Hacking Need help getting Wii to recognize USB device

[lolwut?]

I'm really new to softmodding, so please try to be patient with me! I really need help getting my Wii to recognize my external HD. I couldn't get it to show up in either NeoGamma or USB Loader GX. I don't know much about cIOS or any of that, I just used this guide to get my Wii up to speed: http://gbatemp.net/index.php?showtopic=168890

I formatted the drive in EASEUS Partition Manager, leaving 100gb NTFS for my own stuff (H, 137gb FAT32 for WBFS, and 1GB for WiiFlow on the HD (never got this far). I used WBFS Intelligent GUI to format the 137 to WBFS, and added my back-ups. When I tried to use it on my Wii, the drive could never mount in NeoGamma, and USB Loader couldn't find a USB device. I turned on the HD before the Wii and plugged it in the bottom USB slot and it didn't work. I tried shutting the Wii off and switching slots, but that didn't seem to help. Not really sure what else to mention; right now I'm re-formatting the 137gb and 1gb partitions, and I am going to leave the 137 unallocated, and then follow what xzxero said in this thread: http://gbatemp.net/index.php?showtopic=180950 and then I figured I would try USB Loader GX again and see if it recognizes anything, as it formats the drive to WFBS for you, correct?

I was loading both NeoGamma and USB Loader from my SD card through the HBC, and I am using a Rosewill RX35-AT-IU IDE 3.5" enclosure, if any of that matters. Hopefully someone on here will be able to help me; I would greatly appreciate it.

 

[Dr. Clipper]

Were the partitions primary? Logical partitions will not work.

 

[KiiNG]

Firstly, the Wii is known to be anal with enclosures. Since you have 3 partitions, you need to make sure that your WBFS partition is set as Active and Primary. If you're able to reformat the drive, I'd try to make sure that your WBFS partition is disk0 (or the first partition) as this usually limits the errors down. Depending on your OS, you can easily google how to set partitions as Active. (Disk Management in Windows.)

You should make sure the Wii finds the drive before bothering to dump ISO games to it from a WBFS Manager. It'll still show up with no games on it.

 

[lolwut?]

It might have been a logical partition, I don't quite remember. I think I'm way to far into the deleting of the partitions to just cancel out and check, but I can for sure choose primary when I re-make the partition.

Would it be better to do it on my PC, or to leave the partition unallocated and then load up the USB Loader?

Also, I'm a bit confused at to which USB port I should actually be using; I've read posts arguing for both.

Thank you for your help!


Edit: I will try making it the first partition, and Active. Trust me, I won't be loading on anything until I'm sure it works this time, haha.

 

[Dr. Clipper]

It might have been a logical partition, I don't quite remember. I think I'm way to far into the deleting of the partitions to just cancel out and check, but I can for sure choose primary when I re-make the partition.

Would it be better to do it on my PC, or to leave the partition unallocated and then load up the USB Loader?

Also, I'm a bit confused at to which USB port I should actually be using; I've read posts arguing for both.

Thank you for your help!


Edit: I will try making it the first partition, and Active. Trust me, I won't be loading on anything until I'm sure it works this time, haha.

The USB port closest to the edge of the Wii, which will be the bottom one when the Wii is flat. Leaving the partition unallocated and letting the Loader format it seems to be the most successful approach, although you will likely have a bit more difficulty connecting it to a WBFS manager afterwards.

 

[lolwut?]

Alright, well I made sure it was a primary partition that was unallocated, and that it was plugged in the bottom USB port. Nothing. USB Loader said no device found, and gave me an option to wait 30 seconds in either cIOS249 or cIOS222. NeoGamma gave me a "mounting USB tries left" countdown of 30 seconds.

The only thing that I can think that it might be is I had a partition of 90 some GB that was also primary (H as opposed to the unallocated primary (W. Should I be making 2 separate primary, unallocated partitions and then hooking it up to the Wii?

 

[Dr. Clipper]

Alright, well I made sure it was a primary partition that was unallocated, and that it was plugged in the bottom USB port. Nothing. USB Loader said no device found, and gave me an option to wait 30 seconds in either cIOS249 or cIOS222. NeoGamma gave me a "mounting USB tries left" countdown of 30 seconds.

The only thing that I can think that it might be is I had a partition of 90 some GB that was also primary (H as opposed to the unallocated primary (W. Should I be making 2 separate primary, unallocated partitions and then hooking it up to the Wii?

No. Having one unallocated partition there should be enough.

Try only plugging in the hard drive after the countdown has started.

Perhaps you should also try installing your IOSes again just to be sure they are properly installed.

If you have a spare USB flash drive, try plugging it in to see if the Wii recognises that. If it does, then I'd say either your enclosure or drive is just incompatible with the Wii.

 

[lolwut?]

I'll see about trying it with a flashdrive.

What countdown should I initiate; cIOS249 or cIOS222

 

[Dr. Clipper]

I'll see about trying it with a flashdrive.

What countdown should I initiate; cIOS249 or cIOS222

Try it with both.

And perhaps try Configurable USB Loader. Some recent posts in the GX thread seem to indicate it currently has slightly better compatibility with some drives.

 

[lolwut?]

OMG! For some reason it decided to work today. I did use Configurable USB Loader and it detected it right away, and was able to turn my partition into WBFS. I was worried because last night I couldn't even get my computer or laptop to recognize the HD; it just wouldn't show up.

I installed Wii Sports right away and hit about 9 homers in Baseball; it must be a sign!

I just have a couple more questions, some pertaining to the USB Loader, some not, and then I should be all set.

1) When I download covers, is it storing them to my SD card or my HD? I only ask because my SD card is temporary (I'm using the one from my camera) and it's only 1GB in size

2) If I play any import games (Japanese), is there any settings I have to activate to deny all updates? I know PreLoader has one, but I thought I also read that installing a game scrubs it of the need to ask for updates.

3) I should be good to go by just opening the partition in Intelligent GUI, right?

4) Unrelated to USB Loading, but after softmodding my Wii, it seems the Wii is always at least somewhat on. Even more strange is that if I leave a normal disc in the drive, when I quit the game and shut the system off, the disc will keep spinning in the drive unless I eject it. I don't mind ejecting the disk, but I would just like to know why it's still running even though I have shut it off. I know it's running even when there is no disk because I have taken out my SD card and it has been warm despite the system being shut off all night, my T.V. doesn't say no signal when the Wii is off (it used to), and I can hear a slight hum if I put my ear up to the system.

Anyways, the hard part is now done. Thank you so much for your help Dr. Clipper and KiiNG!

 

[Dr. Clipper]

OMG! For some reason it decided to work today. I did use Configurable USB Loader and it detected it right away, and was able to turn my partition into WBFS. I was worried because last night I couldn't even get my computer or laptop to recognize the HD; it just wouldn't show up.

I installed Wii Sports right away and hit about 9 homers in Baseball; it must be a sign!

I just have a couple more questions, some pertaining to the USB Loader, some not, and then I should be all set.

1) When I download covers, is it storing them to my SD card or my HD? I only ask because my SD card is temporary (I'm using the one from my camera) and it's only 1GB in size
It will store on the same medium as where the .dol is. That can either be the SD card or the FAT partition of your drive. Just copy the whole dirctory structure over from one to the other and you'll be good.

2) If I play any import games (Japanese), is there any settings I have to activate to deny all updates? I know PreLoader has one, but I thought I also read that installing a game scrubs it of the need to ask for updates.
Updates will never be performed by Cfg Loader. You should probably turn the VIDTV patch on for your Japanese imports if you want the Japanese text to display correctly, though.

3) I should be good to go by just opening the partition in Intelligent GUI, right?

It may not be that easy. Your drive probably won't be automatically assigned a drive letter as you formatted with the Wii. You will need one of the WBFS managers that supports that. Sorry, I can't help more, but I just don't use WBFS managers myself.

QUOTE

4) Unrelated to USB Loading, but after softmodding my Wii, it seems the Wii is always at least somewhat on. Even more strange is that if I leave a normal disc in the drive, when I quit the game and shut the system off, the disc will keep spinning in the drive unless I eject it. I don't mind ejecting the disk, but I would just like to know why it's still running even though I have shut it off. I know it's running even when there is no disk because I have taken out my SD card and it has been warm despite the system being shut off all night, my T.V. doesn't say no signal when the Wii is off (it used to), and I can hear a slight hum if I put my ear up to the system.

Sometimes when you switch off in a game, the Wii will reboot shortly afterwards. Check the power LED and ensure it is either orange or red after switching off.

 

[lolwut?]

1 - It will store on the same medium as where the .dol is. That can either be the SD card or the FAT partition of your drive. Just copy the whole dirctory structure over from one to the other and you'll be good.

2 - Updates will never be performed by Cfg Loader. You should probably turn the VIDTV patch on for your Japanese imports if you want the Japanese text to display correctly, though.

3- Sometimes when you switch off in a game, the Wii will reboot shortly afterwards. Check the power LED and ensure it is either orange or red after switching off.

1) Alright; since the app is on my SD card along with the .dol, I assume it is saving them there. How would I go about putting apps on the HD? Is there a thread about that on the site? I haven't run across it anywhere.

2) Alright cool, although I dunno what the VIDTV patch is. Is it an option in CFG Loader? If so, I'll look for it the next time I get a chance to play.

3) I could see that, but the odd thing is I'm not switching off in a game. I dump out to the System menu before I ever turn my system off. I also forgot to mention that while the disc keeps spinning even though the system is off (yellow standy LED displayed on power button), I get odd blue fuzz happening all over my TV, almost like the static you get when you try to watch a TV channel you don't have, only in blue. It stops when I eject the disc, but like I said, it's still sending a signal to the TV and still operating, albeit it on a very small scale.

 

[Nedfu]

I have a Nexstar CX enclosure and usbloader GX and configurable usb loader can't see it.

It works fine on my 2 pc's but never on the Wii.

I partitioned it as primary and set it active but no dice. Tried formatted as NTFS, FAT and unformatted.

Avoid this cheap piece of crap enclosure.

 

[Dr. Clipper]

1) Alright; since the app is on my SD card along with the .dol, I assume it is saving them there. How would I go about putting apps on the HD? Is there a thread about that on the site? I haven't run across it anywhere.
copy the apps directory and the usb-loader directory (if it exists) from your SD's root directory to the USB's root directory. Remove the SD card (or delete the directory within apps with the loader). You're then good to go.

2) Alright cool, although I dunno what the VIDTV patch is. Is it an option in CFG Loader? If so, I'll look for it the next time I get a chance to play.
Yes, it's a game option. Push 1 on the game to get to the options. Push 2 to save after you change it.

QUOTE

3) I could see that, but the odd thing is I'm not switching off in a game. I dump out to the System menu before I ever turn my system off. I also forgot to mention that while the disc keeps spinning even though the system is off (yellow standy LED displayed on power button), I get odd blue fuzz happening all over my TV, almost like the static you get when you try to watch a TV channel you don't have, only in blue. It stops when I eject the disc, but like I said, it's still sending a signal to the TV and still operating, albeit it on a very small scale.

Strange. What happens if you start the Wii then shut it down again without starting Cfg? Somebody else had a similar issue, so you might not be the only one this happens to.

 

[lolwut?]

1- copy the apps directory and the usb-loader directory (if it exists) from your SD's root directory to the USB's root directory. Remove the SD card (or delete the directory within apps with the loader). You're then good to go.

2- Strange. What happens if you start the Wii then shut it down again without starting Cfg? Somebody else had a similar issue, so you might not be the only one this happens to.

So are you saying on the main part of my HD I should create a new apps folder on my HD with everything copied over? I'm just a bit confused, because I have everything on the SD card (Trucha Bug Restorer, Cfg USB Loader, NeoGamma, and whatever tools I needed to softmod my Wii), and I want to be able everything works correctly once I transition over. Would the HD's root directory be the one not partitioned to WBFS? I only have two, H: (97GB NTFS) and W: (137GB WBFS). I'm assuming it would be the H: one I'm copying to? I think Wii only reads FAT format (correct?), so I guess I'll partition H into a new 93GB part, and try to make the main a 4GB FAT32 partition. Then I would copy everything from my SD card over to that new partition and I would be able to leave my SD card out of the Wii, right?

As for 2, someone on another forum found out that it's a bug for PreLoader when you have WiiConnect24 on. Here a link to the thread he referenced: http://gbatemp.net/index.php?showtopic=171...p;#entry2157389

I'm going to try to turn that off and see if it fixes it.

Again, thanks very much for your help Dr. Clipper.