Hacking Question about drive formats

[soggyjocks]

Hi, I have just completed adding the homebrew channel to my wii u, and installed cios. I'm a bit confused having read several different threads and watching several different youtube video's on loading and storing wii/gamecube iso's.

2 questions)

1) I have a 1 TB external drive, and have a Y cable. The video's I have watched have people installing gamecube ISO's on to a SD card formatted fat32. The external drives for the wii games have been formatted to WBFS. I would prefer to have the gamecube games and wii games all on the one drive, rather than split into SD cards and external drives. Can I get the 2 different types of games on the external drive if I format it WBFS, or do I have to partition some space as fat32 for the GC titles? I've read that isn't possible, the wii u will want the entire drive formatted with a single wbfs partition. What should I be doing? Is there any difference in the directory structure, as to where I place the wii or GC iso's?

2) I am also a bit confused about what software I need to install in addition to the homebrew channel and CIOS. I know that the GC games need Nintendont, but when I look at the apps folder in the videos they have folders called wiiflow or usb loader, or loadiine. Is there one that I should be choosing over the other?

Thanks

 

[Davor]

Hi, I have just completed adding the homebrew channel to my wii u, and installed cios. I'm a bit confused having read several different threads and watching several different youtube video's on loading and storing wii/gamecube iso's.

2 questions)

1) I have a 1 TB external drive, and have a Y cable. The video's I have watched have people installing gamecube ISO's on to a SD card formatted fat32. The external drives for the wii games have been formatted to WBFS. I would prefer to have the gamecube games and wii games all on the one drive, rather than split into SD cards and external drives. Can I get the 2 different types of games on the external drive if I format it WBFS, or do I have to partition some space as fat32 for the GC titles? I've read that isn't possible, the wii u will want the entire drive formatted with a single wbfs partition. What should I be doing? Is there any difference in the directory structure, as to where I place the wii or GC iso's?

2) I am also a bit confused about what software I need to install in addition to the homebrew channel and CIOS. I know that the GC games need Nintendont, but when I look at the apps folder in the videos they have folders called wiiflow or usb loader, or loadiine. Is there one that I should be choosing over the other?

Thanks

Hello!

Since I'm not playing any GC titles I can't help you with that, but for playing Wii titles, you need either WiiFlow, USB loader GX or Configurable USB loader (there are other loaders too, but those 3 are most popular). I'm not sure if some of those loaders can also emulate GC and load GC titles. Regarding HDD, I have 500GB HDD with 2 partitions. One for Wii titles (WBFS), and the other one formated in NTFS (for general usage). I'm not using it for GC titles, since I don't play them, but I guess you could do the same with WBFS/FAT32 partitions. I know WiiFlow supports drives hidden with UStealth utility, but I'm not sure if it will work in Nintendont. This utility hides drive from all other software and devices (including IOSU), so it will not nag you with "Drive is not formatted" message every time you boot your WiiU.

Best regards,
Davor

 

[soggyjocks]

Thank you, all advice is appreciated. I might try and format the drive into 2 partitions, one fat32 and one WBFS, and see what happens...

 

[CubeLer]

Thank you, all advice is appreciated. I might try and format the drive into 2 partitions, one fat32 and one WBFS, and see what happens...

That works,i used this on my old Wii.
Fat32 Partition for VC,GC,USBLoader-Covers,Emunand...
The other Partition is NTFS for Wii Games.

Bye

 

[Cyan]

Do NOT format the drive to wbfs. (and do not follow video youtube tutorial from 9 years old wanabee modders, they are always wrong and dangerous)
Please, don't follow outdated tutorials, it gives us (users helping users) even more work to fix your issues.
The WBFS partition format is not a good format (at least the tools used to manage it are bad), and corrupts your games.

format the drive to FAT32, and that's all.
Wii games are better on FAT32.

One single FAT32 partition with all your games and homebrew on it.
FAT32, 32k/cluster
/games/ folder for gamecube games
/wbfs/ folder for wii games

needed tools:
PC:
WiiBackupManager (PC) to copy/install/convert ISO to the proper wii split format to fit on FAT32.

Wii mode:
SD card (optional but recommended)
USB device
d2x installer
USBLoaderGX
nintendont
(UStealth if you want to hide your drive to prevent the format message)

WiiU mode: (because you mentioned loadiine)
nothing if you are not on 5.3.2

 

[jammybudga777]

I use a 2tb 1 partition fat32 with 32kb marked primary active. This allows all my emulators/emunand/homebrew "DVDs"/wii games/GameCube games.

 

[lordelan]

I was about to say that. But you did it very well.
Addition: In WiiBackupManager you have to enable the "split für FAT32 partitions" thing in settings somewhere.
Big games like SSBB are then splitted into two parts of max 4 GB so they can be pushed to FAT32.
I'm using USB Loader GX to launch all Wii games, GC games (thanks to built in Nintendont support in USB Loader GX), VC and WiiWare Games (thanks to EmuNAND support) on one hard drive. Even my savegames are there.
So I technically don't have to do anything else but to take my HDD with me when I visit my girlfriend with her also hacked Wii. I plug my HDD there and have all my games und savegames to play on.

 

[Davor]

Well, sorry if I misled someone with this info. I didn't know that FAT32 was actually preferred format for vWii. Is there any way I could easily transfer my games to FAT32 partition from WBFS? Will I lose game saves in the process?

Best regards,
Davor

 

[jammybudga777]

I think it can be done but not guaranteed that everything would be exactly as it was. I did look into it myself ages ago but instead I just formatted the drive and started copying over a backup I had. Seemed a better idea tbh

 

[Davor]

I think it can be done but not guaranteed that everything would be exactly as it was. I did look into it myself ages ago but instead I just formatted the drive and started copying over a backup I had. Seemed a better idea tbh

Thank you for the information. I wasn't worried about the back-ups, because I have copy of them on my PC, but I was just curious if I could recover a game saves. Not much of a loss anyway.

Best regards,
Davor

 

[Vivec]

Well, sorry if I misled someone with this info. I didn't know that FAT32 was actually preferred format for vWii. Is there any way I could easily transfer my games to FAT32 partition from WBFS? Will I lose game saves in the process?

Best regards,
Davor

WBFS Manager can get them out as .iso.

 

[lordelan]

Thank you for the information. I wasn't worried about the back-ups, because I have copy of them on my PC, but I was just curious if I could recover a game saves. Not much of a loss anyway.

Best regards,
Davor

What do you mean? Savegames? There are on your Wii or SD Card if you're not using emuNAND for saves as well.
So they won't be touched.

 

[Davor]

What do you mean? Savegames? There are on your Wii or SD Card if you're not using emuNAND for saves as well.
So they won't be touched.

I'm not very familiar with the ways of Wii/vWii, so I didn't know that. I'm not using emuNAND, just homebrew with WiiFlow, so this is a great news. Thank you.

Best regards,
Davor

 

[Cyan]

random help with unnecessary steps and tools ?
If you want to tell a user how to move games from a wbfs partition to FAT32, then WBFS manager is not the best tool. (WBFS Manager is even the worst tool of all managers, it's corrupting games, why people are still using that program?)

There's a WBFS to FAT32 converter.
You don't need to extract or copy the games out of your drive, format, and put the games back.
the converter will takes two seconds to convert a WBFS partition to FAT32 without losing any games. well, not losing game only if your WBFS tool didn't already corrupt them!

look in my signature, there's a wbfs2fat and a guide to use it.


You will not lose any saves as, like said, the savegame is not stored with the ISO or on WBFS.
the savegames are stores on the console if you are not using "EmuNAND save" option.
There are homebrew to backup/restore savegames (SavegameManagerGX), it works on both wii and vWii. You only need to play the game at least once to be able to restore the save.

If you use "EmuNAND save" option, then you need to copy the /title/00010000/ folder like I explained above.

 

[Davor]

random help with unnecessary steps and tools ?
If you want to tell a user how to move games from a wbfs partition to FAT32, then WBFS manager is not the best tool. (WBFS Manager is even the worst tool of all managers, it's corrupting games, why people are still using that program?)

There's a WBFS to FAT32 converter.
You don't need to extract or copy the games out of your drive, format, and put the games back.
the converter will takes two seconds to convert a WBFS partition to FAT32 without losing any games. well, not losing game only if your WBFS tool didn't already corrupt them!

look in my signature, there's a wbfs2fat and a guide to use it.


You will not lose any saves as, like said, the savegame is not stored with the ISO or on WBFS.
the savegames are stores on the console if you are not using "EmuNAND save" option.
There are homebrew to backup/restore savegames (SavegameManagerGX), it works on both wii and vWii. You only need to play the game at least once to be able to restore the save.

If you use "EmuNAND save" option, then you need to copy the /title/00010000/ folder like I explained above.

Hello Cyan!

Thank you for your help. I have 2 additional questions, if you don't mind. First, does WiiFlow on WiiU works with NTFS drives too and is it a good idea to use NTFS (since I'm only using WiiFlow, not other emulators/loaders)? And what game manager you suggest for transfering ISOs to FAT32/NTFS HDD?

Best regards,
Davor

 

[Cyan]

yes, Wiiflow works with NTFS too.
There's no advantage to use NTFS over FAT32. All consoles and homebrew use FAT32, but you can use ntfs if you really want. You won't be able to play gamecube games.

If you are on windows, I recommend Wii Backup Manager as it has a nice interface and works with FAT32/NTFS.
You can also use Wit (with QtWitGUI if you want a gui), which works on linux and windows.
WitGui works on Mac.

 

[Davor]

yes, Wiiflow works with NTFS too.
There's no advantage to use NTFS over FAT32. All consoles and homebrew use FAT32, but you can use ntfs if you really want. You won't be able to play gamecube games.

If you are on windows, I recommend Wii Backup Manager as it has a nice interface and works with FAT32/NTFS.
You can also use Wit (with QtWitGUI if you want a gui), which works on linux and windows.
WitGui works on Mac.

Thank you a lot. The only reason for using NTFS instead of FAT32 is possibility to have only one partition on the HDD, so I don't have to limit a partition for games/general usage but I can have both simultaneously, depending on the current needs. I'm not planning on using Nintendont or playing any GC games, so that will not be a problem. Thank you for your help once again.

Best regards,
Davor

 

[lordelan]

Thank you a lot. The only reason for using NTFS instead of FAT32 is possibility to have only one partition on the HDD, so I don't have to limit a partition for games/general usage but I can have both simultaneously, depending on the current needs. I'm not planning on using Nintendont or playing any GC games, so that will not be a problem. Thank you for your help once again.

Best regards,
Davor

If I'm not wrong FAT32 is also needed for emuNAND and I really recommend using emuNAND.
You have infinite space for channels, wiiware, vc and savegames.
Even if I'm wrong: FAT32 with 32 K cluster size is the most recommended file system for usage with Wii/vWii due to most compatibility as Cyan said.

 

[Davor]

If I'm not wrong FAT32 is also needed for emuNAND and I really recommend using emuNAND.
You have infinite space for channels, wiiware, vc and savegames.
Even if I'm wrong: FAT32 with 32 K cluster size is the most recommended file system for usage with Wii/vWii due to most compatibility as Cyan said.

Hello!

After @Cyan's post, I've decide to go with FAT32, but it wasn't working well for me (since I'm using Win10 I had to format HDD with the Wii Backup Manager - because Win10 supports only NTFS and exFAT). I didn't convert a partition from WBFS to FAT32 because I had all the games on my PC, so I just wiped WBFS partition, formatted it to FAT32 and transfered games using the Wii Backup Manager. It all went well, but after I've connected HDD to then WiiU and tried to play some games in the WiiFlow, only 2 games were working. Other just displayed WiiFlow logo, then progress bar, and after a progress bar goes to 100% all I had was a black screen. I couldn't even turn off the WiiU using the power button, but had to unplug it from the power source. After that, I've tried formatting HDD to NTFS, set the Wii Backup Manager to use unlimited file size (since I was using NTFS, I had no need to split files to 4GB), and now all the games are working. I'm not sure what happened, but, since I'm not going to use emuNAND (I don't need much space for channels, since all I use is WiiFlow - forwarded) or other emulators, I think I will leave it this way. Anyway, thank you for your reply.

Best regards,
Davor

 

[Cyan]

NTFS is fine.

too bad FAT32 doesn't work, I don't even understand why, but you found a workaround so it's good.