Hacking dvds vs hard drives

[claudekennilol]

As soon as I modded my Wii, I went out and got an extra external hard drive to use in conjunction with a backup loader. But I often see people talking about burnt disks. To me, it seems like a backup loader is way easier (I've never tried burning copies of my games). Is there any advantage / disadvantage to burning disks rather than using a hard drive?

 

[linuxares]

More or less none.

Just games like Sam & Max with a modchip works way better than with a USB Loader. But its like 4 games that DVD beats USB.

so go USB!

 

[hunnymonster]

The biggest advantage of using DVD-R is that we've all been able to do it for at least 3 years - USB loading is a recentish innovation by comparison.

 

[Szalkow]

There are a tiny number of games that have compatibility issues on USB versus DVD. However, the other advantages of USB make it the better option in my mind.

Putting games on the USB drive is somewhat simpler and faster than burning a disc (or multiple discs if you messed up). A USB hard drive is a one-time purchase which can be reused, as opposed to a stack of DVD's which are individually cheaper. USB drives which are formatted or partitioned correctly can also be used to store homebrew, removing the need for SD cards in some cases. Using a USB means no swapping discs. Games can be accessed using either a convenient menu or by installing individual channels on your system menu.

USB loaders load games noticeably faster than DVD's and even retail discs - DVD's read and transfer data about half as fast as retail discs (3x as opposed to 6x), while USB transfers at USB2 speeds (roughly 12x). Load screens are shorter and games which load by room (such as Metroid Prime 3) will move much quicker.

 

[Zetta_x]

Some more disadvantages of DVD's is the use of the dvd drive and subject wearing down the dvd drive. Not to mention loading times seem to be a bit smaller on DVD's. One upside to DVD's is you don't have to pay $75 for a harddrive however there are many arguments against this.

 

[Amber Lamps]

I've seen no advantages to using DVD-R. Take Smash Bros. for example. That game runs like crap off of a grade A Verbatim dual layer. But it runs perfectly fine off hard drive. Also you risk wasting a lot of blank DVD-Rs until you finally get a working copy of the game burned. I have a stack of DVD-R games somewhere I'm going to shred all except for Zelda but you know the reason for that.

 

[kimikal27]

never found a game that i couldn't load by HDD,
plus it's a huge waste of money to burn dvd's...
i have almost 200 dvd's and since i turned to HDD i never used them again...

 

[Gladius]

IMO the best way is to use a hard drive, instead of DVD's. Also, it's a wise decision to keep backup's of your favourite games on DVD's, just a safety measure, in case your hard drive will die without any chance to recover your games.

 

[changeling]

Burning discs and especially storing them and swapping them out is a PITA. Terabyte drives are relatively inexpensive and you can make a smaller game partition and a larger partition for backing up, uhm, other data. Always nice to have backup copies of your photos and whatnot.

 

[Fishaman P]

DVD: Marginally easier, slower, no advantage except to parents and pirates

USB: Not that hard, takes ~5 mins to dump a game instead of ~30 mins, FAST, no disc swapping, child-proof, oh and FAST.

 

[harmor]

DVD: Marginally easier, slower, no advantage except to parents and pirates

USB: Not that hard, takes ~5 mins to dump a game instead of ~30 mins, FAST, no disc swapping, child-proof, oh and FAST.

What's the advantage for pirates using DVD-R's opposed to HDD's?

 

[zeedds]

selling them i guess..............if i could only connect a hdd to my saturn ,dc, and duo , I'd b in heaven

 

[dsfanatic5]

I can't knock dvd-r because for a while it was the only way to play backups, and it was amazing the first time you got it working. I bought a few cd/dvd wallets to hold all the backups, and ordered two 100 dvd-r spindles from newegg. Within two weeks of having the dvd-r supply in full effect, Waninkoko released the USB Loader. Now I have a crapload of backups and blank discs collecting dust, because there's no reason to use them.

Simply put, I'd rather not wear out my Wii's drive, put up with choppy video sequences, and have to physically handle discs every time I want to play a different game. There are maybe a handful of titles that perform better (or only) on dvd-r backups, but USB is the way to go.

 

[happydance]

maybe some of guys can sell your dvd drives at ebay since one of mine is broken

)

 

[Bladeforce]

hard drives will take over i havent used physical media for over a year now

 

[cobleman]

I make a backup copy of all my games to DVD-R and DVD+R DL (small scrubbed games upto 4 on 1 disk) just for piece of mind incase my Computers HDD or my WII hard drive fail.
And untill i started to use Sneek + DI i ran MPT, COD3,Sam+Max From disc (+ Farcry but only to get past the freeze issue).
The only game im left with that i have to run from DVD is CSI: Deadly Intent.
USB all the way !!!

 

[elmariachi]

one more advantage of usb loading is it doesn't use the disc laser, so it lasts longer for example to play your old GC retail discs

 

[Riley]

It really matters how much you like the wii. I mean if you only like 20 - 30 games then its cheaper to buy disk. but if you want to be a collector and have alot of games, then you pick USB. Plus USB is faster read speeds but that doesnt really matter only in loading screens.

You can also play GC games off DVD

 

[thehritzinator]

Hard Drives are better, faster, and cheaper. But if you are like me and cant afford an external hard drive yet, DVDs are a quick way to keep your games while you save money to get a hard drive

 

[MFDC12]

I've seen no advantages to using DVD-R. Take Smash Bros. for example. That game runs like crap off of a grade A Verbatim dual layer. But it runs perfectly fine off hard drive.

if its not playing correctly you didn't do it right.
hell, i didn't even burn it right (i didn't even specify the layerbreak) and my wii plays it perfect, just like the original disc. and i only use verbatims too.
ive noticed NOTHING wrong with brawl at all. but i also have a modchip.

but to add to the discussion, i prefer disc over usb. just a personal preference.