Hardware Saving Games to SD/USB instead of Internal Memory

[thefear]

Gday guys,

This question is probably so obvious (why i cant find an answer in the search).
But is it possible to save and load games on an SD Card (FAT32) or USB drive (NTFS format). Instead of saving onto the on-board memory, As I've been playing quite a few games lately and im noticing the internal memory is starting to fill and i would like to be able to shift them elsewhere and still be able to load and save from them like usual from the SD or USB.

I know how to extract and import them but i would like to be able to constantly read/write to the files on these drives instead.

Thanks for any advise everyone!

 

[Clutz450]

If you are using USB Loader GX then you will have to create an EmuNand (Dump Nand to EmuNand option in settings). Then choose the option that saves to your emunand. I'm not in front of my Wii so I can't get you the exact option names. Also, just make sure that wherever you want to have your emunand (either SD or USB) is selected under custom paths.

Sorry to be so quick and vague but this info should at least point you in the right direction. Let me know if you need more help and when I get in front of my Wii I can help you.

 

[thefear]

Thanks for the help Clutz,
i managed to find the option to Dump Nand to EmuNand. I set the custom paths to where i want to save the games (sd:/nand).

i could'nt find an option that specifically said to save to the EmuNand, but there was an option which says "Nand Saves Emulation" with options OFF/Partial/Full. I changed this option from OFF to Full. Im guessing this is the option you are referring to?. Thanks again mate.

 

[Clutz450]

This is a question that seems to be asked dozens of times and Cyan has explained it just as much. So here is a quote from him explaining those option from the USB Loader GX thread:

There are two different emuNAND : Save and channel.
channel is the one used by all the channels on emuNAND. Partial should not be used. (I'll remove it)
save is the one used ONLY by all Wii disc based games. This option is used to redirect the save from the Wii to the EmuNAND, in case of not enough free blocs, or if you want to continue playing your game when traveling to family without taking your Wii with you.
Partial = only the save is redirected, saved, loaded from "EmuNAND save" path.
full = also redirect the miis, wiimote synch, etc., but you need a FULL nand dump first, while partial don't need you to create a NAND dump before using that option.
if you want backup save on SD, partial is enough. if you want to use your savegames on other consoles use full option with a dump of your console.

So basically since all you want to do is backup your saves you could probably get away with just using partial.

 

[Cyan]

if you want only Wii games to save on SD or USB, you don't even need to make a NAND dump.
just enable "EmuNAND Save" to partial and it will just redirect the savegames to SD or USB.

If you want, you can dump all your saves to SD directly from USBLoaderGX, you don't need to use Savegame Manager GX.
settings > features > dump saves
(don't forget to set the correct "emuNAND Save" path in the settings first)

 

[Clutz450]

Here's another great explanation from Cyan you might find helpful.

"EmuNAND save" is affecting Wii disc based games, and it's used to save on emuNAND instead of the console. if that's what you want, that's fine to use "full" here, but note that not all games will work (Zelda, metroid, etc.)

it's good to enable neek only on incompatible games.
I think it's easier, even more if you like to exit back to the loader (using "return to" option, which work only with emuNAND full, not with emuNAND neek)

like you noticed, reloading to the loader when exiting neek require Priiloader, because exiting neek is done only with a reboot.

So, your setup is all correct, except maybe the "EmuNAND Save" which I wouldn't set to Full.
I would keep it to OFF and save wii games and use Mii and wiimote and network settings from the NAND instead of the one from EmuNAND.

Network might not even work if you enable EmuNAND mode. so keeping EmuNAND save OFF is maybe better?
some users prefer saving Wii games to SD or USB.
You can set a different path for both EmuNAND Save and EmuNAND Channel if you want
for example, neek2o would be on USB:/nands/nand1/, and Wii savegame could be on SD:/nand/
it will prevent corrupting one NAND and losing data with both content. (talking about risk, but it's always better to think of possibility before it happens)

If you use "EmuNAND Save" to FULL, then be sure that you have a full NAND dump.
partial is fine without a full dump, only the savegame files are stored on that path, but if you use FULL, then you need a full dump because it reads all files from that path (sysconf, wiimote, mii, etc.)

I told you, he's explained this lots of times. Lol.

 

[thefear]

Thanks guys, great help.

Is there a real difference and if so what is it between the Partial and Full settings on the NAND save?.

As Cyan said in the quoted part it reads the sysconfig, wiimote, and mii stuff.. Wouldnt it be better to have those files saved also? and also what stuff is stored in the sysconfig? (Just out of interest)
Im not worried about storage space as im using a 32GB SDHC card which has plenty of space left. so i am thinking the Full save would be better?

I can imagine this question would be asked a heap of times, it sounds so basic, i kinda feel embarrassed asking it to be honest lol.

 

[Clutz450]

Full saves and takes everything from your emulated nand. So if you change something on your real nand like sync a new WiiMote, change any Wii settings like sensor bar position, or create any new Mii characters then that will not be reflected in your emulated nand.

Partial only the save is saved on the emulated nand and everything else comes from the real nand.

I don't really know how else to explain it better than what Cyan has already said. Sorry.