HDD(Hard Disc Drive) fitting guide

So You Want a Hard Drive in Your PS2?
Ok. Let's get down to business. Here's what you'll need:

A Hard Drive! - Maxtor drives work the best. According to this chart, the Maxtor 6Y120P0 has had the highest success rate of all drives, and fits the easiest, et cetera. However, it will only hold 120 GB worth of games; most games are around 4 GB, so you'll be limited to around 30 Games for this drive. The earlier versions of the software needed to use the HD only support drives up to this size, but the newest releases can utilize drives that hold up to 200 GB. Only a regular IDE drive will work with the PS2. One can use another brand of drive, but then some tampering with the PS2 Network Adapter may be necessary.

PS2 Network Adapter - You need the official kind that hooks onto the back of the PS2: This is the ONLY way you can install a hard drive to your PS2.

Software to let you use the drive - Ok, this is pretty straightforward. You need a disc that you can use in the PS2 to let you load the games. This is something that needs to be purchased, unless your PS2 is already modded. But that's not what we're talking about here. We're talking about a PS2 that is unmodded, and will remain as such, but will be able to play "backups."
HDAdvance 3.0 can be purchased from www.discoazul.com for £20.19 inc P&P (They ship across Europe).

PS2 - Ok yeah this won't work without the PS2. Sorry. (Also does not work with the new slim line models)

Here's the technical part:

This is what your PS2 should look like from the front. If it's not looking like this, you have a problem that I must not be able to help with.

Your new Maxtor Drive. (if you choose Maxtor)

A good look at business end of the network adapter. You can clearly see where the IDE and power cable from the hard drive will go (lower right and lower left sockets, respectively).

All of our friends together.

If you purchased a Maxtor drive as recommended, your Network adapter and drive should slide together very easily, as pictured above. See how comfortable that looks?

Slide the Adapter coupled with the HD into the PS2 as shown...and then secure it with the screws.

Ok, so that's about it if you're just backing up games to the PS2 HD. Just pop in a game, choose "convert" and wait for it to finish transferring to the disc. This will not work for dual layer games I hear. You need to first back up the image to your computer, then use another program to send that image to the PS2 Hard Drive. Details for this will be available shortly..
Information supplied by Noah @ blogger.com