HDD Unit

I finally received the HDD unit here in Japan.  I hooked it up, installed the Playstation BB discs, and installed a bunch of games that I already had on it.

Basically what the Playstation BB is is like a new OS.  Those pictures that you saw earlier on a post somewhere about the Playstation BB Navigator is simply the start up screen.  The \'Game Channel\' allows you to browse the games that you have installed on the HDD and the game that you have in the drive.  The \'movie channel\' allows you to look at the DVD thats in the drive.  It\'s not the internet explorer that I first imagined it to be.  Basically, when your ps2 starts up, you won\'t be seeing that other browser/settings screen anymore.

Anyways, other than faster load up screens, there really isnt anything special about the HDD yet.  The one I have is the external one, since my PS2 is one of the first batch that came out (yes it still works).  For the external one, there\'s a PCMCIA card that has the ethernet port and the HDD port on it, and the HDD attaches to the port.  There\'s also an external 12V power source for the HDD.  There is no modem in the package for the external device.  I am not sure about the internal device, and I have heard other stories for the U.S. release and the internal device.

I opened the HDD (removing the warranty sticker) and inside is your basic 40gig hard drive.  I have an extra 80gig hard drive here at work, so I plan to see if I could hook it up and increase the size of the HDD.  If this works, it\'ll be great!  I\'ll be back with my results tomorrow.  I don\'t see any reason as to why this won\'t work.  The connectors are your basic IDE/4pin power connectors, the installation CD formats the hard drive.  Theoretically it should work.  The only part that I\'m worried about would be the cylinder/UDMA settings and stuff like that.  Not sure if the hard drive is completely PC compatible or not.  Will find out tonight when I go home and test this out.

Any questions, suggestions, please post.  I don\'t have a broadband connection at home so I can\'t use the browser or do anything on the net with the PS2, which sux big time.  But I do plan to buy FFXI and take it back with me to the states in 2 months, so hopefully everything will work out fine.

Umm.. I don\'t think your HDD from work would be useful in your PS2. If I\'m not mistaken, the PS2 has it\'s own formating right or are they building it to be complian with Linux? Your HDD from work is probably formatted in either FAT16, FAT32, or NTSF if was hooked up to a computer running a Microsoft OS. Not sure if there is a MAC equivilent since I don\'t work with Apple machines. I doubt the PS2 would be able to recognise the File Allocation Tables and sector maps(?).. but it\'s worth a shot anyhow.

I don\'t have a really good grasp on what I\'m talking about here.. jus specualtion on the lil tidbits I do know. If anyone sees where I\'m going with this and decides to pick up where I left off, I\'d like to hear where this leads.

Good luck, and thanx for the info!

Originally posted by SonyFan
Umm.. I don\'t think your HDD from work would be useful in your PS2. If I\'m not mistaken, the PS2 has it\'s own formating right or are they building it to be complian with Linux? Your HDD from work is probably formatted in either FAT16, FAT32, or NTSF if was hooked up to a computer running a Microsoft OS. Not sure if there is a MAC equivilent since I don\'t work with Apple machines. I doubt the PS2 would be able to recognise the File Allocation Tables and sector maps(?).. but it\'s worth a shot anyhow.

I don\'t have a really good grasp on what I\'m talking about here.. jus specualtion on the lil tidbits I do know. If anyone sees where I\'m going with this and decides to pick up where I left off, I\'d like to hear where this leads.

Good luck, and thanx for the info!

Yeah but if the cd lets him format into the PS2 file format why shouldn\'t it work? Like he said the problem could be the cylinder heads etc....

SonyFan it doesn\'t matter what the hard-drive goes into (C64 yes I can\'t believe it either :eek: , Amiga, Mac whatever) so long as you can Format, it\'ll work. It matters little what it was used for before you format.

Although a drive that size would never work with the C64

Okay, I tried the 80gig(non allocated, non formatted), but it didnt work.

The main problem I was having was that the ps2 wouldn\'t recognize the hard drive as a hard drive.  The reasons I could think of are the following:
   a: Some of the IDE pins have been switched for the ps2
   b: The drive needs to be allocated for the ps2 first.  I see this as a possible problem because perhaps the install disc simply formats the harddrive, and the hard drives are pre-allocated.  I really doubt this though, because this means that every drive that comes out of the manufacturer has to be set up and allocated first before being shipped to the stores.
   c: 80gigs is perhaps too big?

What is the hdd and what does it allow you to do?

You might want to have a look at this site. They tried using another HDD on PS2..

http://niga.sytes.net/game/ps2lx.html

Run it through Altavista Translator (dont know if you know Japanese)

Hmmm... I read through the entire site, and it basically tells you how they hooked up a cd-rom drive and then a dvd drive on top of the original HDD that came with the unit.  All of this done inside the Linux environment.  Which leaves me to think that the thing that is not working when trying to use a different HDD is either the partitioning has to be done previously, or the Linux kit HDD is different than the HDD for games.  I dunno..  From the picture, the internal HD is different than the one that I have.  The picture shows a seagate model with rounded ends, mine is a different model, and didnt have the model numbers listed anywhere, nor the jumper pin settings..  =X

I cant what for the HDD for the PS2

because me like ddaryl are both looking for some heavy duty tinkering with the map creation feature in Timesplitters.




ant that right D man ?

There\'s going to be a map creation feature on Timesplitters???? Where the heck have I been????  but too bad the american version\'s probably going to be released before the japanese one   It is being developed by a U.S. company, right?
But yeah, that is something to look forward to.. I still remember them old days when I used to customize Doom..  Wadeditor was cool

I read up more on a lot of Japanese BBS and the HDD, and there was a post from someone who has the DTL-T10000 development kit.  According to him, there is a HDD format utility that comes with the DTL-T10000, and it basically formats any harddrive to work as the HDD drive. According to him, the formatting simply added specific directories.  However he did not explain what kind of partition system the PS2 uses.  More than likely it is Linux based...  More to come after more research

[Bobs_Hardware]

Originally posted by kokopuphz
There\'s going to be a map creation feature on Timesplitters???? Where the heck have I been????  but too bad the american version\'s probably going to be released before the japanese one   It is being developed by a U.S. company, right?
But yeah, that is something to look forward to.. I still remember them old days when I used to customize Doom..  Wadeditor was cool

there was in the original and it was very simple and required very little storage space.  I dont see why ooseven would need the HDD for such a thing.

then again, he\'s not making normal maps.. hes making heavy duty maps