Hacking ** How To Make Any HDD Compatible With USB Loader For Dummies **

[sionsays]

Update: I officially formatted to FAT32, and USB Channel recognized my drive, however, I'm still having the trouble of the green screen flash, and the game telling me to "eject disk", gunna try another game ... I hope it doesnt have to do with no CD drive......

 

[BIG MOE]

Followed your post to a T, using partition magic I formatted my drive to FAT32, ( only 196,000MB of a 500gb HD ) the rest was left as an unallocated partition that I could not delete. I added games through the command prompt/ and eventually through the WBFS GUI. Sorgs USB loader nor does the original recognize a WBFS on my HDD.

I also tried formatting the unpartitioned part of the drive, which was the remaining part of 500gb from the 196,000MB i formatted to FAT32 originally, and I also added games + the WBFS to that and the USB loaders still did not recognize my partitions as having WBFS on them.

My conclusion:
It seems that my drive in NTFS is recognized with WBFS on it by the Wii, but the games do not properly load.
When I'm formatting to FAT32, I think that the "unpartitioned" part of my drive is also being recognized which is why I think that the USB loader is not finding the HDD at all, And like I said, even with the unpartitioned part formatted to FAT32 or NTSF, it's still not picking up the partitions as having WBFS on them, ( even when both do ).

Is there anyway to get more than 196,000MB of my 500GB drive to FAT32? I think this may solve a part of my problem. If you have any other suggestions please let me know. Also, with the WBFS program you posted, it seemed like a lot of the same people were having the same exact problems I was having with the USB channel not even recognizing the HDD with WBFS on it.

I guess if you format the total HDD into FAT32 as no partitions it will work .

 

[roswellian]

So what are these HDD's connected with ? I was of the understanding that it's the USB chipset of what you're connecting with that issue's arise with, not the logic board of HDD's .?

There are more issues than just that, but yes that is a real problem that cannot be corrected by this method.
This method will possibly help a device that has a compatible chipset but has issues for other reasons (formatting, HDD spinup/down).

The chipset support has nothing to do with USB Loader really. It is all about CIOS rev9 and it's built in support for USB 2.0 devices. It looks like further support is to be added in the future though. Maybe rev10?
If this doesn't work (or any other guaranteed tricks to make ANY device work) then your device is likely using an unsupported chipset and there is no way of getting it to work other than writing the USB support for your device into the CIOS needed.

Just to really hammer the point home, it is not possible to make any USB mass storage device compatible with the Wii when using the current CIOS rev9. HDD+adapter or Flash memory adapter.
No matter how positive your attitude

hmm, my Geexbox can recognize the usb drive and read it with no problem, but usb loader cannot respond it all and just show me black screen...I still wish there is a way to fix this stupid problem.

 

[dimmujed]

Well what if I have a Maxtor One Touch 4 and ONLY have Vista x64? The programs you listed are only 32 bit...

 

[viperlogic]

is there a list anywhere compiled of what portable HDD's work as in Iomega eGo or Western Digital Passport or ? Ive tried a unbranded USB key and my Hitachi portable HDD but no luck

 

[BIG MOE]

try this one though it's not 100% correct , I've had some of the non-compatible ones working

http://gbatemp.net/index.php?showtopic=144351

 

[tosva_8po1]

thanks for the help! but i can't find the tool for sleep mode ! i very much ipreciate our help

 

[Cypherdias]

In my experience, my HDD runs best when plugged in (or rather switched on in my case) after booting up USB Loader. Needs an alternative USB Loader though, as the original one simply doesn't wait for the drive to be initialized. I'm using this one currently. Using a loader that waits for the drive is a good idea in general, as it generally solves issues with many drives out there.

 

[sionsays]

can anyone confirm if this works or doesnt work with a CD drive not into the wii? I only constantly get the "eject disk" error when trying to run my games, ive tried every USB Loader there is as well. I'm thinking it's either a region thing or it is trying to load the games from a CD Drive that isn't there. Do you think I should try installing Starfall? some other people at http://gbatemp.net/index.php?showtopic=144996 have had the green screen problem

 

[Gwaith]

Update: I officially formatted to FAT32, and USB Channel recognized my drive, however, I'm still having the trouble of the green screen flash, and the game telling me to "eject disk", gunna try another game ... I hope it doesnt have to do with no CD drive......

Now after sleeping I'm sure it's because you have no cd drive. There was a guy here on gbatemp who wanted to remove his wii disc drive and install two 2.5" HDD inside the wii. But he couldn't do that because like i said the USB Loader can't play games without a Wii CD Drive. That guy wanted to talk with waninkoko about this issue but not sure if he has yet.


Greetz ,


Gwaith

 

[sionsays]

Wish it didn't search for the cd drive. Hope a new version of the USB loader comes out

 

[BIG MOE]

Wish it didn't search for the cd drive. Hope a new version of the USB loader comes out

do you have cIOS36_rev9 installed properly ?? try installing it again and see if this will solve the error

 

[ekolimits]

http://www.ipsgproducts.com/products/exter...ure_013805.html

that is my enclosure for a maxtor 120gb ide hdd i have in there...
now, would i need to get a tool for the enclosure or the hardrive? to change my settings?

 

[sionsays]

out[/quote]
do you have cIOS36_rev9 installed properly ?? try installing it again and see if this will solve the error

[/quote]
I ran it with network install and it was successful a few days ago. Do you agree it may be because of no cd drive ?

 

[BIG MOE]

out
do you have cIOS36_rev9 installed properly ?? try installing it again and see if this will solve the error

I ran it with network install and it was successful a few days ago. Do you agree it may be because of no cd drive ?
most likely as I can see the system recognizes your HDD and Your Games But Error With CD !!!! are you connected via USB 2.0 wire ???


Posts merged

QUOTE(ekolimits @ Apr 9 2009, 11:40 PM)

[url=http://www.ipsgproducts.com/products/exter...ure_013805.html]http://www.ipsgproducts.com/products/exter...ure_013805.html[/url]

that is my enclosure for a maxtor 120gb ide hdd i have in there...
now, would i need to get a tool for the enclosure or the hardrive? to change my settings?

the Hard Drive Manager Software From Maxtor ( Check first page for the link )

 

[sionsays]

out
do you have cIOS36_rev9 installed properly ?? try installing it again and see if this will solve the error

QUOTEI ran it with network install and it was successful a few days ago. Do you agree it may be because of no cd drive ?

most likely as I can see the system recognizes your HDD and Your Games But Error With CD !!!! are you connected via USB 2.0 wire ???

I am connected to a USB 2.0 wire. Do you think it's worth it to run the rev9 again ? Wish someone else could confirm the NO CD -Drive thing is the reason it is asking me to eject the disk to calm my nerves.

 

[BIG MOE]

out
do you have cIOS36_rev9 installed properly ?? try installing it again and see if this will solve the error

QUOTEI ran it with network install and it was successful a few days ago. Do you agree it may be because of no cd drive ?

most likely as I can see the system recognizes your HDD and Your Games But Error With CD !!!! are you connected via USB 2.0 wire ???

I am connected to a USB 2.0 wire. Do you think it's worth it to run the rev9 again ? Wish someone else could confirm the NO CD -Drive thing is the reason it is asking me to eject the disk to calm my nerves.

yes please run the Cios36_rev9 installer again and retry the HDD

 

[sionsays]

[/quote]
yes please run the Cios36_rev9 installer again and retry the HDD

[/quote]

Did this, rev9 installs perfectly like usual, USB drive is detected along with the games, screen flashes green then asks me to "eject disk" still same troubles. =/

 

[Originality]

This is amusing, it's (more or less) exactly the same method I used to get my Integral 2GB and 1GB Flash Sticks working, which I posted about a week ago in various GUI threads. Now that I've gotten a few 1TB enclosures to tinker with, I've found that I don't even need to use this method.

Just to give an indication, here's the list of enclosures I've gotten working to date:
- "Hi-SPEED" 3.5" Enclosure (USB/SATA) with a Caviar "Green" inside, 1TB
- "FCC" 3.5" Enclosure (USB/SATA) with the same (I just transplanted for testing)
- "Maxtor Basics" (USB), with presumably a Maxtor 1TB inside (came with, so I didn't bother opening)
- "Elements powered by WD" (USB), obviously containing a Western Digital HDD inside (500GB)
- "Sumvision" twin 3.5" RAID Enclosure (USB/SATA) with 2 Samsung F1 Spinpoints inside (2TB effective)
- "OAIV" 2.5" USB powered Enclosure, with either a 4GB (buggy gameplay due to 2 bad sectors) or 80GB HDD (works fine) inside (OEM)
- OEM 3.5" IDE Enclosure (USB), only tested with a 8GB IBM HDD but I've got several others (going up to 500GB) in a shiny pile that presumably work.

I would've tested a Lacie d2 BigDrive enclosure (2x500GB RAID inside) but it's formatted to HFS+ and the G4 is broken so I'm not allowed to do anything with it until my dad finds some way to backup the data.

Compatibility is mostly up to the enclosure, rather than the drive itself, since it's the enclosure (or interface board as some call it) that controls everything between the access point (Wii/Computer) and the storage unit. I've also heard that if the drive has a delayed spin-up (spin-up on USB power, like in the Elements) or any form of sleep mode (like in the Maxtor Basics) then it can either not work at all, or stop working half way through playing a game. I've not encountered this, but a lot of people have.

 

[Golfje]

Hi Guys

Have somebody tested the lacie desktop external 500gb ???