Are you sure you're using the latest USB Loader GX and your games are on an MBR/FAT32 drive?
Are you sure you're using the latest USB Loader GX and your games are on an MBR/FAT32 drive?
I'm definitely using FAT32, I discovered that mistake earlier this week and corrected it. As for USB GX version this is what I am running. v3.0c IOS249 (REV 65535) (d2x v10beta53-alt base56)
I'm having some trouble with playing Gamecube games off USBLoader. Instead of taking me to Nintendont and having it do its process and eventually start the game, it just sends me to a black screen.
The games are playable if I go directly into Nintendont, but that's slightly more tedious and I'd like to have USBLoader as my one-stop shop for loading games.
I've updated both programs. I'm not sure why this is happening, as I've gotten the games to work fine this way long ago.
The games are playable if I go directly into Nintendont, but that's slightly more tedious and I'd like to have USBLoader as my one-stop shop for loading games.
I've updated both programs. I'm not sure why this is happening, as I've gotten the games to work fine this way long ago.
Last edited by kathy,
Quick question:
Is my NTSC v1.00 Super Smash Bros. Melee save compatible with a v1.02 copy of the game?
Is my NTSC v1.00 Super Smash Bros. Melee save compatible with a v1.02 copy of the game?
@thekarter104 Maybe, but I'm not sure. Your 1.02 game could probably read it, but IDK if it can use it.
Hi all. Very newb question. With vWii, is there a utility/USB loader feature that can save space taken up by redundant information between similar scrubbed .wbfs files? For instance, two revisions of the same game ID, or multiple regions of the same game with few changes other than language/ingame text? Maybe diff files that can be patched (preferably on the fly,) or a loader/plugin that can extract the wbfs from an archive containing all versions, such that the archive "strips" the redundant data that all files have in common? Not to compress data per say, but a format that uses a dictionary and thus stores "common" information only once. Or maybe wbfs files are compressed (beyond scrubbing) such that it wouldn't work?
I've Googled around, but I don't think I know exactly what search terms to use. Thanks all!
I've Googled around, but I don't think I know exactly what search terms to use. Thanks all!
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If I understood correctly what you ask, then no there's nothing like that.
it would require more than a loader to do that, it would require a database and a manager to analyze all your data on your drive, and makes a map of each sectors/clusters of all used files, then provide to cIOS identical position for different launched games. if you delete a game, it has to remember if that position is still shared with another game or not before physically deleting it from your drive, if you use your simple windows file explorer to copy/delete files then you'd corrupt the database.
there are few terms which are approching what you talk about, but it's not that :
-deduplication : using the same physical file location for multiple instances. It's used by Mediafire, when you add a file to your private space it first checks its checksum, if someone else already uploaded that file then it doesn't upload it again, instead it adds it in your file list and links it to their unique copy, it takes 1 second instead of uploading/taking storage space again.
- Sparse file : works like scrubbing, but it's a NTFS feature done transparently to you. It saves hdd space by analyzing the file's data, if there are redundant data (like a big part filled with 0x00), then it stores it only one byte and keep the count of how many it should contain. the file is as big as is should, but takes less physical space on your hdd.
What you want is a mix of both. I don't know if there's a word for that.
analyzing multiple files and "sparse" them to prevent copying some parts of the file and use a single instance of sector or cluster for each shared content.
What could have been done, years ago, is create a program which generates a text+bin files with only the different parts of two compared files, and make the loader loads that text+bin file.
It would have not require a specific database do maintain multiple games or all the hdd, but only a single file compared to another, with the result binary listed as full game in the loader.
the idea is nice, and it would have been possible due to how the wbfs format is working : list of segments, no file system is used by the cIOS.
it would require more than a loader to do that, it would require a database and a manager to analyze all your data on your drive, and makes a map of each sectors/clusters of all used files, then provide to cIOS identical position for different launched games. if you delete a game, it has to remember if that position is still shared with another game or not before physically deleting it from your drive, if you use your simple windows file explorer to copy/delete files then you'd corrupt the database.
there are few terms which are approching what you talk about, but it's not that :
-deduplication : using the same physical file location for multiple instances. It's used by Mediafire, when you add a file to your private space it first checks its checksum, if someone else already uploaded that file then it doesn't upload it again, instead it adds it in your file list and links it to their unique copy, it takes 1 second instead of uploading/taking storage space again.
- Sparse file : works like scrubbing, but it's a NTFS feature done transparently to you. It saves hdd space by analyzing the file's data, if there are redundant data (like a big part filled with 0x00), then it stores it only one byte and keep the count of how many it should contain. the file is as big as is should, but takes less physical space on your hdd.
What you want is a mix of both. I don't know if there's a word for that.
analyzing multiple files and "sparse" them to prevent copying some parts of the file and use a single instance of sector or cluster for each shared content.
What could have been done, years ago, is create a program which generates a text+bin files with only the different parts of two compared files, and make the loader loads that text+bin file.
It would have not require a specific database do maintain multiple games or all the hdd, but only a single file compared to another, with the result binary listed as full game in the loader.
the idea is nice, and it would have been possible due to how the wbfs format is working : list of segments, no file system is used by the cIOS.
Last edited by Cyan,
Thanks much. I'm a little familiar with sparse files at they pertain to software RAID on ZFS (FreeNAS.) Seem to recall it was slow as slug snot for me.
I think sparse file might be close to what Windows calls NTFS compression (I could be dead wrong!) I've heard that USB Loader GX can handle an NTFS formatted USB drive, and I wonder if that would allow me to safely use such a technique and/or use a partition greater than 2TB. OTOH, I usually see FAT32 recommended, and I really don't know what the drawbacks of NTFS on vWii are. Maybe I should just look into FTP. Anyway... Thanks again!
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unfortunately, USBLoaderGX (and other loaders, in fact the wbfs library itself) doesn't support compressed NTFS partitions.
I edited my message above to tell the idea is possible, but now I doubt anybody would spend time making something like that, the Wii scene is not active anymore, there's no more interest in developing a feature like that.
You can use a FAT32 partition up to 16TB, and even (theoretically) bigger with NTFS.
recommended is 8TB max, to keep cluster size to 32k, instead of 64k.
I edited my message above to tell the idea is possible, but now I doubt anybody would spend time making something like that, the Wii scene is not active anymore, there's no more interest in developing a feature like that.
You can use a FAT32 partition up to 16TB, and even (theoretically) bigger with NTFS.
recommended is 8TB max, to keep cluster size to 32k, instead of 64k.
Last edited by Cyan,
NTFS compression and sparse files are not the same thing. NTFS compression uses actual compression algorithms like LZH and has a bit of overhead to access. Sparse files are the same as CISO and WBFS files. They just have unused/empty data removed. If you open a sparse file and ask for a block of data that's sparse you'll get an empty buffer back just like if you had read it normally.
Last edited by GreyWolf,
can I run emulated games, wii and gc backups from a 4tb hdd, or must I format it to a smaller size?
For one you will need to reformat it to use a MBR partition table (instead of the GPT it's likely using)
Whether you will be able to address 4 TB using the MBR scheme depends on your disk's sector size: https://gbatemp.net/threads/32kb-clusters-gpt-to-mbr-4tb-usb-hard-drive-help.503805/#post-7989984
As @Ryccardo mentioned yes, make sure it's formatted to MBR and if not change it. You might try using EaseUS Partiton Master to change it. Not sure if the free version will do this, but the paid version does for sure (I bought mine):
http://www.easeus.com/partition-manager/epm-free.html
Also, while using EaseUS Partiton Master, if there are any other partitions showing, ie unallocated or hidden or marked with an ASTERIX or ??, merge them into the main partition. These items have been known to cause issues in the HDD being recognized on the Wii.
To format the drive I recommend using FAT32GUI to format it to FAT32 with 32k clusters. I've done this on MANY 4TB hard drives and also 8TB hard drives that I'm currently using (although an 8TB hard drive has to use 64k clusters if you want to see the entire drive as one partition):
-32bit link: http://www.ridgecrop.demon.co.uk/download/fat32format.zip
-64bit link: http://www.ridgecrop.demon.co.uk/guiformat-x64.Exe
Hope this helps...
Last edited by ca032769,
How can I check what cIOS I have installed?
It is a thing I did a long time ago and things probably need to be updated, but I dont want to just brick the wii.
It is a thing I did a long time ago and things probably need to be updated, but I dont want to just brick the wii.
i'm having trouble installing games from disc with ANY of my usb loaders - USB Loader GX, wiiflow, and CFG Loader all have this problem. basically it'll just get stuck around the 1% mark (seems to vary depending on game size - the smaller the game is, the more progress it'll make before getting stuck. 1% is with Mario Galaxy 1, a smaller game like Wii Music made it to around 24% before getting stuck). I've tried tons of different flash drives, all either 13GB or 32GB (all of them SanDisk except for one, which is a Verbatim one.)
- No one is chatting at the moment.
