HDD Utility Disc is software to format a hard disk

Hard disk

A hard disk drive is a non-volatile, random access digital magnetic data storage device. It features rotating rigid platters on a motor-driven spindle within a protective enclosure. Data is magnetically read from and written to the platter by read/write heads that float on a film of air above the...

 drive for use in a PlayStation 2

PlayStation 2

The PlayStation 2 is a sixth-generation video game console manufactured by Sony as part of the PlayStation series. Its development was announced in March 1999 and it was first released on March 4, 2000, in Japan...

 console. It only works with the official PlayStation 2 HDD unit. It makes the HDD appear in the PlayStation 2 Browser on the same screen that game discs, video DVDs, music CDs, and Memory Card

Memory card

A memory card or flash card is an electronic flash memory data storage device used for storing digital information. They are commonly used in many electronic devices, including digital cameras, mobile phones, laptop computers, MP3 players, and video game consoles...

s appear.

HDD Utility Disc's main feature is to allow creation of folder

Folder

Folder may refer:* File folder, a kind of folder that holds loose papers* Folder , a virtual container within a digital file system, in which groups of files and other folders can be kept and organized...

s on the HDD to store game save files. If a folder named "Your Saves" is present on the HDD, games that support saving to the HDD and loading from it will use that folder. If that folder doesn't exist, the games will create it when attempting to save to the HDD. While many Japanese PlayStation 2 games support the HDD as a location to save and load game saves, support for that function of the HDD, and many others, were removed from nearly every North American release of those games during the time before the North American HDD release (ex. Xenosaga

Xenosaga

is a series of science fiction video games developed by Monolith Soft and published by Namco Bandai. Xenosaga's main story is in the form of a trilogy of PlayStation 2 video games. There have been three spin-off games and an anime adaptation. The Xenosaga series serves as a spiritual successor to...

 Episode 1, Dark Cloud 2, Kingdom Hearts

Kingdom Hearts

is an action role-playing game developed and published by Square in 2002 for the PlayStation 2 video game console. The first game in the Kingdom Hearts series, it is the result of a collaboration between Square Enix and The Walt Disney Company. The game combines characters and settings from Disney...

, Final Fantasy X

Final Fantasy X

is a role-playing video game developed and published by Square as the tenth title in the Final Fantasy series. It was released in 2001 for Sony's PlayStation 2, and will be re-released for PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita in 2012...

), and even a few games afterwards (ex. Star Ocean: Till the End of Time Director's Cut

Star Ocean: Till the End of Time

is the third main game in the Star Ocean series. The game was developed by tri-Ace and published by Square Enix for the PlayStation 2 console. It was released in Japan, North America, and the PAL territories. The original Japanese release date was in February of 2003 by Enix, its penultimate...

).

The only other feature of HDD Utility Disc is enabling launching of games installed to the HDD, though it can only do so if the game supports launching from the HDD, and most games that install to the HDD require being launched from the original disc as an anti-piracy measure.

HDD Utility Disc 1.00 was included with Japanese HDD units from mid-2001, when the HDD launched in Japan, until early 2002, when PlayStation Broadband Navigator

PlayStation Broadband Navigator

PlayStation Broadband Navigator is software for Japanese PlayStation 2 consoles that formats a hard disk drive for use with those consoles and provides an interface for manipulating data on that hard disk drive...

replaced it.

HDD Utility Disc 1.10 was included with North American HDD units, which were released on March 23, 2004 as the Final Fantasy XI / HDD bundle, instead of North America getting a release of the current version of the PlayStation Broadband Navigator software. There appears to be no difference in functions between versions 1.00 and 1.10 of HDD Utility Disc.

Due to the HDD not being released in PAL regions, except in Linux Kits, there exists no version of HDD Utility Disc for PAL PlayStation 2 consoles.