How to Create a Bootable Free McBoot Memory Card for PS2

How to Create a Bootable Free McBoot Memory Card for Your PlayStation 2

Author: Sal - The Tech Loft

Unlock the full potential of your PlayStation 2 by creating a bootable Free McBoot memory card. This step-by-step guide will walk you through the process, allowing you to run emulators, homebrew applications, and more on your PS2. Let's get started!

What You Need

• A modded PlayStation 2
• A blank 8MB PlayStation 2 memory card
• The Free McBoot files (available online)
• A USB stick
• The ULaunchELF software (burned to a CD)

Steps to Create a Free McBoot Memory Card

1. Prepare Your Modded PS2: Insert the ULaunchELF CD into your modded PS2 and reboot. This will load the ULaunchELF software.
2. Download Free McBoot: Find the Free McBoot files online, unzip them, and save them to a USB stick.
3. Navigate to the USB Stick: Using the ULaunchELF file browser, go to the mass storage option to access your USB stick.
4. Run Free McBoot Installer: Locate the Free McBoot installer file (e.g., FMCBInstaller.elf) and execute it.
5. Install Free McBoot: Follow the on-screen prompts to install Free McBoot onto your memory card. Select the multiversion install option for compatibility with multiple PS2 models.
6. Test Your Memory Card: Insert the memory card into an unmodded PS2. You should see the Free McBoot menu upon booting.

Important Tips

• Create a folder named BOOT on your USB stick and copy the ULaunchELF files into it. This allows the memory card to call ULaunchELF directly.
• Free McBoot also enables you to run emulators for classic systems like NES and SNES, as well as other homebrew apps.

Why Use Free McBoot?

Free McBoot transforms your PS2 into a versatile console capable of running homebrew, emulators, and even networked applications. It’s an essential upgrade for any PlayStation 2 enthusiast!

Video Tutorial

Prefer a visual guide? Watch my video tutorial on YouTube for a detailed walkthrough:

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Before we begin, let be clear that you will need access to a PlayStation 2 (PS2) that will play CD-Rs. This usually means that the PS2 is already modded. I know it’s very weird to read that in order to make an Exploited memory card, you’ll need a modded system already..when we’re trying to use the exploited card to soft mod our systems. But the fact remains, you need a modded PS2 to read the files on the CD-R to exploit your Sony Memory Card.

I hope the documentation I’ve provided to you will be easy to understand and follow through. I’m going document how I created my own bootable memory card. Here’s what you’ll need:

• access to a modded ps2 console
• a blank memory card
• a usb memory stick
• ULaunch.ELF
• FREE MCBoot
• your own unmodded ps2 console

STEPS

-Unzip and burn ULaunch.ELF to a CD
-Unzip and copy FREE MCBoot to your USB memory stick
-Create a folder called BOOT/ in your USB memory stick and throw ALL the files from the ULaunch.ELF zipped folder into the BOOT folder
-Connect your modded PS2 to your television
-Insert your USB memory stick into one of the USB ports on the modded ps2
-Turn the modded system on and load the ULaunch.ELF cd

-Follow the instructions when ULaunch.ELF loads. The “O” botton acts like thge “X” button when you want to select and navagate into a directory. So hit ‘DOWN’ (to Filebrowser) on the directional pad and hit “O”.

-So now you’ll see all the device drives you have on your PS2. MC0:/ = memory card slot 1, MC1:/ = memory card slot 2, mass:/ = whatever is connected to your usb slot, cdfs:/ = cd rom. Scroll down to ‘mass:/’ and press “O” to display the files on your USB memory stick.

-The image above shows all the files on my USB memory stick. Now scroll down to ‘FREE_MCBOOT.ELF” and press “O” to load the application.

-After a few seconds, FREE MCBoot loads and you’re ready to begin creating your boot memory card. So first FORMAT your card to get it nice and clean. Then, select ‘Multi-Version Install” (just to be safe). Once complete, setup your unmodded system to your television if it’s not already connected.

-Now if you only insert your memory card into the unmodded ps2 and turn it on, you should get the screen above. Now if you try and Launch Free McBoot, the screen will go black but then return to the above again. What you need to do, is also insert your USB memory stick.

-Once you insert the USB memory stick and reboot your system, the above image should be seen. If you do see it, you have been successfull in creating you memory card boot. Now you’ll get to have some fun with playing mp3s files, DIVX movies, SNES, MAME, Atari etc. through emulation.