Memory Stick Duo

From PSPWiki

Memory Stick is the proprietary format for flash memory made by Sony. Third-party versions are available only from Sandisk and Lexar. The Memory Stick Duo format was made with a greatly reduced form factor for smaller portable devices. Memory Stick PRO Duo cards support higher capacity and faster transfer speeds.

While the PSP can also use the Memory Stick High Speed Duo, it cannot yet use the full speed offered by this device. There have been no words yet as to whether it is a hardware limitation or a firmware limitation. The PSP presently reads and writes the High Speed Duo Cards using the same speed as the PRO Duo Cards.

Table of contents

1 Specifications 2 File Structure 2.1 PSP 2.1.1 GAME 2.1.1.1 UPDATE 2.1.2 MUSIC 2.1.3 PHOTO 2.1.4 SAVEDATA 2.2 MP_ROOT 2.2.1 100MNV01 2.3 DCIM 2.3.1 101MSDCF 2.4 MEMSTICK.IND 2.5 MSTK_PRO.IND 2.6 HIFI 2.7 CONTROL 2.7.1 PACKAGES 2.7.1.1 PKGxxxxx 3 Related Information

Specifications

Size: 31.0(W) x 20.0(H) x 1.6(D) mm (1.22 x 0.79 x 0.06 in.)

Memory Stick Duo transfer speeds:

• Read: 2.5 MB/s
• Write: 1.8 MB/s

Memory Stick PRO Duo transfer speeds:

• Transfer: 10 MB/s
• Min. Write: 1.88 MB/s

Memory Stick High Speed Duo transfer speeds (Cards specifications):

• Transfer: 40 MB/s
• Min. Write: 2.41 MB/s

File Structure

PSP GAME UPDATE MUSIC PHOTO SAVEDATA MP_ROOT 100MNV01 DCIM 101MSDCF MEMSTICK.IND MSTK_PRO.IND HIFI CONTROL PACKAGES PKGxxxxx

Formatting your Memory Stick Duo with your PSP will create an MS-DOS partition, and will make most of the folders needed for the supported file structure for you (PSP folder, except UPDATE directory). The file structure is shown on this tree and described in detail below.

PSP

This is the main folder that contains the basic PSP sub-directories for normal functionality.

GAME

The Game directory will presumably be used to store downloadable games. In the future, this folder will be where all Firmware updates are run from. It is also the only directory that allows code to be executed.

UPDATE

This is where game updates, and also firmware updates will be placed, either manually or by downloading via network update.

MUSIC

This folder is used to store your MP3 music files (ATRAC3plus™ is stored in folder HIFI). You can add sub-directories to sort by album or genre, or leave the files in the parent Music directory. You can only go one level deep with subdirectories.

You can also place a playlist in this directory and/or the sub-directories. A plain text file with the extension .M3U serves as the playlist, and simply contains the filenames of your music files, in the order you want them to play.

PHOTO

This is the directory to store your JPEG (.JPG) images. Sub-directories can likewise be put in this directory in the same fashion as the Music directory to catagorize your images.

SAVEDATA

This is the folder that your games use to store game saves, profile data, and other information that is stored for later use by the game. Each folder created by the games corresponds to a particular bit of save data, whether it be level progress, a character profile, or a saved race / instant replay.

These save folders can be shared between users either by borrowing the Memory Stick, or copying it to a computer and transferring to a different Memory Stick.

The save data can be identified by the first nine characters in the folder name. These correspond to the characters and numbers found on the bottom of the spine of the game's box.

MP_ROOT

The MP_ROOT directory is the parent directory for your video files. The video files must reside inside the 100MNV01 sub-directory.

100MNV01

Videos in this directory must be named M4V00001, M4V00002, M4V00003, etc., with an .MP4 extension. .THM thumbnail files identically named are optional.

DCIM

DCIM (Digital Camera IMages) is a folder automatically created by digital cameras that use Memory Stick media to store images. The images themselves will be in sub-directories following the naming convention of xxxMSDCF, where xxx is a number from 100 - 999. It is not necessary to move the images out of these directories and into the PSP's Photo directory, as they will show up in a "Digital Camera Images" subcategory in the photo browser.

101MSDCF

This is an example sub-directory.

MEMSTICK.IND

This is a 0 length (empty) file created by the PSP format option.

MSTK_PRO.IND

This is a 0 length (empty) file created by the PSP format option. This file is exclusive to the Memory Stick Pro media.

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When using ATRAC3/3+ soundfiles, you'll have additional folders and files:

HIFI

A3xxxxxx.MSA + ATRAC3 or ATRAC3PLUS song files

GPxxxxx.MSF + ATRAC3 or ATRAC3PLUS group info and names

PBLIST.MSF

GPLIST.MSF

MGCRL.MSF

0001000A.MSF

CONTROL

NAME.MSF

PACKAGES

DEVICE.SAL

PKGxxxxx

package.xml + Song information in XML format similar in function to ID3V2 tags

Related Information

• See also File Formats.
• If you are interested in using normal memory sticks in your psp check out this article @ psp-vault.com (http://psp-vault.com/Article63.psp).