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There are different methods to play Gamecube games off a USB HDD, and this outdated guide will only tell you ONE method.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to you how to run gamecube games from USB HDD, but instead will tell you to do things blindly and install specific outdated files and use a specific outdated USB Loader version.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You can follow it only if you want DIOS MIOS 2.8 (outdated) and CFG Loader v70 r36 (outdated).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

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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!

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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!
 

kyogre123

Mexican Pride
Member
Joined
Sep 23, 2013
Messages
2,920
Trophies
0
Age
34
XP
1,347
Country
Mexico
Does this really needs a disc inserted to work? I'm wanting to use this for the sole reason my gamecube doesn't work anymore, neither the disc reader of my Wii, so if having a disc inserted is a requirement, this won't work for me :/

I tested it, it's not working. After I select "play" while having the game selected, the screen turns black and nothing happens. The Wii controller is disabled and after pressing reset, the console's LED turns Red.
 

SonicRings

Well-Known Member
Member
Joined
Oct 7, 2012
Messages
1,835
Trophies
1
Location
Johto
XP
1,858
Country
Canada
Does this really needs a disc inserted to work? I'm wanting to use this for the sole reason my gamecube doesn't work anymore, neither the disc reader of my Wii, so if having a disc inserted is a requirement, this won't work for me :/

I tested it, it's not working. After I select "play" while having the game selected, the screen turns black and nothing happens. The Wii controller is disabled and after pressing reset, the console's LED turns Red.
As the disc is never actually read, it won't be a problem for you. Just try it out and see if it works.
 

Kyuutoryuu

New Member
Newbie
Joined
Dec 4, 2013
Messages
3
Trophies
0
Age
44
XP
51
Country
United States
Would a regular (2gb) USB work in place of an HDD, or does it HAVE to be an HDD? I'm planning on only using this for 1 game (Pokemon XD GoD).

And on that topic, the trade functions between console GBA and GC emulator should still work, right?
 

Maxternal

Peanut Gallery Spokesman
Member
Joined
Nov 15, 2011
Messages
5,210
Trophies
0
Age
40
Location
Deep in GBAtemp addiction
Website
gbadev.googlecode.com
XP
1,709
Country
Would a regular (2gb) USB work in place of an HDD, or does it HAVE to be an HDD? I'm planning on only using this for 1 game (Pokemon XD GoD).
I think it's supposed to work. Never tried it, though, and just like hard drives I'd expect there to be some USB flash drives that do and some that don't work.


And on that topic, the trade functions between console GBA and GC emulator should still work, right?
Yes, this works fine for me.
 

Kyuutoryuu

New Member
Newbie
Joined
Dec 4, 2013
Messages
3
Trophies
0
Age
44
XP
51
Country
United States
Fantastic guide OP. I'm extremely surprised even a hacking noob like me could follow this; just fantastic. Thanks again! (and it did work on my 2gb USB)
 

appleburger

Well-Known Member
Member
Joined
Feb 26, 2012
Messages
403
Trophies
1
XP
1,562
Country
United States
So, at first wiiflow was working for me. Now that I've booted it up again a day later, it has copied the game to the SD card and won't allow me to change partitions (only SD shows up). I noticed that people were having a similar issue with USBloaderGX, but should this be happening in wiiflow? I don't understand why it would work the first time and not the second, unless it actually played it off of the SD card the first time I played it. Now when I try to even just play the game off of the SD card, I only get a black screen. Hmm..
 

gamadaya

Well-Known Member
Newcomer
Joined
Oct 6, 2008
Messages
49
Trophies
0
Age
35
Location
Laurel, MD
Website
Visit site
XP
194
Country
United States
I am having a problem with memory cards. I got this working after deleting all other partitions on my hard drive, but now I can only use the NMM mode. If I try to manage a memory card, the Wii stops responding and stops sending a video signal. This happens with both games on the hard drive and games on discs. Does anyone have an idea as to what might be causing this?
 

JawKneee

Member
Newcomer
Joined
Aug 4, 2010
Messages
12
Trophies
0
XP
131
Country
Canada
So, I have some stupid questions:

Do I need DIOS MIOS 2.8? I wasn't paying attention and installed DIOS MIOS 2.10, should I uninstall it and install DIOS MIOS 2.8?

What program are you guys booting up? CFG USB Loader? WiiFlow?

It works now. I had to change the partition where the ISO is located to primary and the other to logical.

Anybody know what this guy is talking about? I have the exact same problem as him, my Wii's DVD Reader is completely broken, it won't read a single disc.

Lastly, do I need a separate HDD for this? I use my Hard Drive for storage as well as playing a couple of Wii games.

Thanks in advance, guys.
 

Maxternal

Peanut Gallery Spokesman
Member
Joined
Nov 15, 2011
Messages
5,210
Trophies
0
Age
40
Location
Deep in GBAtemp addiction
Website
gbadev.googlecode.com
XP
1,709
Country
So, I have some stupid questions:

Do I need DIOS MIOS 2.8? I wasn't paying attention and installed DIOS MIOS 2.10, should I uninstall it and install DIOS MIOS 2.8?
2.10 is newer than 2.8 so I'd stick with it. It has the added advantage of working multi-disk game disk swapping IIRC
 

a7mag3ddon

Well-Known Member
Member
Joined
Mar 17, 2013
Messages
194
Trophies
0
Age
53
XP
681
Country
Sorry to ressurect this 26 page thread but i am also having issues botting GC from usb.

I have been trying now for 4 days, i have followed several tuts, tries wiiflow, usb loader gx, cfg loader, postloader and nothing seems to work.

I have 4.2E wii, soft modded, all the loaders you can think of. The programs are having difficulty seeing the GC games in the games/[IDNAME] folder, they are playing WII games perfectly fine.

Do i need a game in the drive? I tried leaving original mario sunshine nothing.

Please help its driving me insane!
 

YesJong

Member
Newcomer
Joined
Jan 31, 2012
Messages
17
Trophies
0
XP
57
Country
Netherlands
When i open multi mod manager and try to install the dios mios i get Ticket (-2011) Final status - 1 did not complete . Hope someone can help me with this

*edit* got it fixed but now wiiflow only is a black screen with grey boxes ......
 

defrb

Well-Known Member
Member
Joined
Apr 13, 2007
Messages
233
Trophies
1
XP
601
Country
Netherlands
Do you need seperate partions on a hdd drive? or can the gamecube games just be installed on the same drive where all my wii games are stored?

I'm trying to get this running on a 4.1E wii with the usbloader GX.

edit: After doing some more research i found out the hdd need to be formated in fat 32k clusters, mine was wbfs.
 

Site & Scene News

Popular threads in this forum

General chit-chat
Help Users
    Sicklyboy @ Sicklyboy: I got this one - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07DDHC5MV