Using USB HDD's/flash drives as PSP memory? Is this possible?

[punkonjunk]

Alright, I THINK i've read about it being done before, but for the life of me I can't turn up search results!
I'd love to get this kind of thing -
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822161009
Working as a PSP HDD. I can't imagine it's impossible, so if anyone has the info, I'd love to hear it. Thanks in advance, guys.

[Nicko01]

it would work with a prx, but it would be slower and use more battery power. it would be a nice thing to have though, but dont think you can load it up with iso's. they wouldn't be able to run well from there.

[punkonjunk]

Could you shed some light on that info? I read a bit about swapping stuff off of a USBHDD, but I can't find any tutorials or info.

[jonezybaby]

im sure its possible, mebe if there was and adaptor that converts memory stick port to usb port or sumet?

[usp8riot]

I think we'd be better off with an adapter for HDCF (High Def. Compact Flash) so we can have our 32gig memory cards. Or better yet, a firmware hack that would read HDCF cards. 8gig HDCF cards are like $80 now and the same physical specs as ProDuos, just need firmware to understand how the bytes are stored.

[punkonjunk]

I think we'd be better off with an adapter for HDCF (High Def. Compact Flash) so we can have our 32gig memory cards. Or better yet, a firmware hack that would read HDCF cards. 8gig HDCF cards are like $80 now and the same physical specs as ProDuos, just need firmware to understand how the bytes are stored.

Considering that google doesn't even return relavant results for HDCF, High def compact flash, or "high def compact flash" it doesn't exactly seem to be mainstream, and I can't imagine it has the exact same type of connector as a MSPD?
Either way, I was hoping for things more specific to what can be done now, not dreaming about what should happen. :)

[usp8riot]

Sorry, http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820208293

I meant SDHC. While on the topic, a CF to SD converter would be awesome. 16gig CF drive - $160 and with time, they'll get bigger and cheaper.

[Mr.Ree]

I'm assuming you want to store a lot of your backup ISOs on a hard drive and have them available for use. As I understand it, the psp firmware doesn't support a 'host' mode therefore it can't 'see' anything attached to it's usb port. A computer has to be used for data handling. I'm sure that someone with more knowledge has looked into hacking the firmware to allow this, but it ain't happened yet. I'm hoping for a prx too, but don't hold your breath, cause we've all been waiting for this to come true.

All hope is not lost though. There's a USB transfer device called the Hitch that will allow you to transfer data from one USB device to another. With this you can transfer data from a usb hard drive to your PSP. The Hitch is a small unit with an equally small battery so you would have to bring along a power cable for your drive. I don't think the Hitch would spin it very long before the battery died. The price is around $100.

I used one to transfer data from my camera / PSP /USB Drive while on vacation and it worked great. The biggest problem is that you can't create directories on the usb devices on the fly. If you put PSPFiler (or another file management program) on the psp then you can use that to create different directories for your pictures. This shouldn't be a problem for you because the ISO directory already exists on your PSP.

If you have a 2 gig memstick you can transfer your favorite ISO (of the moment) then play until you're depleted. Repeat until satisfied.

MrRee

[Loubear]

You could always use the datel max media dock or the neo-ms card reader for cf cards.

I believe the neo-ms one supports 16gb cf cards, but i dont know the limit for the datel one.

[sm56pci]

Maximum supported filesystem is FAT 32GB, on either PSP or PS3 in modes from the XMB. The firmware doesn't support other filesystems builtin, but from other operating systems (like Linux) you can use greater/other filesystems.

Second problem for the PSP is the slow speed when reading filesystems with a lot files/directory's. So dumping the >100+ emulators and their full romsets would be a pain in the ass to be navigate.

Third, the ISO mounter might not be able to mount an ISO when it is put on a high sector on the HDD. But likely this problem would not occur before the 127GB limit (Don't know personally, but I suspect there isn't any 48bit LBA support in ISO mounter for MS0:// just like there wasn't any in the old HDloader for PS2).

Forth: it might be a problem finding a memorystick to USB converter. And even when it excists, I would suspect it doesn't use the parallel transfer pins (as they are only available under licence) and only serial tranfers are suported. This makes such an adapter very slow when compared to MSduo or HDD transferspeeds.


I personally find the suggestion from Mr.Ree more practical (I am using one simulair like the one mentioned with MS/CF/SD/USB inputs and 30GB)