Hi everyone! Just recently bought a Wii U, and after playing around with Mocha and HaxChi, just here to share my experience on the current options to install games to a USB hdd.
*** Method 1 - FAT32 hdd ***
Get games via Wii U USB Helper, unpack and copy to a FAT32 hdd, plug in hdd to Wii U, load up Mocha and play games via Loadiine.
Pros: Can copy unpacked games directly to the FAT32 hdd from a PC, and play straight from Loadiine without wasting time on installing again on Wii U. Also, if you have a large hdd, you can partition the 2nd half to NTFS or something else for other use. Don't have to dedicate the entire drive just to Wii U (i.e. can have your Wii game collections on the same drive!). Another plus, Loadiine has a nice GUI for browsing thru your collections, just like the WiiFlow loader on Wii in the old days...
Cons: Need extra time to unpack games on PC after download from Wii U USB Helper. VERY SLOW loading time for games with large number of individual files.
*** Method 2 - Wii U format hdd ***
Get games via Wii U USB Helper, no need to unpack and copy to SD on PC, plug in SD to Wii U, load up HaxChi, use WUP Installer to install game to Wii U formatted hdd, play straight from Wii U system menu.
Pros: Select and play games straight from the Wii U system menu. Able to play online (personally I have not done so yet). Fast game loading speed even for large games.
Cons: Time consuming on transferring games from PC to Wii U (PC > SD > Wii U formatted hdd), and this is at least triple worse when you have a small size SD card (mine is 32GB for instance). Also, have to dedicate the whole hdd to Wii U as no partition is allowed.
Considering the flexibility and time spent on transferring games from PC to Wii U, Method 1 was my original setup, especially when I already have a FAT32 hdd already filled up 1/3 with my Wii game collection.
All was fine and dandy until I tried Zelda BOTW. The unpacked game has about 34,000 individual files before any updates or DLC, and as you all know copying lots of small files takes longer time on PC... But, fine, I got it done. Loadiine since v0.3 can keep updates in separate folders without merging them, so I did for BOTW. Turned out to be a big mistake! On loading the game with Loadiine, it takes FOREVER to rebuild the filelist.txt due to the large number of files. I waited for 2 HOURS and the file count was only at 9,000ish. I finally got fed up and force shutdown the console. I then went back to PC and manually merge the updates with the main game, so Loadiine wouldn't need to rebuild the filelist. It worked, BOTW loaded up, press 'start' and now at the white screen after the 'open your eyes...' line, and loading... and loading... and about 45 mins later Link finally woke up! Fine, maybe it's just the intro part that took longer... I kept on playing for a while, and literally at every cut scene, and even just switching weapon, opening a chest, there's a long pause, ranging b/t 10s of seconds to minutes long pause! But I persisted on playing... Till I died (Link fell off cliff ), and loading back to a check point took nearly 10 mins! That's when I finally gave up.
I found another old hdd and proceeded with Method 2 setup. Loaded up BOTW from system menu, went thru the 'open your eyes...' intro with almost zero loading time (just seconds!). No more awkward pauses during cut scene, switching weapons, or opening a chest... This is the way it's meant to be (sigh), at least for now...
Only wish one day there's a way to interface with the Wii U formatted hdd from PC directly, so we may bypass the need for SD card, and WUP installer entirely, to save time. Just my 2 cents...
*** Method 1 - FAT32 hdd ***
Get games via Wii U USB Helper, unpack and copy to a FAT32 hdd, plug in hdd to Wii U, load up Mocha and play games via Loadiine.
Pros: Can copy unpacked games directly to the FAT32 hdd from a PC, and play straight from Loadiine without wasting time on installing again on Wii U. Also, if you have a large hdd, you can partition the 2nd half to NTFS or something else for other use. Don't have to dedicate the entire drive just to Wii U (i.e. can have your Wii game collections on the same drive!). Another plus, Loadiine has a nice GUI for browsing thru your collections, just like the WiiFlow loader on Wii in the old days...
Cons: Need extra time to unpack games on PC after download from Wii U USB Helper. VERY SLOW loading time for games with large number of individual files.
*** Method 2 - Wii U format hdd ***
Get games via Wii U USB Helper, no need to unpack and copy to SD on PC, plug in SD to Wii U, load up HaxChi, use WUP Installer to install game to Wii U formatted hdd, play straight from Wii U system menu.
Pros: Select and play games straight from the Wii U system menu. Able to play online (personally I have not done so yet). Fast game loading speed even for large games.
Cons: Time consuming on transferring games from PC to Wii U (PC > SD > Wii U formatted hdd), and this is at least triple worse when you have a small size SD card (mine is 32GB for instance). Also, have to dedicate the whole hdd to Wii U as no partition is allowed.
Considering the flexibility and time spent on transferring games from PC to Wii U, Method 1 was my original setup, especially when I already have a FAT32 hdd already filled up 1/3 with my Wii game collection.
All was fine and dandy until I tried Zelda BOTW. The unpacked game has about 34,000 individual files before any updates or DLC, and as you all know copying lots of small files takes longer time on PC... But, fine, I got it done. Loadiine since v0.3 can keep updates in separate folders without merging them, so I did for BOTW. Turned out to be a big mistake! On loading the game with Loadiine, it takes FOREVER to rebuild the filelist.txt due to the large number of files. I waited for 2 HOURS and the file count was only at 9,000ish. I finally got fed up and force shutdown the console. I then went back to PC and manually merge the updates with the main game, so Loadiine wouldn't need to rebuild the filelist. It worked, BOTW loaded up, press 'start' and now at the white screen after the 'open your eyes...' line, and loading... and loading... and about 45 mins later Link finally woke up! Fine, maybe it's just the intro part that took longer... I kept on playing for a while, and literally at every cut scene, and even just switching weapon, opening a chest, there's a long pause, ranging b/t 10s of seconds to minutes long pause! But I persisted on playing... Till I died (Link fell off cliff ), and loading back to a check point took nearly 10 mins! That's when I finally gave up.
I found another old hdd and proceeded with Method 2 setup. Loaded up BOTW from system menu, went thru the 'open your eyes...' intro with almost zero loading time (just seconds!). No more awkward pauses during cut scene, switching weapons, or opening a chest... This is the way it's meant to be (sigh), at least for now...
Only wish one day there's a way to interface with the Wii U formatted hdd from PC directly, so we may bypass the need for SD card, and WUP installer entirely, to save time. Just my 2 cents...