Hacking [problem] WD Elements 3TB

[blopa]

Hello guys!

So, I got my beauty WD Elements 3TB and created 3 partitions:

FAT32 -> 1GB (for homebrew apps)
NTFS -> 2TB (for my files)
WBFS -> 700GB (for Wii games)

So, I started CFG Usb Loader and the drive was recognized, shown up all the games, but when I try to boot a game, it says "Loading game, please wait" (or something like that) and nothing happens after that.
Also, my FAT32 1GB partition is not recognized by HBC.

I was thinking maybe someboy already has gone through a problem like this!

Well, that's it. Thanks

EDIT: Figured out (the part of the WBFS partition) by changing the WBFS partition to a FAT32 partition.

 

[PsyBlade]

do you use MBR or GPT?

GPT is not supported by most wii homebrew (HBC too iirc)

 

[tueidj]

HBC doesn't support large sector drives either.

 

[blopa]

Hi all, thanks for replying!

do you use MBR or GPT?

GPT is not supported by most wii homebrew (HBC too iirc)

It's MBR. Weird, eh?

HBC doesn't support large sector drives either.

Uhmn... I'll look into that. There's anyway to make it as small sector? =$ noobing here lol

 

[tueidj]

You can't change the sector size of a drive, it's a hardware thing.

 

[blopa]

Ok, so I've changed the HD, got one with 1.5GB. The 1GB partition is working on HBC, but the USB Loader still giving the same problem. Show all the games, but dosen't boot when I choose one.

PS: Note that I can play games from my 8GB pen drive with no problems.

EDIT: Figured out by changing the WBFS partition to a FAT32 partition.

 

[robjanssen]

I also have a 3TB Western Digital Elements Hard drive
I formatted into 2 partitions
- 1TB FAT32 partition
- remaining TB's FAT32 partition.

USB Loader GX is on the 1TB partition and the partition work with HBC 1.1.0, I can start USB Loader GX from the HomeBrew Channel.
But I also have a forwarder in the Wii Menu. This forwarder isn't working!
Does anyone know why this is?
Why can I start USB Loader GX from the HDD with HBC?
And why won't it start with the forwarder?

 

[azzkikr8502]

hey guys
its seems u all had success in formatting ur drives
Ive recently bought the same drive b ut probably a newer version and its driving me insane as it wont let me format it to WBFS format.i can get it to fat 32 but no program will let me copy my games over.WBFS manager keeps giving me an error saying my drive can not be formatted.
ive split the as is.2.5 tb pc files and 500gb wii
any help would be awesome
thanks

 

[PsyBlade]

"WBFS Manager" can only use WBFS
use "Wii Backup Manager" (WBM) instead (or some other modern manager)

edit:
seeing that you created a 2.5T partition you use GPT or big sectors
(since normal sectors + MBR would have limited the size)
both means wii trouble left and right
figure out which is true and search for details

 

[azzkikr8502]

thanks for the help
im pretty sure my hdd is setup as MBR not GPT
is there any recommendations for sizes and sectors or will it be easier to buy a 2TB hdd


no luck with Wii backup manager
it wasy its formatted right but it wont load the drive
any ideas in what im doing wrong

 

[PsyBlade]

is there any recommendations for sizes and sectors or will it be easier to buy a 2TB hdd

no luck with Wii backup manager
it wasy its formatted right but it wont load the drive
any ideas in what im doing wrong

you can't change the sector size of a drive
(unless intended by manufacturer, really unlikely but not impossible, read its docs)

the 2.5T partition size is symptom not cause
it should not be a problem in itself

You should be able to get some limited use out of it

hbc can't use them at all and other programs I would not give a chance over 50%
but afaik usbladers can use 4KiB sectors (iirc only with a WBFS partition)
and at least one media player can too (but not with WBFS of course, so you need to split it)

I would try to buy/exchange for a drive with 512B sectors
(note that drive size is NOT indicative of sector size
there is SOME corelation but I would not want to bet on it)
with MBR and small (512) sectors you could use up to 2TiB drives if using 1 partition
and (probably) 4TiB if using at least two partitions

 

[Tosnic]

Since this problem does not seem to be solved yet, I revive this thread.

I have the exact same problem with the exact same hdd. Using Easeus Partition Master the hdd's sector size can be varied between a wide range (4k to 256k or so). Anyway, the drive shipped with a large sector size (128k I think) and had the same problems as described above.
I have changed the sector size to 4k, but the problem persists. I have confirmed the sector size after conversion, using chkdsk.

My older hdd (1TB WD mybook) which I wanted to replace with the 3TB hdd had been working fine up to now, though it has 32k sectors according to chkdsk. Homebrew Channel and CFG-loader work flawlessly on that drive.

 

[PsyBlade]

I think you are confusing sector size and block size

The sector size is a inate property of the hardware and can't really be changed
while you can emulate a different sector size in the drives firmware I have yet to see a drive where that size can be configured

The cluster size or block size is a property of the used filesystem
It can be changed easily by creating a new filesystem (or with much more effort even by modifing an existing one)

 

[Tosnic]

Thanks, now I begin to understand: Easeus lets me set the cluster size of the hdd. I had found how to see the HDD's "sector size" on another website, but they really meant "block size".
So I need to ask the manufacturer which of their HDDs have the needed 512b sector size!?
EDIT: I use only 200GB for the WII parition (FAT), the rest is for multimedia (NTFS).

 

[PsyBlade]

You can determine the sector size in software.
Problem is I don't know any windows programs since I hardly use that.
Under Linux/Unix I suggest "hdparm"

 

[Tosnic]

I called the WD support, who was really able to tell me what I wanted to know
They use 4k sectors for all drives > 2TB, thus Wii will only work properly with < 2TB HDDs.
I think the reason why the 3TB drive of this discussion is still semi-working on the Wii is because this drive's controller can emulate 512B sectors. At least that is what I found on the net.