Hacking Best Practices for USB Loaders?

[alucard77]

Hi All,

I am in the process of trying to get this to work, and I haven't really seen a best practices write up. I have spent roughly 8 hours reading through countless posts, and this is what I picked up, please add to this for other Noobs like myself.

1- Use CIos V9. CIos V10 has too many bugs to work properly
2- Install the games using a WBFS Windows Util, instead of the Wii. (I am still trying to find which is the best to use)
3- Power Up your Wii. Then Plug in your USB, then power on your Drive. Wait at least 1 minute. Then go to homebrew channel and load your loaders.

Is there any other best practices I may have missed.

 

[Eddie_Brock]

I'm just going to throw in my two cents, so you have some comparisons.

I am using cIOS Rev 10, and on about 20+ games, have yet to encounter any problems.
I definitely prefer to load my backups to my USB device through my PC, using a program called WBFS Manager.
My (Verbatim) HDD stays connected to my Wii 100% of the time, if I plan to play a backup, I turn it on when I turn the Wii on, however, for me at least, I can power it on at any stage and the loaders seem to find it just fine.

As for best practices? I can throw in a few hints:
-Make it a priority to get ISO's from the same region as your Wii. It may take a bit longer, but it reduces the risk of bricking your wii. Plus you just load it up, without having to apply any video/loader patches. (I know, not always possible)
-Make sure you've read any and all instructions completely before attempting to install ANYTHING custom to your wii. If you don't understand what it is you are about to do, then read more threads, or ask for help.
-Keep a copy of your ISO's on your PC. That way in the future if you decide you want to change the sizes of your partitions, you can do a complete format without having to transfer from Wii->PC, then PC->Wii afterwards.

 

[swarmster]

I notice you both say you rip games to your hard drive through WBFS Manager. Does that program automatically reduce the size of the images to their actual data size, like the Wii loaders do?

I currently use the old Ultimate USB Loader through HBC as a game ripper, because USB Loader GX used to crash on me during rips (probably fixed now but still hesitant to switch back). I would probably just use my PC when at home, but I've never heard whether you get the same size reduction benefit doing it that way (for example, Wii Sports ripping to something like 300MB in USB Loader instead of the full DVD size).

Maybe one of you could answer that? Thanks.

 

[Nullkill]

I can't stand people saying cIOS v 10 doesn't work. Explain why.

cIOS v 10 works for me and everyone I've ever met who uses it.

Also, wii cover flow will not work with cIOS v9. (This is intentional)

 

[alucard77]

When the creater of an app says that V10 is flaky, it is flaky.

All I know, in my quick test at home yesterday, I had the following issues using it:
1- Copying froze, took like 5 tries
2- Game froze during game play.

I could be wrong, it could be something else, but I am saying based off of the posts I read, it looks like it doesn't work for everyone. If it works for you, then great, don't change anything.

 

[Nullkill]

Thanks for the response

Yes it works great for me and don't plan on changing. And if v9 is the only reliable one for you it obviously makes sense you use it.

Just curious on your set up; What firmware are you using?

 

[alucard77]

I am not at home right now, but I will post later. I think 3.2U, but I could be wrong. I may have updated since then.

Also, it could have also been my USB/Power Supply for the Drive. I don't really have an enclosure yet. So that may have done it as well. I ordered a proper enclosure today.

 

[Amarabha]

I notice you both say you rip games to your hard drive through WBFS Manager. Does that program automatically reduce the size of the images to their actual data size, like the Wii loaders do?

I currently use the old Ultimate USB Loader through HBC as a game ripper, because USB Loader GX used to crash on me during rips (probably fixed now but still hesitant to switch back). I would probably just use my PC when at home, but I've never heard whether you get the same size reduction benefit doing it that way (for example, Wii Sports ripping to something like 300MB in USB Loader instead of the full DVD size).

Maybe one of you could answer that? Thanks.

If you have a full sized (4,38GB I guess) ISO Image and transfer it with WBFS Manager or something else to your WBFS formatted HDD you are using with your Wii it will automatically reduce the size of that ISO to its actual data size. Depending on how big it will be on your WBFS HDD it takes you about 1-5 minutes to copy it. I did it with about 90 games and it worked flawless for me.

I hope this answers your question.

Amarabha

Edited because I wrote my name twice