Free McBoot for Sony PS2

Free McBoot for Sony PS2

While I was having experimenting with my G-booster PS2/PS3 Memory Card & Controller all-in-one Adaptor, it got me thinking about "how to format ps2 memory card?" while watching How to Fix PS2 Slim Memory Card Slot video and I got end up watching "Free McBoot Full Install Guide (Working on new videos to replace this one.)" video on YouTube, from there, I got extremely interested,researching like mad starting from Nobie Guide, after I got all files copied to my 16MB Pen drive.

But nothing happens, then I realized FMCB installer will not boot directly from pen drive, so I used my old retail copy of Action Replay MAX Evo Edition for Sony PS2 as shown below, mine come with EVO Drive (MAX Drive) - 16MB USB Flash Drive instead of AR MAX Memory Card.

Unlike my AR2 V2, lucky, this Action Replay MAX Evo version comes with Max Media Player, so I proceed to follow "InstallingFree McBoot with a Retail AR Max EVO" instructions.

Unfortunately, when Max Media recongised my Pen drive and got stuck with
blackscreen after playing the FREE_MCBOOT.ELF file

So I tried with another MAX Drive from MAX DRIVE package, same blackscreen problem. Then I tired another MAX DRIVE, this time with both 16MB & 128MB MAX Drives, trying to get around the incompatibility but still end up with the same problem.

While I was in full of frustration, still thinking about how to get around, so I tried to look for video tutorials and saw this video: "Free McBoot 1.8 Install Tutorial" video from YouTube.

Ah! That's why!! From 1:11 mark: I realised why I'm having problems with my MAX Drives!!! All my MAX Drives are in FAT format. So I search for fat32 formatter from Google web site, come up with FAT 32 Formatter - Ridgecrop Consultants Ltd and formatted all MAX Drives using guiformat.exe file, only my 128MB MAX Drive have been formatted with FAT32 while my other 3 x 16MB MAX Drives cannot be formatted with FAT32!!

Downloaded FCEUltra.elf from SKS Apps web site and copy all the files again to fresh FAT32 Formatted 128MB MAX Drive and follow exactly same steps as shown in
Free McBoot 1.8 Install Tutorial video.

FINALLY, it worked!! Got past the struck blackscreen stage and I choose with Multi-version install option instead of normal install in one of 16 x PS2 Memory cards, writing a  "FREE McBOOT version 1.8" label on my Memory Card.

After I've successfully installed Free McBoot onto Memory Card, and realized how easy it really is, after all that, I decided to install Free McBoot one more time except follow with AdvancedUsersGuide to get more confident, making more modifications, adding additional files to my MAX Flash Drive including INJECT (DVDPLx) & APPS folders, as well configuring Free McBoot using Using FMCBConfigurator to add MC Annihilator 2.0 onto Sony main menu.

Update on 23-09-14:

While my 128MB memory card only formatted to 64MB in Sony Browser, resulting in loosing the half of capacity space on the card, eh? So I Googled "Why formatting to 64MB on PS2 128MB card?" and "Why formatting to half size on PS2 128MB card?" while I Googled "how ps2 MCard Killer works?" at the same time and somehow I saw both Unboxing: Sony 128MB Memory Card for PS2 & FORMATEAR Memory Card Con (MC KILLER) © - YouTube video with a link for MC Killer in *.ELF file - Lovely and sweet! Thats exactly what I'm looking for, however, it didn't work, after reading all the following links below:

• The memory card format process
• Memorycard Killer help !!
• Memory card formats to half size?
• Memory Card 8mb to 16mb
• FreeMCBoot from MemoryCard 128 MB---Is It possible? Did you ever see MemoryCard 256 MB ???
• FMCB and 128mb Mem Card a success!
• memory card format
• Problem with 64 MB Sony memory card.
• 128meg-memory-card-issue
• PS2 Memory Card 128MB for Playstation 2

I've decided to give a try with installing Free McBoot onto my 128MB memory card after finished formatting to the full 128MB capacity using MC Annihilator 2.0 and guess what? It works perfectly like a charm and adding much more APPS including PS2PSXe, MC Killer, etc, etc. 

Update on 08-08-16 21:58:

I've found out there is a newer version of Free MCBoot v1.95 (Nobie Package) with uLaunchELF v4.42d from this link while browsing on the Internet and saw How to install PS1 games to a PS2 HDD (POPStarter REV 12 Tutorial) video, again I've choose Multi-version install option instead of normal install.