Hacking Configurable USB Loader

[Dr. Clipper]

Umm can someone explain me how the FAT32 Partition thing works please?

Have a FAT32 partition on the drive. Go to the partition manager in v46a2 of Configurable. If you have no WBFS partition, the partition manager will come up automatically; otherwise, push 1 twice to enter global options, navigate down to the partition and push D-pad right. Select the FAT partition you want to load and after a few moments you can use the FAT partition exactly the same way as if it was WBFS.

If you want to copy games from a WBFS partition to a FAT partition, or if you are a filthy pirate, you can use the wbfs_file tool that oggzee posted in this thread a few posts back to put games onto the FAT partition. For simple instructions for moving from WBFS to FAT, you can use the process here.

The files on the FAT partition will be in GAMEID.wbfs format (with some games having GAMEID.wbf1, GAMEID.wbf2 etc. splits as well) and they must be located in the /wbfs directory of the partition.

In order to play the games, you must have IOS222/223 installed and must select this (in config.txt or game options) to play the games.

 

[ShaDoW-DeMoN]

Umm can someone explain me how the FAT32 Partition thing works please?

Have a FAT32 partition on the drive. Go to the partition manager in v46a2 of Configurable. If you have no WBFS partition, the partition manager will come up automatically; otherwise, push 1 twice to enter global options, navigate down to the partition and push D-pad right. Select the FAT partition you want to load and after a few moments you can use the FAT partition exactly the same way as if it was WBFS.

If you want to copy games from a WBFS partition to a FAT partition, or if you are a filthy pirate, you can use the wbfs_file tool that oggzee posted in this thread a few posts back to put games onto the FAT partition. For simple instructions for moving from WBFS to FAT, you can use the process here.

The files on the FAT partition will be in GAMEID.wbfs format (with some games having GAMEID.wbf1, GAMEID.wbf2 etc. splits as well) and they must be located in the /wbfs directory of the partition.

In order to play the games, you must have IOS222/223 installed and must select this (in config.txt or game options) to play the games.

So you can use this partion with both USBLoader and Windows right?

 

[Dr. Clipper]

So you can use this partion with both USBLoader and Windows right?

With both Configurable USB Loader and Windows, yes.

 

[Covarr]

So you can use this partion with both USBLoader and Windows right?

With both Configurable USB Loader and Windows, yes.

This is pretty much the only significant advantage to using WBFS filesystem, that I can see so far. It makes it easy to copy files from one machine to another, theoretically dirty pirates can share .wbfs files which are more reliable than scrubbed isos, and most importantly I can put roms for VBA GX, SNES9X GX, etc on the same partition.

 

[quepaso]

The next big advantage is you can delete games from your drive without worrying about the pre-partitioned space being used up properly when you install your next game. That was the #1 thing i hated the most about WBFS and never have to worry about again.

 

[zektor]

The next big advantage is you can delete games from your drive without worrying about the pre-partitioned space being used up properly when you install your next game. That was the #1 thing i hated the most about WBFS and never have to worry about again.

Yup. I have had corruption issues in the past with some WBFS managers and adding and removing games. Never again

I have been testing the FAT32 ability quite vigorously in the past few days, and have not encountered a SINGLE problem in over 200 games. They work just as they did before, but much easier to manage

Like I said (or did I say it?)...this is the best advancement since usb loading in general. If you can do it, I *highly* recommend it!

 

[9th_Sage]

The next big advantage is you can delete games from your drive without worrying about the pre-partitioned space being used up properly when you install your next game. That was the #1 thing i hated the most about WBFS and never have to worry about again.

There's that, the fact that much of the WBFS partition isn't filled (on my drive anyway, it's a largeish drive), and that it's easier for me to back up the games I've ripped from discs this way (a bit quicker, anyway).

 

[redia]

wbfs_file_1.3.zip
http://sharebee.com/9ce66971

v1.3:
* Fixed extracted iso size on Windows
* Fixed ETA info for iso extraction

thanks oggzee,

I will test and revert asap

Cheers,
R

 

[Calculon64]

I can't format my external 160GB HDD to FAT or FAT32 in Windows 7 Ultimate x64. I can only format it using exFat. Will the Configurable US Loader still be able to read it? Why so much happiness for you guys for FAT32 support. FAT32 has very little storage capacity limitations. Am I missing something?

 

[Dr. Clipper]

I can't format my external 160GB HDD to FAT or FAT32 in Windows 7 Ultimate x64. I can only format it using exFat. Will the Configurable US Loader still be able to read it? Why so much happiness for you guys for FAT32 support. FAT32 has very little storage capacity limitations. Am I missing something?

Most drives come pre-formatted as FAT32 as it has the best compatibility over all platforms. To format your whole partition to FAT32 in Windows, just use FAT32Format.

 

[redia]

wbfs_file_1.3.zip
http://sharebee.com/9ce66971

v1.3:
* Fixed extracted iso size on Windows
* Fixed ETA info for iso extraction

thanks oggzee,

I will test and revert asap

Cheers,
R

Oggzee,

great work. it is working like a charm now
I repeated all the tests, and the resulting file were all fine.

Cheers,
R

 

[inAcrysis]

I might give this a go over the weekend if it's not too difficult.
Right now I've got my 750Gb Maxtor split into 2 partitions - 650Gb & 70Gb (roughly) Both are wbfs.
I've got 50 games on the 650gb partition using about 105gb. What's the best thing to do now?
The 70gb part isn't big enough to change to FAT32 & copy games over. Or should I just pick some of them up to 70gb?
Or should I simply blitz the whole thing to FAT32 & start again?
Any help greatly appreciated guys.

 

[toss01]

not to sound selfish by asking for a lot as I know this is in its early stages and a huge reason why I love config loader is only adding things that improve, not things taht are bloat.

Are you looking at getting this to a stage were it will be 1 wbfs file per game? FAT32 limitations aside

Gonna move my stuff over anyways, so much easier to manage

 

[usptactical]

not to sound selfish by asking for a lot as I know this is in its early stages and a huge reason why I love config loader is only adding things that improve, not things taht are bloat.

Are you looking at getting this to a stage were it will be 1 wbfs file per game? FAT32 limitations aside

Gonna move my stuff over anyways, so much easier to manage

It IS one wbfs file per game. This doesn't create your entire wbfs partition into a single file.

edit: OK I think you mean will it get to the point where it doesn't have to split at 2GB. Oggzee is looking into that, but he can tell you better than I can.

 

[mjfisher]

wbfs_file_1.3.zip
http://sharebee.com/9ce66971

v1.3:
* Fixed extracted iso size on Windows
* Fixed ETA info for iso extraction

Hi Oggzee - just finished converting all my games to fat32 and all are working brilliantly. On a completely off-topic request, is there a way to get the banner music to play if simple = 1? I love this feature but I don't really want my kids being able to muck around with the game options before starting the game. Thanks.

btw - for those guys who want the "disc channel" - you can just set your them to use coverstyle = disc, and then run the coverflow gui. That way when you select the game via coverflow, it switches to console and displays the disc image. Not quite an animated disc channel but who really needs that? (I guess you could say that about the banner music too, but I REALLY like that

)

 

[oggzee]

not to sound selfish by asking for a lot as I know this is in its early stages and a huge reason why I love config loader is only adding things that improve, not things taht are bloat.
Are you looking at getting this to a stage were it will be 1 wbfs file per game? FAT32 limitations aside
Gonna move my stuff over anyways, so much easier to manage
Not sure what exactly are you requesting?
If you want to have 1 wbfs file per game to just store them on the PC on a NTFS fs in a compressed way then that's already possible by setting -s to a large enough size. For example:
wbfs_file -s 10000000000
(around 10GiB or exaclty 10GB, depending on what unit you consider to be 1GB)
Funny enough, yes, that is divisable by 512 and should be enough to hold a dual layer disc.
But files larger than 2GB will not play on the wii, so they have to be split. But you could have them in large than 2gb files on the PC and then split them afterwards, either with the wbfs_file or other tools.

QUOTE(mjfisher @ Oct 28 2009, 02:05 PM) Hi Oggzee - just finished converting all my games to fat32 and all are working brilliantly. On a completely off-topic request, is there a way to get the banner music to play if simple = 1? I love this feature but I don't really want my kids being able to muck around with the game options before starting the game. Thanks.

use:
simple=1
confirm_start=1

 

[Fat D]

Would it be possible to have the ability to set a fat32 partition as default partition in a future version? That is one of the few factors holding me off from migrating, the other is channel loader support (or lack thereof).

 

[oggzee]

Would it be possible to have the ability to set a fat32 partition as default partition in a future version? That is one of the few factors holding me off from migrating, the other is channel loader support (or lack thereof).

Yes, i already said that.
I will add an option like partition=WBFS1,WBFS2,...FAT1,FAT2,..
And probably even allow you to save the currently selected directly from inside the loader.
But my time is limited, i guess by the weekend it should be ready.

oh and about the channels, loadstructor already supports creating channels that use the cfg loader to run the games, so once the partition= option is done that should be possible too.

 

[The Beast]

I can't format my external 160GB HDD to FAT or FAT32 in Windows 7 Ultimate x64. I can only format it using exFat. Will the Configurable US Loader still be able to read it? Why so much happiness for you guys for FAT32 support. FAT32 has very little storage capacity limitations. Am I missing something?

I found this handy Windows GUI version of FAT32format which works with windows 7 Clicky

Not sure which is the best allocation unit size to use?

 

[Araxiel]

i recently got a problem.. i updated my WII to 4.2E and now Configurable USB Loader wont load the drive.. it just stops at the splash screen and then nothing happens.. im not sure what version of the usb loader i have, but i know its pretty new, since it worked on Wii 4.1.. anyone able to help?