PlayStation 2 Expansion Bay

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3, released in November 2001, supported the Network Adapter hardware, but not the software as it was not finalized until much later.

[2] The PlayStation 2 Hard Disk Drive (PS2 HDD) was released on July 19, 2001, in Japan (together with the Network Adaptor), in Europe on May 22, 2002 (together with the Linux Kit), and in North America on March 23, 2004 (together with Final Fantasy XI).

It is not without controversy, however; the aforementioned HD Loader software for example bypasses the usual copy-protection mechanisms built into the console, leading to piracy.

The Linux Kit for PlayStation 2 was released in 2002 and included the PlayStation 2 Linux software, keyboard, mouse, VGA adapter (which requires an RGB monitor that supports sync-on-green signals), Network Adaptor (Ethernet only) and a 40 GB hard disk drive.

This can be achieved with the use of special "patched" files for the HDD-OSD, PS-BBN, and a modified version of "uLaunch" (a well-known piece of PlayStation 2 homebrew software) called "hacked-ule".

As of 2013[update], most (if not all) games that use the HDD to install data (to decrease load time) and/or to save/load (instead of using a Memory Card) can be used on any PlayStation 2 console from any region and on any HDD by using a Hex-Editor (or ATADPatcher v0.02) and some type of booting software such as "ESR" (another well-known piece of PlayStation 2 homebrew software).

If a "patched" copy of HDD-OSD and/or PlayStation BB Navigator (PS-BBN) is used, users can see all the data currently installed in the same way as with the official PS2 hard drive ("SONY 40 GB HDD", SCPH-20401).