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There are different methods to play Gamecube games off a USB HDD, and this outdated guide will only tell you ONE method.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to you how to run gamecube games from USB HDD, but instead will tell you to do things blindly and install specific outdated files and use a specific outdated USB Loader version.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You can follow it only if you want DIOS MIOS 2.8 (outdated) and CFG Loader v70 r36 (outdated).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

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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!

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

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!
 

misery13

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Current setup:
DIOS MIOS 2.10 (tried 2.8 with no success)
d2x v8 final
- cIOS base 37, cIOS slot 245
- cIOS base 38, cIOS slot 246
- cIOS base 53, cIOS slot 247
- cIOS base 55, cIOS slot 248
- cIOS base 56, cIOS slot 249
- cIOS base 57, cIOS slot 250
- cIOS base 58, cIOS slot 251
WiiFlow v4.1
CFG USB LOADERv70 r36
USB Loader GX r1218
MMM v13.4
HDD is FAT32 with 32kb clusters
I used DMToolbox on every game.
Real disk and memory card in the Wii.
Set "DML Version" to DM.

I get a black screen every time I try to load a game in CFG USB Loader.
USB Loader GX doesn't detect any of my games.

Any help is appreciated.
 

TudorBlue

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When I used DMTool for the first time, it installed the games straight onto my hdd root, I had to create a folder and call it "games" then had to place each folder containing the game iso, inside this folder. Like this games/G451D/game ISO
 

misery13

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When I used DMTool for the first time, it installed the games straight onto my hdd root, I had to create a folder and call it "games" then had to place each folder containing the game iso, inside this folder. Like this games/G451D/game ISO
It works now, it turns out it was the HDD that was causing the problem. I switched to one without an external power cord.
 

vanzan

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Gentlemen I'm a bit new to this. I have a softmodded Wii with a 1tb 2.5 external drive containing my Wii game wbfs files. Now I'm aware that to play GC games from a USB device it needs to be formatted in FAT32 with 32k clusters (or whatever). Can I have the 1tb drive in usb port 1 (with the wii games) and say a 64gb usb key in usb port 2 (for the Gamecube stuff)?

Installing the DM wad won't mess up my softmod will it (just being safe and asking first!)

You're probably gonna tell me to just partition the 1tb drive with the primary partition in FAT32 for the GC stuff and the other partition in NTFS for my Wii games. However I've very little experience with partition managers and I'm wondering whether I'd need to move all my Wii game wbfs files off it before I go messing with it.

Thank you for any help my friends!
 

Maxternal

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Gentlemen I'm a bit new to this. I have a softmodded Wii with a 1tb 2.5 external drive containing my Wii game wbfs files. Now I'm aware that to play GC games from a USB device it needs to be formatted in FAT32 with 32k clusters (or whatever). Can I have the 1tb drive in usb port 1 (with the wii games) and say a 64gb usb key in usb port 2 (for the Gamecube stuff)?

Installing the DM wad won't mess up my softmod will it (just being safe and asking first!)

You're probably gonna tell me to just partition the 1tb drive with the primary partition in FAT32 for the GC stuff and the other partition in NTFS for my Wii games. However I've very little experience with partition managers and I'm wondering whether I'd need to move all my Wii game wbfs files off it before I go messing with it.

Thank you for any help my friends!
If you're going to do the 2 drive thing, the GC drive would have to be in USB port 0 and the other one in port 1 or DM would just complain that it didn't see any games in the first drive it saw.

The easiest way is actually not to partition but to just format the whole 1tb drive to FAT32 and just have the GC stuff in the /games folder and the wii stuff in the /wbfs folder. You don't have to worry about the 4gb file size limit on FAT32 because if you move the games over to the drive with Wii Backup Manager or something similar, it will automatically split the games into a WBFS file and a WBF1 file when a game needs more than 4gb of space (if I remember the file names correctly).
The only real difficulty in that case would be having to back up all the Wii games to your computer while you formatted it from NTFS to FAT32 and then have to move them back.

Installing DM won't mess up your softmod, either, unless you were previously running GameCube DVD-R backups. Even then, there are ways around it, though.
 
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this was a really easy to use guide but im having a problem I hope someone has an answer to since I cant seem to locate it.... when I go to load a game after doing what this guide says all I get is a black screen? Any suggestions on what I should have for settings or if theres a wad im missing maybe? would be greatly appreciated :)
 

Maxternal

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this was a really easy to use guide but im having a problem I hope someone has an answer to since I cant seem to locate it.... when I go to load a game after doing what this guide says all I get is a black screen? Any suggestions on what I should have for settings or if theres a wad im missing maybe? would be greatly appreciated :)
If you're really unlucky it could be that you just have an incompatible drive. (This would be a black screen with NO gamecube logo on the screen) Try formatting another USB drive properly and putting a game on it to see if it works.
 

zelda_lover

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I tried reformatting the one I was using and putting it on the sd card I was using.... it will find the game in the list but when I go to launch it I just get a black screen... and noticed just tonight that my wii mote stops working .... not sure if it was doing that the other day
 

LightyKD

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I need some serious help. I have been avoiding Dios mIOS for a few years but now that I have Wii HDD loading going well, I really want to get my GameCube collection to the same point. My issue is that every time I go to load a game, I just get a black screen. Ok in short here are the two main issues


1) USB Loader GX never wants to play a GC game directly from the hard drive. It keeps asking me to copy the game to the card before playing.



2) Loading a GC game always gives me a black screen

as for my setup, I have Dios mIOS 2.9 installed with my hdd formatted to fat32 at 32k and all game cube games on the hdd converted with the tool provided in one of the dios mios tutorials. What in the world is stopping my games from loading? As always, all help is appreciated. Thanks!
 

Maxternal

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I need some serious help. I have been avoiding Dios mIOS for a few years but now that I have Wii HDD loading going well, I really want to get my GameCube collection to the same point. My issue is that every time I go to load a game, I just get a black screen. Ok in short here are the two main issues


1) USB Loader GX never wants to play a GC game directly from the hard drive. It keeps asking me to copy the game to the card before playing.



2) Loading a GC game always gives me a black screen

as for my setup, I have Dios mIOS 2.9 installed with my hdd formatted to fat32 at 32k and all game cube games on the hdd converted with the tool provided in one of the dios mios tutorials. What in the world is stopping my games from loading? As always, all help is appreciated. Thanks!
You probably still have USBLoader GX v3.0 (r1180) which was the latest official release but it's was also released before USB GC loading was even possible. The real LATEST version is r1218_mod1.
 

LightyKD

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You probably still have USBLoader GX v3.0 (r1180) which was the latest official release but it's was also released before USB GC loading was even possible. The real LATEST version is r1218_mod1.


Link please! You can PM me the link if you don't want to post it here. Thanks again for the advice!
 

LightyKD

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OK new problem. When I try to load a game I get a message telling me that I need to set my main Game cube path on a primary partition. there is only one partition on this drive.
 

Ponjo

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So I'm getting the "Fatal error apploader size is zero!" error, I've combed this thread and the faq trying to figure out what the issue is.

I don't know what an md5 hash is, I googled it, and still don't really know what I'm looking at.

I've been booting it with a wii disc.

I downloaded my game from coolrom, formatted one of the isos in DMlizard and one is unformatted.

I reinstalled Dios Mios, so any chance of my Dios Mios Lite being in there is probably not possible.

Is there a certain IOS I should be running? I think it was supposed to be 236 but whenever I load it it unloads or whatever whenever I go back to MMM.

I'm booting it through Wiiflow, have tried it with a wii disc, no disc, and a gamecube disc which forced me to play the gamecube game.

The worst part of this is I had this running smoothly a few years ago, I come back and it doesn't work, any help will be greatly appreciated!
 

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