How to Image a PS2 Hard Drive on Windows

What you need #

The PS2 hard drive (3.5" IDE/PATA drive from the PS2 Network Adapter)
A USB-to-IDE adapter (also called USB-to-PATA). These are cheap ($10–15) and widely available — search “USB to IDE adapter” on Amazon. Many come as “USB to IDE/SATA” combo cables. You want one that supports 3.5" drives (with the Molex power connector or external power brick).
A Windows PC with a USB port
HDD Raw Copy Tool (free) — download from: https://hddguru.com/software/HDD-Raw-Copy-Tool/

Plug the IDE ribbon cable from the USB adapter into the PS2 hard drive’s IDE connector (the wide 40-pin connector)
Connect the power cable (Molex 4-pin) to the drive — most USB-to-IDE adapters include a power brick for this
Plug the USB end into your PC
Do NOT format the drive if Windows asks — click Cancel/No on any format prompts. Windows cannot read the PS2 filesystem and will think the driveis blank. It isn’t.

Download from the link above (it’s a small portable .exe, no real install needed)
Run it as Administrator (right-click > Run as administrator)

In the first screen (“SOURCE”), you’ll see a list of all connected drives
The PS2 drive will show up as something like “ST340015A” or similar, usually with no partition info
Select it and click “Continue”
Be very careful to pick the right drive — do NOT pick your Windows boot drive!

In the next screen (“TARGET”), double-click on “FILE” at the bottom of the list
Choose a save location and filename, like PS2_HDD.img
Make sure you have enough free space — the image will be the full size of the PS2 drive (typically 40 GB)
If you want to compress it, you can choose .imgc extension for built-in compression, which will shrink it significantly (empty space compresses well)

Click “Continue”, then “START”
The copy will take a while depending on USB speed — expect 1–3 hours for a 40 GB drive over USB 2.0
Let it finish completely — don’t unplug anything during the copy

Once done, you should have a .img file (or .imgc if compressed)
If not compressed, you can compress it with 7-Zip before sharing (right-click > 7-Zip > Add to archive, choose .7z format with Ultracompression) — a 40 GB image typically compresses down to 1–3 GB
Upload to Google Drive, Mega, or wherever is convenient for sharing

Drive not detected: Make sure the power cable is connected to the drive (3.5" IDE drives need external power, they can’t be powered by USBalone)
Windows asks to format: Always click Cancel. The drive has a PS2-specific partition table (APA format) that Windows doesn’t understand
“Access denied” errors: Make sure you’re running HDD Raw Copy Tool as Administrator
Multiple drives showing up: Look at the drive size to identify the PS2 drive — PS2 HDDs were typically 40 GB Maxtor or Seagate drives