Hacking Internal Hard Drive for Wii mod

[jhoff80]

I'm not sure why you would want this since it's been noted that some games (MP3 for example) still need a disc to be in the drive.

 

[wolffangalchemist]

you could get a .usb stick and do it.
that way you don't need to remove the dvd drive.

 

[Darkzero51521]

Remove the board from the DVD drive and keep it in and plugged into the wii.
That should make the wii still think it has a DVD drive.

That's wasted space..haha and I'd like to use my Wii drive for something on the side. It's kinda pointless without a board.

I'm not sure why you would want this since it's been noted that some games (MP3 for example) still need a disc to be in the drive.

Which is why I wanted to request a patch..

QUOTE

you could get a .usb stick and do it.
that way you don't need to remove the dvd drive.

USB sticks don't go up to 500gb

 

[Scorpei]

Raise the hight of the Wii, add the disc together with the IDE/Sata --> USB module and any fans or connections you would want (you want at least USB somewhere on the outside to put stuff on there), power could I suppose be drawn from inside. That way you have everything still in your Wii, it only is about a cm higher.

That's wasted space..haha and I'd like to use my Wii drive for something on the side. It's kinda pointless without a board.

Not if you route the connections required by the drive board to the outside of the Wii, where you make a modular system for the other drive components. That way you can retain normal drive function, swap it round easily if the laser fails and detach the drive when it isn't needed.

Another option would of course be to get the thinnest drive you can find, an SSD perhaps? Those, with the casing removed, are quite thin and thus might even fit if you remove the shielding around the drive. Added advantage is that with limited writes to the disc it should hold out fine. Also heat production is kept to a minimum.

 

[Knocks]

Does the Wii boot to System Menu with the drive disconnected or not?

 

[Darkzero51521]

Raise the hight of the Wii, add the disc together with the IDE/Sata --> USB module and any fans or connections you would want (you want at least USB somewhere on the outside to put stuff on there), power could I suppose be drawn from inside. That way you have everything still in your Wii, it only is about a cm higher.

That's wasted space..haha and I'd like to use my Wii drive for something on the side. It's kinda pointless without a board.
Not if you route the connections required by the drive board to the outside of the Wii, where you make a modular system for the other drive components. That way you can retain normal drive function, swap it round easily if the laser fails and detach the drive when it isn't needed.

Another option would of course be to get the thinnest drive you can find, an SSD perhaps? Those, with the casing removed, are quite thin and thus might even fit if you remove the shielding around the drive. Added advantage is that with limited writes to the disc it should hold out fine. Also heat production is kept to a minimum.


Well, I don't really want to mount anything on the outside or modify the case very much. Sculpting additional plastic doesn't appeal to me, haha.


QUOTE

Does the Wii boot to System Menu with the drive disconnected or not?

Yes, it'll boot system menu.

 

[Scorpei]

Then we're done here. There is limited space inside the casing, the loader requires the drive to be in there. Unless you either modify the case, mount something as a module, remove the drive components apart from the board or add an SSD without casing, there is no way around this unless the app / IOS / whichever needs the drive is rewritten.

...............
Well there is one thing I can think of, but it could be pretty hard / a pretty bad idea. You could bend the heatsink down (like ben-heck I think, with the Wii laptop), remove the fan guard, and add the HD (or a smaller one, as 2.5" might be too big) there. That would probably require a close watch on temps though, and most likely some more fans

.

 

[IOS37]

That's wasted space..haha and I'd like to use my Wii drive for something on the side. It's kinda pointless without a board.

then buy a drive that doesn't read disks and use that board.

 

[Darkzero51521]

Then we're done here. There is limited space inside the casing, the loader requires the drive to be in there. Unless you either modify the case, mount something as a module, remove the drive components apart from the board or add an SSD without casing, there is no way around this unless the app / IOS / whichever needs the drive is rewritten.

...............
Well there is one thing I can think of, but it could be pretty hard / a pretty bad idea. You could bend the heatsink down (like ben-hack I think, with the Wii laptop), remove the fan guard, and add the HD (or a smaller one, as 2.5" might be too big) there. That would probably require a close watch on temps though, and most likely some more fans

.

Well, once again, this is why i'm requesting Wanin to add support. I simply want to remove the DVD drive and replace it with a hard drive and hopefully a fan.

Hahah.. and bending the heatsink would be prettty bad, i think i'll avoid that route.

I think i'm going to do my best to talk to Waninkoko about it, and report back.

 

[Knocks]

Yes, it'll boot system menu.

So your only problem is heat. Actually, there are two separate heat issues.

1) Heat to the Wii internals. The hard drive likely runs hotter than the DVD drive, so your CPU & GPU might get uncomfortable.
2) Heat to the drive. The Wii casing wasn't built to accomodate a real hard drive, and that might hurt the drive.


As for the loader, there will be be many updated versions, and the issues will get ironed out eventually.

 

[Darkzero51521]

Yes, it'll boot system menu.

So your only problem is heat. Actually, there are two separate heat issues.

1) Heat to the Wii internals. The hard drive likely runs hotter than the DVD drive, so your CPU & GPU might get uncomfortable.
2) Heat to the drive. The Wii casing wasn't built to accomodate a real hard drive, and that might hurt the drive.


As for the loader, there will be be many updated versions, and the issues will get ironed out eventually.

lol you must've read wrong. It boots the Wii system menu, but games on ISO loader won't load without the DVD drive. I'm talking about the system by itself, with no DVD Drive, and just a flash drive plugged in.

 

[Knocks]

No, you read my post wrong. The issue with games launched from USB Loader asking for the DVD drive is a loader issue that can be easily addressed. YOUR only problem is heat.

 

[Knocks]

dupe post

 

[mugel0190]

I think, I will wait a few months and then go for a Mini PCIe SSD with 128GB When prices dropped a little more. It doesn't get too hot and will fit in besides the DVD drive. Since the Runcore SSDs have a mini USB Plug it will be easy as hell to install such a device. And 128GB are more than enough for all of the games I will ever play on my Wii... This way I will still have the option to use my DVD drive...

Just for the price of about 3 Wii Games...

 

[swf3]

No problem =)
Btw, I love Asian Girls too.

oh yeaahh

 

[Darkzero51521]

No, you read my post wrong. The issue with games launched from USB Loader asking for the DVD drive is a loader issue that can be easily addressed. YOUR only problem is heat.

..No..

My only problem is that USB Loader won't work without a DVD Drive, give's you a code dump. Heat is not an issue, and if it becomes one, I can easily address that.

 

[Rykin]

I agree. There are several different arguments happening here. One person wants to remove the DVD drive and use the free space for a HDD and USB loader won't work with the DVD disconnected. The other person keeps complaining that removing the DVD for an HDD will cause heat issues.

While I believe that heat issues are a concern- they can be dealt with. If heat is a problem, heatsinks or fans could be installed. I think going HDD only is a nice idea. I repaired many original Xbox consoles and gave them away to friends without a DVD drive, just a modded bios and a larger HDD.

Myself, I've been thinking of making an internal USB port and plugging in a 16GB Flash drive inside the system. (There are only a handful of games I'd play anyway).

I recently moved and my Wii isn't connected, so I haven't played with the USB loader; however, I'd like to attempt to remove the updates and unneeded data from the Wii discs or possibly downsize/remove some of the movies (i.e. SSBB DVD5) to make the games use less space. This would be more ideal for users who are using flash drives with limited space (I'm tossing out the idea here in hopes someone tries it).

 

[Knocks]

I don't think we are communicating here. The loader is obviously not perfect. It will improve. If you focus on the hardware part, by the time you're finished, the unplugged DVD drive issue will be resolved as well. You're not the only one who wants to get this mod done.

 

[Lily]

Your idea isn't crazy, in fact, I've nearly done it myself.

I took a 2.5" HDD, and the little controller board from an external 2.5" enclosure. That enclosure came with a USB Y cable. I plugged both ends of that cable into the Wii USB ports, and hooked up the HDD inside the Wii. It appears to power on and work just fine. Ideally some sort of mount would be necessary to mount it in the cavity where the DVD was, so that it would sort of be in the middle (does that make sense) allowing for the minimal heat generated by the 2.5" drive to dissipate. I don't see it as a problem, as without the DVD, there is plenty of breathing room for the drive. If there were a way to get power running to two drives, it would be entirely possible to mount 2x 2.5" hard drives inside.

The advantage (at least for me) to using the connector for an external enclosure is that all you need to do is unplug the usb connectors from the Wii USB ports, and connect them up to your PC (using an extension cable if necessary) to have direct access to the drive without removing it. However, there needs to be a driver that can read/write to wbfs first.

The only problem is that the DVD still needs to be connected for the ISO loader to run. There needs to be another way to rip/transfer discs to the wbfs format, as I mentioned above. Aside from that, this is a super easy modification to the Wii, and I'm sure many people will do it once the ISO loader has more features.

---Edit below this line-----

It would also be possible to use a SATA > SDHC/SD/CompactFlash/whatever adapter with the same little board from an external enclosure to provide an easy method to power it. There are so many cool solutions we could come up with.

 

[GEnick]

Is there enough space in the WII for a 1,8" HDD? I mean without removing the drive.