Hacking Can someone help me choose a USB stick for USB loader GX

[futureboii]

I have to send a wii to my family abroad and I would like to put my Wii backups on a USB key before sending it because internet is not good there.

I can't find one of the models recommended by the wiki https://wiki.gbatemp.net/wiki/USB_Devices_Compatibility_List

Can someone recommend me a model from this list https://www.darty.com/nav/extra/lis...sc&c=640000329088-320000329088&cat=1092&npk=1 it's a store where I can buy from (because the wii goes on sunday I don't have the time to order on amazon, unless it's prime https://www.amazon.fr/)

Thank you

 

[Jayro]

I personally use a 256GB Sandisk Fit in mine. I love that it's low-profile.

https://www.amazon.fr/SanDisk-Ultra...s=sandisk+fit&qid=1564734319&s=gateway&sr=8-2

 

[futureboii]

I personally use a 256GB Sandisk Fit in mine. I love that it's low-profile.

https://www.amazon.fr/SanDisk-Ultra-256Go-allant-jusquà/dp/B07857Y17V/ref=sr_1_2?__mk_fr_FR=ÅMÅŽÕÑ&keywords=sandisk+fit&qid=1564734319&s=gateway&sr=8-2

thank you for taking the time to give me an amazon link! It sounds great buts it's way over my budget, I wonder if 64GB one is compatible the 32GB one seems to have issues

 

[Alexander1970]

Hello.

I can give you a personal "Buying Tip" if you like.
My experiences with these:

https://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B00YMZBPKI/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

https://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B00YMZBNLO/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1



I use it since 2016 and for me they work.
- the 64gb is fornatted wiht FAT32 (Gamecube and Wii games)
- the 128gb is formatted with NTFS (only Wii games)

There is no 100 percent warranty that they work correctly on your Wii.
(for example the Production of the USB Sticks maybe changed over the years,you have maybe an older or newer Wii Model)
Also important is your Wiis "condition" that means your Softmod/installed cIOSes.USB Sticks/Flash Drives needs the "correct" one to work.(Hopefully..)

Spoiler: Personal Note:

If you want to spare your nerves,Please re-consider your Buying plans and think of an HDD.

Thank you.

 

[futureboii]

If you want to spare your nerves,Please re-consider your Buying plans and think of an HDD

I guess it's not a bad idea, I have an old 2.5 enclosure, I'll see if I can find an old laptop with a working hard drive, do you know if Y cables pose problems if I plug them on the two USB ports

 

[Alexander1970]

I guess it's not a bad idea, I have an old 2.5 enclosure, I'll see if I can find an old laptop with a working hard drive, do you know if Y cables pose problems if I plug them on the two USB ports

Thank you.

Maybe ONE is enough.I use an SATA Fujitsu 80 GB and it works with a single USB plugged in.I think it "does not hurt" to try it out.

You know how to get Games on your HDD ?

 

[futureboii]

If it's the same as putting them on USB or with wii backup manager I'll figure it out, thanks a lot for the advice alexander

 

[Cyan]

I know you requested a flashdrive (usb stick), but you should really get a real external hdd, even as small as the flashdrive you wanted so it's not very expansive.
flashdrive have issues with Wii/vWii.
if you find one which is apparently working, it's only half working (only in read mode, write mode will freeze/corrupt the partition).


you don't need Y-cable on wii (only on wiiu).
don't use an enclosure which acts as a HUB, it'll not work. be sure your enclosure works as a simple "hdd interface converter USB/SATA".
HUB type are usually plugged to power source, and you just "plug" the hdd on it when you want to mount it.
full working enclosure are more like a box around the drive.

 

[Maeson]

If you want USB Flash Drives, I've been using USB Flash drives from Toshiba such as this one and a Data Traveler G4 from Kingston, and they've served me well, and I've been using them for years so I can recommend them.

I've tried 16GB, 32GB, and 64 GB Toshiba drives and all of them worked the same (besides storage capacity, of course). I tried other brands such as Integral and Sandisk successfully too (I replayed Xenoblade Chronicles in its entirety on the Integral one, even, and that's dozens of hours of use to find problems if they existed). I think as long as you don't use crappy sticks and go for some respectably produced ones, it should go fine, but apparently they're the worst thing of this planet for some.

With the pass of the years External HDDs are getting more economic, smaller and way less annoying which is pretty great, but they're not the perfect solution. As far as I know, Flash Memory will pretty much always be faster than a HDD, and Flash does not suffer fragmentation, for example. HDDs can also suffer a plethora of issues too, you only need to spend a few minutes either in these forums or reddit to see.

But if you end up going with an HDD, I've read the Seagate Backup Plus works well on several places, I've seen the 1TB model around 60 € (although I've seen it sometimes for 40). Another model I've read people recommending is the WD My Passport, which should have comparable price to the Seagate, and they look rather cute. I'd recommend waiting for other users' input on specific models, though.

On a personal note, to me 1tb for Wii/GC games is overkill (and not the fun kind). I hardly believe most people will have end up filling even a quarter of that, and you'll have to endure long loading times whenever you enter a USB Loader. A friend's set up takes like around half a minute to load and go to USB Loader GX proper, and that adds up quickly when you're with friends and want to play a variety of games.

 

[Cyan]

Flash does not suffer fragmentation

fragmentation depends the file system you use, FAT32 uses fragmentation method to store files. (the less cluster size, the biggest fragmentation you can have)
WBFS has almost no fragmentation due to very big cluster size.
I've often read ext4 doesn't have fragmentation, but I never learned exactly how it's working.

I have a 250GB drive which I never filled. I have around 100 games and didn't even played them all. you really don't need 1TB unless you are a collector but then it's not a Wii drive that you need but a NAS or some sort of storage servers, not to play them on console.

 

[Codemastershock]

I used many thumb drives and always worked fine (i prefer using them instead of a hard disk because they are easier to carry around. My Xbox One and Wii U do have external hard drives because not only the games are bigger, but I dont carry them as often tio play with friends as the Wii), not using it to save stuff such as emunand.
I bought one Kingston DT50 32gb to keep some games and other Sandisk Cruzer 32GB for party games.
The Kingston one is newer, the problem with it is that many drives nowadays, especially USB 3.0 ones have its table of partitions as GPT and the Wii and many devices will not read out of the box.The Wii and many devices will not read drives with GPT table of partitions, only MBR.
In this case, you have to erase all partitions, format using MBR and then you format the drive as a FAT32 or NTFS partition. The thing I recommend the most is using gparted which is found on many Linux distros and clicking on the option to recreate the partition table as msdos. On Windows you can do this using the MiniTool Partition Wizard and clicking with the right button of the mouse and it will appear a option to convert to a MBR drive.

 

[futureboii]

In this case, you have to erase all partitions, format using MBR and then you format the drive as a FAT32 or NTFS partition. The thing I recommend the most is using gparted which is found on many Linux distros and clicking on the option to recreate the partition table as msdos. On Windows you can do this using the MiniTool Partition Wizard and clicking with the right button of the mouse and it will appear a option to convert to a MBR drive.

Thank you, you saved me a lot of time the drive I found on my laptop is in GPT, i'll have to change this. Should I use NTFS or FAT32 for only wii games? I'm also not sure when I try to create the drive if it should be a primary or a logical partition, all I read is that it should be in 32kb cluster size.

Edit: after searching I think I should set it to primary

Also @Cyan said that I did not need a Y cable with the Wii but my USB enclosure came with one, i'm wondering if I should use it like this or if it will be fine using just the main cable (it works fine on my computer with just one USB plugged)

 

[Cyan]

GPT works with USBloaders. not with all homebrew, but all loaders yes, even nintendont.
I found a bug in GPT partition size detection with usbloaergx (no idea with other loaders), which can be a big issue if you dump a Wii disc to GPT partition, so MBR is currently better if you can.
if you can't use MBR (due to hdd size) then be sure you don't dump a disc using usbloadergx until I fix it (probably in r1273)


32k cluster is not a requirement either, it might just work better with some games, but it's just strange that it has an effect, except maybe for emuNAND. (not even sure)

if you have to choose, go with FAT32 because more homebrew will work with this format.
NTFS is only for Wii games, while FAT32 works with gamecube, emulators, mediaplayer, etc.


if your enclosure comes with one, then it probably requires it. it might ask for more power than a single port provides (500mA), but just try and see

 

[futureboii]

GPT works with USBloaders. not with all homebrew, but all loaders yes, even nintendont.
I found a bug in GPT partition size detection with usbloaergx (no idea with other loaders), which can be a big issue if you dump a Wii disc to GPT partition, so MBR is currently better if you can.
if you can't use MBR (due to hdd size) then be sure you don't dump a disc using usbloadergx until I fix it (probably in r1273)


32k cluster is not a requirement either, it might just work better with some games, but it's just strange that it has an effect, except maybe for emuNAND. (not even sure)

if you have to choose, go with FAT32 because more homebrew will work with this format.
NTFS is only for Wii games, while FAT32 works with gamecube, emulators, mediaplayer, etc.


if your enclosure comes with one, then it probably requires it. it might ask for more power than a single port provides (500mA), but just try and see

Thank you Cyan I'm in the process of downloading my backups and I'll try it asap, if the USB port is not giving enough power, plugging the other end of the Y cable will not mess anything? Will the loader know to run the data from the "fast port"? (Edit:I'm no idea where I pulled this fast port thing from, port 1 is not even used to load games by default and seems to be a normal 2.0 port) not sure how these cables work

Edit: according to this the other part of the Y cable is only power so there shouldn't be problems plugging it in the port 1 along the main one on port 0.

It's kind of an uncommon setup but I guess it'll work

 

[Cyan]

like you found, the other plug only has 2 cable on it : power/ground.
only the plug with data is detected, the drive get power from both ports at the same time, up to 1000mA (1A).

 

[futureboii]

drive get power from both ports at the same time, up to 1000mA (1A).

Wich is great because according to the spec sheet of the old drive I found it's its peak consumption. Everything works perfectly well thanks a lot for your help guys