Loading from HDD

Loading from an internal HDD

On fat PlayStation 2 models, the expansion bay accepts a genuine network adapter with an ATA/IDE hard drive, and this is the fastest way Open PS2 Loader can read games. The drive sits inside the console on a dedicated bus, so load times are short and demanding titles run without the stutter that sometimes affects USB. The catch is that this option is exclusive to fat consoles, since slim models have no internal drive bay.

What this requires

• A fat PS2 (the slim cannot do this).
• The official network adapter that holds the drive.
• A compatible IDE hard drive, or a SATA drive with a suitable adapter.

Preparing the drive

1. Install the drive into the network adapter and seat it in the expansion bay.
2. Format the drive for OPL, which uses its own filesystem rather than FAT32.
3. Transfer your ISO or ZSO images onto the drive. Many people copy them over the network or by removing the drive and writing to it from a PC.
4. In OPL, enable the HDD source and refresh the list.