How to play GameCube games off a USB HDD.

Welcome to my guide! This will teach you to "backup" your games that you TOTALLY legally own. Right?
This guide is completely compatible with Windows, Mac (Wine), and Linux (Wine). I do not have access to an Apple machine, but theoretically, it should work. Please note that this guide requires you to format your HDD, however you can still use it for storage after we're done, so just back it up before we begin.


NOTE BY A MODERATOR :

There are different methods to play Gamecube games off a USB HDD, and this outdated guide will only tell you ONE method.
It will not explain to you how to run gamecube games from USB HDD, but instead will tell you to do things blindly and install specific outdated files and use a specific outdated USB Loader version.
It doesn't cover other USB HDD methods or other Gamecube loaders.
Don't follow this guide if you want updated informations, updated loaders or if you want to use a different gamecube loading method.

You can follow it only if you want DIOS MIOS 2.8 (outdated) and CFG Loader v70 r36 (outdated).
Thanks for reading,
Cyan

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You will need:
-An SD Card
-A USB HDD
-Wii Mote
-GameCube Controller
-A Wii with Homebrew Channel installed
-A GameCube iso

Download Links:

COMPUTER:


1.) Download WiiFlow from the Download List above. Put it in the apps folder of your SD Card.

2.) Download the DIOS MIOS v2.8 RAR. Go to 'DM', then move 'DIOSMIOS_2.8' to the root folder of your SD card, or for easier installation put it in a folder on the root titled 'wad'.

3.) Download MMM, and put it in your apps folder.

4.) In the DM folder in the RAR, there will be a file named DMToolbox.exe, run it, select your games iso file, and choose where you want the game's folder to go (Desktop will do.). Hit 'Install', and the folder will appear where you wanted it to, it will be named the game's ID, which will, to you, appear to be a bunch of random characters.

5.) Download and Install EaseUS Partition master, and open it. Find your HDD, and right click it, and select 'format'. Format it as FAT32 with 32KB Clusters. *DON'T IGNORE! Press OK, and then "Apply".

6.) Look at your empty HDD, and make a 'games' folder. Put the folder with the Game ID in there.

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WII:




1.) Plug in your HDD in USB Slot 0. Turn on your Wii. Launch Homebrew Channel. Then launch MMM.

2.) Choose WAD Manager on the menu and install DIOSMIOS_2.8.wad

3.) After you're done, exit MMM. Launch WiiFlow.

4.) Go to Settings, and change game partition to USB1

5.) Press 'B', and select the Gamecube icon

7.) Choose a game and press Start. Every time you add new games, you have to hit the home icon, and hit update cache, and your game list will refresh.

Congratulations! You can now play GC games from your USB HDD!

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CFG USB LOADERv70 r36:

COMPUTER:
Follow steps 3-7 in the COMPUTER guide above.

WII:

1.) Follow step 3 in the guide above.
2.) Install DIOS MIOS using MMM.
3.) Launch CFG USB Loader.
4.) Click the icon with tools on it
5.) Set "DML Version" to DM.
6.) Launch your game!
 

manta53

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Ok so I followed this guide. I downloaded WWE Day of Reckoning, followed all the steps, opened up wiiflow and I see WWE Day of Reckoning in the games list I click play and it just loads a black screen, whats going on?
 

WizardOfOdd

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Awesome! I've been wanting a USB GC loader forever, and there has been one all along! One question - is there any way to save game progress to USB device rather than dig out an old memory card from the loft? Or do I absolutely need to have a GC memory card?
 

SonicRings

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Just wondering... If do this, will I still be able to play my legit copies of GCN games on my Wii? Or will the Wii's GCN disc reader mode get "bricked" and the only way for me to play GCN games on it be via GCN backups?
 

WizardOfOdd

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I can confirm that yes, you can still play legit disc games after using this loader. But - why would you want to, because you can install your legit games from the disc directly to your hard drive, which is what I did.
 

SonicRings

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I can confirm that yes, you can still play legit disc games after using this loader. But - why would you want to, because you can install your legit games from the disc directly to your hard drive, which is what I did.
I was asking that because I have read that my hdd's format type (I forgot which type it is, I'll let you know if it is necessary) does not work with GCN games, and that I would need to use a USB pen drive formatted in said format in order to run GCN games. In case I had to use that USB for something else, I would simply use my legit GCN games to play games. It's good to know I can still do that after doing this method. Thanks!
 

Silentleet

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I keeping getting "Fatal error apploader size is zero!", and I can't figure out why. I'm using Wiiflow, and I've tried usb loader GX too. I can't figure out why
 

BlackWizzard17

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I keeping getting "Fatal error apploader size is zero!", and I can't figure out why. I'm using Wiiflow, and I've tried usb loader GX too. I can't figure out why
What are you using to convert your games. You are suppose to have
USB:/games/Your_Game_ID/game.iso
And along with the iso there are suppose to be other files. If you are using DMTool box to convert your game try using
DiscEX insead.
 

SonicRings

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I keeping getting "Fatal error apploader size is zero!", and I can't figure out why. I'm using Wiiflow, and I've tried usb loader GX too. I can't figure out why
I can't say for sure, but try using USB Slot 0, which is the USB slot closest to the rubber foot on the back of the Wii.
 

SonicRings

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I need help partitioning my external hard drive. I have about 550 GB on it (it's 1 TB total), so I can't back it all up on of the laptops I own. Is it possible to create a secondary partition, move everything to the secondary partition, then change the primary partition to FAT32?
 

Silentleet

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What are you using to convert your games. You are suppose to have
USB:/games/Your_Game_ID/game.iso
And along with the iso there are suppose to be other files. If you are using DMTool box to convert your game try using
DiscEX insead.

I was using DMToolbox, and I just tried DiscEX and it still isn't working. I have the other files there too

Edit: WiiFlow recognizes the games, and it starts to DiosMios, the disc starts to spin, then the error message comes up. If there is no disc the error message pops up much faster
 

BlackWizzard17

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I was using DMToolbox, and I just tried DiscEX and it still isn't working. I have the other files there too

Edit: WiiFlow recognizes the games, and it starts to DiosMios, the disc starts to spin, then the error message comes up. If there is no disc the error message pops up much faster
That's weird, do you have the latest Dios Mios installed.
 

SonicRings

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I need help partitioning my external hard drive. I have about 550 GB on it (it's 1 TB total), so I can't back it all up on of the laptops I own. Is it possible to create a secondary partition, move everything to the secondary partition, then change the primary partition to FAT32?
Have I been ignored? :(
 

grossaffe

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Have I been ignored? :(

You could potentially do it in multiple steps due to you having used up more than half of the space. If you want to try it, you'd have to:
  1. Create another partition
  2. Move some of your data to the new partition
  3. Resize the partitions to take some of that newly freed up space and give it to the new partition
  4. move the rest of your data over to the new partition
  5. reformat the first partition to FAT32
From there, you can figure out if you want to keep two partitions or move your data back to the FAT32, resize, move the rest, delete "new" partition and cede that space back to the FAT32...
HOWEVER! All this data and partition rearrangement can corrupt your data. I did something similar once and it resulted in music that I had deleted long ago being spliced into songs that I had tried to copy over, and some other files were corrupted beyond readability. If you are worried about data corruption, do not do this.
 

SonicRings

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You could potentially do it in multiple steps due to you having used up more than half of the space. If you want to try it, you'd have to:
  1. Create another partition
  2. Move some of your data to the new partition
  3. Resize the partitions to take some of that newly freed up space and give it to the new partition
  4. move the rest of your data over to the new partition
  5. reformat the first partition to FAT32
From there, you can figure out if you want to keep two partitions or move your data back to the FAT32, resize, move the rest, delete "new" partition and cede that space back to the FAT32...
HOWEVER! All this data and partition rearrangement can corrupt your data. I did something similar once and it resulted in music that I had deleted long ago being spliced into songs that I had tried to copy over, and some other files were corrupted beyond readability. If you are worried about data corruption, do not do this.
Well shoot, looks like I'm out of options unless I can move everything onto a similar-sized laptop or another external hdd. Thanks for the info!
 

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