Hacking Seperate WBFS Partition on an HDD

[BottlePerson]

I'm looking to purchase this hard drive: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16822136295

The thing is, I want to use it for multiple purposes, not just Wii games.

So, I want to confirm if it's possible to have, for example, a 300 GB NTFS partition, and a 250 GB WBFS partition (these are just approximate numbers) - for this situation, would the Wii still recognize the WBFS part of the hard drive, and only attempt to load games from there?

Basically, if I buy the hard drive, can I have partitions with file systems other than WBFS on them, or am I limited to just that?

Thanks.

 

[smash_brew]

Yes you can have multiple partitions with different files systems. The usb loader will find the wbfs partition.

 

[dexter222]

I'm curious why you would go with that particular drive? It seems pricey for a 640gig and doesn't even include shipping. Newegg has better deals. you can get a 1tb eco green drive for 69.99 including shipping and a usb enclosure for 19.99 or usb/e-sata for 21.99 both including shipping. I've used that drive on 3 Wiis and I've used both those enclosures. e-sata is much faster if your computer has it.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16822152173
There's a $10 off code in there promotions link.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16817182155

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16817347018

Again I use that drive in each of those external boxes on the wii with no problems.

You can partition it however you want... The USB Loaders will simply see the first WBFS partition.
uLoader will see up to 4 WBFS partitions.

 

[Smartpal]

You can use multiple partitions, I myself use a 100GB WBFS partition and the rest for my data on my 320 gig external.

 

[sgnmg4ever]

You can use multiple partitions, I myself use a 100GB WBFS partition and the rest for my data on my 320 gig external.

Can you explain how you do it

 

[Smartpal]

Use Paragon Partition Manager.

 

[Kleiner]

Are you running Vista? Vista has built in software that is just as usefull as any third party partition software.


Right click my computer, click manage. from there, Click the Storage>- disc Management tab. Then, with the HDD plugged in and recognized, select it and "shrink" the main partition so that you have enough free space for the WBFS partition you want. Don't allow Windows to format the new free space, then just let WBFS manager handle the rest.

 

[AdmiralKnight]

You can absolutely have multiple partitions. You don't need any fancy programs to do it. Everything you need is in XP. If it's a new drive it's super simple:

- Plug your drive into your PC, and wait for it to be recognized (You'll probably get a confirmation beep if you haven't changed your windows sounds).
- Go to Start -> Run. In the box type in "diskmgmt.msc" without the quotes. This will bring up XP's Disk Management program (which is basically a partition/formatting tool). In this program, it will list all of the hard drives, internal and external, you have connected to your pc.
- Click on your new drive, it'll be the one without a drive letter assigned to it yet. From here you can create your new partitions. Right click on your external and choose "New Simple Volume". You can either make this your WBFS drive or your NTFS drive. If you want it to be the NTFS, choose how big of a partition you want, click next, then assign a drive letter to it. Click next again, then you can format that partition as NTFS (you can do it later too, if you want). The procedure to make your WBFS partition is exactly the same up to the point where you format. Make sure at this step you click "Do not format this volume" because windows can't format to WBFS.

Now all you have to do is either plug the drive into your wii and let it format the second partition to WBFS using the USB loader, or you can alternatively use any of the WBFS partition managers out there (which you'll need anyway to put your games onto the drive).

That's it! Just remember, windows can't "see" WBFS drives, so when you plug your drive into your PC, it'll show up as an un-formatted drive. Just don't accidentally format it.