Hacking Homebrew Having odd issues with USB Loader GX

[nexxusty]

Wii softmodded with latest ModMii, 3TB HDD (GPT) with 2.3tb NTFS partition + 0.47TB 32KB FAT32 partition.

When I load 30 or so Wii wbfs images on the NTFS partition, no issues. Games load and work. When I load hundreds, immediate crash with an exception when accessing the files after loading the USB Loader GX gui.

My NTFS partition is first, then the FAT32 partition after.

Absolutely pulling my hair out with this one. I am about to just use NTFS and deal with the space loss, absolutely nothing I do works aside from loading next to no .wbfs images.

The HDD has no bad sectors either.

 

[Sypherone]

Use MBR not GPT. Using GPT with multiple partions is bugged. And if the drive is has 512 b sector size ONLY the first 2TB of the drive are readable/useable by the Wii. BTW first partition is recommmended fat32 for high homebrew compatibility.

And there is extra a very nice guide pinned in the Wii section. Maybe i need to make some bling bling on it with big red arrows, naked girls or what ever.

 

[nexxusty]

Use MBR not GPT. Using GPT with multiple partions is bugged. And if the drive is has 512 b sector size ONLY the first 2TB of the drive are readable/useable by the Wii. BTW first partition is recommmended fat32 for high homebrew compatibility.

And there is extra a very nice guide pinned in the Wii section. Maybe i need to make some bling bling on it with big red arrows, naked girls or what ever.

Thanks for the reply brother.

This is a Seagate 3TB AF drive. I SHOULD be able to format it with a 4096 logical sector size.

Haven't had any luck yet though.

 

[Sypherone]

Yes, theoratical it should work to use the hole drive on Wii. But use MBR because GPT is buggy with multipartition.

This AF drive should support 4kn (n=native) sector size as standart with the ability to be backwards compatible to 512be (e=emulate). There existing tools for that to change, check seagate page. And there exist a commandline tool to check which sectorsize is used.

But because there are possibiltys of other issues e.g. cios config or low power (Y-Cable) check the guide pls.

 

[nexxusty]

Yes, theoratical it should work to use the hole drive on Wii. But use MBR because GPT is buggy with multipartition.

This AF drive should support 4kn (n=native) sector size as standart with the ability to be backwards compatible to 512be (e=emulate). There existing tools for that to change, check seagate page. And there exist a commandline tool to check which sectorsize is used.

But because there are possibiltys of other issues e.g. cios config or low power (Y-Cable) check the guide pls.

It's a powered USB external enclosure. Definitely no power issues.

I'll check for Seagate tools to format it, not hopeful though. Seagate is absolutely terrible at everything they do.

cIOS is seemingly fine, remember my issues only happen when there are too many .wbfs images on the drive. 30 or so work absolutely fine with no issues whatsoever. This is 100% a partition/sector issue.

I absolutely appreciate the quick responses brother. Thank you.

 

[Sypherone]

I will think too its a sector/partition problem. But sorry, i dont have fast solution for that. It is like it ever was, its tricky and try and error.
If ntfs is first partition it normaly should work with all games up to the readable limit from the (v)Wii. A try would be using not ntfs but fat32 instead, or even the hole drive as fat32. Other question is, does the games play from this partition? Else using loader ios 58 and cios 151base58 can be tryed which support both back ports.

This shows the sectorsize and the line "Bytes Per Sector" shows the used sectorsize.

Spoiler: fsutils

Check Your Hard Drive Sector Size in Windows​

To quickly check if you’re using an AF hard drive, you can use the Windows command prompt. Here’s a quick guide:

1. Access the command prompt. You will have to start it as Administrator. To do that, click the “Start” button and type “cmd”. Then right-click the Command Prompt app, choose “Run as administrator,” and click Yes in the dialog.
2. Enter the command:fsutil fsinfo ntfsinfo <drive letter>:
3. Look for the value “Bytes Per Physical Sector.”
4. Legacy format hard drives will have 512 (most common), 520, or 528 bytes per sector. AF hard drives will have 4096 (most common), 4112, 4160, or 4224 bytes per sector.

Spoiler: fsutils - used sector size

To get the sector size info, call the utility as follows from an elevated command prompt:

Copy

fsutil fsinfo ntfsinfo <drive letter>

A 4K Sector Disk with 512-byte Emulation has the Bytes Per Sector field set to 512 and the Bytes Per Physical Sector field set to 4096 as follows:

A 4K Native Disk has the Bytes Per Sector and Bytes Per Physical Sector fields both set to 4096 as follows:

 

[nexxusty]

As expected, Seagate tools don't even launch. Literally every one of the 12 executables they give you do not work. Tried in 3 different computers, 3 different versions of Windows.

Seagate is such a trash company. I honestly loathe them.

I am under the impression that if I can't format this drive to 4K logical sectors, 2TB is the limit, GPT or not. Which sucks beyond belief as it makes what I want to do impossible.

 

[Sypherone]

I didnt used them myself, but maybe they need to run from commandline and with admin rights e.g SeaChest is a commandline tool. But for sure there is another independend tool to set the used sectorsize.

 

[godreborn]

I believe easeus has been recommended in the past. you may or may not have to pay for it. there's also aomei.

 

[Sypherone]

@godreborn Ya there are pretty nice, but i dont know if they already support this conversation between 512be and 4kn. On first look i dont see it.

 

[nexxusty]

I didnt used them myself, but maybe they need to run from commandline and with admin rights e.g SeaChest is a commandline tool. But for sure there is another independend tool to set the used sectorsize.

I got the tools to run, yeah, my bad. I wasn't running them from command line.

In my defense cmd only apps NEVER have icons embedded into the executables. This one did, so of course I assumed it was a gui based tool.

Either way, didn't work. Connected directly to SATA as well. "This drive doesn't support sector changes" even though I am looking at the AF logo on the front of the drive and verified it has 4096 byte physical sectors.

Can't even use an NTFS 3TB partition can I? As the Wii can only address 2TB no matter what on a 512 byte sector drive yes? I really hope I am understanding that incorrectly and the answer is no.

 

[Sypherone]

Run the check with fsutils which i posted 6 posts above. Then you see whats used and maybe dont need to convert, because already using 4kn.

This could also the problem, because the partition is bigger then 2TB. So best a few byte smaller. And no, you are not able to use more then 2TB if its 512 b sectorsize, no matter of used filesystem, partition table or multiple partions.

 

[nexxusty]

Run the check with fsutils which i posted 6 posts above. Then you see whats used and maybe dont need to convert, because already using 4kn.

This could also the problem, because the partition is bigger then 2TB. So best a few byte smaller. And no, you are not able to use more then 2TB if its 512 b sectorsize, no matter of used filesystem, partition table or multiple partions.

Already checked, it's a 512e drive.

I've done some research on this. There are two types of AF drives. Generation 1 with 512e being the ONLY option = My drive. Then we have the typical Generation 2 drives that actually allow sector changes.

At the very least I don't feel like an idiot now. I have a definite answer to why I was having issues.

Appreciate the responses boys. Really. Didn't expect such fast replies. Have a great night!