sharkport/x-port/maxdrive?

  • Thread starter filthyfish
  • 17 comments
  • 2,720 views
filthyfish

filthyfish

113
I hope im not making a redundant thread, but. Im looking for the most effective ps2>pc transfer option. I was just wondering if anyone would be interested in writing up a guide to the devices? There respective pro's and cons, features, availabilities, etc. Ive searched the forums and just came up with sparatic information. I would be willing to help in anyway I can. Any thoughts!? 💡
 
The only real pro/con is that the Xport and Sharkport need connecting to both PC and PS2 simultaneously, by way of 2m of USB cable, whereas the MaxDrive is a USB pen.
 
Good start. I use a laptop, so that would pose no real problem. Does anyone have any experience with a MaxDrive failing? How about region compatability issues? Are they region specific? I also hear stories of the USB devices corupting memory cards. Has anyone experienced this?
 
The beauty of a MaxDrive for PS2 is that you don't have to use the USB drive that comes with it. My 128 Mb Memorex stick works just fine with the PS2 Maxdrive software. They are region specific in that you have to have the American MaxDrive for an American PS2. You can use it to copy a save from ant region though (I have to use my PAL PS2 when doing things with American or Japanese save as I only have the PAL MaxDrive). I haven't had a problem with the memory cards getting corrupted.
 
So being in the US, it would not be a good idea to order a UK device, from ebay or UK online store? Also, what software, if any is used on the PC? Converting formats (i know, not video) or creating hybrids, etc.? This is good stuff, I hope this thread can be found usefull to others.
 
I got the MaxDrive software to work with a Canadian market Kingston 256MB fob (I got the smallest they had, since a larger size might make it fail). It did not work with a SanDisk fob.

I also got it to work with a 32MB memory card in a SanDisk Card reader, after I reformatted the card to match the MaxDrive fob defaults. (Key one is using FAT and not FAT32).

Details here...
http://www.granturismox.net/vb/showthread.php?t=13459
Edit (that broke)
http://www.gtxf.net/showthread.php?t=13455; see also later.

I might transcribe some time. (eventually I did...)

Or is there a better thread already existing here?
 
Last edited:
SportWagon
I might transcribe some time.

Or is there a better thread already existing here?
Click to expand...

I’m not sure what you mean?

At any rate, you do have some pretty good research in that link, excellent contribution. I just started this thread in an effort to consolidate information regarding game saves, backups and transfers. I was searching myself once and found sporadic info here and there; hopefully this helps the next guy.
 
I'm sort of surprised, but there don't seem to be any previous consistent threads dealing with this. And certainly no moderator seems to have dropped in to point it out to us. For now I guess my link above remains useful.

I should try and duplicate the info here, but rehashing previously posted information often seems harder than doing the initial posting. :)
 
Well, my ARMAX is drivin me to insanity. It's an older one from when we were addicted to GT3. I believe it's version 3.06(version is printed underside around the disc's hole). What version(s) do you guys have, by the way?

Anyways I can see a usbzip file on the armax directory, but I don't think it's got the media player.

I'm just trying to get some saves to trade to my PC and to backup the saves too.

I've tried everything to get some interaction between the memory card and the outside world. I've tried a network, but I can't seem to get a save to "take hold". I've formatted a usb with /a:4096.

I dunno maybe my ARMAX is too old, but I can't get it to even take an update, so maybe that dongle thing is corrupt?

So this is the new challenge, forget about buying an EVO, thats too easy.
How do I get my PS2 to see my USB?!!!!! arrrrgggghhhhhhhhhhh...:ouch:
 
SportWagon
I got the MaxDrive software to work with a Canadian market Kingston 256MB fob (I got the smallest they had, since a larger size might make it fail). It did not work with a SanDisk fob.

I also got it to work with a 32MB memory card in a SanDisk Card reader, after I reformatted the card to match the MaxDrive fob defaults. (Key one is using FAT and not FAT32).

Details here...
http://www.granturismox.net/vb/showthread.php?t=13459

I might transcribe some time.

Or is there a better thread already existing here?
Click to expand...
Site went away, but finally come back...

Thread has moved to...
http://www.gtxf.net/showthread.php?t=13455
 
SportWagon
So I actually bought another ARMax Evo. And, partly based on RogsR34UK's info, a now-cheap Kingston 256MB "Data Traveller".

Somewhat to my surprise, the Kingston drive did work as a "MAXdrive". The very first thing I plugged it into was the PS2--that might have been a factor. MAXdrives appear to be FAT (not FAT32) format. It's possible another drive, such as an old SanDisk one I have, might work if reformatted as FAT.

It's also possible a newer version of the MAXdrive software caused it to start working, whereas previous devices didn't.

But accessing the USB devices is hideously slow. Sometime I'll try the older version of software to double-check, but I don't remember them being that slow. It's on the order of at least a minute to find and display each filename on the device. Far from ideal.

PS2 memory card access with that software is somewhat faster, but still annoyingly slow. And also flakey. It takes a while before it finds the correct "icon" for a particular save (e.g. the rotating GT4 cube).

You can put multiple "crushed" GT4 saves onto the MAXdrive; when you look at them with a PC the name is something like

38546_12345_GranTurismo4.max

The first number appears constant (not sure what it exactly is...). The second varies, but doesn't follow an obvious pattern. E.g. newer ones aren't always larger numbers.

Compression does not work well; the files go down to only 1488KB from only slightly more (1534? 1495?) for uncompressed. On the PC, the size varies in the last few digits of the actual byte count, but not enough to change from "1488KB". This suggests to me that GT4 saves are encrypted using an extremely large key.

A problem is that using the MAXdrive software on the PS2 there is no way to distinguish between the different compressed GT4 saves. Even on the PC, the MAXdrive software fails to fill in the modification date! So as I save the file on my PC, I can make notes in a README file identifying the different versions. If I ever really want to get back an old save, I'll clear one MAXdrive, and copy only the single file to it.

Last night as a test I copied GT4 saves to both the new MAXdrive and Kingston device. Then I copied the Kingston save to my PC, used my PC to wipe out the save on the MAXdrive and replace it with the one which came from the Kingston device. I then successfully restored it to an empty memory card, and it appeared to load properly. I.e. the Kingston device appeared to function properly as a flexible "archive" device.

After that I copied a bunch of old saves to the two new devices, and picked an old save from the Kingston device, restored it to the PS memory card, and went back in time to just after I completed my Super License. :D

Another test I should try sometime is renaming the save files to see what the restrictions are there. Also I wonder if it gracefully handles crud (e.g. a README.TXT might be nice) on the MAXdrive devices. I notice that on PS2 memory cards PS1 saves are shown by the MAXdrive software as "corrupted data".

But anyone using this software and these devices should bear Balki's unfortunate experience in mind, and be very careful to have at least one save of important things on a PS2 memory card which goes nowhere near the active MAXdrive/ARMax/MAXmemory software.

Edit: Oh yes. I forgot to mention. This version of ARMax came in a nice silver-coloured "biscuit tin".
Click to expand...
Quoted from www.gtxf.net, 02-23-2006
 
SportWagon
Last night I successfully tried the experiment with the SanDisk SD/MMC USB2.0 reader.

I first took an old 32MB Lexar SD card, and formatted as FAT, using the command-line FORMAT command.

Then I used CHKDSK to compare it to the MAXDRIVE fob.

A difference was that the MAXDRIVE used 4096 byte allocation units, while the SD card used 512 bytes. So I reformatted the SD card again, as FAT (not FAT32), also using the /A:4096 option to specify that allocation unit size. CHKDSK verified the new filesystem had been so created.

Then I took the reader and card and plugged it into the PS2 running the ARMax/MAXDRIVE software. And the reader and card functioned as a MAXDRIVE! (Once again, very, very slowly). First I copied my most recent save to this memory card. Then I copied it to a PC and replicated it on a Kingston fob, adding it to a collection of several saves there.

After that I took one MAXDRIVE, and emptied it, and then copied the new save from my PC to that MAXDRIVE. Then I uncrushed the save onto a spare memory card.

Then I backed up my Replay Card using the ARMax/MAXDRIVE software. Unfortunately this process seems to crash after finishing the copy. Luckily it's after finishing the copy, and the target card seems fine. It seems like the number of files is beginning to exceed the software's expectations. In the Sony browser it takes ages to scroll through all the replay files. Perhaps I should sometime try using the GT3 memory card manager instead. But it wouldn't do multiple selects and copies either, IIRC.

So finally after doing that, I verified the "restored" save, as well as the backup replay card, by running GT4 and loading the save and replays.

So it worked! Being able to transfer to a memory card has some advantages. For one, I can transfer it to my PDA memory card without using a PC.

A few weeks ago, writing to a card without reformatting it, had appeared to be working using the MAXDRIVE software, but failed with an error towards the end of the copy process. But I have not actually verified that a card with the 512 byte allocation units is guaranteed to fail. I think it would have been that 32MB card I used, but I'm not certain. I know it was the same card reader.

Another experiment I tried was to put a "README.TXT" file on some of the MAXDRIVE devices. Those appeared to load fine as a MAXDRIVE, with the TXT file just being ignored, but I didn't try actually yet writing back to those devices using the ARMax/MAXDRIVE software.

A curious thing is that the MAXDRIVE icon will be highlighted as available if the SanDisk reader is plugged in, even when there is no card in it. This makes me suspect that a fob which does not show up at all like that will never work even if you reformat it to match the above specifications. But I don't know for sure. It's possible the software knows the difference between a removable and fixed device, and checks out the filesystem parameters of the fixed device, and ignores the device if it doesn't like them.
Click to expand...
Quoted from www.gtxf.net; 2006-03-22
 
SportWagon
One thing I forgot to do was rename the save file when I copied it back to the MAXDRIVE, to see whether the filename is largely irrelevant.

I'd like to use names something like:

GT4-G-DDDD-NNNc.MAX

Where:
G - game number (currently 1)
DDDD - simulation day number in game
NNN - number of cars

Bah. Perhaps it would be good to include percentage too, or maybe actually instead of number of cars.

I'd expect the above not to be a problem (it won't help for selecting saves in the MAXDRIVE browser, but will help when manipulating the files elsewhere). I'd guess the game information is actually encoded within the file. But I could be wrong.
Click to expand...
Quoted from www.gtxf.net; 03-22-2006
 
SportWagon
I did that test last week, and you can, as you'd expect, name the files anything you want. That will be very handy for maintaining my historical archive. Handier than the SharkPort "data base" nonsense, actually.

You still can't tell which file is which in the ARMax display, however. (My solution is to put only one GT4 file at a time onto the fob if I want to recreate a particular GT4 game day).
Click to expand...
Quoted from www.gtxf.net; 04-04-2006
 
SportWagon
Oh yes. I managed to get the mass-copy of replay files to stop crashing after completion.

It seems to work properly as long as it's the first operation I perform. That is, I reboot the PS2 and reload the software before doing the transfer.

Presumably the MaxDrive software has something like a memory leak somewhere, so that attempting to perform multiple operations will cause a subsequent large time-consuming one like the copy of several replays to a card containing dozens of files, to fail.
Click to expand...
Quoted from www.gtxf.net; 04-25-2006
 
Those are all reposted here from
http://www.gtxf.net/showthread.php?t=13455
(with my own permission :P )

As to whether this works with a PS2 slimline, the ARMax Evo USB devices (also the Kingston fob) seemed to work fine (well, with some of the caveats mentioned here) on my silver slimline when I tested it last week.
 

Latest Posts

Back