*The Issue: [SOLVED] How can I use a larger than 2TB GTP Hard Drive on a Wii as one single MBR FAT32 partition? [SOLVED]


*** Make sure to see the potential issues with EmuNAND and FIRMWARE noted below ***


This is a twice boiled down version of a couple previous posts from several years ago. This question comes up from time to time and rather than constantly referring people to my 5 year old post that I have to hunt down and that is a bit convoluted talking about various drive sizes and processes, I thought maybe it would be better as an original tutorial that is more to the point and easier to find. One of those previous posts from 2016 can be found here: http://gbatemp.net/threads/usb-loader-gx.149922/page-1129#post-6662953

Here in this revision I focus mainly on using 5TB Western Digital drives because all NTSC Wii, NTSC GameCube & non-NTSC PAL/JAP titles will fit. You would be best to read through everything a couple times to understand the process before proceeding with the steps. While there are other tools and processes others may have come up with, the following is the process I have used myself many, many, many times over. Feel free to seek out other alternatives as you see fit.


Potential Issues:

• EmuNAND - It has been reported on 10/28/21 by a user that EmuNAND does NOT work with this method using 64k or 256k cluster size. This would be a problem if you are trying to have EVERYTHING work off just the HDD and do NOT want to use an SD card. At the moment the only choices seem to be:

A) Use EmuNAND off an SD card large enough for your needs​

​

B) Use a 4TB or smaller HDD formatted with the 32k cluster size​

• Drive Firmware - It has been reported on 06/01/22 by a user that a 5TB WD My Passport purchased around May 2022 was not recognized by the WD Quick Formatter software due to the firmware not supporting the changing of the block size. I haven't bought a My Passport dive in a couple years and will have to purchase a few to see if I can replicate the issue so the pending questions are:

A) Will others run into this issue or is it more of a rare occurrence?​

​

B) Will this become an issue with any newly produced WD drive size because of current firmware versions??​

​

C) My version of WD Quick Drive Formatter is v1.2.0.10, what version is currently available for download on the WD site and would that make a difference?​

​

C) If new firmware becomes and issue can the drives firmware be downgraded to allow WD Quick Formatter to work?​

My Wii:

Original Nintendo Wii (not a Wii U), however I did have a report that it works for the Wii U as well. While I do have a couple Wii U's, I'm lazy and have yet to finish modding them to try it myself.


What I Recommend:

**06/09/22 Firmware on newer drives might be an issue. My recommendation listed below are previous to being made aware of potential issues**

I recommend Western Digital drives because there is WD software that indirectly converts the GPT drive partition to MBR. It has been found that most other drive manufactures do not work because they do not offer this ability, so my recommendation is to stick with using a Western Digital drive. This method has always worked for me on drive sizes of 3TB, 4TB, 6TB, 8TB & 10TB. I found there was no need to continue on with trying my 12TB & 18TB drives.

5TB is the sweet spot, but any size 3TB+ Western Digital drive should work. I have personally used MyBooks, Passports, and the P10 Game Drive. Others have told me their Essentials & Elements drive also worked. I will include additional information as needed for the different drive sizes I've used, but for me the sweet spot is the 5TB because it will hold all NTSC Wii, NTSC GameCube titles, PAL and Japanese titles that did not have a NTSC counterpart, and those that have various versions released.

I do NOT use EmuNAND off the HDD because it has always been installed to my 256GB SDXC card. There is a report that EmuNAND will NOT work on a 5TB+ HDD using this method. For more information in this issue see the "Potential Issues" area below.

Recommended External Drive (one of the following drives and a Y-cable):

• 5TB Western Digital P-10 Black Game Drive: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07VNTFHD5/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?smid=A2UUG1VCCCBF2J&psc=1

or​

• 5TB Western Digital Passport: https://www.amazon.com/Passport-Por...+passport&qid=1635351550&s=electronics&sr=1-3

These drives will most likely work with the regular cable, but you never know if your ports are weak on power, so for a few bucks it’s always nice to have a Y-cable on hand in case it is needed:

• Y-Cable for USB 3.0: Amazon.com: Cable Matters Micro USB 3.0 to USB Splitter Cable (USB Y-Cable, USB Y Cable) 20 Inches : Electronics

The Basic Steps (using a Western Digital Hard Drive):

1. Merge all items on WD HDD into 1 partition
2. Converting the GPT partition to a MBR partition
3. Select the proper cluster size and format the entire drive as FAT32
4. Optional - Set drive to as ACTIVE & PRIMARY
5. Some of my programs and setting in use
6. Links to Wii items I feel helpful
7. Thanks to those over the years who have helped me with this quest
8. Miscellaneous pictures

The More Detailed Steps:

1 - Merge all items on WD HDD into 1 partition
-Using EaseUS Partition Master (or the partition manager of your choice) check the drives partitions:
-It is very important you merge any other partitions showing such as unallocated, hidden, marked with an ASTERIX, or ??
-Picture below shows what I am talking about on Drive C, all of these need to be merged
-Merge any and all into the main partition, you want just one partition showing and nothing else at all
-Link to free version of EaseUS Partition Master: http://www.easeus.com/partition-manager/epm-free.html




2 - Converting the GPT partition to a MBR partition
-Using EaseUS Partition Master (or the partition manager of your choice) check the drive to see if its partition is MBR or GPT:
-If your drive is MBR skip this step and continue onto step 3
-If your drive is GPT, less than 2TB and you want a free partition manager tool go to step 2a
-If your drive is GPT, less than 2TB and you want a paid partition manager tool go to step 2b
-If your drive is GPT, a Western Digital drive & larger than 2TB go to step 2c

2a - Change the GPT drive partition to a MBR partition if your drive is 2TB or less:​

-Free tools to aid in this conversion:​

• To be added as I find them

2b - Change the GPT drive partition to a MBR partition if your drive is 2TB or less:​

-PAID for tools to aid in this conversion:​

• EaseUS Partition Master

-My free version did not have this option but my paid version does since v12 and up​

-Changing the WD drives partition above 2TB will not work using this method, it has the 2TB conversion limit, so go to step 2c if your drive is larger than 2TB​

-If you find more recent versions offer more functionality please let me know and I will update this post​

​

​

2c - Change the GPT drive partition to a MBR partition if your drive is larger than 2TB using WD Quick Formatter:​

-Note: This most likely will not work on a hard drive that's not made by Western Digital, it scans for compatible drives automatically.​

-If using another manufacturer you will have to search to see if they make tools for something similar​

-WD Quick Formatter Link: https://support-en.wd.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/16241​

-Used to convert a larger than 2TB HDD to be Windows XP compatible​

-Once running WD Quick Formatter click on CONTINUE then ACCEPT and it will scan for drives​

-Available drives will be listed and if there is more than one select the correct drive to format​

-For configuration select XP COMPATIBLE and then click FORMAT DRIVE​

-Important: In doing this conversion it formats the drive to one single NTFS partition and changes the partition table from GPT to MBR​

-I'm on Windows 10, maybe it makes a difference what OS you are on when you run it, but you might get an error​

-Using this on my 4TB Passport & 5TB P-10 Black Game Drives I received an error about "no recognizable file system on the drive", just click OK and let the format finish and once complete click FINISH​

-This process can take several minutes but it did finish so give it time​

​

​

3 - Select the proper cluster size and format the entire drive as FAT32
-Use FAT32 GUI Formatter to format the drive to FAT32:
-Original links seem to be working again (http://ridgecrop.co.uk)
-32-bit Link: http://ridgecrop.co.uk/index.htm?guiformat.htm
-64-bit Link: http://ridgecrop.co.uk/guiformat-x64.Exe

Cluster size will depend on the size of drive you are using. If you use a different cluster size the entire drive may not be accessible and I would recommend reformatting using my recommendations below:

• 4TB and smaller drive: Select 32k clusters (Allocation Unit Size: 32768)
• 5TB to 8TB drive: Select 64k clusters (Allocation Unit Size: 65536)
• 10TB drive: 256k clusters (Allocation Unit Size: ????)
• 12TB & Above: Unknown, I never tested past 10TB

4 – (Optional) Set drive to as ACTIVE & PRIMARY
-Using EaseUS Partition Master set the drive as ACTIVE & PRIMARY:
-Some say this is not needed, but I always set my drives as ACTIVE & PRIMARY
-Worse case this has no effect so I still do it anyways




5 - Some of my programs and setting in use
-My Wii: NTSC Wii (original Wii, not Wii U)

-Version #'s currently in use updated: 2019-05-21
-**My versions in use shown probably need to be updated
-CFG USB Loader v71beta51t3
-USB Loader GX v3.0rev1271
-WiiFlow Lite v5.3.0beta6
-Nintendont v5.486MMMOD
-All loaders set to use IOS249[57] D2X v8-final
-IOS249[base57]
-IOS250[base56]
-IOS251[base58]


6 - Links to Wii items I feel helpful
-My Wii’s Modded with ModMii, Link: http://gbatemp.net/threads/modmii-for-windows-official-support-topic.207126/
-CFG USB Loader Link: https://gbatemp.net/threads/configurable-usb-loader.147638/
-USB Loader GX Link: http://gbatemp.net/threads/usb-loader-gx.149922/
-WiiFlow Lite Link: https://gbatemp.net/threads/wiiflow-lite.422685/
-Nintendont Link: http://gbatemp.net/threads/nintendont.349258/


7 - Thanks to those over the years who have helped me with this quest
-Thanks @element6, @GreyWolf, @Elliander, @XFlak & many others I probably have missed for help getting to this point


8 - Miscellaneous pictures
-Yes I have about 32 Wii's just for myself (4 of each type plus my test Wiis) and over 210TB in external hard drive space I'm constantly fiddling with. It would seem that my OCD has ADD making me obsessively collect randomly.

 

[shorty_bobert]

now THIS is dedication

 

[mikefor20]

Yes, most apps cannot access GPT drives and that is why they are the issue for the moment. I have heard that if you ONLY use Nintendont & USB Loader-GX it is possible to use a NTFS GPT drive. But like you I don't want to be limited to just those two applications and must use a FAT32 MBR drive to have everything compatible.

Seeing the above steps make the Western Digital drive MBR you should have no problems using a 5TB or larger drive to keep everything on it.

I know. Last I knew NEEK2o needs a 32k cluster. So I'm asking if this way is compatible with all Homebrew. Including NEEK2o. I want to.be able to store EmuNANDS for Rockband on the HDD

 

[Vila_]

Amaazing guide although EaseUS has been known for sketchy practices so make sure to properly uninstall the partition software after you are done.

 

[ca032769]

I know. Last I knew NEEK2o needs a 32k cluster. So I'm asking if this way is compatible with all Homebrew. Including NEEK2o. I want to.be able to store EmuNANDS for Rockband on the HDD

Well, I have always had my EmuNAND on my 256GB SDXC card so I could easily pop it back and forth between the Wii & PC. At this time I cannot confirm from personnel experience that EmuNAND works on the HDD using 64k or 256k clusters.

Everything else works so give it a try and let me/us know.

 

[mikefor20]

Well, I have always had my EmuNAND on my 256GB SDXC card so I could easily pop it back and forth between the Wii & PC. At this time I cannot confirm from personnel experience that EmuNAND works on the HDD using 64k or 256k clusters.

Everything else works so give it a try and let me/us know.

I need the emunand to work on both the SD and the HDD. As I previously stated. The hard drive needs to work for everything. It needs to work for ROMs and needs to work for NEEK. Rockband has its own EmuNANDS. Several of them. I have every single song from all the guitar Heroes and all of the rock bands injected into a few different emunand in order to accommodate them all. This works on 2TB and 32k cluster. I can't get it to work with a higher cluster because of limitations of NEEK. I want everything functional. I am also running every single emulator available. Some of the older ones have never been updated. With my 2 terabyte drive everything used to work. I want the same experience with my 5 terabyte drive. I don't want to have to have an SD card because my kids switch them in order to switch their personal Emunand. So once again I'm back to I need everything to work off of a hard drive. I'm not trying to be convinced to do it a different way because it doesn't work for me. I can definitely confirm it does not work on a hard drive with 64k or 256k clusters unless there's some kind of way to trick it. 256gb won't fit even 1 of the RockBand EmuNANDs anyway.

 

[ca032769]

I need the emunand to work on both the SD and the HDD. As I previously stated. The hard drive needs to work for everything. It needs to work for ROMs and needs to work for NEEK. Rockband has its own EmuNANDS. Several of them. I have every single song from all the guitar Heroes and all of the rock bands injected into a few different emunand in order to accommodate them all. This works on 2TB and 32k cluster. I can't get it to work with a higher cluster because of limitations of NEEK. I want everything functional. I am also running every single emulator available. Some of the older ones have never been updated. With my 2 terabyte drive everything used to work. I want the same experience with my 5 terabyte drive. I don't want to have to have an SD card because my kids switch them in order to switch their personal Emunand. So once again I'm back to I need everything to work off of a hard drive. I'm not trying to be convinced to do it a different way because it doesn't work for me. I can definitely confirm it does not work on a hard drive with 64k or 256k clusters unless there's some kind of way to trick it. 256gb won't fit even 1 of the RockBand EmuNANDs anyway.

Looking for others that have tried EmuNAND using 64k or 256k clusters of the HDD to confirm if they were able to get it to work or not. Has anyone else tried it? I'm slammed between working full time and going to school full time, so it might take a bit before I can try it myself.

For now I'll edit the OP to note that EmuNAND has been reported NOT to work with this method using 64k or 256k cluster size and the only choice seems to be to use EmuNAND off an SD card or 4TB or lower HDD with 32k cluster size.

@mikefor20 - Unless someone can confirm a working EmuNAND using a 64k cluster size, and the steps needed to make it work, it does not look like this will be your single drive solution. I wish it were, but it is not looking good.

 

[mikefor20]

I can confirm that neek does not work

 

[ca032769]

I can confirm that neek does not work

Thanks Mike.

Anyone else out there, besides Mike, that has tried EmuNAND on a 5TB+ HDD that can conform working or not working?

Maybe a different setup is working for someone? If so please let us know and post a Syscheck so we can see what settings and IOSs you have installed.

Not sure if anyone else has tried EmuNAND on the HDD. While several people have been referred to this process over the years, there have only been a few of us that I know of that have actually used it to set up a large 5TB+ HDD. Probably not a lot of people following this tread or using large HDDs that have tried to setup EmuNAND on it to draw from. Up to this point if there's more than 15 of us using large 5TB+ HDDs I'd be surprised.

It was mostly a proof of concept experiment of mine that lead to having the current ability. I got lucky and always used WD drives and one day hit upon what was needed to make it work. Most of the others attempting this had Seagate drives, which were very popular, but they were not able to get it to work and eventually gave up. Turned out the WD drives still had what was need in their control hardware (or something like that) to allow the necessary cylinder emulation something or other. I got lucky, just happen to have the right type of drive, was interested enough in experimenting around, gave it a shot (on and off over a few years) trying to figure it out, and then wa-lah 5 years ago this process was born and eventually refined to what I have posted here. Problem is that when the Wii was at it's height of being popular this method remained buried in a thread. I should have put it into the wild back then for others to take a crack at improving on. I think the few of us were just happy at the time it did what we wanted and our own personnel setups worked.

From time to time someone comes looking on how to do this. Rather than having to find and refer them to that buried 5 year old post, the process is now here for better visibility.

 

[Haloman800]

Thank you for this! Going to finally make a Wii arcade and have all the Wii/GC games (along with retro emulators) on one drive.

 

[mikefor20]

Thank you for this! Going to finally make a Wii arcade and have all the Wii/GC games (along with retro emulators) on one drive.

Get a large SD as well. Some homebrew has issues with this method.

I went 5TB wd xbox edition. Looks great with the Wii too!

 

[Haloman800]

Get a large SD as well. Some homebrew has issues with this method.

I went 5TB wd xbox edition. Looks great with the Wii too!

What size SD card are you rocking? I have a 256gb microSD and an adapter, but not sure it will hold all the EmuNAND games

 

[Haloman800]

Anyone know which version of EaseUS to use? I bought the 5tb western digital that the OP linked to, but I don't see the option to convert it to MBR.

 

[ber71]

Anyone know which version of EaseUS to use? I bought the 5tb western digital that the OP linked to, but I don't see the option to convert it to MBR.

You can use this retail utility to put the drive in 4k-MBR mode

https://support-en.wd.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/16241

When asked, select XP mode

 

[mikefor20]

What size SD card are you rocking? I have a 256gb microSD and an adapter, but not sure it will hold all the EmuNAND games

I have 256. It will hold everything except my MASSIVE rockband collection. Lots of customs and every track from every gh or rb game.

 

[ca032769]

Anyone know which version of EaseUS to use? I bought the 5tb western digital that the OP linked to, but I don't see the option to convert it to MBR.

Sorry for the late response. As @ber71 mentioned, you'll want to use the WD Quick Format Utility and select XP mode.

For your question, to get the CONVERT TO MBR option you need to right click the drive to convert and then select CONVERT TO MBR, see step 2a in the instructions. But this will most likely error out for you because the drive is larger than 2TB. I haven't tried it in a while, but I did ask EaseUS to add in the function to convert larger drives, but I doubt they ever added it.

You are going to want to use step 2b because of the drive size. Use the WD Quick Format Utility to convert the drive to XP compatible. Doing this causes the drive to be reformatted as MBR.

 

[ca032769]

You can use this retail utility to put the drive in 4k-MBR mode

https://support-en.wd.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/16241

When asked, select XP mode

Thanks for pointing him in the right direction. I added to the OP "-When asked select XP mode" to make things a little more clearer.

 

[Pop264]

I Try not work on my 4tb seagate external hard drive on my wii not working to get up to 4tb fat32 Is only fat32 2tb so how I get to fat32 to gat 4tb drive to work on wii game

 

[mikefor20]

I Try not work on my 4tb seagate external hard drive on my wii not working to get up to 4tb fat32 Is only fat32 2tb so how I get to fat32 to gat 4tb drive to work on wii game

It depends on your drive. Get one of the compatible listed drives

 

[ca032769]

I Try not work on my 4tb seagate external hard drive on my wii not working to get up to 4tb fat32 Is only fat32 2tb so how I get to fat32 to gat 4tb drive to work on wii game

Hi, your best bet is to get a Western Digital drive as I can not speak to other manufacturers drives working with this method.

It may not work on the Seagate drive. You'll would need to make sure the Seagate drive has been formatted as an MBR partition and not GPT. If your drive is GPT you'll need to find a Seagate program that will convert it to an MBR partition, see step #2. I do not use Seagate drives so I'm not sure what program will help with this conversion. The program I have linked to in step #2b will only work with Western Digital drives, not your Seagate, because it is made by and meant for Western Digital drives and auto recognizes what is attached. If it is not Western Digital it will not recognize the drive to make the conversion.

To have the full 4TB as FAT32 use one of the programs listed in step #3. Select 32k sector size before formatting. Once again, if the drive is not an MBR partition this step will not matter because the drive will not work on the Wii.

 

[Pop264]

Hi, your best bet is to get a Western Digital drive as I can not speak to other manufacturers drives working with this method.

It may not work on the Seagate drive. You'll would need to make sure the Seagate drive has been formatted as an MBR partition and not GPT. If your drive is GPT you'll need to find a Seagate program that will convert it to an MBR partition, see step #2. I do not use Seagate drives so I'm not sure what program will help with this conversion. The program I have linked to in step #2b will only work with Western Digital drives, not your Seagate, because it is made by and meant for Western Digital drives and auto recognizes what is attached. If it is not Western Digital it will not recognize the drive to make the conversion.

To have the full 4TB as FAT32 use one of the programs listed in step #3. Select 32k sector size before formatting. Once again, if the drive is not an MBR partition this step will not matter because the drive will not work on the Wii.

I think
i should buy

Western Digital 4TB My Passport Portable Hard Drive USB 3.0 - Black​

It will work on wii