Hardware USB 3.0 - Will it work? (need answer soon due to outside circumstances)

[Roads1]

I'm getting an external hard drive soon (my dad is going to order it tonight, so I need an answer pretty quickly). Most of what I can find are USB 3.0, with power through the USB cable. Will USB 3.0 work on the Wii for loading game backups/homebrew? Should I opt for separate power through a normal AC plug? Also, does it depend on the model? The prime candidates so far are these two:

• Dell 1TB (doesn't say any more than that in the title )
• WD Elements SE Portable 1TB WDBPCK0010BBK

Will these models work or will I need to go with ones designed for just USB 2.0? I'd go for just 2.0 in the first place if it weren't for the fact that I'll need to use it on a PC later to add Wii emulators, ROMs for them, etc.

 

[cracker]

USB 3.0 drives will work in 2.0 mode with a 3.0 or 2.0 microUSB cable.

Portable drives (USB powered) might not be able to draw enough current from the Wii. The usual workaround for this is to use a powered USB hub but I would go for a powered drive from the start.

Most any drive should work.

You will need to partition the drive in two with WBFS for games and NTFS for homebrew.

 

[Arm73]

Just check this page:
http://wiki.gbatemp.net/wiki/USB_Devices_Compatibility_List

It tells you about most HDD compatibilities, even though it might be not very much updated.

By the way there is no need to have two partitions or even use the outdated WBFS file format for Wii games, ANY USB loader supports FAT32 with perfect compatibility and no downside and you can also run most homebrew off it

 

[Roads1]

Well, it turns out I'll be getting the Dell one, but it's not on the list. Is my best bet winging it, or should I play safe and get a USB 2.0 one?

About the power issue, is there anything separate that you can buy that splits USB cables to power and data transfer? I doubt it though...

 

[Arm73]

Well, it turns out I'll be getting the Dell one, but it's not on the list. Is my best bet winging it, or should I play safe and get a USB 2.0 one?

About the power issue, is there anything separate that you can buy that splits USB cables to power and data transfer? I doubt it though...

I must confess, I've never heard of any power issue with any USB HDD on the Wii.
I used myself several 2.5 USB HDD ( the small, flat ones ) with the Wii and they all work perfectly fine, only a Toshiba Canvio 500 GB USB2.0/3.0 gives me a problem that sometime is not recognized by the WiiFlow and I have to unplug it and replug it and then it works.

But yeah, most WD HDDs are reported to work fine with the Wii ( 2.0 and 3.0), so I wouldn't take the chance with that Dell one, and stick to the WD which is proven to work in most cases.

 

[Ericthegreat]

Well, it turns out I'll be getting the Dell one, but it's not on the list. Is my best bet winging it, or should I play safe and get a USB 2.0 one?

About the power issue, is there anything separate that you can buy that splits USB cables to power and data transfer? I doubt it though...

If you plan to use it only ever for wii games get a usb 2.0 one, if for anything else get the usb 3.0 one, personally I would get the usb 3.0 one and if it doesnt work just replace it....

 

[nukeboy95]

soo why 1tb thats WAY TO MUCH space for just wii/gamecube games

 

[Roads1]

Well, I don't intend to use it for just games necessarily, but maybe that is too much space for anything really...

Also, can I play Gamecube games on the last Wii model via a classic controller and a USB loader, or one of those Gamecube controllers modified to plug into the Nunchuk jack on the Wii remote?

 

[trumpet-205]

Well, I don't intend to use it for just games necessarily, but maybe that is too much space for anything really...

Also, can I play Gamecube games on the last Wii model via a classic controller and a USB loader, or one of those Gamecube controllers modified to plug into the Nunchuk jack on the Wii remote?

Only with Devolution, but Devolution requires you to have legit GC disc for one time verification.

To answer your question, most USB 3.0 HDD will work with USB 2.0 port. Few USB 3.0 HDD do draw more power since USB 3.0 specification allows it (900 mA vs 500 mA in USB 2.0). In that case a Y-cable will solve that problem.

 

[stomp_442]

soo why 1tb thats WAY TO MUCH space for just wii/gamecube games

no it's no too much space, I have a 500GB usb hdd and ran out of space a few years ago.

 

[Roads1]

To answer your question, most USB 3.0 HDD will work with USB 2.0 port. Few USB 3.0 HDD do draw more power since USB 3.0 specification allows it (900 mA vs 500 mA in USB 2.0). In that case a Y-cable will solve that problem.

Oh, so will a Y-cable just split the whole thing so that the Wii gets the signal and my Blu-ray player/Cable box (whatever I'll plug the power into) gives the power by default?

 

[trumpet-205]

Oh, so will a Y-cable just split the whole thing so that the Wii gets the signal and my Blu-ray player/Cable box (whatever I'll plug the power into) gives the power by default?

Y cable allows HDD to draw power from two USB ports at the same time. Shorter lead carries the power only.

 

[Roads1]

Oh, I see. Guess I'll be getting a Y-cable too.

Problem solved!

 

[Roads1]

Okay, update. I have the hard drive, and the y-cable seems to work. I haven't yet tried a USB loader on it, but Snes9x GX can't seem to read the games. It recognizes the hard drive and can read some of it (after all, it goes to the menu), but then it says "no drive found."

Do I need to reformat it?

 

[Wiimpathy]

Try to reformat in fat32 if the drive is ntfs.
I know it's too late, but if you're interested in homebrews and emulators, usb 3 drives won't work correctly for a lot of them.

 

[Roads1]

Hmm... so it won't even work if I reformat it to FAT32? Not even USBloader GX? If not, that was a waste of money...

The weird part is because it seems to be able to launch, which it wouldn't be able to do at all if it couldn't read the drive...

 

[trumpet-205]

Format it to FAT32, making sure it is the first partition and it is primary partition.

 

[punkydudester]

OK so I figured out something. This 3.0 issue has been stumping me for a while and finally figured it out. Before you begin the partitions of setting up your HDD you must set it to MBR (Master Boot Record) and not GPT(GUID Partition Table). I have been using Easeus partition manager. This little configuration makes a huge mess and the Wii and it's emulator programs will not recognize the drive if it is set to GPT. Only the WiiMC would even recognize it but not any of the other 20 emulators I have on it. At least this part of the problem is now solved...finally! I thought I was going to half to find old HDD's of 2.0. Apparently this a new thing with Windows 7 and newer. I have been using Windows 7 but recently upgraded to 10. This should at least help a lot of people. I have tested this on my 2 TB Western Digital self powered as well as a non-self powered Western Digital passport both USB 3.0.
On these drives I have the first part of the drive partition as NTFS and the second is Fat32 partition. I have the Fat32 set at 400 GB and the NTFS as the rest. I have the retro emulators on Fat32 and my WiiMC videos and WiiFlow 4.2 on the NTFS so I don't have to deal with those annoying split 4GB files that freeze during gameplay that no one ever seemed to fix. Both partitions are set to active and the NTFS is set to active.

 

[DHall243]

Why not a 1tb+ drive? $60 for 1TB, Wii games are bigger then you think SSBB is almost 8GB itself. Some use their wii for other things like movies and tv shows as well.

 

[GerbilSoft]

USB 3.0 has nothing to do with whether or not the drive is partitioned as GPT. 2TB+ drives usually use GPT because that's required in order to access the full capacity. (Windows should offer the option to use MBR partitioning for drives smaller than 2TB, though this requires erasing the current partition table.)

I recently purchased a USB 3.0 drive case (StarTech.com S2510BPU33) and it works perfectly in HBC, USB Loader GX, and Nintendont. The drive is partitioned as GPT, which is supported by ULGX and Nintendont, but not HBC. (I'm using an SD card for storing homebrew applications; the USB drive is only for game disc images.)

Also, for the record: The "active" bit is meaningless for all Wii homebrew software. The only thing that actually matters (and for MBR only) is if the partition is primary, since several homebrew programs don't support logical partitions. (Anything built with libfat should support them, but only for FAT12/16/32. Not sure about the NTFS or EXTx libraries.)