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Using A PlayStation 2 HDD In Your PC

Posted At : January 7, 2007 1:26 PM | Posted By : todd sharp
Related Categories: Gaming

Over the last few days I've been doing some conversion of old VHS tapes to DVD and quickly found my tiny 40gb hard drive getting completely full. So this morning I hopped in the car and went searching for some bargain HDDs, but all the stores around here seemed to have jacked their prices through the roof now that Christmas is over. I quickly remembered that I had another 40gb HDD sitting in my desk drawer that came from my PlayStation 2. I originally bought the drive (for $99!!) to use with Socom 2, but since the PS2 is on it's last legs (see pic) I decided to use it as extra storage in this trusty old Dell.

My PS2:

my ps2

I had a little trouble getting it all set up, but now that I'm done I thought I would document the steps that I took in case anyone else is trying to get this done too. Disclaimer: I'm a developer, not a hardware geek so if your PC explodes by following these steps I'm not to blame. These steps are for use with Windows XP.

Afterthought: Power down the damn machine first please.

Step 1: Remove all jumpers. The PS2 HDD that I have happens to be a Maxtor (model # 2F040L0) and a quick check of the Maxtor docs told me that this particular drives acts as a slave when all jumpers are removed.

Step 2: Plug your PS2 HDD into a spare IDE port (I had a spare cable on hand that was clearly labeled for motherboard, slave and master inputs.

Step 3: Plug in a spare power lead from your motherboard. (See disclaimer above - don't blow anything up please).

Step 4: Secure HDD (or be lazy like me and lay that bitch on the bottom of the case) and close case.

Step 5: Power up PC.

Step 6: If not recognized by windows, install new hardware.

Step 7: At this point Windblows will not recognize the new drive, so right click My Computer, choose Manage, then choose Disk management. At this point you should see the drive as unallocated (I think that's what it was called - again, me = hardware noob). Right click on the 'unallocated' disk space and choose partition. You'll want to make sure the File System matches your original C file system type. Walk through this simple wizard and kick off the format/partition. Once it's complete you'll be all set. In my case I created a G drive that now has about 38gb of free space for me to use.

That's about it. Please feel free to let me know if anything that I've done here is incorrect or could be done better. But it works for me, so I'm happy.

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What happened to your PS2 to put it on it's last legs? Looks like it may have been dropped.

# Posted By Ryan Everhart | 1/7/07 1:57 PM

It started giving me disc read errors and what was happening was that the gear that spins the disc was getting stuck - so i leave the lid off and give it a tap when i boot a disc and it starts spinning

# Posted By todd sharp | 1/7/07 3:09 PM

That's awesome.

Are you going to use that memory card?

# Posted By fernando lopez | 1/8/07 8:51 AM

The PS2 still runs, i just didn't need/use the hdd anymore - so yeah, i use the memory card still ;)

BUT - i played the 360 last night for the first time and I'm HOOKED...i'm going to pick one up next month I think!

# Posted By todd sharp | 1/8/07 9:07 AM

I just did this and I gotta say, this is awesome.

I stopped using my PS2 HDD a while ago and wanted to know if there was a way to hook it up to my PC for extra storage instead of having it lying around.

Thank you very much.

# Posted By Kevin | 7/8/07 10:46 PM

No prob Kevin. Pretty nice to have the extra storage, eh?

# Posted By todd sharp | 7/10/07 9:14 PM

Wow. After installing my old ps2 hdd into an external case, I looked all over the web for a walkthrough just like this. Thanks for the help! I'm using it to converting/transferring music and video to my PS3. You rule.

# Posted By Jason Trench | 8/7/07 8:25 PM

how did you remove the harddrive mounts?

# Posted By anonymous | 8/30/07 3:01 PM

A Torx bit will remove it

# Posted By Tokimemofan | 11/25/07 4:01 AM

just did this and it worked! now i can have enough space on my computer to fill up my ipod

# Posted By Kyle | 2/23/08 3:08 AM

Hello there

I have seen you =had= a ps2 with its hard disk, I wonder if you have the HDD utility disc

if you have it and you wish to sell it send me a mail

I'm currently developing a project (see page)

# Posted By Andres Hernandez | 3/25/08 11:25 PM

I have a PS2 but the DVD-Rom is busted,won't shut.So following the instructions,can I take it out,and put it in a PC case running WinXP,and play PS2 isos,or Roms? Sorry,I'm a noobie...

# Posted By nazsmostwanted | 4/2/08 11:01 PM

Forgot to say...can I use the DVD-Rom already installed in my PC to play PS2 Games if I follow the instructions and put the PS2 inside a case using winxp?

# Posted By nzsmostwanted | 4/2/08 11:07 PM

I seriously doubt it. A PS2 processor would likely be required, it's more then just a DVD drive...

# Posted By todd sharp | 4/3/08 10:15 AM

good job im 12 and just did this works fine gotta say you really know what your doing

# Posted By SoCoMmAsTeR | 4/25/08 10:31 PM

i've been wanting to upgrade my ps3 hdd and have read that i would need a external hdd to transfer my downloads and saves before and after installing the new drive. i remembered i had a huge hdd in my ps2 which used to be a external hdd but got switched to the ps2. after following your guide to convert it back to a normal hdd that windows would read all i can say is thank you for this. you have saved me about £50.

# Posted By Flightx | 5/8/08 1:30 PM

Thanks alot, mate! I had a few hard drives I stored games on, and decided to convert them to movie HDDs, and I couldn't figure out how to get them back to fat32.

Greatly appreciated!

# Posted By Monkeymook | 5/25/08 9:42 PM

Thanks, this really helps. Once I installed it I was wondering why it wasn't getting recognized. Little stupid me forgot to check My Computer/Manage/Disk Management.

Now, I have a problem with this. I do not want to format it. I want to remove the data found in the HDD. It contains Screenshots of FFXI of about 4 years ago and I want to recover them. Any suggestions?

Thanks.

# Posted By Azafaraht | 8/3/08 5:43 PM

Well dang. Thanks man, my uncle who owns a Video Game shop had a PS2 harddrive in the junk box, I snatched it, and will definetly use this to hook it up. Game Force in Reno, Next to Costco in Airport square. Go there, and buy a game. Not a advertise, but hell, I hate Gamestop, we will sell ANY game cheaper than them.
Feel free to delete this, if needed, I just googled and whatnot.
But yeah, thanks for the information.

# Posted By Vodin | 8/27/08 10:16 PM

Thank you this was very helpfull!

# Posted By Studi0wink | 8/30/08 5:49 PM

Thanks so much for the guide man! I did have a more specific question though, since I didn't see it listed anywhere.

I'm really bad with setting up hard drives and the like, so do you know if it'd be possible to set the PS2 drive as the master? See, I have an old computer sitting around that doesn't have a working HDD, so I figured I'd just throw this one in there for now, but I wasn't sure if that was possible.

If you could give me some info on this I'd be really greatful.

Thanks in advance,

-Sean

# Posted By Alacres | 11/8/08 10:17 AM

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