Installing a PS2 HDD:
Part One - Hardware
Written By: J. Michael Neal

It’s time to open up that expansion bay for the second and final time – Sony’s official HDD has finally arrived! With it comes a major step forward in Sony’s world domination plan, as well as a free copy of Final Fantasy XI Online. But, before you take part in either of those, you’ll have to install it first. Lucky for you it’s about as easy as it could get, but that still won’t stop me from making a step-by-step guide to aid the confused…

Step One: Bask in its warm glowing warming glow.

Before you open it, you should take a few minutes to examine the box and see how cool it is. Look at you. You have a hard drive. Don’t you feel special?

Step Two: Open it up, stupid!

Ok, enough staring! It’s time to crack the seal and get your installation on. First thing you’ll see looking up at you is your free copy of FFXI. Why not take that out and have a look.

Step Three: Examine FFXI.

You’ll want to read the first 143 pages of the manual. Not now, but eventually. It’s the handbook for PlayOnline, TerraMaster, Final Fantasy XI Online, as well as the Rise of Zilart expansion and provides detailed installation instructions for the software package. PlayOnline is a very cool service SquareSoft provides PS2 owners. It’s a portal into their online games, as well as a community for gamers, where players can keep track of friends, send e-mails, chat, trade files, and manage their accounts. It has a very intuitive interface and should take no time at all to figure out.

Step Four: Remove the hardware.

Now it’s time to dig further and the box and pull out the HDD, hardware manuals, and Utility Disc. Thumb through the manuals before you begin anything so you have a rough idea of what you have to do. Once that’s out the way, turn off your PS2’s main power switch, unplug everything attached, disconnect it from the outlet, and expose the expansion bay by removing your Network Adaptor. Please note that you must have a Network Adaptor to install the HDD. They aren’t too difficult to find, and if you are the kind of person who drops $99 bucks on something like this, chances are you own one already.

Step Five: Attach HDD to NA.

Make sure you’re grounded and remove the HDD from its protective wrapper (you don’t want to fry your new hard drive, do you?). Look for the end with the connecters (note, it’s opposite the end with nothing on it) and attach the Network Adaptor like so:

It’s pretty easy; they should fit right together. Now, take the unit, slide it back into the expansion bay, and re-attach the NA to your PS2. The screws will now go through the HDD, holding it firmly into place. Reconnect all the cables, peripherals, etc. and prepare the Utilities Disc.

Yeah, installing the HDD really was that easy. It shouldn’t take more than a minute or two. Note how much extra poundage it puts on your console, huh? It’s gotta weigh twice that of an Xbox now; bad news if you’re someone who ferries their PS2 around often. Anyway, you’re almost through. Now all you have to do is install the software and check out your new system options. You’ll find that information in part two of our guide…

Installing A PS2 HDD: Part Two – Software

Posted: 3-24-04