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Veronica Explainsveronica@explains.social
Oct 15, 2026, 4:05 PM
OK humans, here's a question:
Can someone explain how I can get PS2 saves off of a memory card and onto a PC like I'm a newb who's never once opened up her console?
I found 22-year-old save games and I'd like to preserve them for posterity (and emulation), but be able to wipe clean the memory card so my family can play with it.
EDIT: pretty sure I solved it down the thread thanks to some awesome people, I'm using an ISO called FreeDVDBoot which let me boot into a file browser.
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Replies

Veronica Explainsveronica@explains.social
Oct 15, 2026, 4:06 PM
I found a post about something called "Free Mc Boot" but it then got so jargony I couldn't understand a thing about it.
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Veronica Explainsveronica@explains.social
Oct 15, 2026, 4:08 PM
I don't think I really want to mod the PS2, at least not yet, I primarily just want to be able to get the saves off of the card so I don't have to worry about losing my 22 year old Final Fantasy progress.
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Veronica Explainsveronica@explains.social
Oct 15, 2026, 5:54 PM
So far FreeDVDBoot looks to be working a treat! Just had to burn a DVD-R which was no thing at all.
https://github.com/CTurt/FreeDVDBoot/tree/master
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Veronica Explainsveronica@explains.social
Oct 15, 2026, 5:59 PM
Basically, the idea of copying files from an old PS2 Memory Card using FreeDVDBoot looks like this:
1. Burn a DVD from an ISO
2. Put it in my stock PS2 (set to English in order for the exploit to run)
3. Boot the PS2 and you have a file browser
Then, I just plugged a USB2.0 FAT32 USB stick in and could copy the files.
I suspect for most folks, the hardest part is having a DVD-R lying around, lol
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Veronica Explainsveronica@explains.social
Oct 15, 2026, 6:07 PM
I'm now ripping Star Wars Battlefront II to see if I can load my save from the 2000s, please stand by
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Veronica Explainsveronica@explains.social
Oct 15, 2026, 6:21 PM
Shoot, apparently I need to copy the firmware from the PS2. I think there's a tool for that somewhere, someplace, somehow (I'm not gonna talk about it since I don't want to get in trouble, ha)
EDIT: here's a link - https://pcsx2.net/docs/setup/bios?softmod=freedvdboot
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Veronica Explainsveronica@explains.social
Oct 15, 2026, 6:36 PM
Well, if this isn't just the cutest little alleged violation of the DMCA?
(Don't share these files, citizens)
https://github.com/F0bes/biosdrain
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Veronica Explainsveronica@explains.social
Oct 15, 2026, 6:38 PM
Allegedly dumping these ROMs allegedly took me about 15 seconds of alleged time. Big fan of this utility.
Got to do lunch but then I'm coming back to work on this, I promise.
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Veronica Explainsveronica@explains.social
Oct 15, 2026, 7:27 PM
I'm back, it's a promising sign on my USB stick!
(allegedly)
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Veronica Explainsveronica@explains.social
Oct 15, 2026, 7:43 PM
Oh look, PCSX2 (a PS2 emulator) is in the Gentoo repos! (it's a version behind but I'm still going for it)
https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/PCSX2
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Veronica Explainsveronica@explains.social
Oct 15, 2026, 8:00 PM
Got PCSX2 installed and booted, pointed it to my BIOS and I've had great success.
In PCSX2, you can apparently create a "folder" style Memory Card. This is a virtual Memory Card that functions as a filesystem (instead of an image?). I'm planning on copying my files from my USB stick to this folder, then seeing if BattleFront II reads them.
But first, I need to boot up the PS2 BIOS in the emulator and "format" the pretend Memory Card.
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Veronica Explainsveronica@explains.social
Oct 15, 2026, 8:08 PM
SUCCESS!!! My after 21 years, my Battlefront II save status has been restored in an emulator!
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Gorgeous na Shock!indigoparadox@mastodon.social
Oct 15, 2026, 4:14 PM
@veronica FreeMCBoot is a softmod and probably overkill for this... actually, you'd need the ability to get saves onto a card before you could do it... this is the sort of thing you used to use a Dex Drive for, but these days it might just be simplest to use https://www.amazon.com/BITFUNX-PSxMemCard-Gen2-Memory-Card-Unlimited/dp/B0DQL7VC5P and use the PS2 interface copy the saves onto it and then grab them from it as mcr files via USB.
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Gary "grim" Kramlichgrimmy@mastodon.social
Oct 15, 2026, 4:33 PM
@veronica there's an old USB ps3 memory card reader you can find on ebay but wow did they get expensive. I bought one back in the day and it was for sure not 70 USD https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=ps3+memory+card+reader
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Gary "grim" Kramlichgrimmy@mastodon.social
Oct 15, 2026, 4:35 PM
@veronica to be clear, these were mad eos you could use your save files on your ps3 when playing ps1 and ps2 games. I want to say it just shows up as USB mass storage on a computer but I can't remember for certain.
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Jean-Baptiste "JBQ" Quérujbqueru@floss.social
Oct 15, 2026, 5:40 PM
@grimmy @veronica I have one of those, I can give it a try if the information can't otherwise be found easily.
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Gary "grim" Kramlichgrimmy@mastodon.social
Oct 15, 2026, 5:59 PM
@jbqueru @veronica Go for it, I have no idea where mine is :-D
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Kamihackkamihack@mastodon.cr
Oct 15, 2026, 6:24 PM
@veronica there might be copies of that firmware at the Internet Archive
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Veronica Explainsveronica@explains.social
Oct 15, 2026, 6:26 PM
@kamihack shhhh don't tell people that, we're all upstanding citizens here
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the esoteric programmeresoteric_programmer@social.stealthy.club
Oct 15, 2026, 6:28 PM
@veronica I have the ps2 bios if that's what you're talking about, and I remember it was pretty hard to get that. I can't send it here though, because the medium isn't end to end encrypted and...you know
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Glyphglyph@mastodon.social
Oct 15, 2026, 6:46 PM
@veronica glad you are having a good time with your alleged PS2, in minecraft
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mausmalonemausmalone@mastodon.social
Oct 15, 2026, 7:32 PM
@veronica Be honest - how long have you been thinking of backing up your PS2 data but kept procrastinating because you thought it would be too hard?
(Because that's what I did with the Wii and then when I finally got around to it, it all just worked like magic.)
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Veronica Explainsveronica@explains.social
Oct 15, 2026, 7:33 PM
@mausmalone Oh I only discovered that I still had this Memory Card like yesterday. I thought I'd gotten rid of it.
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Sashinsashin@veganism.social
Oct 15, 2026, 8:30 PM
@veronica Is this Star Wars Battlefront II?! I loved that game back in highschool!
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Veronica Explainsveronica@explains.social
Oct 15, 2026, 8:31 PM
@sashin Indeed, one of my all time favorites!
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Gorgeous na Shock!indigoparadox@mastodon.social
Oct 15, 2026, 8:42 PM
@veronica Ohhh, I've never had a PS2 (only a PS1), so I didn't realize they had USB ports. New consoles sure are fancy!
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GothPandagothpanda@pandapla.net
Oct 15, 2026, 4:16 PM
@veronica FreeMcBoot is a tool that let's you run any kind of code you'd like on your PS2. That will let you run a file manager, and that will let you copy those files from the memory card to a USB drive.
I can look up my notes and see about some resources that'll get you started?
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GothPandagothpanda@pandapla.net
Oct 15, 2026, 4:22 PM
@veronica actually, it looks like the FreeDVDBoot project automatically launches a file manager, so if you just want to grab the files from the memory cards, just burning the iso should be all the actual work involved.
https://github.com/CTurt/FreeDVDBoot
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Veronica Explainsveronica@explains.social
Oct 15, 2026, 4:26 PM
@gothpanda OK that's exactly the help I was looking for, thank you!!
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Sophie 🏳️‍⚧️ 🌜dfstarshine@icosahedron.website
Oct 15, 2026, 4:12 PM
@veronica If you have a version of Action Replay that has the memory card manager (I used to use Action Replay Max) you can transfer saves to a flash drive. There are programs that can covert them into different formats for use with emulators or PS3's virtual memory cards. That's how I used to do it back in the day. Dunno if there are better ways of doing it nowadays.
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Jan Philip GüntherFlippoFlip@norden.social
Oct 15, 2026, 5:34 PM
@veronica if you have a Linux machine somewhere the dd command should copy the whole memory card anywhere no questions asked. there are multiple similar tools for windows around, a bit unsure which is best.
general steps you need to take:
1. copy complete memory card to a file on PC
2. let family do whatever they want
3. copy pc backup back to memory card
in case this is too much for you I would suggest just buying another memory card from the Internet 😄
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Jan Philip GüntherFlippoFlip@norden.social
Oct 15, 2026, 5:37 PM
@veronica https://github.com/bucanero/ps2vmc-tool
seems like this could do this automatically too
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Veronica Explainsveronica@explains.social
Oct 15, 2026, 5:38 PM
@FlippoFlip have you ever done this with a PS2 memory card?
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Jan Philip GüntherFlippoFlip@norden.social
Oct 15, 2026, 5:39 PM
@veronica no, but with memory cards from other sources i have
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Veronica Explainsveronica@explains.social
Oct 15, 2026, 5:41 PM
@FlippoFlip ok, so this is an example of "you're talking about something you don't know about".
PS2 memory cards have a different physical interface than what you'd typically find on a PC.
Plus "if you have a Linux machine" shows you probably didn't look at my bio before commenting lolol
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Jan Philip GüntherFlippoFlip@norden.social
Oct 15, 2026, 5:42 PM
@veronica guilty as charged :)
A physical interface seems important though. How else would you transfer Data at all?
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Veronica Explainsveronica@explains.social
Oct 15, 2026, 5:42 PM
@FlippoFlip that's the thing I asked about
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