"dumping" psp umds?

[General Chaos]

How easy is it to dump your own psp isos from the umd? I've been trying to read up on it and and have found quite a bit of discussion regarding fast loader but it seems like it might be an outdated program.

What are people using now and how easy is it to do? I usually like to rip/dump my own roms so this interests me.

[skate323k137]

its unbelieveably easy. you need CFW installed, which really isn't that hard to do if you haven't already. Assuming you're that far, you simply:

1. power on the PSP, and insert UMD. It helps if UMD auto start is turned off, but otherwise simply quit the game. From the home menu, press select, and change the USB Device from Memory Stick to UMD Drive, and exit the menu.

2. Plug in the USB cable from your PSP to your computer, and put the PSP into USB mode. The device should simply contain a .iso file (UMD9660.iso or something like that)

3. Copy that file to your computer. It could take a while as it could be anywhere from a couple hundred MB to over 1 GB.

4. when it's done copying, disconnect the PSP from the USB cord. Remove the UMD (optional) and press select again. Change the USB device setting back to Memory Stick. Exit the menu, and again go to USB mode and attach the USB cable. Re-name the ISO to whateveryouwant.iso, and create a folder in the root of the Memory stick called ISO. Copy it onto your memory stick and you're done.

Some people are able to do things like remove the update files, this i have never done. There is also a PSP iso compressor tool available, But i've found it can affect gameplay on some titles if you compress it too much.

edit; upon futher investigation, i believe i've figured out how to remove the update files. I mounted the ISO using alcohol 120%, and was able to locate the update files. I believe one could copy all the files off of the virtual drive, delete the update files, and create a new iso. It would appear to save only about 20MB though, So i'm not going to waste my time unless someone really wants to know for sure if that method would work. I've got an 8GB stick with about 5 of my own iso's on it along with boatloads of other stuff, so missing 100 MB doesn't bother me too much.

[General Chaos]

Thanks--that's a really straightforward guide. I'm assuming you have to keep your firmware up to date to run the ISOs, correct? Is that simply a matter of placing some sort of install file in the root directory and booting the psp?

[skate323k137]

Custom firmware runs the isos fine as long as your CFW is new enough to run the same game off of the disc. Updating CFW is pretty easy, theres usually an update you place in your "PSP\GAME\" folder and run like a normal program. To play ISO's, You do however have to change one other option in that "select menu"; there is an option that says UMD ISO Mode: Change it from Original to M33 driver and you're all set.

I'm running 3.80 M33-5 on one of my PSP's, and 4.01 M33-2 on my slim. I haven't ran into any games yet that I couldn't play. I guess version 5 is out now and supports the PS3 features, but since I don't see myself buying a PS3 this century, I haven't bothered to upgrade. Whatever you do, don't run an official sony update as it will brick your PSP and you'll have to get out the pandora battery and magic memory stick again.

[MrPopo]

Yeah, definately never install OFW again after putting on CFW. But the nice thing about the latest M33 releases is they have their own online update they can do.