Monster Rancher and HD Loader
 

The HD Loader compatibility list website (I forget the address) states that both Monster Rancher 3 and 4 work fine, but I have encountered some trouble with the monster generation system and cannot find any other info on this topic. I tried running Monster Rancher 3 off of a hard drive with HD Loader and all went well until I tried to generate a monster from CD at the beginning of the game. The game said the disc tray would eject, but it never did so I ejected it myself and inserted the disc -- nothing happened, the game remained frozen.

Is there any way to get Monster Rancher to run off the hard drive while maintaining the ability to generate monsters from disc?

I have a version 7 NTSC PS2 w/ Duo2SE.

I've never played that game...so I can't relate to everything you are saying about it... Have you tried the different modes you can start the game using (example: hit select on the main menu on the game you wanna change, and choose mode 1, 2, or 3. Or any combo of them.) Just a thought. Those compatiblilty sites aren't always correct, I installed Crazy Taxi directly to my HD via IDE and it plays fine, but the compatibilty sites say its incompatible. If not your just going to have to resort to playing Monster Rancher with your original. :) Good luck.