Some time ago it came to my attention that the inventory of a bankrupt game developer was going to be up for auction. As a fanatic game collector my interest was triggerd , and i had bid on and won a big lot of pc and console parts. This marked the moment that i was introduced in the illustrious world of game developing hardware in this lot among many things ,where six harddrives , 3 of them are internal HDD's (nicely boxed) and 3 external HDD's the external drives are 40 GB and the model number is DTL-H20400, and have their DTL-H10020 powersupply's Sadly only one DTL-H10010 PCMCIA card was included. I believe these are used for a PS2 Tool. The internal HDD's are also 40 GB ,have their original box, and have Model number SCPH-20401 EL and a PAL logo They appear to be used ,as the antistatic packaging of them had been torn open. After a quick look on google , i learned that the HDD never saw a release in the PAL region , and yet in front of me there was a white HDD box that said "PAL" Could they be released exclusifly to Developers for development use ? I hope someone knows more and can enlighten me, it would be great to know what i have And a equally inportant question is , "What is on them ? " Is it possible to read their contents ? Bought a DTL-H30002 whith a Development network adapter (i thank Wombat for that) Slapped it in , did not do a thing Next ,i tried HD Advance (i thank Shinebi for that) , didn't work , it asked me to format , did not want to do that I havend dared to plug it in a PC ,god knows what happens if i do... I also have a Startup card , maybe that has something to do with it ? Is it possible to read the content of the 3 external HDD's with a DTL-H10000 ?
I'm sure l_oliveira will help answer the questions (and other members will surely help as well). Are you sure about this? The PS2 Linux kit was released in the PAL region, so I would assume the HDDs from that kit had the PAL logo. On a side not: Although the region is mentioned, I don't think the HDDs are region protected. As to reading the contents of the discs: the PS2 uses its own filesystem, which I'm sure Windows can't read, and AFAIK GNU/Linux and MacOS can't read either. Your best (and only?) choice would be to read it within the PS2.
You could try running ulaunchelf on the DTL to see if the hdds contain any partitions. Get the following file, unrar, burn and run it on your PS2 http://lorezan.free.fr/ps2/ule442ps2dump_EU.rar It should be in filebrowser>misc>HDD Manager The startup card is probably related to this: http://www.snsys.com/playstation2/proviewplus.asp There are a few threads about it in the forums, you'll have to search a bit... What happens if you put it in the DTL and then turn it on?
I would love to see pictures of all your toys man. You could always try making a Free McBoot memory card on a regular PlayStation 2 and popping the internal Hard Drives in and having a look what's on there that way?? It may ask you to format the drives, but if it does then stop like you did before. If you have the resources, then you should try and make a Free McBoot card on a V0 PS2 as well, so that you can read the external drives.
The HDDs are not region locked. What never existed (publicly) was a utility disc that formatted them on a format suitable for European PAL (Australian would need a specific disc for the HDD to work in it, too) PS2 consoles. Since the PS3 cat went out of the bag all sort of stuff including putting SONY harddrives on PAL (Both Euro or AU) consoles using modified USA software has been possible. So your newly acquired Hard Drives can be useful for yourself or someone else. Btw, they will probably work for DNAS protected titles such Final Fantasy XI. I bought three (2 external, one internal) from some EBAY seller a year and half ago and only the internal one would not work with FFXI, but worked with the HDD utility disc just fine. I suspected the internal unit is a prototype and it is surely not compatible with DNAS authentication.
