SCPH-20401 EL HDD (Pal?)

It does not detect at all ?
You should never use any write operation of the program on a drive that is working.

You know how to put the PCB on "safe mode" ?
A certain jumpers position will cause the PCB to detect as "MAXTOR ROMULUS" instead of the numerical model number it has normally. From that you load the loader and with the loader (temporary firmware) you gain access to the drive overlays, which allow you to investigate why it does not boot on normal mode.

On a working drive, you just connect the drive to the jig, open the appropriated PC3k software portion (the ROMULUS has a specific PC3K module for it's family) and just dump the overlay files. No need to put it on safe mode, even.

 

I offered the guy £13 and they accepted so I'm getting one for £18 posted. Will go in my arcade cab with PS2.

These must be stolen or something.. lol

 

If anybody has a PAL copy of Dark Chronicle, it may well be compatible with this HDD. They never removed HDD support from the Asia version, so this may be the same with the PAL version.