Magic Memory Stick
A Suitable Magic Memory Stick. It is a 1GB Sandisk Memory Stick Pro Duo
A Magic Memory Stick refers to any memory stick that has been converted to boot, and work with a Pandora Battery. Depending on the method of creation, a Magic Stick can either downgrade or boot PSPs to 1.50 FW (Phat), upgrade any PSP to 3.71/3.80 M33, and their counterparts, or be able to launch various homebrew.
Creation
The real legit method of creation requires a PSP that is homebrew-enabled. Also, it will require any app that can write the ipl file to the memory stick. Also, it will require a memory stick that is a PRO DUO between 256MB and 4GB and it must be real (However, with the use of the UPMS Installer, a fake memory stick can be converted to work properly as a Magic Stick).
Also, the methods of preparing a memory stick has dramatically increased since the 1.50 Pandora where the use of Magic Sticks have originated.
Methods
There are various methods in which a Magic Stick can be converted successfully. The most popular has been the use of the Ultimate Pandora Memory Stick Installer (UPMS), which the latest version (v3) installs a Magic Stick that can not only boot between Service Mode, and the XMB via coldboot, but also has the options to run Pandora to 1.50, or Despertar Cementerio v3/v4. Also, it has a tools menu where it can launch jas0nuk's ELF menu. All of this is controlled through Ghost's Ultimate Loader menu.
UPMS Installer
Overfiendx's Ultimate Pandora Memory Stick Installer installs the 1.50 Pandora, Despertar Cementerio v3/v4, Hellcat's and J0ker's Pandora Menus, as well as a Tools Menu which has access to Jas0nuk's ELF Menu. All of this is controlled via Gh0st's Ultimate Loader. Currently, the latest version of UPMS comes in .cso format which will require a PSP that is setup to load ISO images. Install takes up about 150MB. The newest version is UPMS Sapphire
Despertar Cementerio
A Despertar Cementerio-ready Magic Stick can be prepared for use, just as the 1.50 Pandora. However, the install process involves the 1.50, 3.40, and 3.71/3.80 update eboots. (Depending on version used)
1.50 Pandora
1.50 Pandora requires a PSP that can run 1.50 homebrew. In Addition, this method will only work on Phat PSPs. This process requires a memory stick that is properly reformatted and repartitioned, where the first ~250kb sector is for Pandora. Also, this requires a decrypted ipl, that will be able to launch the service menu, instead of booting to the XMB with a Pandora Battery inserted. Reformatting/repartitioning, and writing the ipl all takes command prompt, or equivalent. Due to Windows Vista unable to boot cmd scripts, the repartitioning, and reformatting steps will not work properly. However, writing the ipl will work fine if it is launched under an 'administrator' prompt. Also, this process is known to work on Linux distros.
Hellcat's Pandora Installer
Due to the original 1.50 Pandora apps not working on Slims, or (at the time) the released 3.71 M33 firmware, Hellcat developed an installer that will do every step needed for a full 1.50 install. The installer will only perform certain steps if the firmware eboot is present on the root of the memory stick, named as 'UPDATE.PBP'. In Addition, the installer is known to convert both Phat and Slim batteries to Pandora, and back without much problems.
Usage
Regardless of the method used to create the Magic Stick, all requires the use of a Pandora Battery. Once obtained, the Service Menu will boot once the battery, and Magic Stick has been inserted into the PSP within the required time limit. (Can range from 20 seconds to never-ending) Once booted, different various actions can be performed depending on the method that was used to make the Magic Stick.
A Magic Stick can be used as an ordinary memory stick once the formatting, and repartitioning step has been performed. In Addition, a Magic Stick can have its ipl rewritten with Booster's Multi-IPL loader in which, a user can boot to the XMB with a Pandora Battery, and still have the option to boot to Service Mode as long as the Pandora Battery is inserted, and booted by holding L during a coldboot. In Addition, a Magic Stick can boot normally with a regular battery inserted.
Deletion
If for some reason, a user feels that they need to revert their Magic Stick to a normal memory stick, it is possible. The easiest way to do this is via formatting. However, if the user is using the Magic Stick with other storage data, a backup needs to be performed in case data is lost. However, if it is just a regular Magic Stick, it can be formatted.
Limitations
Command Prompt Issues
Due to the command prompt interface that the original creation method of a Magic Memory Stick used, mostly Windows XP users could benefit through this process. All of the Vista OS systems lacked support for command prompt scripts and therefore failed to operate. In both cases of reformatting, and writing the ipl via command prompt, Vista refused to reformat the memory stick so it can hold the ipl. Due to this, the regular ipl could not fit onto the boot sector of the memory stick since it requires 32 sectors while the memory stick under a regular partition has 31. However, users have found that the 'msinst' application of command prompt works fine under administrator mode. But, due to the small space, and if a user lacked access to a Windows XP computer, whether physically, or through emulation, a smaller ipl had to be used. One ipl that worked was Booster's Multi-IPL.
Linux
At first, the Magic Stick could not be completely created on a Linux machine. However with the use of a terminal to reformat the memory stick to use the VFAT file system, and use the terminal to write the ipl. (See code below) In this case, the boot sector space for the ipl would be big enough to hold the standard ipl. Therefore, seeking another ipl was not needed.
Mac
Mspformat or msinst cannot be run on a Mac. However, if the Mac can be booted natively into a Windows XP, Vista, or Linux system via Bootcamp, the user can thus use the appropriate methods to create the Magic Stick.
Technological Details
When a psp's battery serial number is changed to 0xFFFFFFFF the PSP boots the ipl from sector 16 on the physical drive(the memory stick). This file can be installed by using msinst in team c + d's Pandora Battery Package or in linux by using:
dd if=msipl.bin of=/dev/sde bs=512 seek=16 sync
Instructions on formatting a memory stick in Linux using fdisk and mkfs. vfat can be found on the internet as well, so not only Windows, but Mac and Linux users can also make these Magic Memory Sticks.