[How To] Boot Games Off USB With PS2
Foreword: After a year and a half later, I have decided to re-write this guide, because honestly, it was not my own and it was presented very poorly. Remember, I do no support piracy. Use the USB method to play your games on the hard drive to help your PS2 laser last longer. The performance will vary, but that is up to you if you want to stick with it. Good luck! (6-13-09) ~Versatile
Revisions:
[Update: 1/15/08] I have gotten Viewtiful Joe 2 to copy to my hard drive, and I was able to boot off the hard drive and play it on the PS2. Now my laser will live longer! All help will be given in the comments as usual.
[Update 2/13/08] Added link to SKS Apps. Without that site, this tutorial is nothing. 
[Update 7/13/08] Added 2 new youtube videos of my own!
[Update 11/25/08] I am so frickin sick of people asking why their game doesn’t work and all they see is a black screen. Is it because your game isn’t compatible? Check out this list below and stop whining, or use swap magic and ditch the whole USB hard drive all together. The USB 1.1 performance IS NOT WORTH IT in my eyes.
http://www.elotrolado.net/hilo_Listado-de-compatibilidad-en-USBExtreme_744276?pagenumber=1
[Update 6-8-09] Re-wrote the whole tutorial. Will expand upon the USB Extreme GUI interface software at a later date.
[Update 6-12-09] Re-wrote major sections of the tutorial again to make it more clear.
[Update 6-13-09] Added new Youtube Video tutorial on the USB Extreme Windows Installer!
[Update 6-28-09] Added new Youtube Video tutorial on list of selectable games!
Introduction
The PS2 is a great console. After 9+ years, it is still going strong. With the new $99 price point, more and more people are getting the PS2 to play old school PS2 games. What better way to preserve your games and your PS2 laser than playing off the USB interface? This guide is based off of Swap Magic implementation.
Wait, you can play games off the USB interface?
Yes, you can but it requires some work. Here are the PROs and Cons:
Pros
- Uses USB 1.1 interface (slow but better than nothing).
- Saves strain on PS2 laser because using USB interface for game playing.
- Can have a list of selectable games in the USBExtreme interface.
- Works on both fat and slim PS2.
- Novelty factor is awesome!
Cons
- Game compatibility is low.
- Requires USB hard drive. Highly recommend USB drives that have their own power adapter.
- Flash drives can work , but the performance is so horrible its not worth doing it.
- Need to have third party tool to launch the “boot CD”. This can be done with modchip, swap magic, or exploited memory card.
- DVD9 games (like God of War 2) are larger than 4.4 GB and will not work with USBExtreme.
What tools do I need to make this work?
Hardware/Software tool: You need to have at least one of the items below before we continue:
- Modchip
- Swap Magic
- Exploited memory card (such as Free McBoot)
IMPORTANT: For this guide, I will be using Swap Magic 3.6 CD to boot the USBExtreme disc!
Blank Media:
- 1 CD-R (700MB is fine)
Note: I highly suggest swap magic if you are unwilling to mess with the other options. You can learn more about swap magic at this guide:
http://versatile1.wordpress.com/2008/01/05/how-to-find-swap-magic-for-ps2/
Download the Software below (more detailed instructions to follow):
Usb Xtreme: Link [Optional. Get this if you want to use the graphical user interface for easier format/game installing.]
Usb Advance: Link [This is required.]
What should I use for the USB mass storage device?
This is what I recommend:
- USB 2.0 hard drive that uses its own power supply (for example, it requires power from the outlet).
- A USB hard drive that is at least 10 gigs or larger is highly recommended. The average PS2 game size will vary from as low as 282 MB up to as high as 4483 MB or 4.483 GB.
- Do not use laptop external hard drives which gets its power from the PS2 USB 1.1 port. It is not enough power.
- You could use pen or usb flash drives, but performance will be horrible. The game will chug, and you will have ridiculously long load times, that is, if your game can load!
Note: I understand when going through this tutorial, you may see that your PS2 may not see your USB hard drive enclosure. If that is the case, please try a different USB hard drive. I have people verifying this may fix the issue.
Tutorial Begins here *drools*:
- Extract the USB Advance zip file that you downloaded earlier into its own folder. You will see contents like the screenshot below:
- Now double-click the USBAdvance-PC-Software. You will see two programs inside it: ul_format.exe and ul_install.exe. Extract these to your C:\. This will make more sense later.
- Notice there is a .bin and a .cue file. The .cue file is 1KB, and the .bin file is 34 MB.
- You need to burn the image file. Use Nero, PowerIso, Alcohol120%, ImgBurn, or any other type of CD burning software and burn this image file to your blank CD-R disc. Once the CD-R is burnt, label it and set that disc aside.
- Now extract the other zip file called “USBExtreme_wininst” to its own folder. You will now have a program called USBExtreme.exe. A dedicated section to this program will be covered later in this tutorial.
Now go to preparing the USB hard drive step.
Preparing the USB hard drive:
- Insert USB hard drive to your PC.
- It is important that the USB hard drive is FAT32. If it is not, go to My Computer, right click the USB drive, and go to quick format for FAT32.
- If your hard drive is FAT32, great. No need to format it again.
- You can also launch the USBExtreme Software, go to the format tab, and tell it to format your USB drive as well as shown below:
- Here the I: drive is my USB drive.
Note: If you want, but not required, you can use the ul_format.exe command to format your USB hard drive. This is how to use it:
- Go to Start -> Run.
- Go to your C:\ root.
- The command to use the program is “ul_format X format” where X is your USB hard drive.
- Example: My USB hard drive is E:. I would type “ul_format E format”.
We are almost done. Let’s enable fast transfer speeds on your USB drive before we start copying games.
Enabling fast USB hard drive transfer speeds:
- Go to My Computer->Properties->Hardware->Device Manager->Disk Drives->(external one here)->Properties->Policies->Optimize for performance. Speed varies from from 1MBps to about 10-15MBps, which is pretty fast! Also, do not forget to unplug the device the proper way (that is Unplug or eject hardware) when you remove the USB drive!
Installing games onto your USB hard drive:
This is pretty easy. We have two methods. Method one uses the “ul_install.exe” command, and method 2 uses the USBExtreme.exe windows software. Both programs do the same job, and the second program is easier to use for those who are novices.
Method 1: Using the command line
- Insert your PS2 game into your computer’s DVD drive.
- Go to Start -> Run.
- Navigate to your C:\> drive.
- The command to use here is “ul_install SourceDrive TargetDrive GameName CD/DVD”.
Example:
- I insert Viewtiful Joe PS2 game into my computer. To verify if your game is CD or DVD format, right click on the disc and go to properties. If the file size is less 700MB or less, then it is CD format. Anything else and it is DVD.
- My DVD drive has letter H:\>. My USB drive is I:\>.
- At the command prompt on my C:\> drive, I type “ul_install H I ViewtifulJoe DVD”. Press enter and it will start copying the game. See picture below:
- Here it will copy the game from my DVD drive to my USB drive and prepare it in the special USB game playing format.
Method 2: Using the USBExtreme Windows Software
Launch the software. Insert your game. Configure the “Gamer Installer” window for your game and click start. It will start ripping the game.
Example:
My DVD drive is letter H. My USB drive is I. The name of my game is The Bouncer. The type of disc I am ripping from is DVD.
After you click Start, it will prompt you:
Click Yes, and then it will start ripping the game from DVD drive to the USB hard drive:
When the rip is done, you will see a screen like the one below:
Repeat the process over and over for additional games and you will get a list as shown below. When you load the USB drive from the PS2, this list will be selectable.
Too much reading? Fine, watch my youtube video instead!
Finally you are done. Let’s play on the PS2!
- Turn on PS2. Load your Swap Magic CD disc.
- At the main Swap Magic screen, load your USB Advance CD-R that you burnt earlier.
- Now you will be at the USBExtreme screen.
- Connect USB hard drive to PS2. Turn it on, within a few seconds, you will see your game(s) show up on the screen. Highlight your desired game, press “X”, and within 7 seconds your game will load! Enjoy!
Troubleshooting
1) Make sure to make your USB hard drive partition a primary. I am not sure if it needs to be logical drive, but I made my drive a primary partition.
Visit SKS Apps here.
Watch Video Tutorials for better understanding:
Part 1 Tutorial Video:
Part 2 Tutorial Video:
List of Selectable Games:
Share this Post
On the USBEXTREME, i clicked on the disc drive and clicked formate but the the only drive that comes is the C Drive but my USB is E drive, what should i do?
where can i download usb advance?
All the files you need is on the blog post. You need to make sure that your usb drive is formatted fat32. Honestly, you can have other files existing on the usb hard drive, that is what I did when I made my original video.
The usbextreme program just checks to read the appropriate format of the USB PS2 files.
hey.. tnx 4 ur blogs. hope to help us here pipz in philippines.
usb advance isjust for 77 bytes ie the .cue file should i waste a cd on it
Mount usb advance virtually if you want. You should burn it to a CD, as that is what you will use to boot off from the PS2, that is, if you have modchip or swap magic.
If you are clever, you can install it to an exploited memory card.
i am having slim ps2 so please tell me to boot pen drive on it
i seriously need it plz tell me
Read the guide carefully. USB pen drives suck at performance. Remember, you need a modchip or swap magic to even do the USB trick, so don’t bother if you don’t have the tools.
I understand now why usb drives will suck, but still don’t wanna believe it. Lol. How I wish they updated the PS2’s usb ports to 2.0 on the newer consoles. There is little point in playing any game if it runs at usb 1.1 speeds though. Is that 1 megabyte per sec or less? Maybe put the words “USB drives won’t work cuz it’ll be extremely slow. (PS2 only has usb 1.1 ports.)”
i i’ll use usb to run games. is the ps2’s performance also affected? i mean if i will use dvd games instead of my usb, does my ps2 run the same as it is before? please IM me or email me. i will visit this blog everyday and i’ll wait for your answer. i’m just making sure if my ps2 will run safe.
Please, DVD games run much faster than USB. The usb 1.1 was an after thought, meant for audio. Not for playing games!
You can use USB, yes, but the performance will suffer, especially with flash drives.
hi all,
i searching for my ps2 chip name and version how can i find it than with usb advance i must turn off macrovision that can i do by holding circle and triangle by booting but it do nothing please halp me what can i do HELP
Sorry, I have no idea how to find out what mod chip you are using. I recommend you go to afterdawn.com and go to the PS2 forums for help.
okay
thx…
i already done what you did in your video. but when i saw the game i start button but its take time to play. whats wrong? plz help my flash disk is 2gb
omg, 2 gb flash disk is way too slow!!!!
use usb 2.0 hard drive instead.
ok. but how about hdd i have seagate Barracuda 7200.10 320gbytes ST3320620AS but my hdd doesn’t recognized it. it will appear unsupported file format. unlike in the usb flashdisk the game will appear but in hdd nothing. plz help. tnx by the way!
FAT32 or NTFS hard drive?
do we have to install a OS what i mean XP windows in the hdd? or not? i already did it in NTFS drive but in FAT32 not yet. by the way thanks dude. godbless!
are these software to boot games off usb are applicable to ps2 slim version? thanks!!
what is the term there you called the “laser” is that a software also or usb device.. thanks!
Yes, this is applicable to the slim ps2, but the USB is 1.1. In game video and FMV sequences will be choppy.
By laser, I mean the actual PS2 laser.
hiiiii everyone i loaded usb advance got the boot screen but its not detecting my pen drive i tried 2 pen drives 1 is transcend 2gb n other is Kingston 8gb but both doesnt works.I have each software tel me i f u have any solution
Format them as fat32. It is possible those pen drives are not supported!
I have PS2 Slim modded with Matrix Modchip.
I wanted to know that whether it will need SwapMagic or not?
and will it work with it?
I have the following options for USB Drive:
1. Ipod Nana 2nd Gen 2 GB
2. 120 GB SATA External USB HDD
3. 4 GB Pen Drive
Which should I choose ?
External hard drive is your best bet. If you have modchip, no need for swap magic. The key is will your mod chip load the ulaunchelf CD?
I am able to run elflauncher and then copy save games files on memory card using this tutorial :
http://www.iplayplaystation.com/ps2-saves-homebrew-tutorial/
I have also burned the CD of USBAdvance but upon loading it shows black screen. I havn’t tried up with Macrovision settings etc.
I want to know that can I run Games from HDD using Elflauncher and if yes then what shall be the procedure.
Thanks…
Wow, that is a nice website The main goal is can you run USBAdvance? Are we sure your PS2 is modded? What speed id you burn your CD-R at?
Also, this blog post is the tutorial, and I have videos too! Watch them.
My PS2 is modded with Matrix Infinity Chip, and it is able to run Elflauncher and other Backup CDs/DVDs.
I am able to copy save games on mass storage and from mass storage to memory card.
And today I will again try with copying the game and running it with ELFLauncher and if it works then I will let you know.
Thanks for your replies though.
Hey there,
First of all, thanks for all the tutorial man. I’m not so familiar with the USBExtreme method;
1. I can only burn the cue file into a CD-R right? I can’t use a DVD-R? Btw, my pstwo is already modded. Do I need to burn the bin file as well?
2. Should I burn the CD-R or DVD-R with the lowest speed?
Appreciate your help on this.
Thanks.
Honestly, the cue file will burn the bin file when using nero or appropriate program. It was made for CD-R, but you can try DVD-R and see what happens.
For CD-R, I burnt mine at 24x and it works fine. For DVD-R, I recommend 4x.
Great!! Will give it a try later.
Thanks dude.
How can you put HDloader to our ps2 without connecting the ps2 hdd to the pc? Thanks mate!
The fat ps2 has a ethernet port in which you can ftp your files over I believe. I have fat ps2, but not the internal drive kit, so I can’t comment how its done exactly unfortunately.
The PS2 laser sucks. PSX has much better laser.
I have a ps3 but I still play with my ps2 because the PS3 blue ray disks are way off my allowance. :C
if i can play pirated dvds does it mean i have a modded chip ????
I would think so yes. Let me guess, you live in a foreign country like india?
hello versatile
i checked the list of compatible games and i select one ,but unfortunately i doesn’t work as the screen freezes at loading title and i doesn’t start the game. am using a ps2 moded usb advance a usb flash drive kingstone 2.0 formated fat32
Please, for the love of god, don’t use flash drives!!!!!
I suggest as a test you use a real usb hard drive.
Hello Everyone
I have Playstation 2.. First of All I would thanks to master mind guy versatileninja..
I have query regarding playing games from USB Drive… I have massive 500GB USB hard drive with 2.0 version USB..
MY question is
Can I copy multiple Games to My USB Drive and Play One Game at time… Like You have List of Song copied in ur ipod and u play one song which one is ur favorite …. OR I have to copy only one game to USB Drive and then Replace that with Other game if I like to play other game…
Please guide me ..
I am going to have to re-write the guide. Did you watch the video? In short, you can have a “playlist” of selectable games, so the answer is yes.
It is a good thing but i have certain problems with it i.e i have a 2.0 port usb pendrive and it does not work on my ps2 slim because my ps2 doesnot give power to this usb pendrive
please help me…
1) Do not use flash pendrives. Performance is horrible.
2) The usb port on the PS2 is not enough power to power the pen drive. I highly recommend people to at least get a usb hard drive that has its own power supply!
Guide has been updated.
Have you guys seen the new tutorial? I got a new Windows GUI video, its awesome!
did you speak or write french? because i am parisian and i speak little english. i don’t understand what to do.My problem is that my lent do not work correctly so i need that method to play game my ps2 in modded by the puce Matrix not modchip.send me link for your video . thanks
I only speak English, sorry!
I have many videos. Watch the videos on this page to understand how the USB mod works.
ok thank u for the link video. but pliz my ps2 is the big ps2 and my lent doesn’t work it not turn and no read any disk. i have only: -ipod 30 gb -big ps2 console without lent -one memory card of 8mb -and 1 computer with windows xp and internet. that is all things that i have.pliz help me
Sorry. It sounds as if your laser is broken. It reads no disc? Does it say “disc read error”? You need to open up the fast PS2 and do some adjusting:
http://www.tweak3d.net/articles/ps2repair/
Good luck!
and can you tell how to burn ps2 game on DVD when you download it with rapidshare?
Watch this:
please tell me how to play ps2 game on my computer.
Go here:
http://versatile1.wordpress.com/2007/04/20/play-playstation-2-games-on-your-computer/
can i burn the usbadvance to a dvd-rw? its all i have atm.
No, PS2 does not read dvd-rw, and if it did, it will in the long run destroy the laser.
You have no CD-R?
i need to try this turorial for now, i buy the ps2 game every time, i really need to start this usb thin. should i burn the usb extreme file usbextreme.exe into a disk please explain this area to me. tnx man the ps guru
Just watch my video over and over. Is it not clear enough? I even have a text guide.
i want 2 copy downloaded ps2 games to usb which are already there on my pc.usbadvance requires a ps2 dvd to copy.i have downloaded nfs undercover and want to play on my ps2 using usb pls help
Re-read the tutorial. You have to use the software to rip the PS2 game to the USB hard drive in special format. I even have a new windows gui video. C’mon!
thank you very much for your help
Hi,
I am alraedy using 500 gb usb hd with fat ps2 only, my question is can i use it for laptop also?
Yes, you can actually.
can i make different folder for my data or shd i make a partion in hd and then use different drive for ps2 and laptop…………
please advise… thanks
I want to say you need one partition only! I have my data on the root on the drive, and then I mix that with the PS2 game stuff, and it works.
I want to say one time I did a test where I had two partitions, one was primary and one was logical, and it didn’t work? Since I have a hard drive dedicated to the PS2 right now, I will try this experiment one more time and update the guide when I get round to it, easily before the week is over.
Thanks versatile,
It works fine as you said and one more thing, can we convert dvd clips/pictures to usb hd through some software?
I followed your guide to the tee i have swap magic 3.8 coder(doubt it matters what version) im using a western digital my book 160 gb HDD i formated it (and it states its fat32) with the usb extreme program i also use the program to extract my game to the hard drive but when it is done and and i click ok the game doesnt display as being on the drive(as in your video when you did marvel vs. capcom 2 when you clicked ok it showed in the list of games) then i load usbadvance plug in my drive it reads the drive tells me the exact space it has on it but no games are displayed what am i doing wrong? the game is kingdom hearts re chain of memories (jap) file size is 4.12gb no cfg file is in my files just 00 01 02 03 04
Did you use the Windows GUI program to rip the game to the USB hard drive? If so, I have a hard time why it would NOT create the cfg file. I think the files you have are correct. Maybe the game is just not compatible?
Also, I have ran into issues where someone had used one type of external hard drive, and it did not show up. They used a totally different external hard drive and it worked! I have no comment on that one.
See the list of files on my USB hard drive right now.
http://img196.imageshack.us/img196/6079/usbextremepicturewithfi.jpg
im going to use the ul_install this time(had trouble getting it to work found out what folder to put it in you suggested the root but my cmd started at a user file)to install the game and get back to you i have check so many compatable list and none have the usb even checked for this game it seems to be working on hdloader but i dont have the funds to buy a internal hdd thanks for the help
i used the ul_install and the game became listed on the list but blank screen so your right about it being not compatible(i havnt found a patch at least) i got the way now thanks for all your help
Guide updated with new video on selectable games!
i uploaded final fantasy X it worked fine so i had it down right just when the opening video came on it lagged like a beast so being so frustrated i took apart my external HDD removed the internal HDD and started using hdloader instead all my games work with it but if it wasnt for finding this guide i would have never done that so thank you very much
HDLoader > USB Extreme anyday. USB 1.1 is way too slow!
please i have loose my memory card. now how to do to boot game via usb? and my psx2 is no modded it dont have puce and “moteur de la lentille in french”lent doesnt turn fast to read disk.
Sounds like a PS2 laser problem? You need swap magic at the very least, or you can just stop right now.
morning man :it reads no disk. i have burn usbadvance,swapmagic,and download usbextreme,action max ps2.but my psx2 reads no disk how to do?
You downloaded swap magic? If so, bad idea. It won’t work. You need to buy a real version of swap magic 3.6. Read this article:
http://versatile1.wordpress.com/2008/01/05/how-to-find-swap-magic-for-ps2/
how to Install and to Use FMCB?
I’m still debating whether or not I should write a tutorial or not. Here is the link to how I learned how to do it:
http://bootleg.sksapps.com/tutorials/FMCBv1.8_for_dummies.html
This is extreamly useful
But theres one thing I’m going to try but I thoight I’d post here first. I want to do this with a ps1 game. I’m wondering if I can do it kinda the same way? If it wont work, tell me so I wont was a CDR 
. Also can you put media like music (mp3, wav) or something on it? Thanks in advance.
1) PS1 games do not work with this method. Don’t bother.
2) The PS2 is not meant to play mp3 or wav. Maybe there is a homebrew program to do it, but it is not worth it. Please, just stick with regular audio CDs or DVD movies.
This is what mp3, cd players, and computers are for. Don’t waste your time making your PS2 play other types of media.
Oh sorry about the CDR thing. I meant to say time :S
wow!
very good guide.
thank you.
Well it worked with a cd ps2 game but when I load the DVD Ps2 game it just stays black
Are you using swap magic, or modchip or what?
You do not need windows installed on external hard drive. I think you may need to format the hard drive as fat32.
hey man i already did in fat32 in hdd and the game recognized it but when you start it would just hang up “Please wait loading Title” thats it …it stays like that forever…will my PS2 slim version information:
COnsole SCPH-75002
Browser 1.40
Cd Player 2.00
Playstaions Driver 2.00
DvD Plater 3.11A
It is quite possible that the game you are trying to play is just not compatible. This is the downfall of playing USB games on the PS2.
I always play by using the laser, it is so much faster!
i just want to try cuz i alwz buy a dvd game cuz my ps2 slim always scratch inside like a circle. by the way tnx a lot!
Sorry, PS2 is not meant to be a slideshow. Use the real PC for that.