Hacking Confused about the maximum size HD you can use with vwii

[brollikk]

They can be anywhere (USB or SD). Think of the WADs like CDs that you use to install stuff on your computer.
Just point USB Loader GX to where the WAD is to install it. Once that's done you can delete the WADs.

ordered a drive for tomorrow. Thank you for your advice - I'll be doing this tomorrow! Consolidating my 2 drives and leaving it in permanently.

 

[lordelan]

ordered a drive for tomorrow. Thank you for your advice - I'll be doing this tomorrow! Consolidating my 2 drives and leaving it in permanently.

Let me know how everything's turned out.

 

[brollikk]

Let me know how everything's turned out.

everything is mostly set up except the wads on my emunand. I have a few more questions.

I used usbloader gx to dump nand as an emunand on my usb drive. then used the emunand wad manager in usbloader gx to install my wads (doing this right now)

Is there a title limit for the emunand wads? I have over 400 I'm installing and am concerned.

also, I read that NEEK is required to run wads in the emunand - did usbloader GX already set this up for me? Or do I need to follow more instructions? thanks.

 

[lordelan]

everything is mostly set up except the wads on my emunand. I have a few more questions.

I used usbloader gx to dump nand as an emunand on my usb drive. then used the emunand wad manager in usbloader gx to install my wads (doing this right now)

Is there a title limit for the emunand wads? I have over 400 I'm installing and am concerned.

also, I read that NEEK is required to run wads in the emunand - did usbloader GX already set this up for me? Or do I need to follow more instructions? thanks.

I'm not aware of any limit. That's what it's all about: Unlimited space for WADs.

Neek is some kind of "nice addition" to your dumped emuNAND but is only required for a very few games to run. Most of your over 400 WADs should run out of the box from your emunand that USB Loader GX created.

 

[brollikk]

I'm not aware of any limit. That's what it's all about: Unlimited space for WADs.

Neek is some kind of "nice addition" to your dumped emuNAND but is only required for a very few games to run. Most of your over 400 WADs should run out of the box from your emunand that USB Loader GX created.

i'd like to set this up. any good instructionals? (on the neek)

 

[brollikk]

so far, my drive is working exactly like yours. 6TB fat32 mbr - both wii and gamecube entire libraries loaded on there. ustealth. also has emunand and wiiware on it - don't have neek - everything loads well - rockband for wii seems to not behave with the microphone - i think i need to switch the IOS for that game.

 

[lordelan]

so far, my drive is working exactly like yours. 6TB fat32 mbr - both wii and gamecube entire libraries loaded on there. ustealth. also has emunand and wiiware on it - don't have neek - everything loads well - rockband for wii seems to not behave with the microphone - i think i need to switch the IOS for that game.

That might be the case. I remember microphone stuff needing 222 or 223 or something like that. I'm not sure. You better look for SingItStar or We Sing related threads to get that working.
Concerning neek just go here:
https://gbatemp.net/threads/wiiflow-4-the-masterpiece-pack-by-abz.336543/page-97#post-7879279
Take that sneek folder from within the 7z file and put it in your USB root:

usb:/sneek/

Then launch USB Loader GX, select a game that needs neek (like Castlevania), go to settings and chose "neek" as launch method.
Keep in mind that neek exits to Wii U instead of USB Loader GX.

Thanks again to @Clutz450 for this. He was the one back then that tought me how to use it.

 

[brollikk]

That might be the case. I remember microphone stuff needing 222 or 223 or something like that. I'm not sure. You better look for SingItStar or We Sing related threads to get that working.
Concerning neek just go here:
https://gbatemp.net/threads/wiiflow-4-the-masterpiece-pack-by-abz.336543/page-97#post-7879279
Take that sneek folder from within the 7z file and put it in your USB root:

usb:/sneek/

Then launch USB Loader GX, select a game that needs neek (like Castlevania), go to settings and chose "neek" as launch method.
Keep in mind that neek exits to Wii U instead of USB Loader GX.

Thanks again to @Clutz450 for this. He was the one back then that tought me how to use it.

for emunand on vwii you need to dump the nand and copy over a file from what I understand? Where can I see a list of games that require neek?

and thank you for all the help so far.

 

[lordelan]

for emunand on vwii you need to dump the nand and copy over a file from what I understand? Where can I see a list of games that require neek?

and thank you for all the help so far.

You need to dump your nand to emunand as you already did with USB Loader GX.
Then follow my link, download the 7z file, get the "sneek" folder within it and put it on your vWii USB drive.
USB Loader GX will detect it and offers you another launch mode for games then.
Click on a game and then on the small settings button (instead of launching it). You then should see something like "load method", "launch method" or whatever it's called. Use neek here.

A list of games is difficult. I know of Castlevania and TV Show King 2.
There really are only a very few so try launching all in "normal" emunand (CIOS) first. Only if you find a game not working this way, change it to neek.

Edit: One second of googling brought me here:
https://gbatemp.net/threads/wiiware...atible-with-cios-emunand-require-neek.416490/

 

[brollikk]

You need to dump your nand to emunand as you already did with USB Loader GX.
Then follow my link, download the 7z file, get the "sneek" folder within it and put it on your vWii USB drive.
USB Loader GX will detect it and offers you another launch mode for games then.
Click on a game and then on the small settings button (instead of launching it). You then should see something like "load method", "launch method" or whatever it's called. Use neek here.

A list of games is difficult. I know of Castlevania and TV Show King 2.
There really are only a very few so try launching all in "normal" emunand (CIOS) first. Only if you find a game not working this way, change it to neek.

Edit: One second of googling brought me here:
https://gbatemp.net/threads/wiiware...atible-with-cios-emunand-require-neek.416490/

all done thank you.

I looked up this https://gbatemp.net/threads/any-ide...ing-on-wiiu-vwii-though-usb-loader-gx.384786/

how do you go about changing the cIOS per game? Sounds like I need to use d2 v10 base 57 for rock band games

 

[brollikk]

made another thread about that problem since this one is basically done - and about hard drives.

 

[Elliander]

Yeah. On that 5 TB drive which is MBR and has one big 5 TB FAT32 partition on it, I have:

• emuNAND/neek
• Wii games
• WiiWare games
• VC games (although I don't really use them thanks to RetroArch)
• GameCube games

UStealth deletes some kind of partition file so the Wii U "won't find" the drive and stops annoying you with that nasty "format the drive" popup.

Out of curiosity, did you need to use an old 512 byte sector size drive for that to work, or can a modern 4k sector size drive work with that setup? I still have my 512 byte 4 TB drive sitting around (which I hunted down to do tests for the Wii years ago, which worked but wasn't fully successful) but was never able to find one that was 5 TB. If it's a modern drive, how did you get a format larger than 2 TB?

Alternatively, can the WiiU support more than one partition?

 

[Ryab]

Out of curiosity, did you need to use an old 512 byte sector size drive for that to work, or can a modern 4k sector size drive work with that setup? I still have my 512 byte 4 TB drive sitting around (which I hunted down to do tests for the Wii years ago, which worked but wasn't fully successful) but was never able to find one that was 5 TB. If it's a modern drive, how did you get a format larger than 2 TB?

Alternatively, can the WiiU support more than one partition?

only 1 partition

 

[lordelan]

Out of curiosity, did you need to use an old 512 byte sector size drive for that to work, or can a modern 4k sector size drive work with that setup? I still have my 512 byte 4 TB drive sitting around (which I hunted down to do tests for the Wii years ago, which worked but wasn't fully successful) but was never able to find one that was 5 TB. If it's a modern drive, how did you get a format larger than 2 TB?

Alternatively, can the WiiU support more than one partition?

At that last question: No.
At your first question: I don't know about the sector size tbh.
I created a big NTFS partition, converted GPT to MBR with a WD format tool and formatted it to FAT32 with GUIformat.

 

[Elliander]

At that last question: No.
At your first question: I don't know about the sector size tbh.
I created a big NTFS partition, converted GPT to MBR with a WD format tool and formatted it to FAT32 with GUIformat.

Sounds like a 4k sector size drive, since I've never seen a 512 drive larger than 4 TB. To confirm though, do you know the model of your drive? And do you know if this drive can also use Wii U backups, or if a second USB port in the back can go for the Wii U games? (haven't finished modding my Wii U yet)

I have a 4 TB drive at 512 sector size (same one from my previous Wii tests) and a currently empty 8 TB drive at 4k sector size.

 

[lordelan]

Sounds like a 4k sector size drive, since I've never seen a 512 drive larger than 4 TB. To confirm though, do you know the model of your drive? And do you know if this drive can also use Wii U backups, or if a second USB port in the back can go for the Wii U games? (haven't finished modding my Wii U yet)

I have a 4 TB drive at 512 sector size (same one from my previous Wii tests) and a currently empty 8 TB drive at 4k sector size.

This is my drive:
https://www.amazon.de/Western-Digital-Elements-Festplatte-WDBWLG0050HBK-EESN/dp/B00NAQG0VY
Since it's WD, I was able to use the WD tool (along with GUIformat and Partition Master) to get a big 5 TB FAT32 primary partition on a MBR drive.
obviously I use it for vWii (Wii games, GC games, Wii emuNAND with WiiWare games installed to it) as the Wii U can't handle more than 2 TB anyway so it would be a waste to use it for that.
For Wii U games (WUP installed) I use another 2 TB drive (this one). Since it's a 2.5 inch drive it needs a Y-cable to work.
I've hidden my vWii drive with UStealth (so the Wii U won't complain about it) and connected both drives into an active USB HUB along with the GC Controller adapter, a Wii U Linux USB flash drive and two Sing(It)Star microphones. And that HUB is (afair) plugged to the top of the Wii U's back ports.

 

[Cyan]

what's the difference with active or passive USB HUB?
I know HUBs are not working with cIOS, so Wii games and emuNAND can't be used through HUBs, only gamecube games (because nintendont uses IOS58, not cIOS).

Do you have Wii game loading though HUB selecting the drive automatically? or is it a physical switch to show only one drive at a time?

 

[Elliander]

This is my drive:
https://www.amazon.de/Western-Digital-Elements-Festplatte-WDBWLG0050HBK-EESN/dp/B00NAQG0VY
Since it's WD, I was able to use the WD tool (along with GUIformat and Partition Master) to get a big 5 TB FAT32 primary partition on a MBR drive.
obviously I use it for vWii (Wii games, GC games, Wii emuNAND with WiiWare games installed to it) as the Wii U can't handle more than 2 TB anyway so it would be a waste to use it for that.
For Wii U games (WUP installed) I use another 2 TB drive (this one). Since it's a 2.5 inch drive it needs a Y-cable to work.
I've hidden my vWii drive with UStealth (so the Wii U won't complain about it) and connected both drives into an active USB HUB along with the GC Controller adapter, a Wii U Linux USB flash drive and two Sing(It)Star microphones. And that HUB is (afair) plugged to the top of the Wii U's back ports.

I looked for that on the American Amazon site, and since the 5 TB model isn't listed I decided to go for the 8 TB model. I'll try to recreate your setup with that larger drive. I know it's overkill, but 8 TB isn't much more than 6 TB and if the Wii U scene ever supports loading WiiU backups from the same larger drive as the Wii and GC games it would be worth having. and if it doesn't work, that 8 TB drive can instead go into the RAID 6 network drive I'm putting together.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01LQQHLGC/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?smid=A2YR5Z6BYZME44&psc=1

and I was able to find the same 2 TB drive here:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06W55K9N6/ref=psdc_595048_t1_B07DXLSMBC

The USB hub I have been using for my two Switch consoles is this one:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01FO2QS0O/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01__o00_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Which works great for the Switch at least, but haven't tested it in the Wii U yet. (for that matter, I still need to get around to actually finishing the soft mods for my Wii U) For the Gamecube adapter, I ordered this to see if it works:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00BD8I3EI/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01__o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

This idea is that I would plug the gamecube adapter into it, and then it into each Nintendo Switch and the Wii U. I can then push a button to alternate between the active console, rather than having to either get multiple sets or move things around.

...

It will take me a while to get to all of this because I am in an active semester while working on a console project, but I'll report back how it goes. The project I am working on is nearly done: I designed and built a 6 foot wide piece of furniture on wheels to house all of my consoles, but it's more than that: It's wired. The underside closes to hide all the major wiring, which includes surge protection and voltage regulation, a 24-port TP-Link gigabit switch for all the consoles to be connected to, and on the back I have 6 Cat-6 ethernet ports - one of which is for the WAN to plug in, and the others for possible LAN parties to hook up. Everything setup to use HDMI, with two 8-port HDMI switches (so a maximum of 14 devices) and all wired to use 4K HD, with cable lengths set to ensure that I can use 4K at any time. In the back as well it has 2 HDMI ports to plug into either one TV, or two different ones. I also set it up to have 6 integrated electrical ports on the back. On the front side I integrated a USB charging station - 13 ports at 2.4 amps, 1 fast charging port, 1 USB-C charging port... so, in the end, my consoles will all be in one place, with plenty of room for hard drives behind them, no need to mess with power cables or wiring, easy hookups, and I can move it by unplugging this one piece of furniture from the wall and disconnecting it's Ethernet cable, and can move it anywhere.

Actually, it was originally designed to also house a cyberpower UPS for an hour of electricity in the event of a power outage or if I just needed to move it, but it didn't like being contained like that (it's fans are really loud when it needs to use them) so had to offload it into the basement, but the voltage regulator fits nicely and it can still be plugged into the UPS - just not mobile with it. I also l need to integrate USB powered fans for the underside of each console since the wood is so thick as to be insulating and need to direct airflow out.

The goal is to be able to play all of my consoles without having to pick and choose which is plugged in where with messes of wiring. Although, that would be easier if I could find a USB switch that works the other way: I plug it into the Wii U, I plug more than one hard drive into that, and then I switch between the drives with a button press.

 

[lordelan]

I looked for that on the American Amazon site, and since the 5 TB model isn't listed I decided to go for the 8 TB model. I'll try to recreate your setup with that larger drive. I know it's overkill, but 8 TB isn't much more than 6 TB and if the Wii U scene ever supports loading WiiU backups from the same larger drive as the Wii and GC games it would be worth having. and if it doesn't work, that 8 TB drive can instead go into the RAID 6 network drive I'm putting together.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01LQQHLGC/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?smid=A2YR5Z6BYZME44&psc=1

and I was able to find the same 2 TB drive here:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06W55K9N6/ref=psdc_595048_t1_B07DXLSMBC

The USB hub I have been using for my two Switch consoles is this one:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01FO2QS0O/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01__o00_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Which works great for the Switch at least, but haven't tested it in the Wii U yet. (for that matter, I still need to get around to actually finishing the soft mods for my Wii U) For the Gamecube adapter, I ordered this to see if it works:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00BD8I3EI/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01__o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

This idea is that I would plug the gamecube adapter into it, and then it into each Nintendo Switch and the Wii U. I can then push a button to alternate between the active console, rather than having to either get multiple sets or move things around.

...

It will take me a while to get to all of this because I am in an active semester while working on a console project, but I'll report back how it goes. The project I am working on is nearly done: I designed and built a 6 foot wide piece of furniture on wheels to house all of my consoles, but it's more than that: It's wired. The underside closes to hide all the major wiring, which includes surge protection and voltage regulation, a 24-port TP-Link gigabit switch for all the consoles to be connected to, and on the back I have 6 Cat-6 ethernet ports - one of which is for the WAN to plug in, and the others for possible LAN parties to hook up. Everything setup to use HDMI, with two 8-port HDMI switches (so a maximum of 14 devices) and all wired to use 4K HD, with cable lengths set to ensure that I can use 4K at any time. In the back as well it has 2 HDMI ports to plug into either one TV, or two different ones. I also set it up to have 6 integrated electrical ports on the back. On the front side I integrated a USB charging station - 13 ports at 2.4 amps, 1 fast charging port, 1 USB-C charging port... so, in the end, my consoles will all be in one place, with plenty of room for hard drives behind them, no need to mess with power cables or wiring, easy hookups, and I can move it by unplugging this one piece of furniture from the wall and disconnecting it's Ethernet cable, and can move it anywhere.

Actually, it was originally designed to also house a cyberpower UPS for an hour of electricity in the event of a power outage or if I just needed to move it, but it didn't like being contained like that (it's fans are really loud when it needs to use them) so had to offload it into the basement, but the voltage regulator fits nicely and it can still be plugged into the UPS - just not mobile with it. I also l need to integrate USB powered fans for the underside of each console since the wood is so thick as to be insulating and need to direct airflow out.

The goal is to be able to play all of my consoles without having to pick and choose which is plugged in where with messes of wiring. Although, that would be easier if I could find a USB switch that works the other way: I plug it into the Wii U, I plug more than one hard drive into that, and then I switch between the drives with a button press.

Interesting. Keep me updated whether that peripheral switch is working as intended by you or not and good luck with the rest. If you stumble upon any issues, share them here and we might find a way.

Edit: The Wii U however won't ever support games installed to such a large FAT32 drive. There are complicated ways and I messed around with them but they suck, believe me. It's just not practical and won't support more than 2 TB anyway.

 

[Elliander]

Interesting. Keep me updated whether that peripheral switch is working as intended by you or not and good luck with the rest. If you stumble upon any issues, share them here and we might find a way.

Will do. I should at least be able to report back on the use of a USB Switch for the Gamecube controllers by the end of this weekend. Just gotta get through an exam first.

The Wii U however won't ever support games installed to such a large FAT32 drive. There are complicated ways and I messed around with them but they suck, believe me. It's just not practical and won't support more than 2 TB anyway.

OK, then the alternative to that would be some kind of USB hdd switch. Does anyone know if such a thing exists though? All the ones I found work like this: Multiple USB devices plug in, and then they plug into 2 or more computers. You push a button, and they switch to a different computer so only one is connected at a time. Instead, for this to be a solution, we would need to plug into a single device and then switch between drives. This way you could, for example, use a 4 port switch to support up to 8 TB - although would still have to push a button to cycle to the other drives so you'd want some way to remember what is one what drive.

I'm thinking that if I can string some adapters together, I could plug the USB cables intended for the PC to instead plug into the drives, and then plug one of the ports intended for the drive into the console. If that works, I'd have to make sure to only plug it into one console or else it would effectively be one drive plugged into two consoles at once. I suppose, as a test, I could take the one I am getting in this weekend and see if I can make it work like that on my PC. Although, I'd rather find something made to do that.

EDIT: It would also be interesting if some kind of USB to SD card slot adapter existed. I mean, I get that it would basically just stick out, but if you can use a RAID of SD cards as if it's a hard drive there should be some way of doing that. This would effectively make it possible to support a second 2 TB hdd in the front, for a total of 4 TB connected to the Wii U