Hacking Seagate FreeAgent Go and USB Loader

[squablo]

USB loader is running great, no problems installing, booting, etc, but after about 15 or 20 minutes, I get a lockup when the game is loading, or when its trying to read from the hard drive. I remember reading something about this being caused by the drive going to sleep, and not being able to wake back up when it needs to read.

I have found some software for this drive on the seagate website, but my question is this. Even if this software does allow me to turn off the power saving feature, I would not be able to use this software without reformatting my hard drive, correct?

If that is the case, then how would the hard drive retain those settings once it is reformatted for the wii? Wouldn't that wipe out the settings that the seagate software put in place?

I have dumped a bunch of my games on this drive, and really dont want to have to start all over again, but if by turning off some power management crap I can avoid lockups, I may just have to do that.

Any ideas or similar problems?

 

[Sebastian25]

i have the same drive but i use a USB flash drive to load my isos. what u could do is make multiple Partitions...

the Wii only needs like 50 GB (at most)... the other partition u could format to NTFS and install the power management tool there.

 

[squablo]

Hmmmm that is an interesting idea, but how would I partition my drive now that it is formatted for the wii?
Would partition magic, or something like that be able to do it without wiping anything out?

 

[Sebastian25]

if you have Vista, or XP id recommend that you first connect the drive to ur PC.

Click on the Start Button

Right Click on Computer

Click on Manage

Select

Disk Management

and create multiple partitions that way. u can specify names and sizes for the partition.

allocate 50 GB or whatever for the Wii..

Connect to Wii, and load up USB LOADER. Format that Partition .. and use that exclusively for the Wii

Make sure u have another partition preferably formatted to NTFS (im assuming ur drive is pretty big)

this will be useful if u wanna backup other files (video, music, isos roms files programs etc) when u connect to ur PC u can access ur hard drive
and when u connect to ur Wii u should be able to access that specific partition.

Posts merged

btw if u dont want to start all over again... u could extract the games on the hard drive thru WBFS Manager 1.0

and save it on to ur PC... and then transfer it back when ur Hard Drive is connected to ur PC... thru WBFS Manager 1.0

AGAIN

its a bit faster and more useful to use the PC than rip games with the Wii.

 

[squablo]

Ok I just plugged in my FreeAgent Go into my PC and tried to run the Seagate Manager Software that I downloaded. To my surprise, the software was able to not only detect my drive, but even let me adjust the settings on it. I wasnt sure if it would be able to detect it because it was formatted for the wii, but it did.

By default, the hard drive's power settings are for it to goto sleep after 5 minutes! No wonder I was getting lockups! I switched it to 'never' and saved settings. I will test it out in the morning and post my results.

So far, it looks like Seagate actually has some useful software. Oh yeah, it also lets you turn the led lights on or off if you like, I like mine on so I can see when the wii is accessing the drive.

 

[SpaceJump]

squablo, can you give me the link to the software you downloaded?

 

[Wiisel]

just pic your model

http://www.seagate.com/ww/v/index.jsp?loca...000f5ee0a0aRCRD

 

[Linuks]

Sorry for the up but don't really need to make a new post.
I have the same issues (freezing or sleeping) in Animal Crossing and Okami.
My hard drive's power settings are "never" but the problem is still here.
Has anyone the problem with the same drive ?
Thanks.

 

[User423]

-- timeout

 

[ALLSPARK]

HI I PICK UP A HARD DRIVE IT A SEAGATE FREEAGENT 500GB AND HOOK IT UP TO MY WII AND RUN HOMEBREW TO THE USB LOADER 1.5 PRESS A IT SAY NO WBFS FORMAT PATITION PRESS A SO I PRESS A AND GOT ( RET = -6 )

SO I HOOK IT UP TO THE PC OPEN UP COMPUTER MANAGEMENT MAKE TWO PARTITION DRIVE THE FIRST ONE WAS E: AND I MADE IT 400GB AND THE SECOND ONE F: WAS 67GB BOTH NTFS BUT NO GOOD SO MAKE FIRST ONE FAT32 AND SECOND ONE NTFS AND STILL NO GOOD

AND I TRY BOTH DRIVE TO FAT32 FORMAT AND STILL NO LUCK

AND I SAW SOMEONE SOMEWHERE SAID TO MAKE ONE PARTITION DRIVE AND FORMAT TO FAT32 AND YES STILL NO LUCK

CAN SOME ONE HELP ME PLEASE I KNOW I MISSING SOMETHING BUT WHAT IS IT ?

 

[Kosaic]

HI I PICK UP A HARD DRIVE IT A SEAGATE FREEAGENT 500GB AND HOOK IT UP TO MY WII AND RUN HOMEBREW TO THE USB LOADER 1.5 PRESS A IT SAY NO WBFS FORMAT PATITION PRESS A SO I PRESS A AND GOT ( RET = -6 )

SO I HOOK IT UP TO THE PC OPEN UP COMPUTER MANAGEMENT MAKE TWO PARTITION DRIVE THE FIRST ONE WAS E: AND I MADE IT 400GB AND THE SECOND ONE F: WAS 67GB BOTH NTFS BUT NO GOOD SO MAKE FIRST ONE FAT32 AND SECOND ONE NTFS AND STILL NO GOOD

AND I TRY BOTH DRIVE TO FAT32 FORMAT AND STILL NO LUCK

AND I SAW SOMEONE SOMEWHERE SAID TO MAKE ONE PARTITION DRIVE AND FORMAT TO FAT32 AND YES STILL NO LUCK

CAN SOME ONE HELP ME PLEASE I KNOW I MISSING SOMETHING BUT WHAT IS IT ?

WTF ?

 

[dlxowhd]

i also got seagate freeagent go 320gb.
it is the best hdd to use with usb loader... it comes with that nice little software and even if you already formatted your hdd to wbfs and filled it up, it will still let you adjust settings (turn sleep mode to never).
i love this hdd and it hasn't given me any trouble at all.

 

[dsfanatic5]

I'll just add that I have a Seagate Freeagent Go 500gb, and it's works flawlessly with usb loader, as long as you set the standby mode to NEVER. Unfortunately I couldn't get any of the emulators to load roms from a primary FAT32 partition with this drive (GeexBox works, though). So I decided to format the whole 465gb to wbfs. I already have too much storage (my pc, 1tb Seagate, etc), so I don't need to partition this drive for other use, and there's only a $10-15 price difference between the 350gb and the 500gb. I guess I can store Wii games for eternity now

With the Wii turned off and the HDD already plugged in, I can turn on my Wii, and use a forwarder to jump right into a usb loader. The drive is recognized immediately (doesn't have to count down looking for a connection), and even if I reboot/reset the Wii, the drive is still active and responsive. I paused Mario Kart on the third lap, paused it, and left it for over an hour. There were NO problems when I finished the race, not even a slight hiccup. If you were thinking about dedicating 400-500gb to wbfs, I can wholeheartedly recommend this drive. It's only 3" x 5" x .5" and the starburst light looks cool in the dark.

 

[payupsucker]

i also got seagate freeagent go 320gb.
it is the best hdd to use with usb loader... it comes with that nice little software and even if you already formatted your hdd to wbfs and filled it up, it will still let you adjust settings (turn sleep mode to never).
i love this hdd and it hasn't given me any trouble at all.

I use a 320gb as well and I have not had any problems. The Seagate Manager does not install on the hard drive, it is a regular application that is installed in windows. I did not reformat with PC, I placed it in the Wii first and formatted all 320gb to WBFS. I still can change the power setting and turn display light on/off.

@dixowhd.... the dock for the drive also works great, it makes it easy to swap drives if you have more then one or if you take it back to computer to edit in a WBFS Manager.

http://freeagent.seagate.com/en-us/hard-dr...Free-Agent.html

 

[WiiBlaster]

I'll just add that I have a Seagate Freeagent Go 500gb, and it's works flawlessly with usb loader, as long as you set the standby mode to NEVER. Unfortunately I couldn't get any of the emulators to load roms from a primary FAT32 partition with this drive (GeexBox works, though). So I decided to format the whole 465gb to wbfs. I already have too much storage (my pc, 1tb Seagate, etc), so I don't need to partition this drive for other use, and there's only a $10-15 price difference between the 350gb and the 500gb. I guess I can store Wii games for eternity now

With the Wii turned off and the HDD already plugged in, I can turn on my Wii, and use a forwarder to jump right into a usb loader. The drive is recognized immediately (doesn't have to count down looking for a connection), and even if I reboot/reset the Wii, the drive is still active and responsive. I paused Mario Kart on the third lap, paused it, and left it for over an hour. There were NO problems when I finished the race, not even a slight hiccup. If you were thinking about dedicating 400-500gb to wbfs, I can wholeheartedly recommend this drive. It's only 3" x 5" x .5" and the starburst light looks cool in the dark.

I have to second this, it just a awesome drive, not no problems at all, just set Power management to Never using the Seagate software

 

[thc42O]

Just download Seagate manager
it will work w/o u formating.

 

[theskid]

anyone here useing freagent go 320gb experiencing freezing/pausing/disconnections while playing online
it must be something to do with HDD or usbloader as on disk all is fine when i play the same games