Is buying an used hard drive a good idea? The PS2 only takes IDE and they seem hard to come by :/.

@teaduckie You can buy both (fake) SATA network adapters (without the network functionality) and kits to upgrade the original ones to SATA. I've tried both in that order and would recommend them both depending on wether you need network or not. The SATA only one might have some compatibility issues with OPL but you can usually just try a few versions until one works

@noiob Oh yeah, I've seen both :). I have a SATA disk that I can use. I just don't know which one to buy :/. I honestly don't know much about modding the PS2 and loading backups. Not even sure if I need network or not. I know some people load games over the network but I've read it's not that fast and they have problems with the FMVs. Also that some games don't run because the network functionality takes some memory. Do I need a hard drive to load games over the network though? :O.

@teaduckie you won't need a hard drive to play games from a network share. I haven't tried it myself but I haven't heard of major. If you only need network just switching to a Slim is an option.

@noiob I just don't really trust aliexpress, I've never bought anything there so it scares the poop out of me :/. They sell those "Gamestar" adapters on ebay though. I think there are different versions with the same name. I just want to give my PS2 a new life and don't rely on the aged lenses :). Could you give me the aliexpress link though if you don't mind? :). To be honest, I'm not even sure if my SATA disk works though haha ^^U. I though the SATA adapters wouldn't fit in the bay.

@teaduckie Aliexpress actually seems quite trustworthy to me nowadays, e.g. they don't give your money to the seller unless you have confirmed that everything is in order. The Gamestar adapters you get on ebay are exactly the same ones you'd get from aliexpress.