Homebrew Emulators can't detect other partitions on USB Drive!

[borgmanjayce]

I recently installed my Wii Homebrew on a separate partition (FAT32) alongside another FAT32 partition for ISO files (which is now used for WBFS files after receiving advice for uploading and converting files via WiiFileManager from egurgle here) and a NTFS partition which is my main one and is used for backups from my laptop as well as downloads from torrent sites.

The emulators that I've installed include VBA GX, FCE Ultra GX, Genesis Plus GX, SMSPlus, Hugo GX, GxGeo (which doesn't work as it keeps crashing on me!), NeoPOP Wii, SMS Plus GX and Snes9x GX.

After getting my problem with MultiModManager sorted out when it comes to loading cIOSes sorted, the emulators seem to recognise the USB drive (which is a 1TB Western Digital Elements HD), but for some reason, they can only detect the partition which has the backup games on them and no other partitions on it!

Has anyone else had a similar problem, and if so, how did they fix it?

 

[Jacobeian]

Emulators does not support NTFS partitions, they only support FAT16/FAT32 partitions and use homebrew library LibFAT to acces it.

LibFAT does not have multi-partition support, it automatically uses the first FAT partition found on the device and affects it to the device (sd:/, usb:/)

 

[borgmanjayce]

As I said, the homebrew isn't even in a NTFS partition, it's in a FAT32 partition that's seperate to the ones for the Wii game backups.

If LibFAT doesn't support Multi-partition support, is there any way I can get the emulators to search for the partition or will I have to put my homebrew onto a 32GB SDHC card even if it's slower running things like this from a SDHC card than a USB drive.

 

[Gabelvampir]

If the applications work but don't find the ROMs, you won't have to move all your homebrew, just the emulator ROMs. You'll have to move them either to an SD card or the first FAT partition (which seems to be the one with the backup games). Oh and I personally would use the same FAT partition for homebrew and backup games, but I don't know if that is necessary. But it could save you some trouble.

 

[tueidj]

Libfat does have multi-partition support.

 

[Jacobeian]

Libfat does have multi-partition support.


oh, I didn't knew. Great news, so how do we access multiple FAT partitions ?


QUOTEIf LibFAT doesn't support Multi-partition support, is there any way I can get the emulators to search for the partition or will I have to put my homebrew onto a 32GB SDHC card even if it's slower running things like this from a SDHC card than a USB drive.

Emulators (and USB loaders afaik) don't give you the choice of partition, at least they never did to me.

The solution is simple, really, just move your ROM files and backup in the same partition, the one that is detected. Why bother having two FAT partitions when this is apparently not supported by homebrew ?

 

[borgmanjayce]

Libfat does have multi-partition support.


oh, I didn't knew. Great news, so how do we access multiple FAT partitions ?


QUOTEIf LibFAT doesn't support Multi-partition support, is there any way I can get the emulators to search for the partition or will I have to put my homebrew onto a 32GB SDHC card even if it's slower running things like this from a SDHC card than a USB drive.

Emulators (and USB loaders afaik) don't give you the choice of partition, at least they never did to me.

The solution is simple, really, just move your ROM files and backup in the same partition, the one that is detected. Why bother having two FAT partitions when this is apparently not supported by homebrew ?

I can understand where you're coming from about moving the ROM Files to the same partition as the Wii backups, but the thing is, one of the Wii backup guides here (I forget which one) actually suggested having two seperate partitions for Wii backups and homebrew, and to be honest, it's a lot cleaner having it that way.

I'm still puzzled as to why certain homebrew like WiiMC can recognise more than one partition on a USB drive and various emulators can't recognise more than one partition on a USB drive.

 

[Jacobeian]

I can understand where you're coming from about moving the ROM Files to the same partition as the Wii backups, but the thing is, one of the Wii backup guides here (I forget which one) actually suggested having two seperate partitions for Wii backups and homebrew, and to be honest, it's a lot cleaner having it that way.

the problem arises because you are using two FAT partitions, if you used NTFS or WBFS for Wii backups, this wouldn't be the case

QUOTEI'm still puzzled as to why certain homebrew like WiiMC can recognise more than one partition on a USB drive and various emulators can't recognise more than one partition on a USB drive.

well, libFAT apparently can detect multiple partitions, but I guess it's up to the application to implement it or not.

emulators are not media players or advanced file managers in general, they automatically use the default FAT partition on the device. If you had used the first FAT partition for ROM files and the second one for backups, I guess it would have worked fine (but maybe backup loaders would then have failed to detect Wii backups if, like emulators, they don't have multi-FAT partition support)