Hardware Can Wii read multiple HDD partitions

[markkirby]

Would it be possible for me to set up my 500GB USB HDD in the following way...

Partition 0 - 490 GB NTFS - For games, due to no exFAT in CFG loader
Partition 1 - 10 GB FAT32 - For a emunand to store WiiWare

Would this be possible ? Could the Wii see the second partition ?

I am using Postloader as my system menu if this helps, I think this allows multiple partitions.

I don't want to format my games drive till I know if it will work as it takes ages to copy, so any information is appreciated.

 

[Sicklyboy]

I think I heard something at some point about one of the newer d2x cIOSes being able to support multiple partitions, but knowing me I'm probably terribly wrong.

If you don't mind me asking, why not just format the entire drive (or whatever total amount you want designated for use with the wii) to FAT32?

 

[migles]

cfg loader (and i think wii flow as well) will let you select a partition.

 

[markkirby]

I cannot use FAT32 as Windows will not read FAT32 over 64GB (I think 64GB could be a bit more), I tried but most of the time it gave errors and the one time it did load took like 30 minuets. The alternative is exFAT but this is not supported by USB loaders.

 

[markkirby]

cfg loader (and i think wii flow as well) will let you select a partition.

Thanks, that's good , I think i will try it when I get home in that case.

 

[Sicklyboy]

THat's an issue on your end then, I've got a 500GB hard drive formatted to a single FAT32 partition and it reads fine in every version of windows since and including Windows XP.

 

[Gaming4Ever]

How do u currently have your HD formatted???


As Sickly mentioned best bet would be to Format ur HD to Fat32......You can use wbfs2fat to Format on the Fly meaning u wont lose your Data or have to RE-Copy anything over and u will have the HD on FAT32 which is a Go for all USB Loaders


You would then just need to select or Edit the Paths for emuNAND(I use Wiiflow so in its .INI i just changed path to USB:/NAND/)

 

[Cyan]

wbfs2fat would be useful if his drive is WBFS, which is probably not the case. (if you are in WBFS format, use that program to convert the partition without losing games).

To format to Fat32, you should use FAT32format.

Windows cannot format FAT32 bigger than 32GB, but you can use another tool (linked above) to format the drive.
You can format up to 2TB (or up to 16TB depending on your drive).
If the drive is slow using FAT32, it's maybe because it contains errors in the File Allocation Table, run syscheck chkdsk.
There's also another way to fix slow disk by using USBLoaderGX>settings>Features>Synch FAT32.


To answer your first question, USBLoaders are compatible with multiple partitions.
not all homebrew are, it depend on the homebrew, not the console.
USBLoaders are all compatible with WBFS, NTFS, FAT32, Ext (linux format), using MBR, EBR and GPT format.
If there's a partition in incompatible format (ExFAT for example) the partition is skipped.

On FAT32, games bigger than 4GB are split in two files automatically.

If you still intend to create two partitions, make the first one as FAT32, not the second one. Some homebrew are using only the first partition, and require it to be FAT32.