nah, u dont have to..there are people working on making regular Hard Drives Work, and thier successful
..i cant remember the site, but, you will have to format the hard drive and install some certain system files which the PS2 can read..that way it can read the drive and use it for w/e purpose is out there, so far from wat ive heard u can use it to save games..u can do that with the pc too, by usb - usb connection