*The Issue: [SOLVED] How can I use a larger than 2TB GTP Hard Drive on a Wii as one single MBR FAT32 partition? [SOLVED]


*** Make sure to see the potential issues with EmuNAND and FIRMWARE noted below ***


This is a twice boiled down version of a couple previous posts from several years ago. This question comes up from time to time and rather than constantly referring people to my 5 year old post that I have to hunt down and that is a bit convoluted talking about various drive sizes and processes, I thought maybe it would be better as an original tutorial that is more to the point and easier to find. One of those previous posts from 2016 can be found here: http://gbatemp.net/threads/usb-loader-gx.149922/page-1129#post-6662953

Here in this revision I focus mainly on using 5TB Western Digital drives because all NTSC Wii, NTSC GameCube & non-NTSC PAL/JAP titles will fit. You would be best to read through everything a couple times to understand the process before proceeding with the steps. While there are other tools and processes others may have come up with, the following is the process I have used myself many, many, many times over. Feel free to seek out other alternatives as you see fit.


Potential Issues:

• EmuNAND - It has been reported on 10/28/21 by a user that EmuNAND does NOT work with this method using 64k or 256k cluster size. This would be a problem if you are trying to have EVERYTHING work off just the HDD and do NOT want to use an SD card. At the moment the only choices seem to be:

A) Use EmuNAND off an SD card large enough for your needs​

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B) Use a 4TB or smaller HDD formatted with the 32k cluster size​

• Drive Firmware - It has been reported on 06/01/22 by a user that a 5TB WD My Passport purchased around May 2022 was not recognized by the WD Quick Formatter software due to the firmware not supporting the changing of the block size. I haven't bought a My Passport dive in a couple years and will have to purchase a few to see if I can replicate the issue so the pending questions are:

A) Will others run into this issue or is it more of a rare occurrence?​

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B) Will this become an issue with any newly produced WD drive size because of current firmware versions??​

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C) My version of WD Quick Drive Formatter is v1.2.0.10, what version is currently available for download on the WD site and would that make a difference?​

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C) If new firmware becomes and issue can the drives firmware be downgraded to allow WD Quick Formatter to work?​

My Wii:

Original Nintendo Wii (not a Wii U), however I did have a report that it works for the Wii U as well. While I do have a couple Wii U's, I'm lazy and have yet to finish modding them to try it myself.


What I Recommend:

**06/09/22 Firmware on newer drives might be an issue. My recommendation listed below are previous to being made aware of potential issues**

I recommend Western Digital drives because there is WD software that indirectly converts the GPT drive partition to MBR. It has been found that most other drive manufactures do not work because they do not offer this ability, so my recommendation is to stick with using a Western Digital drive. This method has always worked for me on drive sizes of 3TB, 4TB, 6TB, 8TB & 10TB. I found there was no need to continue on with trying my 12TB & 18TB drives.

5TB is the sweet spot, but any size 3TB+ Western Digital drive should work. I have personally used MyBooks, Passports, and the P10 Game Drive. Others have told me their Essentials & Elements drive also worked. I will include additional information as needed for the different drive sizes I've used, but for me the sweet spot is the 5TB because it will hold all NTSC Wii, NTSC GameCube titles, PAL and Japanese titles that did not have a NTSC counterpart, and those that have various versions released.

I do NOT use EmuNAND off the HDD because it has always been installed to my 256GB SDXC card. There is a report that EmuNAND will NOT work on a 5TB+ HDD using this method. For more information in this issue see the "Potential Issues" area below.

Recommended External Drive (one of the following drives and a Y-cable):

• 5TB Western Digital P-10 Black Game Drive: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07VNTFHD5/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?smid=A2UUG1VCCCBF2J&psc=1

or​

• 5TB Western Digital Passport: https://www.amazon.com/Passport-Por...+passport&qid=1635351550&s=electronics&sr=1-3

These drives will most likely work with the regular cable, but you never know if your ports are weak on power, so for a few bucks it’s always nice to have a Y-cable on hand in case it is needed:

• Y-Cable for USB 3.0: Amazon.com: Cable Matters Micro USB 3.0 to USB Splitter Cable (USB Y-Cable, USB Y Cable) 20 Inches : Electronics

The Basic Steps (using a Western Digital Hard Drive):

1. Merge all items on WD HDD into 1 partition
2. Converting the GPT partition to a MBR partition
3. Select the proper cluster size and format the entire drive as FAT32
4. Optional - Set drive to as ACTIVE & PRIMARY
5. Some of my programs and setting in use
6. Links to Wii items I feel helpful
7. Thanks to those over the years who have helped me with this quest
8. Miscellaneous pictures

The More Detailed Steps:

1 - Merge all items on WD HDD into 1 partition
-Using EaseUS Partition Master (or the partition manager of your choice) check the drives partitions:
-It is very important you merge any other partitions showing such as unallocated, hidden, marked with an ASTERIX, or ??
-Picture below shows what I am talking about on Drive C, all of these need to be merged
-Merge any and all into the main partition, you want just one partition showing and nothing else at all
-Link to free version of EaseUS Partition Master: http://www.easeus.com/partition-manager/epm-free.html




2 - Converting the GPT partition to a MBR partition
-Using EaseUS Partition Master (or the partition manager of your choice) check the drive to see if its partition is MBR or GPT:
-If your drive is MBR skip this step and continue onto step 3
-If your drive is GPT, less than 2TB and you want a free partition manager tool go to step 2a
-If your drive is GPT, less than 2TB and you want a paid partition manager tool go to step 2b
-If your drive is GPT, a Western Digital drive & larger than 2TB go to step 2c

2a - Change the GPT drive partition to a MBR partition if your drive is 2TB or less:​

-Free tools to aid in this conversion:​

• To be added as I find them

2b - Change the GPT drive partition to a MBR partition if your drive is 2TB or less:​

-PAID for tools to aid in this conversion:​

• EaseUS Partition Master

-My free version did not have this option but my paid version does since v12 and up​

-Changing the WD drives partition above 2TB will not work using this method, it has the 2TB conversion limit, so go to step 2c if your drive is larger than 2TB​

-If you find more recent versions offer more functionality please let me know and I will update this post​

​

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2c - Change the GPT drive partition to a MBR partition if your drive is larger than 2TB using WD Quick Formatter:​

-Note: This most likely will not work on a hard drive that's not made by Western Digital, it scans for compatible drives automatically.​

-If using another manufacturer you will have to search to see if they make tools for something similar​

-WD Quick Formatter Link: https://support-en.wd.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/16241​

-Used to convert a larger than 2TB HDD to be Windows XP compatible​

-Once running WD Quick Formatter click on CONTINUE then ACCEPT and it will scan for drives​

-Available drives will be listed and if there is more than one select the correct drive to format​

-For configuration select XP COMPATIBLE and then click FORMAT DRIVE​

-Important: In doing this conversion it formats the drive to one single NTFS partition and changes the partition table from GPT to MBR​

-I'm on Windows 10, maybe it makes a difference what OS you are on when you run it, but you might get an error​

-Using this on my 4TB Passport & 5TB P-10 Black Game Drives I received an error about "no recognizable file system on the drive", just click OK and let the format finish and once complete click FINISH​

-This process can take several minutes but it did finish so give it time​

​

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3 - Select the proper cluster size and format the entire drive as FAT32
-Use FAT32 GUI Formatter to format the drive to FAT32:
-Original links seem to be working again (http://ridgecrop.co.uk)
-32-bit Link: http://ridgecrop.co.uk/index.htm?guiformat.htm
-64-bit Link: http://ridgecrop.co.uk/guiformat-x64.Exe

Cluster size will depend on the size of drive you are using. If you use a different cluster size the entire drive may not be accessible and I would recommend reformatting using my recommendations below:

• 4TB and smaller drive: Select 32k clusters (Allocation Unit Size: 32768)
• 5TB to 8TB drive: Select 64k clusters (Allocation Unit Size: 65536)
• 10TB drive: 256k clusters (Allocation Unit Size: ????)
• 12TB & Above: Unknown, I never tested past 10TB

4 – (Optional) Set drive to as ACTIVE & PRIMARY
-Using EaseUS Partition Master set the drive as ACTIVE & PRIMARY:
-Some say this is not needed, but I always set my drives as ACTIVE & PRIMARY
-Worse case this has no effect so I still do it anyways




5 - Some of my programs and setting in use
-My Wii: NTSC Wii (original Wii, not Wii U)

-Version #'s currently in use updated: 2019-05-21
-**My versions in use shown probably need to be updated
-CFG USB Loader v71beta51t3
-USB Loader GX v3.0rev1271
-WiiFlow Lite v5.3.0beta6
-Nintendont v5.486MMMOD
-All loaders set to use IOS249[57] D2X v8-final
-IOS249[base57]
-IOS250[base56]
-IOS251[base58]


6 - Links to Wii items I feel helpful
-My Wii’s Modded with ModMii, Link: http://gbatemp.net/threads/modmii-for-windows-official-support-topic.207126/
-CFG USB Loader Link: https://gbatemp.net/threads/configurable-usb-loader.147638/
-USB Loader GX Link: http://gbatemp.net/threads/usb-loader-gx.149922/
-WiiFlow Lite Link: https://gbatemp.net/threads/wiiflow-lite.422685/
-Nintendont Link: http://gbatemp.net/threads/nintendont.349258/


7 - Thanks to those over the years who have helped me with this quest
-Thanks @element6, @GreyWolf, @Elliander, @XFlak & many others I probably have missed for help getting to this point


8 - Miscellaneous pictures
-Yes I have about 32 Wii's just for myself (4 of each type plus my test Wiis) and over 210TB in external hard drive space I'm constantly fiddling with. It would seem that my OCD has ADD making me obsessively collect randomly.

 

[ber71]

and how does that look? I have already made the partitions and I know that I have it in MBR, before I had it in GPT, which I don't know about 4K or how it looks

If you use windows, this powershell command may display the logical and physical sector info. Don't confuse sector info with cluster info.
Get-Disk | Format-List
or
Get-Volume | Format-List
I'm a linux user so you have to try yourself.

 

[HaikDio]

If its MBR or GPT can simply be checked in the Windows drivemanager and to check the used sectorsize see this Then if its "4kn" labeled and the drive supports it, there should be a tool provided by WD to choose 512b emulation or 4k native.

Ok, I'll take a look at it later.
I have taken a look at the WD itself and I have found a program called DASHBOARD and it shows you all the data on the hard drive, I leave a screenshot

This 4K alignment, is it the native 4K you're talking about?

Post automatically merged: Feb 25, 2023

If you use windows, this powershell command may display the logical and physical sector info. Don't confuse sector info with cluster info.
Get-Disk | Format-List
or
Get-Volume | Format-List
I'm a linux user so you have to try yourself.

Ok, I just tried it and I had no idea about Powershell, I don't know how it differs from CMD, but I like the information it shows for all hard drives.
It tells me that I have 3 partitions, how can that be? In EASEUS I only see 2, the one for GAME CUBE and the one for WII.

Manufacturer : WD
Model : Game Drive
Serial Number : WXD2DB15FSTC
Size : 4.55TB
AllocatedSize : 5000947302400
LogicalSectorSize : 4096
PhysicalSectorSize : 4096
NumberOfPartitions : 3
PartitionStyle : MBR
IsReadOnly : False
IsSystem : False
IsBoot : False

 

[Sypherone]

This 4K alignment, is it the native 4K you're talking about?

No, its something different :
Each sector in traditional hard disk is 512 bits while 4Kn and 512e drives are 4K. Thereby, 4K alignment becomes the basic requirement for mordern hard drives.

In fact, 4K alignment works between physical sectors and data clusters. If we create partitions on a non-4K-aligned drive, the partition will not start from a physical sector. That is to say, the physical sector is not be placed right with the data cluster, and then the drive has to get access to at least two sectors for data processing, which definitely slows down the drive accessing and wastes the drive space.

In other words, a non-4K-aligned drive should get access to two sectors when data is read and written; while a 4K-aligned drive can only go to only one sector because the minimum sector is right for a data cluster.

It tells me that I have 3 partitions, how can that be?

There is possible one hidden, like Windoes does with the RE partition.

LogicalSectorSize : 4096
PhysicalSectorSize : 4096

Yes, thats the required information and you should be able to use the hole drive on the (v)Wii !

 

[HaikDio]

No, this is the allocation unit which can be set by formating a drive.

and is this good?

There is possible one hidden, like Windoes does with the RE partition.

which partition is RE? And why don't I see it with EASEUS? Can't see it any other way?

 

[r1vver]

It tells me that I have 3 partitions, how can that be? In EASEUS I only see 2, the one for GAME CUBE and the one for WII.

show screenshot of that command output

 

[lufeig]

Posting just to advise that I purchased today, June 9th 2023, a 2.5" 4TB WD Black P10 Game Drive, model WDBA3A0040BBK-WESN, and it was successfully formatted in a single MBR partition FAT32 in WD Quick Disk Format.

So it seems that this model of P10 HDDs still have the old firmware that we want.

I purchased a couple of months ago a 2.5" 5TB WD Elements, model WDBU6Y0050BBK-XD4722Q, and received that firmware error message on WD Quick Disk Format, indicating it had the new firmware.

 

[XFlak]

I shared an idea with @ca032769 back in April for him to test but I'm not sure if he ever did, and I don't have the hardware necessary to test. Anyway, I guess I'll share my idea below in case someone else is able to test and who knows, maybe this can get large non-WD working with the Wii

Copy and paste of my PM to @ca032769 below:

I have an idea to try to get non WD hard drives that are >2TB working with your WD software to convert to MBR. check out this link: <https://www.howtohaven.com/system/change-disk-signature.shtml> Basically we are going to try to intentionally create a disk collision, lol, we should always be able to reverse this later. But follow the steps from the link above to only retrive the uniqueid disk ID of one of your WD hard drives that work with the software. Then disconnect it and plug in a non-WD drive that's >2TB, do the same thing and make a note of it's original uniqueid disk ID before changing it to match the ID from the WD HDD. Follow the steps again to confirm the ID successfully changed, then load up your WD software and check if it will now accept the non-WD hdd (but now with a WD uniqueid disk ID). It's worth noting that windows cannot load 2 drives with the same signature at the same time. The only reason I knew to think of this was because I once bought 2 HDD's of the same type at the same time, so I used this method to slightly change the ID of one of them to solve it.

@ca032769, did you ever get a chance to try this out? Thx!

 

[GDX]

@ca032769, did you ever get a chance to try this out? Thx!

I am willing to try with a Seagate 4TB HDD, but I don't have a WD 4TB HDD, if someone can send me the unique ID of a WD HDD.

 

[Germini]

Followed the guide exactly my 4tb WD Game Drive P10 worked perfectly with emunand & wii games. Thanks a lot

 

[justacooldude28]

Just got a 2tb western digital hard drive and came across this thread. Now I have my roms working. Thank you so much for this. Great, detailed, easy to follow tutorial.

 

[XFlak]

Would anyone who's gotten this working be willing to share their compatible WD drive signature so we can test if it can make other brand hdd's work?

Link with steps described here:
https://gbatemp.net/goto/post?id=9985299

 

[Amuro-san]

I made two partitions, WTF for Wii and FAT 32 for NGC, games on my 2TB HD are much faster than the HD I had