I can haz HDLoader?

[ssj9999-id]

So now that my old fatty PS2 is fixed up, I want to use it to play backups. I haven't got a soldering iron nor have I ever soldered anything before, so I'm looking into using HDLoader to load the games from an IDE HDD using the network adapter. Here's the thing though; I don't feel like paying for HD Loader, and I know there are open source versions on the web anyway, so I'll just download it instead. But if I just burn the program to a disc, will the PS2 even recognize it? If that were the case I could just burn the games to DVDs and use those... so it's not going to work is it? Is there another way to load the program, perhaps from the HDD itself, or a memory card, or a USB flash drive? I'm a bit confused as to how it works, can someone explain it to me? Is there possibly a better option for me to pursue?

All comments and advice welcome

[MaxMouseDLL]

[ssj9999-id]

So, could I just use the independence exploit to load up a DVD with hdloader on it and take care of everything else from in there? I don't want to swap out discs every time I want to play a game so I hope this will let me play from the HDD.

[MaxMouseDLL]

So, could I just use the independence exploit to load up a DVD with hdloader on it and take care of everything else from in there? I don't want to swap out discs every time I want to play a game so I hope this will let me play from the HDD.

There are MANY tutorials online, and various different methods, it would be best if you search around google for those methods to see which one suits you best.