Hiya all,
not meaning to be a pain in the a**, but im thinking of installing a hardrive into my PS2. Ive looked thru the forums and faq's and cant find the info i need. What id like to know is once the hd is installed does that mean I can put my games directly onto the hard drive and not have to use the disc at all? Im looking at the hd idea or a chip to play my backup copys, but the hd idea sounds more appealing if thats how it works. secondly, can I use any hd, ie- Wd, seagate, maxtor? I did find a forum thread on another site, but it was suggesting I must use HD Advance software? Can anyone shed some light on the subject for me? Thanks in advance.
First, make sure you get either the regular PS2 hard drive or a Maxtor (40Gig or more). Check the compatibility list here when you buy but most maxtor work fine.
Put the model number in a search or eBay and you'll find the right one easy.
Second, you will need to buy or burn software onto a DVD (or CD might work too) that you put in your PS2 so it will detect the games on the hard drive. You can buy HDLoader software, some disk drives on eBay and iOffer come with it. There is a fully patched version, and toxic version that you can burn but I'm not sure if you can load that without a mod chip or some kind of exploit. I'm sure someone else can help you here on that as many people I know have no mod chips and do all kinds of stuff to mod their PS2s and play backups.
Make sure you understand what games you can use and check the compatibility chart. Some people find that the games they have don't work after putting all the time and money into getting set up.
If you get commercial software, the best is HDAdvance over HDLoader. If you get the patched HDLoader though, then that is better than HDAdvance so I would check into the exploits and running HDLoader.
Finally, get the program called WinHIIP so that you can install games from your PC (faster and easier on your laser). I use a USB enclosure, then take it out and put it back in the PS2. Otherwise, make sure you turn the PC off and connect the hard drive good as a slave to your existing PC hard drive before trying that method. Nice thing is, you can install ISOs that way so you want to get used to installing from your PC.
Whatever you do, don't fall for the USB eXtreme stuff, it's slow and it sucks. Even if you have a new slim model, there's a guy on iOffer that makes external hard drive kits for those (and even sells them all set up with hard drives and software).
PS2 v5 SCPH 30001-R NTSC
Magic 3 Mod Chip
For USB Advance/eXtreme I used a WD400 in a USB2 enclosure. I installed games with the official Windows interface and used USB eXtreme Free Edition to boot them.
For HDLoader I am using WinHIIP to install games onto the WD400 in the USB enclosure. Then I transfer them to a Maxtor 120 DIAMONDMAX PLUS 9 6Y120L0. I boot with Fully Patched HDLoader.
If you have questions, go to http://list.ps2hd.com/ to see what games work, and for easy exploits and flash video tutorials check http://www.ps2hd.com/
This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 24. July 2005 @ 06:20
PS2 v5 SCPH 30001-R NTSC
Magic 3 Mod Chip
For USB Advance/eXtreme I used a WD400 in a USB2 enclosure. I installed games with the official Windows interface and used USB eXtreme Free Edition to boot them.
For HDLoader I am using WinHIIP to install games onto the WD400 in the USB enclosure. Then I transfer them to a Maxtor 120 DIAMONDMAX PLUS 9 6Y120L0. I boot with Fully Patched HDLoader.
If you have questions, go to http://list.ps2hd.com/ to see what games work, and for easy exploits and flash video tutorials check http://www.ps2hd.com/
