used by games to reduce load time by putting data on the hard drive temporarily, or back up memory card data. Due to MagicGate copyright protection, programs that are bootable directly from the HDD (e.g. PlayStation Broadband Navigator, PlayOnline Viewer, Pop'n Music Puzzle-dama Online) are keyed to the system when that system installs them. The HDD can be transferred to another PlayStation 2 system and files on the HDD can be accessed, but those specific programs cannot be booted without being reinstalled. Contrary to popular belief, a complete reformat of the HDD is not necessary upon transfer of the HDD between consoles, or else it would not be useful to have the HDD be preformatted and have preinstalled software, as is the case with the North American HDD unit. An HDD Utility Disc is included to allow maintenance of the HDD (including defragmentation, disk repair and formatting utilities, along with a file manager browser) and in North America, Final Fantasy XI is also included. There are 35 North American games that support the HDD. Maxtor and Seagate Technology produced hard drives used in these kits. Unofficial software called HD Loader (later HD Advance and also Open PS2 Loader) allow users to copy entire games to the HDD and run them without the discs. They also allow using some standard consumer hard drives in the PS2, however they will not be compatible with software that is expecting the standard PS2 hard drive. This software combined with a hard drive allows one to play games without using the original disc. This is desirable as it protects the fragile and perhaps rare game discs from harm, in some cases it may improve performance. This practice is not without controversy, however. HD Loader bypasses the usual copy protection mechanisms built into the console, which allowed for piracy. North American releases with HDD support ESPN NFL 2K5, NBA 2K5, ESPN College Hoops 2K5, ESPN MLB 2K5, and ESPN NHL 2K5 use the HDD to improve replays. (If the HDD is not installed, static screenshots are shown as replays. With the HDD, full cutscene-like replays can be displayed). ESPN NHL 2K5 has the ability to save files directly to the hard drive Final Fantasy XI is the only North American released game truly dependent on the HDD as it requires various patches and upgrades from Square Enix. Metal Saga installs 1.7 GB to the HDD to