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.

@teaduckie for which to buy, "the cheapest I can find on aliexpress" has worked quite well for me

@teaduckie I find having all my games on the hard drive the most convenient, especially since that way I can take my PS2 anywhere. I just wanted to the network to play Resident Evil: Outbreak online, tbh