The PlayStation 2 hardware is old and very picky about USB drives.
folder appears empty in uLaunchELF on a PlayStation 2, it typically means ulaunchelf mass empty
This is the most frequent culprit. Modern Windows installations often default to the scheme for drives. However, the PS2 and uLaunchELF strictly require the MBR (Master Boot Record) scheme. The PlayStation 2 hardware is old and very
Mass empty operations in uLaunchELF are useful but carry significant risk, especially for PS2 memory cards. Prefer backups, use formatting where appropriate, and exercise caution with scripted bulk deletes. When in doubt, perform conservative, targeted removals. However, the PS2 and uLaunchELF strictly require the
Unplug the USB drive, boot into uLaunchELF, and then plug the drive in while you are looking at the file browser. Wait 5–10 seconds before opening mass:/ . Summary Checklist Required Setting Partition Scheme MBR (Not GPT) File System FAT32 (Not exFAT/NTFS) Cluster Size 32KB Hardware USB 2.0 (preferred) or older USB 3.0