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Thread: Why the Ps2 Tool has two drives

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    Why the Ps2 Tool has two drives

    I have some pstools in with two drives each.

    Any ideas what the extra one is for?

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    Drives as in dvd drives or HDDs ?
    if you mean HDD's i want to know too since mine has 2.
    for first is was under the idea that the second HDD is for the DVD emulator
    but i don't even have the T14k board, so dunno. The bootup also doesn't even regognize the second HDD, so not a clue on what to do with it.

    If it's 2 dvd drives, who knows if it's added afterwards, atleast the PCI815VE card has enough IDE slots to add all kinds of gadgets to the rig.
    It could be just a normal drive to be used with the linux side ?

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    ask Parris or Unclejun, the gurus of everything PS2 TOOL.
    Last edited by Barc0de; 06-24-2009 at 02:41 PM.
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    ...All TOOL's have a minimum of two drives.
    Fac 51

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    my best guess is that its a software raid 1 mirrored disks

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    my guess is that they have mario64 copied as many times needed to fill the second drive in order to give playstation developers game ideas.
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    Quote Originally Posted by Barc0de
    my guess is that they have mario64 copied as many times needed to fill the second drive in order to give playstation developers game ideas.
    :lol:-=LOL=-:lol:

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    There any way to read the 1gb partitions the ps tool uses without needing data recovery tools? Is it readable if hooked to a linux box?

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    Linux generally will read anything, or should have additional software/"drivers" that will allow at the very least read-access to a filesystem. Perhaps a program such as GParted will at the very least be able to recognize a file system type and allow you to work from there? (Gosh, I love that program, they also offer a LiveCD for great justice.)

    I was about to say "pics or it didn't happen" but then I realized I know nothing about TOOLs and that the drives are definitely not lying around on the outside.

    Also, I assume you mean "two drives" as in you have spotted two physical drives, OR that you have two partitions accessable and mean/don't mean that.
    Last edited by alecjahn; 06-25-2009 at 12:57 PM.

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  10. #10
    @alecjahn: PS2 TOOLs have 2 physical HDDs installed inside (though you can connect an external HDD for the PS2 side to use, via the PCMCIA slot at the rear).

    From what I remember on Parris' old thread, the second HDD contains a linux file system, that's bootable from the TOOL and which appeared to be a copy of the first HDD. No idea if that's absolutely correct, or if it is some kind of RAID/backup.

    I'll probably be dismantling a TOOL fairly soon (with Parris' guide in hand), so I'll be able to take a closer look at the second HDD then.

    In the meantime, unclejun will hopefully jump in, as he knows as much about these things as anyone I know!

  11. #11
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    For the sake of clarity I'll call the hdd connected to the SBC "hdd1" and the hdd connected to the MIF sub-board (the board with the pcmcia interface) "hdd2" even though when you open a Tool, they're not in that order...

    The bootup can't recognize hdd2 cause it's not connected to the SBC, I thought that was obvious...

    OE is right, Tools have 2 hard drives, even Tools with the emu board, in that case the other hdd is connected to the emu board and no hdd is connected to the MIF board, the Tool still work, so you can safely disconnect hdd2 and boot your Tool.

    port187 is half right, hdd2 is a mirror of hdd1, if you connect hdd2 to the SBC, the Tool will boot as usual.
    It can't be a raid configuration for two reasons, hdd2 has nothing to do with the SBC *and* it can be accessed by the PS2 hardware.

    Barc0de, you are wrong, it is filled with the blue hedgehog megadrive games, Sony never ever thought for once second Nintendo would be a serious threat ;)

    ASSEMbler, the Tool is a linux box, so yes you can!
    Unless you have the emu board, in that case you need the software to access the emu drive contents.

    alecjahn, take a look at Parris's disassembly guide, plenty of pictures in it!

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    This whole thing mildly confused me now.

    - so, the second drive is a clone of the first. OK
    - it's plugged to the board that's under the PCI card, OK
    - ps2 hardware can access it? O_o. even without the emu board ?
    and is it of any use like that even ? Or does it just serve as a backup of sorts.

    sorry, mandatory wall of questions as usual :P
    still havent' gotten the chance to get familiar with the tool much at all since all my time has gone in desperate efforts to repair it.

    also, what software is needed to access it with the emu board ?

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    PS2 linux can access it, not with the default kernel though.
    As for its purpose, I'm really clueless...

    You can control the emu board behavior using a few commands under linux or the windows client.

  14. #14
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    Quote Originally Posted by unclejunn
    alecjahn, take a look at Parris's disassembly guide, plenty of pictures in it!
    I totally didn't even notice that thread. Thanks for the tip, looks like a very awesome read!

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    So one is for the linux card, the other is accessible from the Ps2 part or with
    Kernel patch from the linux side as well.

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    The other hdd is accessible from the PS2 side with the PS2 linux distrib.

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    what are the details of this?
    I tried installing my copy of Linux and it doesn't see the internal second drive at all...
    This was indeed my thought however, that this was either a prototype of the hdd interface that became standardized with the pcmcia card and/or a slave drive of sorts.

    Do I need a custom kernel to get this to work?
    more details would be awesome.

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    Yes, you need a custom kernel.
    You can find most of the Tool related options during the config.

    dmesg log from such a custom kernel, can you spot the interesting bits?
    Loading R5900 MMU routines.
    CPU revision is: 00002e14
    Primary instruction cache 16kb, linesize 64 bytes
    Primary data cache 8kb, linesize 64 bytes
    Branch Prediction : on
    Double Issue : on
    Linux version 2.2.1 (root@betalinux) (gcc version 2.95.2 19991024 (release)) #1 Sat May 31 18:12:46 CEST 2008
    AIF: controller revision 3, use HDD, use RTC
    no initrd found
    Console: colour dummy device 80x25
    Calibrating delay loop... 392.40 BogoMIPS
    Estimated CPU clock: 294.240 MHz
    Memory: 128056k/131064k available (1220k kernel code, 1720k data)
    Checking for 'wait' instruction... unavailable.
    POSIX conformance testing by UNIFIX
    PlayStation 2 SIF BIOS: 0200
    Linux NET4.0 for Linux 2.2
    Based upon Swansea University Computer Society NET3.039
    NET4: Unix domain sockets 1.0 for Linux NET4.0.
    NET4: Linux TCP/IP 1.0 for NET4.0
    IP Protocols: ICMP, UDP, TCP, IGMP
    Linux IP multicast router 0.06 plus PIM-SM
    Starting kswapd v 1.5
    ee_powctrl: start DTL-T10000 Power Control.
    ee_powctrl: registered character major 246
    PlayStation 2 device support: GIF, VIF, GS, VU, IPU, SPR
    Graphics Synthesizer revision: 00005508
    Console: switching to colour PlayStation 2 Graphics Synthesizer 80x28
    pty: 256 Unix98 ptys configured
    Real Time Clock Driver v1.09
    rtc: Digital UNIX epoch (1952) detected
    usb.c: registered new driver usbdevfs
    usb.c: registered new driver hub
    usb.c: registered new driver usb_mouse
    usb.c: registered new driver keyboard
    usb-ohci.c: USB OHCI at membase 0x1f801600, IRQ 42
    usb-ohci.c: GrowLocalMem 64K bytes
    usb.c: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 1
    usb.c: USB new device connect, assigned device number 1
    hub.c: USB hub found
    hub.c: 2 ports detected
    RAM disk driver initialized: 1 RAM disks of 10240K size
    loop: registered device at major 7
    PlayStation 2 IDE DMA driver
    hdb: IBM-DPTA-353000, ATA DISK drive
    hdb: AIF tune: unit1, mode=12
    hdc: Maxtor 4D040H2, ATA DISK drive
    ide0 at 0xb8000060-0xb8000067,0xb800007c on irq 40
    ide1 at 0xb4000040-0xb4000047,0xb400005c on irq 41
    hdb: IBM-DPTA-353000, 28613MB w/1961kB Cache, CHS=58135/16/63
    hdc: Maxtor 4D040H2, 38146MB w/2048kB Cache, CHS=4863/255/63, (U)DMA
    LVM version 0.8i by Heinz Mauelshagen (02/10/1999)
    lvm -- Driver successfully initialized
    scsi : 0 hosts.
    scsi : detected total.
    Partition check:
    hdb: [PTBL] [3647/255/63] hdb1 hdb2 < hdb5 hdb6 hdb7 hdb8 hdb9 >
    hdc: hdc1 hdc2
    VFS: Mounted root (ext2 filesystem) readonly.
    Freeing unused kernel memory: 48k freed
    usb.c: USB new device connect, assigned device number 2
    hub.c: USB hub found
    hub.c: 2 ports detected
    usb.c: USB new device connect, assigned device number 3
    keybdev.c: Adding keyboard: input0
    input0: USB HIDBP keyboard
    PlayStation 2 Sound driver
    PlayStation 2 Memory Card file system
    VFS: Disk change detected on device ps2mc(245,0)

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    Quote Originally Posted by unclejun
    PlayStation 2 IDE DMA driver
    hdb: IBM-DPTA-353000, ATA DISK drive
    hdb: AIF tune: unit1, mode=12
    ide0 at 0xb8000060-0xb8000067,0xb800007c on irq 40
    hdb: IBM-DPTA-353000, 28613MB w/1961kB Cache, CHS=58135/16/63
    hdb: [PTBL] [3647/255/63] hdb1 hdb2 < hdb5 hdb6 hdb7 hdb8 hdb9 >
    Very interesting...
    The existence of the second drive really does seem like it was intended even more so as a development option before the final hdd kit shipped, yet, why was it still included even into the 2002 and later tools if the official libraries don't see this drive.....
    .......or do they...?

    thanks for the info ;)

  20. #20
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    You missed some, they're not all Hdd related...
    AIF: controller revision 3, use HDD, use RTC
    Memory: 128056k/131064k available (1220k kernel code, 1720k data)
    ee_powctrl: start DTL-T10000 Power Control.
    ee_powctrl: registered character major 246

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