Hacking 3 TB Seagate Works...

[dexter222]

"EE" Partition type means you are using GPT instead of MBR
GPT is only supported by very few wii homebrew
there are some threads about this iirc

Thanks. I did a quick Google search to figure out how to switch between GPT - MBR. Following link very helpful -- http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/26203...k-mbr-disk.html So anyways, I went ahead and deleted the volume on the external HD within Windows Disk Management. I then right clicked and did a 'Convert to MBR Disk'. As soon as I did this it took my single partition of 2794.39GB and switched it into 2 partitions, first one being 2048.00 and another at 746.52GB. I am able to right click on the first and larger of the 2 partitions to create a simple volume, however all the options are greyed out on the 2nd partition.

I don't have access to windows 7 but I did look at the link you provided... After the conversion step I would delete both partitions and create one partition then quick format it NTFS choosing MBR (if that's an option anyplace). If you can't do that, I believe that if you partitioned the disk in XP disk manager it would work (if you have access to XP, not XP 64bit).

Some retail stores have up to 60 days to return/exchange purchases - perhaps you could exchange the drive and start out fresh.

 

[PsyBlade]

no need to return the drive just because you messed with the partition table
its only data stored on the drive like eveything else

there are many more programs that can create MBR partitions then the one included in windows
fdisk(util-linux-ng) eg worked perfectly fine on a 5TB device
other windows tools might work too

in case everything else fails and you have a tool that can copy a disk image directly to the drive and you can give me the sector count I could even create a MBR for you

btw did anyone actually try playing a game which resides beyond the 2TiB border?

 

[dexter222]

"EE" Partition type means you are using GPT instead of MBR
GPT is only supported by very few wii homebrew
there are some threads about this iirc

PROVE IT lol. I mean prove that "EE" - or rather "ee" means GPT - please be VERY specific.

PsyBlade... you pretty much just make shit up as you go along, don't you?

(was kidding but I can see it didn't come across that way - whoops)

 

[PsyBlade]

that cant be proven because its only a convention

of course one could indicate type EE but dont use GPT
doing so might even be forbidden in many partitioning tools
because that would break both GPT aware and unaware software
and thus is a stupid thing to do


but you asked for detail so here we go:

a) (Posting)
MBR includes a one byte field to indicate the type of the partition incomplete list
this it done to avoid analyzing the content of the partition to find usable (by the particular sw) partitions

some software assume all drives which do not contain a MBR as empty
(the winXP installer for example - it then slaps a empty MBR onto the disk overwriting whatever was there)

because of that GPT uses a so called protective MBR to avoid that
to indicate that the MBR should be disregarded and to mark the space as used to old sw
a single max size partition of type "0xEE" is created
see IBM GPT Doc
that type is unknown to GPT unaware software which then (by convention) avoids touching it


b) (unmentioned in post)
I dont know what cfg devels mean when a partition is marked by unk-ee but I guessed it was "UNKnown partition type EE"
At least one (of one) Person with this problem was really using GPT by accident and able to fix it by switching to MBR
(someone (you?) already attacked me for helping him - wish I knew why)


btw there are much more polite ways to ask for explanation or sources
some might even search themselves first


tl;dr

 

[Gabelvampir]

PsyBlade... you pretty much just make shit up as you go along, don't you?

Great idea insulting the people that are trying to help you.

 

[dexter222]

Actually I'm the one helping...

Psyblade just keeps clouding the issue with facts

(there, that was better lol)

 

[white_rice]

So just an update on my side of things. As earlier posted I have zero success getting the Seagate 3TB to work on the Wii. Had my friend return it to the store for a full refund, and brought home the exact drive with a 2TB size instead. Worked like a charm.. stay away from 3TBs..

 

[_Chaz_]

So just an update on my side of things. As earlier posted I have zero success getting the Seagate 3TB to work on the Wii. Had my friend return it to the store for a full refund, and brought home the exact drive with a 2TB size instead. Worked like a charm.. stay away from 3TBs..

From what I can tell, it's hit or miss.
But then again, you're dealing with Seagate so it's to be expected.

 

[FoxMcCloud]

The 3TB Seagate drives DO work...but it seems that (from dexter222's findings) unless it is formatted WBFS once opened out of the box and not to anything else, you will only have access to 2TB of the entire drive.

 

[PsyBlade]

since there are no manufacturers(!) that sell WBFS drives
the WBFS out of the box theory is obviously false

all drives I bought have came written with lots of zeros
a state that can easily achieved again if needed

since the partitioning is only data stored on the drive
it too is wiped, no mater how messed up

sdcards and usbsticks (and mabey some external drives) might come preformated
but thats easily done too (from an empty drive if the normal method fails)

you simply can't make a drive unsutable for WBFS(or any other fs)
short of destroying parts of it by physical force

 

[FoxMcCloud]

I edited my post. Of course no drive will come pre-formatted to WBFS. What dexter222 is saying is that the 3TB Seagate drive out of the box comes as 3TB MBR drive (not GPT). It must be formatted by the user to WBFS (and not splitting the partition or doing anything else to it) in order to have a full 3TB MBR drive. Or else, the most you can have is a 2TB MBS partition with the rest being unusable.

It would be good if someone else could confirm this.

 

[PsyBlade]

if there was a 3TiB MBR partition on the drive there is nothing preventing you from creating it again
the stupid windows partitioning tool might refuse to do it but there are many more options out there

 

[FoxMcCloud]

I'm no longer able to confirm if there was or wasn't a 3TB MBR out of the box. Too late for me to return my drive in hopes of exchanging it for another also...and I'm not buying another one lol. Hopefully someone else can confirm this...

And yes, I agree with you. If it was there before, it definitely can be put back on there again with another partitioning tool besides the ones built into Windows.

 

[steve-p]

get a Linux bootdisk,
wipe the partition table & create a single Ext2 partition.
then format it.

next,
go here:
http://www.fs-driver.org/
and that will let you use it in windows.

the Ext2/3/4 driver in cfg-loader does scan the sector size and should work fine with 4k sectors.
also, Ext is faster than NTFS and has no anoying limits on file-size, file-name length etc.

 

[dexter222]

I'm no longer able to confirm if there was or wasn't a 3TB MBR out of the box. Too late for me to return my drive in hopes of exchanging it for another also...and I'm not buying another one lol. Hopefully someone else can confirm this...

And yes, I agree with you. If it was there before, it definitely can be put back on there again with another partitioning tool besides the ones built into Windows.

Dude... I reformatted and messed around with the drives to verify that YES windows can restore them to a full 3tb partition. I actually sacrificed a LOT of hours to do this. I DO NOT have windows 7. I have a 64bit vista machine but I hate it lol. I use XP and I am quite confident that if you can find a buddy with XP you can simply repartition and reformat your drive and be good to go. If I feel better I'll build a windows 7 machine and figure out all this GPT crap but I'm mostly on bed rest these days and building a whole new system is hard right now.

 

[FoxMcCloud]

I was doing it through Windows Server 2008. I'll try through Windows XP as soon as I can backup everything I now have on the hard drive.

 

[D34DL1N3R]

My question is... why would anyone need or want a 2 or 3 TB WBFS partition anyway? Does it even matter?

 

[dexter222]

I was doing it through Windows Server 2008. I'll try through Windows XP as soon as I can backup everything I now have on the hard drive.

I installed Windows Server 2008. As long as I left the drive (GoFlex) intact it worked great. I deleted the partition and there was NO way to get it back using 2008 disk manager. If I wanted to use the entire drive I had to convert it to GPT. The GPT drive would work fine in Wii Backup Manager but not on the Wii - GX and CFG did not recognize it as GPT, in fact it crashed GX. As soon as I put the drive back in MBR mode it split into the two partitions and that was that. Pretty much what you told us, right? lol

I spent a great deal of time looking for a third party solution. I found two that I could try for free: Cute Partition Manager and Paragon Partition Manager. Cute is a freebie but Paragon is $300 but with a trial... NEITHER would even see the drive let alone partition it. This seems to be a limitation of 2008.

I put the GoFlex back on XP and partitioned it in disk manager and reformatted NTFS quick format. I moved it back over to Server 2008 and formatted it WBFS with Wii Backup Manager. I put about 70 games on it and it tested fine on the Wii. I am continuing to install the games on XP and, in a day and a half, it will be done lol.

So... it is a confirmed, tested solution that you can restore the GoFlex formatting on XP and use it with no problems on Server 2008 and Wii Backup Manager as long as you don't delete the partition.

 

[dexter222]

My question is... why would anyone need or want a 2 or 3 TB WBFS partition anyway? Does it even matter?

Some of us are just crazy I guess

 

[the real SUX2BU]

Anyone try using a 3tb WD elements?