Home version: does a HDD fix the loading times issue? How?

[SingleA]

I've finally tired of the DDREX2, so I'm back to ITG, which is still my favorite home release. But, the loading times are driving me nuts!

I read someplace in the massive console thread that attaching a hard drive would fix the loading times issue. Lucky for me, I still have the old style (not thin) playstation, and I found that you can get network card/HDD combos off of ebay. You can also buy FFXI (the game), which comes with a HDD and network card.


So, once I install the hard drive, do I need to do anything else?

I don't see how loading times would be any faster unless the game stores all the music tracks on the hard drive. Does this happen automatically, or do I need to get some kind of hackware to backup the whole game to the HDD?


Bonus question: if I just buy the network card, could I somehow install my own custom drive (seagate or maxtor)? I have a bunch of them lying around, and would hate buy the overpriced Sony drives if a standard drive would work.

[Dan Druff]

Aren't long loading times good for people playing a dancing game? Long loading times give you time to breathe.

We're entering a gray area. Along with a hard drive and an official Sony network adaptor, the other thing you need is a game ripper (HD Loader, HD Advance, memory card exploit) which rips the contents to the hard drive. You boot the HD program on the PlayStation 2 and then use the Convert option to rip the game to your hard drive. The reason why playing games from the hard drive is faster is because a hard drive is easier to access than a disc, allowing for faster load times. The disc image is stored onto the hard drive. It's the same with playing certain PC games; games that play off the disc will be faster if they were copied to the hard drive. You can also use a program like WinHiip on the PC to rip PlayStation 2 games to the PlayStation 2 hard drive.

To answer your other question, you can use most hard drives between 40GB and 200GB. The older versions of HD Loader will only support 120GB hard drives while newer versions support up to 200GB. Western Digital and most Seagate hard drives won't work because they don't fit the network adaptor really well; use Maxtor or Hitachi hard drives instead.
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This is DDR. Don't hate the game; hate the player.

[MaxXimus]

[Kaku]

I was so ready to play on my PS2 but found out that the network adapter didn't fit into a Western Digital

then I bought a Seagate then found out it didn't fit either

;_;

I wish this thread popped up earlier.
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http://www.groovestats.com/index.php?page=profile&id=1614

[SingleA]

Thanks for the replies. This was just the info I needed.

I ended up buying "HD Advance" instead of "HD Loader". The benefits are that it supports DVD-9 (double layer disks), large hard drive, and no mod chip is needed since the media is pressed. The downside is the cost.

For those that are curious, here's a full hardware compatibility chart:

http://ps2drives.x-pec.com/

I know the moderators are always anxious to lock topics here. I guess they can lock this one now, since I have my answers.

[Kalek]

HD Loader shouldn't need a mod chip to boot (unless you have an illegal copy).


Anyway, try to use a 7200 rpm HDD. 5400 rpm will still give you considerably better load times, but 7200 rpm (I've heard, I've only had experience with 5400 rpm) is even better.