console with 4TB
Hi,
I manage to (re)buy a fat PS2 in order to play old games! How does it work? How Can I download this version of OPL ? With this, Will I be able to put a 6 or more TB HDD in the PS2? Thank you!
Drag and drop from PC to PS2 HDD is awesome. It took me days to load my 2TB using the old way and many failed on first attempt. CHD support would be great as it saves so much space.
Where do you put PS1 games?
As for that dock, when you formatted, if you changed the default cluster size to 512, would that not have worked? I think 4096 (4kb) is the default size regardless. I have that dock. I've had mine for years and has a built-in cooling fan but really it is identical. I'll have to check out the formatting.
OPL supports ZSO.
PS1-games? Nowhere... It is not supported...
you're confusing Allocation Unit or Cluster size with Sector size.
@@TieDyeShyGuy You're right. My bad. I fixed it.
@@tnaplastic2182 That is what makes the old way better, PS1 support. If I'm not mistaken, you're still stuck to low resolutions that almost rules out all flat panels except old standard definition LCD TVs and monitors. You would need an upscaler like a retrotink (or just use an emulator). The copy speed is actually not so bad now with USB3 but you will need to run it overnight, the old method that is.
I finally got this mod going on my PS2 last night. I'm only using a 500gb hard drive, however because I don't need to convert, things actually work by dragging and dropping! Very nice, thank you!
How does this affect playing games and dvds on the disc drive? @jacobprayer8656
Ok if you want some helpful advice and don’t want to have this thing running off of a USB stick the entire time drop it into the boot folder run it and save it and it should show up on your main list of games in fmbc I spent a day looking for this so I hope this helps someone
So I did this, ran it and clicked save but it still doesn't show up in the fmcb menu. Ic opted it to the boot folder like you said. Anyone what might be wrong?
@@soulreaperx7x did you try and run the opl in the menu or did it take you too the original one? Because for me it somehow replaced the one in the main folder and just worked but I can try and help
@@Velikann I managed to figure out eventually. Whatever I did it would always take me to the original OPL which in my case was OPL-v1.0.0. I tried filling replacing, renaming, copying in different areas etc. Nothing worked. I eventually looked up how to update OPL on fmcb card and I had to name the new OPL elf to OPL-v1.0.0 and now it finally replaced the old with the new. It still says the old file name but it is indeed the new OPL. If I try to name it to the new version number then it completely disappears from the fmcb menu list programs available. Name doesn't bother me but it is weird that that's the only way it worked.
Anyways thanks for the response and offering to help though. Much appreciated.
@@soulreaperx7x glad you figured it out these things are strange lol
I very recently finished setting up a 2TB SSD for my PS2 (666 games with space for a few more). Transferring the games wasn't too bad using HDL Batch Installer. The more laborious part was using OPL Manager to grab all the artwork, having to rename many titles from Redump into a compatible format, and even then artwork for some titles didn't display in OPL. It's nice to see the process of adding games just got easier. Hopefully grabbing artwork can be made easier too (unless I was just doing it wrong).
OPLM supports fetching the name and renaming your games.
You can load partitions like the +OPL-Partition with PFS-BatchKit-Manager and then just drag&drop files as well. You can use OPLM to automatically fetch the Art for your games and let it place it in the right folder with the right name as well.
@@tnaplastic2182 Thanks for the pointers. I need to do more research. I don't mind reading, but even on the relevant forums, information seems somewhat scattered.
This is odd, I have the same exact Sabrent enclosure that you have (Bought 3~4 years ago) and I used it to set up OPL just fine. Mayhaps they changed the way it works?
Since he did just buy it, and you’ve had yours for a while that does sound like a very good possibility that it did get changed.
Were you using the old tool to install PS2 games and not this new method? If you were it wouldn’t show up at a normal volume on your computer so the enclosure probably doesn’t mess with the sector size. Just a guess…
Could very well be
I’m sure with some more troubleshooting the answer could be revealed.
Fantastic update! I was just messing around with moving games to my PS2 recently and was wishing for a better way. My prayers have been answered! I'm updating immediately....provided it still supports running PS1 backups
PS1 does NOT work...
FYI to anyone looking to use this. This OPL version has been abandoned.
Why?
Yeah, why? I started using it like a month ago
Maybe that's why 1 out of 40 games work on my 4 tb hdd
Has to be another version or another way. I'm currently in the process of getting everything ready and I see this comment... wow smh
How about OPL Manager to download covers etc? Can it read exFAT HDD too?
Yes it does. Works with my Exfat formatted USB for my SMB share.
Gracias Tito por tu video. Hasta ahora había sido un fastidio este tema y gracias a ti me he animado a probarlo de nuevo y todo el proceso mejora muchísimo (no tener qué usar aplicaciones para trocear las ISOs etc)
Damn, that’s a lot of storage! 😅
Big thank you that you keep us updated about new things of the retro gaming hacking scene :)!
You should have tried doing the PS2 RetroGEM HDMI update on a FatPS2 with the 16TB drive + iLink/Firewire 2TB drive, just like a mod that uses all the possible bells and whistles.
Just need to get to 22TB or more and you can have an entire PS1 and PS2 library
How amazing would that be!
@@MachoNachoProductions The fact we've reached the point where the entire 6th gen can have their entire libraries built into the systems kind of blows my mind.
AFAIR all discs (including demos, etc.) are ~56TB.
@@tnaplastic2182 Then that sounds like you're counting the American, European and Japanese releases separately
@@ZontarDow I wrote "all discs"... All PS2 Discs... Games, Demos, Install-Discs, etc. from every region... Yes, that obviously includes games as their different region releases, but that still is the complete DB, to be precise.
Can't believe how the homebrew scene just comes back like it's immortal.
Comes back? We never left!
And i thought my 250gb SSD in my ps2 was enough. lol
Is it not? You can stack ~100 games on it and as ZSO even more...
@@tnaplastic2182 i feel like personally it is, atleast for me. Ive used about 100gb of that and im almost done using it. 2tb felt like overkill but 16tb is insanely overkill
Some people don't have access to a PC with direct SATA connections to be able to guarantee 512-byte sector sizes (e.g. laptop users). It'd probably be a better idea to update OPL to support larger sectors in the much more likely event of people having to use enclosures to plug the drive into the computer to transfer and not be able to change how the enclosure handles sizing.
Yeah, I created a thread about 4K-Sector support on psx-place.
Hmm, scratch that. Looks like Grim Doomer has abandoned the project or something? Even the download links to the ELF file are dead.
They are a bit hard to find, but I found them you just have to do a bit of snooping into the version logs, and there will be a few downloads. I would recommend looking at the updates though because they change.
@@Velikann yeah but I mean his fork is basically dead while the main fork continues on. It's just weird that he straight up disappeared.
Makes sense why only 1/40 of my games work with grimdoomer opl
Man, amazing! Mostly for the drag and drop option. I truly hate using "transfer software". I hope it gets an official stable version soon. Very thankful for the dev. Great work. 😎
Well... It isn't even in the official OPL Beta-builds yet. It's a seperate branch test-build.
in your tutorial when you format the exfat partition, i clearly see you leaving the "allocation unit size" to default, thats where you are supposed to manually put 512B if you dont want it to be 4kB.
could that be your issue and not because of the enclosure?
No, that is NOT the issue because *filesystem clusters* have nothing to do with *logical sector based addressing* on a Hardware-level.
We can read pretty much any Cluster-size from 512Byte - 128KB without any issues. IDK about those above that... They are not thoroughly tested.
It is btw. NOT recommended for ANY device to select a Cluster-size below 4K...
i really wish i could buy an upgraded ps2 like this one , it truly has the most varied library ever and most of them third person as opposed to the first person over saturation of today
Bookmarking this video for the day when a 144 PB drive is easily available so I can say, "Never?"
I have this exact Sabrent enclosure. I'm glad you called it out, because I would have been going insane trying to figure out what was happening! i guess opening up the case and direct connecting SATA is my only solution for the moment because the Sabrent is the only external option I have.
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Don't bother! Just did all the steps to find the ELF file is GONE from EVERYTHING you CANNOT do this anymore.
I love those passionate folks out there. Great video!
You can write a raw mbr to the drive if you don't have a FMCB memory card, it boots the console straight into uLaunch which allows you to boot the FMCB installer, you can then install it either on the drive or the memory card.
Supporting XFAT is such an amazing feature! Really glad to see how sophisticated and easy to use PS2 homebrew has become in the last few years, even though it's not a console I follow too closely.
Very informative video, easy to follow and great editing skills! New subscriber! 🙌✨️
Great video - now I need something like this for making PS1 games work in this way!
I understand this grimdoomer version of OPL is a fork of the main OPL project, and it doesn't support PS1 games. If this is true, is there a workaround that isn't overly complex to get PS1 games working on the HDD that has been formatted as exFAT?