Hacking FAT32 or NTFS?

[DroRox]

My HDD is WBFS right now. I keep being told to go FAT32 or NTSF so I'm doing that.
But now I ask, which one?

I want to use CFG Loader to run backups, I want to run homebrew of my HDD and also I want to be able to use SNEEK off of it.
Which one of these is the one that supports these?

And furthermore what about that file type should I know before shoving .iso s and all that other good stuff on it?
Limitations?

 

[brausm08]

FAT32 is needed for SNEEK for sure....format to 32kb with FAT32_GUI_formatter

while most wii apps are compatible with NTFS or FAT32, HBC is not compatible with NTFS...so everything would need to be launched via forwarders.... for best compatibility, use FAT32...

use Wii Backup Manager to manage the drive. it will convert your .iso's to .wbfs files, shrinking them and splitting them if necessary (if >4GB)

the only downside is if you're wanting to store HD movie rips >4GB (or anything >4GB for that matter) on the drive as FAT32 has a 4GB file size limit....aside from that, FAT32 is really the most compatible everything considered.

 

[DroRox]

Thanks a bunch. So That manager automatically splits the ISOs apart for me? Sweet.
And what do you mean by HD movie rips. Like actuall movies?

 

[brausm08]

yeah... HD movie rips = actual movies ripped from Blue-Ray discs and converted to an HD equivalent to an .avi (can be >4GB depending how it's done). ....useless for the wii per se (but not for PS3); some people use their HDD's for more than just the wii. for movies on the wii (via WiiMC or MPlayerCE), the standard 700MB .avi DVDRips are sufficient for the resolution the wii can handle.

 

[Lucif3r]

fat32 is across the board the most compatible. It is also slightly healthier for the disc (unnecesary knowledge, you will never reach the point where it actually matters lol).
Fat32 is much better in the sense that theres no computer it wont work on (well, unless its from the dinosaur era and lacks USB port)


But speaking of movies.. Is the hardware in the Wii capable of playing full-HD movies? Or will it just be a major lagfest?
I dont mean the resolution, but the actual hardware. Picture is normally downscaled on PC apps without issue (example, my laptop is only "720p", but easily plays 1080p movies without stutter)

 

[PsyBlade]

http://gbatemp.net/t292391-how-to-convert-...o-fat32-or-ntfs

 

[T.Kuranari]

It's actually very simple. If you want to use your HDD for games and other things, use NTFS. If you want to use your HDD for games AND homebrew, use FAT32

fat32 is across the board the most compatible. It is also slightly healthier for the disc (unnecesary knowledge, you will never reach the point where it actually matters lol).

Not true at all. Filesystem has absolutely nothing to do about how "healthier" it is for discs. If you are referring to the NTFS-HDD corruptions in the past, rest assured libntfs is now in a very stable state.

 

[PsyBlade]

Not true at all. Filesystem has absolutely nothing to do about how "healthier" it is for discs. If you are referring to the NTFS-HDD corruptions in the past, rest assured libntfs is now in a very stable state.

there is some truth to it

some fs do much more writes to single sections of the medium and thus wearing these sections out faster then the rest on the disk
hdds are not really susceptible to that but flash and cd/dvd-rw is

that’s the reason new flash media has wear levelling which prevents this
and dvds use other fs that don’t do this

but fat is actually considered worse than ntfs in that regard

 

[brausm08]

But speaking of movies.. Is the hardware in the Wii capable of playing full-HD movies? Or will it just be a major lagfest?
I dont mean the resolution, but the actual hardware. Picture is normally downscaled on PC apps without issue (example, my laptop is only "720p", but easily plays 1080p movies without stutter)

from what i've read (don't remember where exactly, but i'm sure it was somewhere here on the temp)....the wii hardware can handle processing up to 720 okay, but it gets goofy trying to play 1080...i'll do some half-hearted searching and try to find my source. if i find it, i'll edit it into this post.

edit...see here and here

 

[game_rat]

Just my personal preference, I have a FAT32 partition for UNEEK and HB and I have a NTFS partition for my WBFS files. I prefer NTFS because I don't have to deal with any of the file splitting, not that it's a big deal, I just prefer to have 1 file for each game.

 

[Lucif3r]

Not true at all. Filesystem has absolutely nothing to do about how "healthier" it is for discs. If you are referring to the NTFS-HDD corruptions in the past, rest assured libntfs is now in a very stable state.

No, NTFS writes differently than fat, resulting in more writes in the long run. But as I said, you will never reach the state where it will matter, the HDD will die long before that.

 

[Cabinetmaster]

Just my personal preference, I have a FAT32 partition for UNEEK and HB and I have a NTFS partition for my WBFS files. I prefer NTFS because I don't have to deal with any of the file splitting, not that it's a big deal, I just prefer to have 1 file for each game.

I have been trying to figure out how this is done exactly. I have had my Wii Softmodded for sometime now and have used a Flash Drive for my backups. I have a 500GB HDD that I want to use for my Wii backups, but I want to also be able to use it for some pc files also in NTFS.

I want to Format the HDD about 10GB FAT32 (for NAND, Wii Ware and HomeBrew) and the rest NTFS. Does anyone know if I make the NTFS "Active" will the Wii also recognize the FAT32 partition that has my HBC HB, NAND Emu and Wii Ware.

I can't seem to get an answer for this anywhere and I hate to format the HDD in the above manner just to have to re-do it all if it doesnt work. I figured if anyone has had this particular setup, it would save me alot of time and maybe I could pass the help on to another one day.

Thanks for any input,
Cabinetmaster

 

[the_randomizer]

There's no need for two different partitions, as I formatted my HDD to exclusively use FAT32, and I haven't so much as experienced any corruption or HDD crashing at all; all backed up WBFS/ISO images run perfectly, as do emulators (except Snes9xGx, it's picky with certain HDDs), so FAT32 alone should be fine..

 

[Cabinetmaster]

I have a need for the NTFS partition personally, aside from anything to do with the Wii. I also know that HB, NAND Emu and VC etc will not run from NTFS so that leaves me the need to have a FAT32 partition.

 

[RchUncleSkeleton]

Best solution is to have a separate hd for the Wii and a separate hd for computer backups, etc. It's really not a good idea to be lugging your Wii HD around for computer use. Right now it may be a little pricey to do this since drive prices have skyrocketed since the flooding in thailand, but if you already have a drive laying around it would be good.

Also HBC only reads from the 1st partition AFAIK so you will need to have FAT32 as the active partition.