Dumping UMD games
To read a game disc into an ISO is called "dumping" for historical reasons - it's old computer lingo for copying every single bit of a medium to a file, for archival storage or other use.
Prerequisites
- A PSP with custom firmware.
- A PC or other device with a USB port that can copy files through it
- A USB cable with a USB-Mini connector (to fit the PSP).
Steps
- Insert the UMD into your PSP.
- Connect your PSP to your PC with a USB cable.
- At the PSP main menu, press Select. In the menu that pops up (only on Custom Firmware), choose to UMD as USB Device.
- Still in the PSP menu, choose USB Connection in the Settings menu (to the left).
- On your PC, a folder will open automatically, containing a virtual ISO file representing the disc contents. To copy the game to your PC, simply drag this file to somewhere on your hard drive and the copy will start. When the copy is done, rename the file to the name of the game, and it's ready for use.
There are tools to turn ISO files into CSO (compressed ISO) files to save space, such as maxcso by [Unknown].
Digital downloads
If you have digital downloads on your real PSP, they can be used directly on PPSSPP. Just copy the EBOOT.PBP over. Note that this has not been tested as much as ISO loading so there may still be issues with some games.