TL; DR at bottom (but at least read the included readme.txt if you are going to use the program.)
I've also posted this on GBATemp but thought folks here might find this small batch file useful to them:
https://gbatemp.net/threads/hdlbatch-a-batch-installer-for-adding-games-onto-a-ps2-hdd.551102/,
https://gbatemp.net/download/hdlbatch.36256/.
For those using Open PS2 Loader (or HDLoader) with a Network Adapter and internal HDD, installing games can be a hassle. There are several methods for installing games, of which I will mention a few: WINHIIP, HDLGameInstaller, and HDLDUMP (and variations).
The 1.1 update adds a new feature for determining game titles. The update includes the use of gameid.txt -- game titles will now be pulled from gameid.txt (if it exists). If no gameid.txt is found, or no entry is found within gameid.txt, then the file name will be used instead. Users may choose to ignore gameid.txt altogether. Please see the readme.txt file on using gameid.txt. This file was generated from:
https://github.com/Veritas83/PS2-OPL-CFG
As some game titles are extremely long, users may want to edit gameid.txt and shorten the titles. Note, however, that the database is currently 13670 entries! Fortunately, it is organized by region code, followed by numerical ID. This is where test-mode comes into play. The current release will always run in test mode by default. In this mode, only the game type, game id, and game titles are printed. This will allow users to double check their game library to ensure that each game has a proper id (required for loading via OPL) and desired game title (and title length). Once satisfied, change a single option line inside the batch file to actually install. For large installations, you can output the info dump into a text file with something like:
HDLBATCH > info.txt
in a command line terminal with administrative rights. Please consult the readme.txt file under the FAQ section. An option for network installs was added as well (only because someone asked about it; I wholeheartedly do not recommend it as it is slow, and network connections, even direct connections, can still break for any number of reasons). This is likely the final update. I have little interest in adding any other feature, or further maintaining this package (unless it is to fix bugs/errors or incompatibilities with future versions of Windows). That said, you are welcome to convince me to add new features.
I've also posted this on GBATemp but thought folks here might find this small batch file useful to them:
https://gbatemp.net/threads/hdlbatch-a-batch-installer-for-adding-games-onto-a-ps2-hdd.551102/,
https://gbatemp.net/download/hdlbatch.36256/.
- Fast batch installer without all the bugs and tedium in Winhiip, HDL Batcher, HDL Dump Helper GUI, etc. Uses the latest version of HDL Dump (0.9.2; included) and also has a games title database that can be used for game titles. Default mode scans all games and reports on the install type, game ID, and game title. A single option, and run the actual installation with just a single mouse right-click, and 2 key presses.
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Instructions
- Connect PS2 HDD (pre-formatted with uLaunch) to your PC. Fastest speeds obtained by connecting the drive directly to your motherboard. USB adapters will work, but speeds will depend on the quality of your adapter.
- Extract the package into your games folder. CD games may be in CUE/BIN form, or even ISO (if you converted from CUE/BIN, for example, in order to make use of OPL Manager). DVD games will obviously need to be in ISO file format. Games whose filename is of the form SLUS_XXX.YY.GameTitle.ISO -- i.e. starts with game ID info from OPL Manager -- will have the game ID stripped so that only GameTitle is used. The games call all be in one folder with CUE/BIN files intermingled with ISOs.
- Right-click on the HDLBATCH.bat file, and select "Run as Administrator"; the first run will always be a test run giving a report of your games. Make sure game type, id, and titles are found (and as desired) for each game. Then edit the batch file option to set TEST=NO and re-run the batch file to do an actual install.
- Connect PS2 HDD (pre-formatted with uLaunch) to your PC. Fastest speeds obtained by connecting the drive directly to your motherboard. USB adapters will work, but speeds will depend on the quality of your adapter.
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Installing games video:
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Limitations
- The batch file does NOT check to see if the game being installed already exists on the PS2 HDD. This could potentially be an issue in instances where a game and its translation (FFXII International Zodiac Job System and its English translation) may collide because the game IDs would be the same, and long file names may not lead to unique partition names after the file name is truncated. Using shortened, unique file names should resolve this issue; e.g. "SLPM_667.50.FFXII IZJS (JPN).iso" and "SLPM_667.50.FFXII IZJS (USA).iso" or even place (JPN) and (USA) at the start of the game title in order to ensure that partition names are unique. (To my knowledge, only HDLGameInstaller has a check for existing games, but it will only ask to overwrite the existing game without an option to do otherwise.)
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Changelog:
- 1.11 - Tiny bug fix for pulling titles from gameid.txt after user manually updates title names and does not leave a trailing space
- 1.12 - Added missing "/d" flag to enable right-click run as admin from any drive (not just main drive) -- although running from a command line (with admin rights) should always work, too
- 1.13 - Fixes yet another bug (hdd targets incorrectly selected due to wrong ordering of errorlevels)
- 1.14 - Fixes an issue with file names containing exclamation mark (!); gameid.txt also updated to work around delayed expansion of variable names in the batch file
- 1.15 - Fixes an issue with 3-character file names (e.g. Gun.iso and Ico.cue)
- 1.11 - Tiny bug fix for pulling titles from gameid.txt after user manually updates title names and does not leave a trailing space
For those using Open PS2 Loader (or HDLoader) with a Network Adapter and internal HDD, installing games can be a hassle. There are several methods for installing games, of which I will mention a few: WINHIIP, HDLGameInstaller, and HDLDUMP (and variations).
- WINHIIP had been my go-to installer for a long time because of its speed. By connecting the PS2 HDD drive to a PC, one could batch install games very quickly (up to a limit of 255). However, it has a number of additional limitations: some games do not install properly, the partition naming scheme does not conform to specs outlined in the official SDK, it cannot handle 2TB drives, and is limited to 255 games.
- HDLGameInstaller is mainly a network installer, and is limited to about 7MB/s. All games, including CD games, must be in ISO format.
- HDLDUMP has a number of flavors: HDLDUMB, HDL Dump Helper GUI, HDL HDD Batcher. HDLDUMP is a command-line toolkit for installing and managing games, and HDLDUMB is a GUI interface for HDLDUMP, but lacks batch installation. It is similar to HDLGameInstaller in terms of network installation, but seems to be slightly slower (~5MB/s). Batch installs can be done using HDL Dump Helper GUI or HDL HDD Batcher (the latter being a command-line interface). HDL Dump Helper GUI can appear to be broken on more modern systems (claims of missing Java runtime environments despite the existence of one; can still be launched via command-line with admin rights). Still, who wants to have to install a Java runtime environment just for one app?! (I personally have no other use for Java.) Both Helper GUI and Batcher, however, seem to use HDLDUMP 0.9.0, which seems to be extremely slow when using USB adapters (for me, anyway; ~7MB/s using a USB 3 SATA adapter). Moreover, Batcher was quite limited (had to install CD games separately, first; DVD9 installs would always break due to a bug in the batch code).
- I recently found another batcher "toolkit" by NeMesiS after I wrote my own batch installer, but I have not tested it.
The 1.1 update adds a new feature for determining game titles. The update includes the use of gameid.txt -- game titles will now be pulled from gameid.txt (if it exists). If no gameid.txt is found, or no entry is found within gameid.txt, then the file name will be used instead. Users may choose to ignore gameid.txt altogether. Please see the readme.txt file on using gameid.txt. This file was generated from:
https://github.com/Veritas83/PS2-OPL-CFG
As some game titles are extremely long, users may want to edit gameid.txt and shorten the titles. Note, however, that the database is currently 13670 entries! Fortunately, it is organized by region code, followed by numerical ID. This is where test-mode comes into play. The current release will always run in test mode by default. In this mode, only the game type, game id, and game titles are printed. This will allow users to double check their game library to ensure that each game has a proper id (required for loading via OPL) and desired game title (and title length). Once satisfied, change a single option line inside the batch file to actually install. For large installations, you can output the info dump into a text file with something like:
HDLBATCH > info.txt
in a command line terminal with administrative rights. Please consult the readme.txt file under the FAQ section. An option for network installs was added as well (only because someone asked about it; I wholeheartedly do not recommend it as it is slow, and network connections, even direct connections, can still break for any number of reasons). This is likely the final update. I have little interest in adding any other feature, or further maintaining this package (unless it is to fix bugs/errors or incompatibilities with future versions of Windows). That said, you are welcome to convince me to add new features.
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