PSP memory stick capacity

The potential and the limitations of expanded storage

As many of you would know, the PSP tends to cap out at a maximum of 128GB of storage. There have been some who have achieved higher, either with special formatting (both with the dual adaptors or the single card adaptors) or for some, the adaptors just work with higher capacity with no special process - most adaptors, however, cannot do anything above 128GB. Why is this so?

The following information is based on info/research compiled by myself and Paul Wittek, with some assistance from Lusid1, and Mehdi Souayeh.

So, why is it that some users have PSPs running higher than 128GB while others find they can do 128GB but no more?

Limitations are, initially, related to software, for example, in the early days of PSP the firmware didn't even allow for a card greater than 4GB. Eventually, after various official firmware updates, PSPs were able to read cards up to 32GB.

With CFW (and with the use of adaptors that essentially act as a RAID device), as well as newer OFW releases, this limitation is increased, however, there are still limitations, and these limitations aren't related to the micro SD but rather, the adapter itself - inside the adaptor is a tiny integrated circuit. Some adaptors (typically older stock) allow greater than 128gb and can have a readable capacity of 256GB+, but most any (all?) adaptors being produced/sold today cap out at 128gb. This seems to be most likely related to cheaper integrated circuits inside of the adaptor.

So, what's the conclusion? If you're buying a PSP adapter expect the maximum readable capacity to be 128GB. If that's not enough, get another micro SD and an extra adaptor and swap in/swap out as needed.

For a detailed test and analysis, please check out the video below from Total Kommando's Youtube channel: