Hacking Computer as a wii game loader?

[dalcompanion]

I have been looking at getting an external hard drive to store games on, and then play them from on my wii (instead of using the disks). I know if I get a hard drive and I don't want to format it to fat(32) I can't store or play apps from it, but I think I can still store wii games and use it to load them can't I? So my question is, can I just hook my computer up to my wii and use it's hard drive for the wii games? Is it possible to just use a usb cable and hook them up or will that not work. My f drive on my computer is only to store photos, videos and my wii apps backups so I've got about 75gb free on that one. Or is this totally unworkable?

 

[JoostinOnline]

No, you need an external HDD.

 

[Lucif3r]

Only way to play from your PC's HDD is by using WODE and stream the game over the network.

.. But the WODE is like twice as expensive as an external HDD.

 

[giantpune]

i got a flatmii 125 ill sell for cheap. it lets you do just that - play games from your computer over USB. the only issue is that their software is windows only and i dont use that, so i cant really use their software, so the flatmii is useless to me.

http://www.flatmii.com/manual.html

 

[Lucif3r]

i got a flatmii 125 ill sell for cheap. it lets you do just that - play games from your computer over USB. the only issue is that their software is windows only and i dont use that, so i cant really use their software, so the flatmii is useless to me.

http://www.flatmii.com/manual.html

Oh, I didnt know about that chip...
Still though, external HDD beats everything.

 

[JoostinOnline]

i got a flatmii 125 ill sell for cheap. it lets you do just that - play games from your computer over USB. the only issue is that their software is windows only and i dont use that, so i cant really use their software, so the flatmii is useless to me.

http://www.flatmii.com/manual.html

Oh, I didnt know about that chip...
Still though, external HDD beats everything.

Sword < Pen < External HDD

 

[dalcompanion]

thanks for the info - so if I have to buy an external HDD (what exactly does "HDD" stand for?), is there a certain kind/type I should look for - or more importantly, one I should really stay away from? I know it's possible to do this, but I can't really find a setup to transfer disks to my computer (or the external) and then play the games off it. I did the modmii and it set my wii up pretty good (4.3U) with the homebrew channel, the browser, the priiloader, and some ISOs and wad manager. Any advice would be appreciated.

 

[PsyBlade]

hard disk drive
theres a compat list in the wiki, but ymmv

 

[nunavat2010]

You are from USA? Best Buy has good deals on WDs. You could get a brand new one for ~$80 or a refurbished one for

 

[Lucif3r]

but I can't really find a setup to transfer disks to my computer (or the external) and then play the games off it.

Some info on how an external storage device works: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hard_disk_drive#External_removable_drives

In short: You need a free USB port on your PC - thats it. (And use WBM to send games to the external)

 

[dalcompanion]

thanks for the info. I found a western digital My Passport Essential 250 GB 2.0 5400RPM WDBAAA2500ABK-NESn for $49 new. Would that one work?

 

[nunavat2010]

Lucky you. I have one of those that I bought two years ago for $120. I have not had any problems. Now they sell WD USB 3.0 so they are same price still.

 

[dalcompanion]

sorry, what I meant is I "found" one on ebay - I dont' have it. Can you tell me, I see some of these I'm looking at don't have power packs with them and the instructions say to plug into a fully powered usb device. I know my computer usb will power it - but will the wii? or do I need a power adaptor for when I'm using it with the wii?

 

[Lucif3r]

The Wii's USB port is no different than any other USB port. USB stands for Universal Serial Bus. So if not all USBs would work the same, it wouldnt be very universal

To answer your question in short: Yes, the Wii will power it just fine.

 

[dalcompanion]

Ok, I just bought a hard drive, so I think I'm on my way of finally being able to stop "re-buying" games because they get scratched or cracked. I bought this: http://www.seagate.com/ww/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=0e3f9dfde2221210VgnVCM1000001a48090aRCRD&vgnextchannel=f424072516d8c010VgnVCM100000dd04090aRCRD&locale=en-US&reqPage=Support#tTabContentOverview

from the compatibility chart it seems these can all be made to work. You guys have been really helpful, thanks. I'll let you know how it goes. I soft-modded my wii with the modwii so I have whatever updates it put on (and my homebrew is up to date) as well as priiloader (I think I saw a "usb loader" something or other on it). I've got v4.3. Does anyone have any links to guides that might help me set it up and start using it (transferring to it and loading from it)? I like the homebrew channel style, but I can used anything as long as I have instructions (the different ISOs still have me confused, that's why I liked the modwii). Thanks!

 

[nunavat2010]

I like USB loader GX. Its pretty simple.
Download the whole package.
Put the dols and everything in the first partition (which must be FAT 32 formatted) inside the apps folder with the name usbloader. Goto homebrew load usbloaderGx put the disk in the wii press + thats it. Keep doing that for 3- games. Then start playing with all the buttons in usbloader GX

 

[dalcompanion]

is there any info on formatting the hard drive, in what order I do things, things to watch for - stuff like that?

 

[DarkStriker]

You are not restriced to "FAT32" as long as you use the updated USB loaders. Just format your disk in 2 partitions where on is FAT32 where you store your USB loader files because the Wii only reads FAT32. The other partition should be in NTFS which is the usual disk format on every HDD you see today. How is that possible? SImply because the Wii only reads FAT32, but the USBloaders have been coded to read NTFS. So you arent restricted at all, but it requires you to have 2 disk format on one HDD. On my HDD i have the FAT32 with only 100mb(only about 10mb or less is used) which should be plenty and all the leftover disk storage is formatted into NTFS. Using the disk manager to format your HDD is recommended and it comes with all windows owners.

 

[nunavat2010]

Yes make two partitions, but I would leave about 10-17GB* in the first partition and format that as fat32 with cluster size 32; your HD is larger than 200GB? So in the second partition you can easily fit 50 discs. If you are going to copy your own disc to start with you could ask USB loader Gx to format second partition as WBFS, if you prefer otherwise have it as NTFS, and you can choose where to store your games in setting (thats the wheel (gearbox) button). I would not copy all the games at once.

*10-17GB: If you decide to play with wiiware other loaders later on having little bigger first partition will help; but anything in the range of 512MB would be sufficient.

 

[Lucif3r]

USB loaders are easy to use. If you used modmii it shouldve given you a channel which will start whatever USB loader you chose to install in ModMii.
Simply click that channel and the loader will start and list all your games on your USB device
My personal favorite is CFG Usb loader. Ive seen tons of post on these forums with people having various issues with GX, while CFG works just fine. Only game that I know have issues with CFG is Driver San Fransisco, although I havnt tried it myself.

And to transfer games from windows to your external - use Wii Backup Manager (WBM for short).

To make it as easy as possible for you, Id suggest to stick with 1 big partition, pref. FAT32 for maximum compability across the board (incl. PCs, different Wii apps, other consoles etc etc)
ModMii shouldve given you a program to format as fat32 (if you chose to have your HDD as fat32 in the wizard), called "FAT32 GUI Formatter".
In general all external devices comes pre-formatted as fat32, but I still recommend to reformat it since the manufactures tend to place some junk on the drives.