I am also a newbie to PS2 modding. I tried searching through the previous posts for answers but there are too many too read. Some explain certain things in Newbie terms but not others, yet reading the topic posts most of them are asking the same questions, but in different verbage. So I will try to ask anewbie question like a newbie. Here goes:
1. Harddrive: Is there a pro or con when using Officail PS2 HDD vs
retail HDD, does the HDD have to be formated, if so how?
2. OS: Once HDD is installed I am aware it needs an Operating
System, Hd loader seems to be the 1st choice because its free, HD
Avdance is 2nd. I have read some PS2s doe not reconize burned discs,
so how do you load HD Loader or HD Advance? Does anyone sell the
HDD with HD Loader Or HD Advance Preloaded?
3. Once the OS is loaded how do you get the games on the HDD?
4. If using a usb HDD can all the formating and loading be done
directly from the PC prior to installing on PS2?
5. last but not least us Newbies need a COMPLETE and TO THE POINT
parts list. I have read several list and they appear like this:
Network Adaptor
HDD
MOD Chip
HD Loader/HD Advance
Discs
Lets take for instance MOD Chip. The common newbie such as myself will google mod chip and millions will show up now we comeback here and ask which one. Take HD Loader/HD Advance, google, they are different, which one or both, So on and so on. If the list were made of thing that were known to work together at a high rate of success even if expensive or not thats what we need, then after google we would come back and ask for a cheaper list. Now there aren't 3000 of the same questions. So can someone please give a detailed yet newbie friendly guide of how you got you system to work start to finish including parts. SORRY IT WAS SO LONG.
I aprreciate your time and patience you guy are great here you have give so much with this post I hope to give you some of your free time back Thanks.
basically the hard drives are the same commercial or ps2 so i would recomend using the commercial hd because they tend to give you more space and they dont cost as much because its almost imposible to get a ps2 hdd without buying finaly fantacy 11 and that costs like 99$. With 99$ you could go to best buy or somthing and get like a 120gb hdd. but your hdd has to be a serial hdd it cant be anything else or it wont work, but you need to becarfull because some hdd are not compatible with the softwares that you are gonna used. now for your second question i would recommend you to use hdd advanced because it is more reliable and i use it. It may cost a little more but i would recommend it because it seem to be better, because you can use it without using any type of hardware so thats why i would recommend it. plus it seems to be more compatible with games. for formating you hdd...well thats actually really easy if you have hd advanced. i donno about hd loader because i havet used it but with hd advanced you just put in the disk that says ps2 on it and it will automatically format you hdd for you so thats why i would recommend it. getting games onto the hdd is also really easy, but it tends to take a while. what you do is you start up you ps2 with the disk (hd advanced or hd loader. once it is loaded there will be like a tool bar type thing it will have the buttons convert, run, delete, and rename, to burn games onto your hdd simply press convert. then it should ask you to insert the disk that you want to convert so you take out the hdd disk put in the game and hit go. you also what to check the compaitbility of the game cause not all games work. there is a list but i dont know where it is so your gonna have to go and find it. i think that you can format your hdd on a computer but i have never done it so i dont know you are gonna have to go and ask somebody who has but i am pretty positive that it can be done. for your last question i honsetly dont know because i dont use mod chips. thats what i like about hd advanced. beucase you can run it on most ps2s without a mod so thats what i would use it butyou will need every thing on the list the network addapotr is for powering the hdd os you will need that, and as for everything else i think you know what they do. so now thats all the info you really need to know on how to install a hdd into your ps2 if you have any question you can email me at or you can aim me stfu188
