Hacking How to format MBR+FAT32 USB disks bigger than 2TB?

v1nce

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(I posted in Wii-backup-loaders and WiiU-backup-loaders sections)
Hello all,

Nearly 3 years ago, I wondered how to format a 4TB in order to play GC and Wii/vWii games from USB disk:
https://gbatemp.net/threads/how-to-use-a-4tb-disk-with-usb-loaders.423975/
I needed to set a disk in MBR mode (to be compatible with majority of homebrews) and to format one FAT32 partition (to use Nintendont).

I read a lot of posts, I never figured how to do it, but I finally understood why:
I had an "old" disk with 512 bit sectors that limited the biggest FAT32 partition to 2TB.
Nowadays, all the disks have 4096 bits sectors (aka 4Kn or "4 Kbits native" disks) and so the biggest FAT32 partition is now 16 TB.

Note: to be sure if you have a disk with 512 bits or 4096 bits sectors, just type as administrator the following Windows command:
C:\> fsutil fsinfo ntfsinfo D:
(change the letter if your USB disk is not D)
and look for "Bytes per Physical Sector" in the output: 512 or 4096.

3 years ago, my "Samsung M3 4TB portable" disk was a 512 bits sectors disk: no way to format 4TB FAT32 partition!
3 years later, I just get a "Samsung Backup Plus 5TB" disk with 4096 bits sectors, but I still cannot figure how to do it!!!

Q1: nowadays in 2019, to play GC and Wii/vWii from USB disk, I still need MBR+FAT32 disk?
Q2: what are the steps from GPT+NTFS 5TB disk to MBR+FAT32 5TB disk?

Thanks.
 
Last edited by v1nce,

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