Hacking GX: Partial vs Full NAND emulation? & SD card

[Teal]

Hi guys. I'm looking to install USB Loader GX and wanted to know from experienced users about pros and cons of full and partial NAND emulation? I'd like some sort of emulation to have more save files available. I understand the hassle of using your own controller if you want to play on another Wii with full emulation. Are there any other considerations, something else obvious? Basically, what would arguably be the best, full or partial emulation?

I also saw a recommendation for putting the NAND on an SD card, or if not, on a separate partition on the USB. Any opinions on this from experienced users?

I'm thinking that I would make good use of the SD card slot, such as to swap save files, for DLC contents, for additional homebrew apps, etc. I just want to know if it's really necessary to keep it for running the NAND. Also, would SDHC cards be a problem? I recall SDHC cards being a problem during the softmodding process.

Finally, can anyone shed some light on the separate partition for the NAND recommendation? I was planning on two partitions on a 2TB HD, FAT32 for GX and the games/apps and NTFS (for videos, extra game storage, and just general use).

Would it be better for three partition, maybe a small, ~5GB FAT32 for the NAND itself? Would it be okay to put the GX on that partition with the NAND? And should it be 1st or 2nd partition (since I remember some SNEEK versions needing the 1st partition of an external drive being FAT32, so wonder if this matters).

Opinions and advice would be much appreciated.

 

[FIX94]

Hi, just to answer a bit I would suggest you partial save emulation, because full would mean it would use the settings of your emu nand, that would be not so useful for you. To the partition thing, use a small one extra for the NAND FAT32 32kb sector size partition on USB. Oh and SDHC is no problem anymore.

 

[The Real Jdbye]

Older games like Super Smash Bros. Brawl won't support SDHC, so if you want maximum compatibility with games you have to use a normal SD card.
Other than that, SDHC should work fine, but homebrew might be picky with the card you use. I've had issues where homebrew stops detecting the SD card until I turn the Wii off and back on, or eject and reinsert the SD card. I can only imagine it will be even more picky with SDHC. This is especially true for BootMii which is more picky with SD cards than anything else.

 

[Teal]

I see. Partial does seem to make sense for my use. On another note, would one versus another (partial vs full) be more prone to issues, such as semi-bricking? Just from a few posts, although most seem to be running beta versions of something.

Would it be okay to put GX with the NAND on the same partition (or better for GX with the game partition) and does it matter if it's the first or second partition (for SNEEK compatibility)? Or should SNEEK be on it's own additional partition first, so I'd have 4 partitions (SNEEK, NAND, FAT32, NTFS)?

 

[FIX94]

I see. Partial does seem to make sense for my use. On another note, would one versus another (partial vs full) be more prone to issues, such as semi-bricking? Just from a few posts, although most seem to be running beta versions of something.

Bricking is impossible with games So that doesn't make a difference.

Would it be okay to put GX with the NAND on the same partition (or better for GX with the game partition) and does it matter if it's the first or second partition (for SNEEK compatibility)? Or should SNEEK be on it's own additional partition first, so I'd have 4 partitions (SNEEK, NAND, FAT32, NTFS)?

Why don't use the same NAND for SNEEK and GX? That would be the easiest thing. Oh and for compatility the NAND partition should come first.

 

[Teal]

Oh okay, that makes sense. Time to get to work!