Update on this video: There is a newer way to install Free Mcboot! It's called Free DVD Boot! Watch my video about it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o. Free Mcboot 1.95 Noobie Package Free Memory Card Boot (FMCB) is a homebrew software which is designed to setup your PlayStation 2 console and provide you with a means of launching homebrew software, without the need for any extra hardware, modifications to your console or dangerous tricks like the legendary swap trick.
By default, Mac starts from its built-in hard disk, but a startup disk can be any storage device that contains bootable contents that compatible with your Mac. For example, if you install macOS or Microsoft Windows on a USB drive, your Mac can recognize that drive as a startup disk. This guide provides 2 ways to boot a Mac from a USB flash drive.
Requirement
Starting up your Mac from an external disk requires the following:
- Intel-based Mac.
- Bootable USB thumb drive formatted with a GUID partition type and containing an OS X installer or a usable operating system.
Let’s see how to boot a Mac from a bootable USB drive and what to do if your Mac doesn’t start up from it.
Way 1: Boot Mac from USB Drive using Startup Manager
Getting your Mac to load from a USB drive is fairly straightforward. Use the following steps, you can easily set Mac boot from an external drive in Startup Manager, so it’ll only boot from USB that one time.
Step 1: Insert the USB boot media into a USB slot.
Step 2: Turn on your Mac (or Restart your Mac if it’s already on).
Step 3: Press and hold the Option key immediately after you see the Apple logo. Holding that key gives you access to OS X’s Startup Manager. Once the Startup Manager screen appears, release the Option key. The utility will look for any available drives that include bootable content.
Step 4: Using either the pointer or arrow keys on the keyboard, select the USB drive you wish to boot from. Once selected, either hit the Return key or double-click your selection. The machine will start to boot from the USB drive.
Way 2: Set a Mac Boot from USB Drive using Startup Disk
When you use Startup Disk preferences to set Mac boot from an external drive, so it’ll boot from that disk until you choose a different one. Here is how:
Step 1: Go to Apple menu > System Preference, then click Startup Disk.
Step 2: Click the locked icon and then enter your administrator password.
Step 3: Select External drive as the startup disk, then restart your Mac.
What to do if your Mac does not boot from the selected drive
If you see a message prompts that your security settings do not allow this Mac to use an external startup disk, check the External Boot setting in Startup Security Utility, and then allow your Mac to use an external startup disk.
Step 1: Open Startup Security Utility.
Turn on your Mac, then press and hold Command (⌘) + R immediately after you see the Apple logo. Your Mac starts up from macOS Recovery. When you see the macOS utility window, choose Utilities > Startup Security Utility from the menu bar. When you’re asked to authenticate, click Enter macOS Password, then choose an administrator account and enter its password.
Step 2: Select “Allow booting from external media“.
If you want to select an external startup disk before restarting your Mac, quit Startup Security Utility, then choose Apple menu > Startup Disk.
Note: If you’re using Boot Camp in a dual-boot Windows/OS X environment, you may be unable to boot negatively into supported versions of Microsoft Windows XP, Windows Vista or Windows 10 operating systems installed on external USB hard drive.
Make sure disk has been formatted with a GUID partition type
Intel-based Macs support starting from an external USB storage device’s volume that has been formatted with a GUID partition type. If you wish to boot from the drive, it’s important to format the partition as “GUID Partition Table” rather than either of the other two ahead of time when you use that drive as a bootable drive.
Make sure your disk is bootable
Volumes that aren’t bootable and don’t contain a copy of a valid operating system aren’t listed in Startup Disk or Startup Manager. Make sure the external drive you’re trying to start from contains a usable operating system.
FreeMCBoot is one of the most tried and tested softmod methods you can find. Once you have a memory card that is FMCB‘ed, the PS2 will detect it on the Memory Card and boot it up. This guide will show you how to create a Memory Card capable with FMCB capabilities, as well as explaining how it will work. An exploited memory card will work on all versions of the PS2.
This softmod requires access to a console has already been modded, which will be used to transfer the mod data to the Memory Card.
Back up the Memory Card you wish to install FreeMCBoot on. If something goes wrong during install, you could potentially lose your game saves.
You must have either of these:
- A hardmodded PS2 console (had a chip installed to give it modded abilities).
- An original (Fat) PS2 with FreeHDBoot softmod installed on it.
- An already existing, working FreeMCBoot Memory Card.
You also need:
- A computer (operating system does not matter).
- A USB removable storage drive (512MB or more).
- An 8mb Memory Card (official 8mb is preferable, third party is a risk).
You also need the following software (all free):
Free Mcboot Ps2
- FreeMCBoot (original).
- uLaunchELF or other ELF launcher (supplied by existing mod).
The FreeMCBot package comes with a file that ends with .ELF. ELF file are executable by a modified PlayStation system, and in the package provided comes with a FreeMCBoot installer. Unfortunately, that’s why you need a pre-modded console.
FreeMCBoot Installer
Firstly, download the files above and place them on a FAT/FAT32 formatted memory stick. Extract the entire zip archive onto the memory stick, as all the files in the zip archive are required for the console to be able to open it. Safely eject the memory stick from your machine to ensure the files are correctly written to the memory stick, and then transfer it to the PS2.
Boot up the PS2 and open up uLaunchELF. Navigate to MASS:/ to access the memory stick we have plugged in. The memory stick should show up similar to above (files beginning with a dot is junk from my mac, which may not be there for you – which is fine). If so, launch up FMCBInstaller.elf.
The launcher will display the FreeMCBoot Installer, a multi-purpose tool which will allow you to prep a memory card for FreeMCBoot, as well as install FreeHDBoot to a hard drive and various other memory card related functions. For the purposes of preparing FreeMCBoot for another console, we will need Multi-install.
The FMCB installer will warn you about the multi-installation process. So long as you backed up your Memory Card, this should be okay. The warning is that the filesystem needs to be modified to allow all systems to be able to read the FreeMCBoot exploit, which is obviously not a designed function for the Memory Card. If something goes wrong during install, your Memory Card could become corrupted. FMCB Installer can revive the Memory Card, but your save data will be lost. If you back up your saves, you will be fine. If you do not back up, beware.
The system will then ask you what memory card you will like exploited. If only one is present in the Memory Card slots, it will automatically detect it. Select OK and the FMCB Installer will proceed to exploiting your Memory Card with FreeMCBoot.
Install Mcboot From Usb Flash Drive
Once the installation is complete, you can safely exit out of the installer. Once the console drops back to the browse menu, turn it off and plug your newly exploited memory card into your non-exploited console.
FreeMCBoot
When you boot your PS2 up with the FreeMCBoot memory card inserted, you will find the boot sequence will not execute. Also, instead of just ‘Browser’ and ‘System Configuration’, you should now have a lot more options available. If so, congratulations you have successfully softmodded your console!
Install Mcboot From Usb Cable
If you have opted for a multi-install as instructed in this guide, then the memory card can be used to execute the FreeMCBoot on any console that is not the latest release of the slimline console (SCPH-9000x). This means that combined with the memory stick (unless you copy your FMCB Installer files to your memory card via uLaunchELF), you can potentially install this on your friends’ consoles, and then everyone can benefit from the world of softmodding.
FreeMCBoot without Pre-modded Console
For those new to the scene, it’s a pretty tall ask to already have a modded console. If you are unable to go through the FreeHDBoot method which can be done without one, then your next course of action is to purchase a FreeMCBoot memory card.
Unfortunately we do not provide such service (yet), however the PS2 Reddit community has a contact that will do this for you with no labour charge. Simply pay the fee for the memory card unit, and they will send you one with multi FreeMCBoot pre-installed. Like mentioned in this guide, this will work for all PS2 consoles excluding the last production range (SCPH-9 range). Details can be found in the sidebar on Reddit (mobile users, click community information).
If you have any questions about FreeMCBoot, FMCB Installer or this guide, please let me know in the comments below.