Hacking USB Loader: Which can do GameCube off NTFS?

[timehacker11]

Is configurable USB Loader mod able to load GC Games and is it able to do so off a NTFS partition? If it is, I'm assuming it can load Wii games off the same partition?

Thanks,
timehacker11.

 

[Rydian]

For GC stuff, what are you using? DIOS MIOS itself doesn't support NTFS because of memory limitations, so no matter what loader you use to feed DIOS MIOS a Gamecube image, it won't work if it's NTFS since DIOS MIOS won't be able to read it.

 

[timehacker11]

For GameCube stuff, I'm using DIOS MIOS. I don't mind creating another partition for Wii games. That's possible, right?

 

[Rydian]

Both GC and Wii games should work off of FAT32, I'm doing that with USB Loader GX on an external HDD. An issue is some things only look at the first/primary partition, I'm not sure on what does what there though.

 

[trumpet-205]

Create two primary partitions on your HDD. First one being FAT32 and later one being NTFS.

 

[macmanhigh]

U can also use wbfs2fat to convert on the Fly ur HD to FAT32.....

Check this out - http://gbatemp.net/t291320-wbfs2fat-py

 

[Hielkenator]

Just use ONE fat 32 partition , why bother with separate ntfs and FAT?
Unless you want to use your HDD NTFS part for storing something other than Wii homebrew and games.

 

[PolloDiablo]

Just use ONE fat 32 partition , why bother with separate ntfs and FAT?
Unless you want to use your HDD NTFS part for storing something other than Wii homebrew and games.

FAT32 has a 4GB file size limit, and some Wii games are over 4GB
In order to play those you have to split them... some people prefer not to do that and have a separate NTFS partition. I'm one of those

 

[Hielkenator]

FAT32 has a 4GB file size limit, and some Wii games are over 4GB
In order to play those you have to split them... some people prefer not to do that and have a separate NTFS partition. I'm one of those

Your way of thinking makes no sense.
Use Wii backup manager you manage your Wii games.
If you are problematic about your Images you should not use usb loading in the first place.

Wii backupmanager can convert back to iso on the fly, No need to use the cripple NTFS functions on the various USB loaders
I terms of time copying it's also neglectible, and having ONE partition is much more convenient.
ALL wii homebrew support FAT32, not all Homebrew supports NTFS.
Also FAT can be read from ANY operating sytem, NTFS is windows only.

Now if you want to use your HDD to store Video's you would have a point. For Wii usage go FAT 32
Why use all that space for full iso's? Lol.

 

[Chary]

If you want to have a special way of organizing stuff, go for NTFS and FAT32 as separate partitions. Otherwise, you can just go with formatting everything to FAT32, as that IMHO, works best.

 

[Rydian]

Linux has had NTFS support for 5+ years, actually.

 

[PolloDiablo]

Your way of thinking makes no sense.

Yes it does

If you are problematic about your Images...

I don't found having non splitted wbfs files to be problematic

...you should not use usb loading in the first place.

NTFS is fine

 

[Rydian]

OP wants Gamecube.

 

[Hielkenator]

Yes it does
I don't found having non splitted wbfs files to be problematic


NTFS is fine

Yes it is but NOT if you want a hassle free Wii setup, including ROM loading, Gamecube and Wii games.
This thread is proof of that I think.

What is your reasoning to use NTFS for your Wii games?
You can go back to full iso in any point in time, you know that right?
full iso's just take up space. Apart from the gamedisc partition, it's just empty files to get to the Wii optical disc standard size ( 4.37 GB ).
Coverting to .wbfs is much more efficient.
If you want to have a full iso at any point just copy the games from your drive using Wiibackup manager.

I think you are confusing the WBFS partitioning from the PAST. Wich is something different.
If you aren't using you HDD for something other than Wii related, I see NO benifit's for having a NTFS partition. Just put's stress on your HDD in terms of storing space and read/acces bursts.

If you really are concerned about your images, you should burn them or purchase a retail copy.
This way you will alway have a backup.
I recommend dumping and burning your legal retail games anyway.
This way when your Wii drive ever dies you still have the option to rip your disc on the fly to your HDD using Wiibackupmanager.
Most DVD readers are unable to read Retail Wii discs.So alway make a copy of you retail games if you want to use HDD usb loading. HDD's tend to crash at any point in their lige cycle . keep this in mind. This way , even if you have a broken Wii drive you can still put your retail copy's on you HDD.

 

[PolloDiablo]

I've said WBFS... read my post again
I use scrubbed WBFS files with my Wii (with USB Loader and my WODE) and also with Dolphin (which now supports wbfs loading)

I don't like splited files the same way you don't like NTFS /

 

[Rydian]

To back up the above somewhat... from what I've read, the Wii (like the DC) uses CAV, which means data at different points in the disc is read at different speeds. That's why the ISOs are always the full size, since there's filler data to push the actual gama data to the edge that reads faster.

In one famous example, ikaruga.cdi is ~773MB, but ikaruga.rar is ~17MB because the rest is filler (and since it's not random junk, it compresses easily).

 

[Hielkenator]

I've said WBFS... read my post again
I use scrubbed WBFS files with my Wii (with USB Loader and my WODE) and also with Dolphin (which now supports wbfs loading)

I don't like splited files the same way you don't like NTFS /

Read rydian's post and my previous post.
Get educated.
After you last post I've lost you...
Why do you use NTFS in the first place?
Now it really makes NO sense to me even more.
See it as you like, I just tried to help you get the most out of your softmodded Wii setup.

 

[Rydian]

I haven't had the Wii for even three weeks yet, so I don't know that much about WBFS files and splitting specifically... but I do know the basics of files and filesystems, and even a max theoretical split into three files is only two additional metadata/header calls, assuming the separate files aren't spaced across the disk... through from what I know, if the drive is fragmented enough to split the data when there's multiple files, it'll have to spread the data around if it's all in a single file anyways, so fragmentation would still cause loading issues in either case.

If the backup manager can reattach them (and the Wii's file system isn't anything exotic and can be recreated), then all you lose is the filler data, which is akin to trimming ROMs on the DS-side, nobody cares about the lost data unless they need to reconstruct an original image for something like patching (in which case they usually HAVE the original somewhere, just not on the actual console/handheld due to space concerns).

</rambling>

 

[PolloDiablo]

Read rydian's post and my previous post.
Get educated.
After you last post I've lost you...
Why do you use NTFS in the first place?

"get educated"? stop being an ass!

For the third time.... I use NTFS because of FAT32's 4GB file limit

see all those scrubbed >4GB files?? I don't want to split them in two

 

[Rydian]

The question is why not? The additional space used by splitting a file in two is less than 4KB, and on our Wii you don't actually interact with the files, just entries on the list, which show up the same whether the file is split or not.

The tradeoff is much higher compability, as relatively few things can read NTFS. This includes DIOS MIOS, which OP is using (and GC games don't need to split in the first place).