Hacking Setting up a Wii usb HDD

[Grimm]

I've gone through the forums a bit looking and also googled this a few times without much luck so here goes...

I have a 4.3u wii, softmodded with ModMii. I installed USB loader as part of the soft mod. I have a 250gb USB hdd that i'd like to use to run backups but i'm not sure how to set up the drive to get it working. I have a few .img and .wbfs files i've made of my wii games to try to get them to run but the drive doesn't even appear when I plug it in. USB channel says 'please attach a USB drive.'

Can someone point me in the direction of a good tutorial to get my HDD formatted and set up please?

Thanks!

 

[PsyBlade]

one big fat32 primary partition

 

[Grimm]

I have formatted my drive to fat32 and I followed the custom tutorial from ModMii. Basically you just drag and drop the files that ModMii creates to the root of your drive and then put your .wbfs files into the wbfs folder. When I choose the USB channel it has a picture of a disc and a drive and it says 'Please connect a USB drive.' Then when I click start it freezes on a screen that looks like all the buttons on a Wii remote.

I've tried this with two different drives and I get the same result. I'm using a Maxtor One Touch 250gb external hard drive. The other drive I tried is a PNY 8gb memory stick.

 

[PsyBlade]

make sure you connect the drive directly to the bottom usb port
make sure you use MBR not GPT
try a different loader

 

[Grimm]

I tried both USB ports with the same results. I have tried the USB channel that comes with ModMii, USB Loader GX and CFG Configurable Backup Loader with the same results as well.

What are MBR and GPT and how can I tell which i'm using? Can can I change to MBR if it is GPT right now?

 

[tbgtbg]

It's possible it might need more power than it can get over a single USB port. Does the drive have one of those goofy two pronged USB cables and/or an AC adapter that you could use to get it more power?

 

[Grimm]

No it has a single USB cable (USB to the Wii and something else on the other side..) and an AC adapter that plugs into the wall for power.

The problem seems to be that I can't get my Wii to recognize the drive. It just doesn't see it regardless of what loader I try...

 

[Grimm]

Well i've tried using WiiFlow and NeoGamma as well as a few other tips and tricks i've read after googling the problem. For example having the HDD plugged in while the Wii is off (red led) and then turning it on, etc. I've also made sure to turn off the sleep mode feature on the HDD and i've reformatted several times with no luck.. If anyone has any ideas that would be awesome otherwise I just wasted $35 on this HDD...

 

[ddetkowski]

Could be your drive is just not compatible, not every one is.
This is my setup:
320GB USB powered external drive (verbatim) formatted to FAT32 ( entire drive) using FAT32 GUI Formatter
Using CFG loader, from modmii as my usb loader.
All games were added to drive using Wii Backup Manager, from PC to USB.
Your USB loader may not find the partition, in that case, it will ask what partition to load, choose FAT32 or usb_1
Hope this helps.......

 

[Grimm]

Does it make a big difference if I use FAT32 GUI Formatter or another formatter? Also does it matter how I put the games on the drive?

So far I have been formatting it with Windows formatter and just drag and drop the games on....

 

[ddetkowski]

There are many programs out to format with, that work. I told you MY setup, which works.
It DOES matter how you put the games on the drive, thats why I stated to use Wii Backup Manager
to transfer from PC to USB. You cannot just drag and drop your games there without going into more detail.
Follow my info, or keep trying your way, and not play wii games.....

 

[PsyBlade]

Does it make a big difference if I use FAT32 GUI Formatter or another formatter?
So far I have been formatting it with Windows formatter....

You sure that you used fat32 as filesystem not exfat or ntfs?
Because since Windows XP it refuses to CREATE a fat32 > 32GiB (political reason, push ntfs/exfat).
And Win9x/2k is really uncommon these days.

Larger fat32 still work fine in XP and onward. You just need some 3rd party tool to create it.

 

[Grimm]

dd I'll try mimicking your setup and see if it helps..

Psy - i'm certain that i'm using FAT32. I'm also on Windows 7 so i'm not sure if those issues associated with earlier versions of windows still exist in this version.

Now I have to try to figure out how to use Wii Backup Manager which I tried before with much confusion..

 

[ddetkowski]

WBM = once you install on PC, run it, you'll have tabs along the top, choose drive 1 and find your usb. goto files, choose add, find your game on your PC, pick transfer, it will make a folder on your already formatted drive called wbfs. this is the folder WBM automatically puts the games in, in the correct format, no actions needed by user. it'll take a couple minutes to transfer, once done, plug in and play

 

[Grimm]

Well I tried the set ups mentioned.. Formatted with FAT32 GUI Formatter, added games with Wii Backup Manager and tried loading with Configurable USB Loader, WiiFlow and USB Loader DX all with no luck. I also tried another smaller 4gb thumb drive and an 8gb SDHC card in a USB adapter, same setup with no luck..

I think its the HDD i'm trying to use. They must not be compatible. I know I can take the HDD out of this external drive case and buy a new enclosure for it but i'm hesitant to spend more money on stuff if it won't fix the problem... Thanks for your help guys

 

[LeeJP77]

Just before christmas I told my mum she could have one of my nintendo Wiis. I'd do wrong things to it so she could have dodge games. My Aunty agreed to pay half to the external hard drive that would be needed to give my mum a load of wrong games.
Turned out the external hard drive me and my aunty bought was no good. Didn't KNOW it has to be one that plugs in. Gave my aunty her half back, now I'm stuck with a 1TB external hard drive I've got not use for.
In other news, told my mum what had happened and she gave me £40 towards the next cheapest external hard drive.
Had completely forgotten how to sort the wii out and format the hard drive to save wii games on it.
My Aunty (who went halfers on the hard drive before christmas) died a couple of months ago. It's her birthday today. Can't remember how I did dodgy things to my wii and external hard drive last time, shoulda taken notes.
Been at it for hours, if anyone can help me I'd be ever so grateful xXx