Hacking USB Loader GX

[Blasterbrew]

Hello,

@Blasterbrew

When you connect your external hard drive to your PC, does Windows want to format it?

In Windows you should see your external hard drive, go to your External Hard Drive ==> right click ==> properties ==> and this will be marked format type.

Hi @jeannotte

Thanks for replying.

Windows does not even detect the drive, it does not appear in my file manager under "This PC." I do not get any dialogue when I connect it. It is as if no drive has been connected to my PC.

Even if it did, if I were to format it I assume it will erase all the wii games that is on the hard drive.

 

[jeannotte]

try another USB port on your computer

 

[Badablek]

@Blasterbrew Did you use it on a Wii U ? Maybe you used Ustealth to hide the drive (so the Wii U will not see it and ask to format) ?

https://gbatemp.net/threads/ustealth-wii-u-format-disk-nag-workaround.352786/


if the drive is indeed in stealth mode, you will have to put it back to normal state before you can use it under Windows (or any OS)

 

[Cyan]

Edit: Oh, yeah, I forgot about UStealth. good call. but it should ask to format it, unless he deactivated the windows option to prompt format questions. or if he is not on Win8+
there's Ustealth tool on windows to toggle that state, and there's also a homebrew to do it directly on the console.

I guess it's not seing the drive nor partition because if ustealth'd edited partition table, so Badablek is right.
go here https://gbatemp.net/threads/ustealth-wii-u-format-disk-nag-workaround.352786/
you'll find the windows program to toggle the state of your drive's visibility
at the end of the first post there's also "toggle usb", a homebrew you run on Wii to set visibility of your drive.

if you never used Ustealth, maybe what I said will help so I kept it below.


original post I wrote:

I think your drive should be in WBFS partition format, so it's not a known format for windows to list. not a FAT32 or NTFS.
if it's WBFS, there are two possibilities :
- your drive has a partition without any letter set for windows, so it's not listed in "my computer".
- your drive doesn't have a partition at all, it's raw with only WBFS data on it.

in the first case, it's easy to fix.
right click "my computer" icon on your desktop, choose manage > hdd.
there's probably another way to access this tool, but it's the one I know.

in that hdd management, you should see your connected drive with "unkown" as partition, or "raw" maybe.
if there's a partition, right click on it and select "set a letter" choose one and save. now windows will try to mount that partition and will ask you to format it : DON'T !
DO NOT try to fix it if asked, don't make it MBR or GPT, you'll lose your data.
Now just try with WiiBackupManager there should be a letter, and you'll be able to mount that partition and see games from it.

Another idea : wii backup manager has an option to hide some letters, verify you didn't filter any in the settings if windows see the drive letter but the program still doesn't.


if there's no partition, it means the drive is raw with WBFS games on it. it's usually done if you used Linux to manage your drive and put the first game on it.
I thought wiibackupmanager was able to load drive instead of letters, but maybe I'm mistaking. you'll need another tool to manage the drive on computer, one which can mount drives instead of partitions.

edit:
third idea, wbfs2fat should be able to convert WBFS drives without partition tables to MBR+FAT32 without losing any games.
or you can try wit/wwt command line tools, but it's a more advanced way to manage your drive. so, don't worry, there are lot of possibilities to access your games on computer, let's just find what the problem is first.

 

[Badablek]

good call. but it should ask to format it, unless he deactivated the windows option to prompt format questions.

As far as I remember, Windows will not ask to format a Ustealth drive because it doesn't even recognize the "corrupted"/"uncommon" partition's table signature.

 

[Cyan]

ah, I thought it asked to recreate the MBR.
but I never tried to hide mine so I'm probably wrong.

 

[Blasterbrew]

@Cyan

Hi, just got back from work and reviewed the previous posts. I installed the UStealth and I do see that the drive is labeled as "Unknown." However, when I attempt to put it as normal, I get an error stating "You cannot make changes to an unknown boot sector type!"

I navigated to Disk management on my PC, and the drive is also labeled as unknown, but has no partitions. It just shows the full drive as unallocated.

So right now I am stuck on what to do

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

@Cyan

Hi, just got back from work and reviewed the previous posts. I installed the UStealth and I do see that the drive is labeled as "Unknown." However, when I attempt to put it as normal, I get an error stating "You cannot make changes to an unknown boot sector type!"

I navigated to Disk management on my PC, and the drive is also labeled as unknown, but has no partitions. It just shows the full drive as unallocated.

So right now I am stuck on what to do

Also tried the USBToggle app on my Wii and it states the drive is not supported.

 

[g12345567]

Installing WiiWare and Virtual Console WAD files through USB Loader GX. At the end of the installation I get

"EmuNAND Wad Manager" "XX wad file(s) not processed!" "Save List" "OK"

Is there a way to find out what titles were not processed?

 

[richittgb1]

when I format my hard drive with "BOOTICE" in fat 32, my pc does not recognize it. when formatting in NTFS usb loader remains loading in "initializing usb device". it helps as I format it and in what size to be able to play games of wii and gamecube and how to pass the games to the hard disk. psdt: My hard drive if it is compatible, try with a usb and it only works when I format it in wbfs.

 

[GreyWolf]

Installing WiiWare and Virtual Console WAD files through USB Loader GX. At the end of the installation I get

"EmuNAND Wad Manager" "XX wad file(s) not processed!" "Save List" "OK"

Is there a way to find out what titles were not processed?

Tell it to save list. It's called "WadManager_errors.txt".

 

[g12345567]

Tell it to save list. It's called "WadManager_errors.txt".

Thanks realised my HDD was full after posting. Was wondering what the Save List did and went. All good now I don't have to reinstall everything.

 

[richittgb1]

when I format my hard drive with "BOOTICE" in fat 32, my pc does not recognize it. when formatting in NTFS usb loader remains loading in "initializing usb device". it helps as I format it and in what size to be able to play games of wii and gamecube and how to pass the games to the hard disk. psdt: My hard drive if it is compatible, try with a usb and it only works when I format it in wbfs.

@ Cyan I need your help, since I see you know a lot about the subject.
PSDT ": My hard drive is Western Digital Elements of 2TB

 

[Cyan]

don't use bootice.
use another tool to make partitions (Easus, or even windows's partition manager).
then format the partition to FAT32 with GUIFormat (as windows will not allow you to format a partition bigger than 32GB).

but you already got that advice from someone else, and it didn't work? ... there's nothing different I can suggest.

Also tried the USBToggle app on my Wii and it states the drive is not supported.

hmm, you fixed your problem? I saw another post of yours saying it works fine.
If not : I don't know why even toggleUSB says it's not working. maybe it's really corrupted and the partition table is wrong. if you still need a fix, we can try something, but I can't guarantee anything.

 

[richittgb1]

don't use bootice.
use another tool to make partitions (Easus, or even windows's partition manager).
then format the partition to FAT32 with GUIFormat (as windows will not allow you to format a partition bigger than 32GB).

but you already got that advice from someone else, and it didn't work? ... there's nothing different I can suggest.
hmm, you fixed your problem? I saw another post of yours saying it works fine.
If not : I don't know why even toggleUSB says it's not working. maybe it's really corrupted and the partition table is wrong. if you still need a fix, we can try something, but I can't guarantee anything.

Thank you for responding, if I have formatted you with Guiformat in Fat32, now it seems that you recognize it but it freezes itself in "loading files"

 

[Cyan]

loading files?
there's no "loading files" message.

please, explain where exactly is your problem, and which message you see.

If is at loader's launch, or at game launch, or while inside the loader?

 

[richittgb1]

loading files?
there's no "loading files" message.

please, explain where exactly is your problem, and which message you see.

If is at loader's launch, or at game launch, or while inside the loader?

Sorry, the USB loader gx freezes when it comes out " loading config files"

 

[Cyan]

where is your boot.dol ? on SD or USB ?
I think it freeze while trying to load the config from USB because your USB is not properly detected/initialized/mounted.
please, use SD card to load your homebrew. use USB only for ISO and wbfs.

if it still freeze at this step if you use SD card, try another card.

 

[WesMods]

You know what would make me jump for joy? If you add support to load Wii games from an SD card, it's the only thing left to do here to make this perfect. With the giant sized SD cards currently available the need for having external hard drive storage is ancient history. I prefer the clean, child-proof hidden-away SD card to the risky spinning disk, bound to break down any minute from my kids jumping around like an earthquake external hard drive. Is it a massive undertaking to add this feature @Cyan if so I can move on with my life obviously but USBLoaderGX has been a staple on my Wii menu since the beginning and having SD loading for Wii games would make me click it a lot more often Thanks @Cyan

 

[cvskid]

You know what would make me jump for joy? If you add support to load Wii games from an SD card, it's the only thing left to do here to make this perfect. With the giant sized SD cards currently available the need for having external hard drive storage is ancient history. I prefer the clean, child-proof hidden-away SD card to the risky spinning disk, bound to break down any minute from my kids jumping around like an earthquake external hard drive. Is it a massive undertaking to add this feature @Cyan if so I can move on with my life obviously but USBLoaderGX has been a staple on my Wii menu since the beginning and having SD loading for Wii games would make me click it a lot more often Thanks @Cyan

I could be wrong but i remember a usb loader that had support for playing wii games through sd cards though that usb loader is probably out of date now compared to usb loader gx.

 

[GreyWolf]

I could be wrong but i remember a usb loader that had support for playing wii games through sd cards though that usb loader is probably out of date now compared to usb loader gx.

CFG USB Loader supports it.