BACKGROUND
It seems many people like to use external USB HDDs for USB Loader. However, if you have kids interest in your Wii console, your machanical HDDs are in danger. Then you may want to use USB flash drives instead. Considering lowset cost per byte, currently 16GB USB drive seems to be the best choice. But, with limited 16GB capacity, you may have to swap USB drives frequently. Then how about 16GB USB flash + 16GB SDHC to have about 30GB? The only problem now is that you still need a small FAT/FAT32 partition in SDHC to store USB Loader, its configuration, SD WiiWare ... etc and the remaining as WBFS, but there seems no simple Windows tools to make dual partitions for you. And the tutorial solves this problem.
STEPS[*]Backup your data in SDHC in Windows.[*]Download my PartTools.zip and unpack to get RPart.exe, DPart.exe and SPart.exe (All are Win32 Console App)[*]Open a Command Prompt to run my console app.[*]Run RPart to retrieve all partition info of your local drives including SDHC in USB card reader. Also write down the corresponding drive number of your SDHC (show as USB drive).[*]Run DPart with the following arguments
DPart
Then the program will partition your SDHC with 2 partitions, one FAT/FAT32 with specified size (usually 2048 is enough for most purpose), remaining as a fake NTFS for future WBFS use. Note that for removable media, Windows recognizes only the 1st partition, so the fake NTFS is ignored by Windows.[*]Format SDHC's FAT partition by Windows.[*]Restore you FAT data and Wii homebrew/WiiWare stuff.[*]Manage your WBFS ISO. Currently only calimero100582's wbfsGUI v13 support SDHC 2 partitions processing for WBFS management in Windows. Instead you may use Wii SD/USB Loader.
If you use wbfsGUI v13, please select PhysicalDrive#partition1 as WBFS in SDHC[*]Unplug SDHC from Windows and be happy to use it in Wii SD/USB Loader. Note that many SD/USB Loader mods have removed SD/SDHC support. But at least the official SD/USB Loader 1.5, the well-known and frequently updated Configurable USB Loader, and the Brisma's mod still support both SD and USB.OTHER NOTES
1. Make sure you backup your SDHC's data.
2. If you want to restore your SDHC as one partition, run SPart
3. You'd better plug only one USB drive at once. Then you may easily identify drive number in STEP4
4. DPart/SPart won't hurt your non-USD drives.
5. DPart/SPart limit not only to SDHC, but to USB drives.
DOWNLOAD and/or LINKS
1. My PartTools.zip (source code included)
http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?zymmyoznmuw
2. Thanks calimero100582 for supporting PhysicalDrive scan of WBFS management
http://gbatemp.net/index.php?showtopic=152666
3. Configurable USB Loader
http://gbatemp.net/index.php?showtopic=147638
It seems many people like to use external USB HDDs for USB Loader. However, if you have kids interest in your Wii console, your machanical HDDs are in danger. Then you may want to use USB flash drives instead. Considering lowset cost per byte, currently 16GB USB drive seems to be the best choice. But, with limited 16GB capacity, you may have to swap USB drives frequently. Then how about 16GB USB flash + 16GB SDHC to have about 30GB? The only problem now is that you still need a small FAT/FAT32 partition in SDHC to store USB Loader, its configuration, SD WiiWare ... etc and the remaining as WBFS, but there seems no simple Windows tools to make dual partitions for you. And the tutorial solves this problem.
STEPS[*]Backup your data in SDHC in Windows.[*]Download my PartTools.zip and unpack to get RPart.exe, DPart.exe and SPart.exe (All are Win32 Console App)[*]Open a Command Prompt to run my console app.[*]Run RPart to retrieve all partition info of your local drives including SDHC in USB card reader. Also write down the corresponding drive number of your SDHC (show as USB drive).[*]Run DPart with the following arguments
DPart
Then the program will partition your SDHC with 2 partitions, one FAT/FAT32 with specified size (usually 2048 is enough for most purpose), remaining as a fake NTFS for future WBFS use. Note that for removable media, Windows recognizes only the 1st partition, so the fake NTFS is ignored by Windows.[*]Format SDHC's FAT partition by Windows.[*]Restore you FAT data and Wii homebrew/WiiWare stuff.[*]Manage your WBFS ISO. Currently only calimero100582's wbfsGUI v13 support SDHC 2 partitions processing for WBFS management in Windows. Instead you may use Wii SD/USB Loader.
If you use wbfsGUI v13, please select PhysicalDrive#partition1 as WBFS in SDHC[*]Unplug SDHC from Windows and be happy to use it in Wii SD/USB Loader. Note that many SD/USB Loader mods have removed SD/SDHC support. But at least the official SD/USB Loader 1.5, the well-known and frequently updated Configurable USB Loader, and the Brisma's mod still support both SD and USB.OTHER NOTES
1. Make sure you backup your SDHC's data.
2. If you want to restore your SDHC as one partition, run SPart
3. You'd better plug only one USB drive at once. Then you may easily identify drive number in STEP4
4. DPart/SPart won't hurt your non-USD drives.
5. DPart/SPart limit not only to SDHC, but to USB drives.
DOWNLOAD and/or LINKS
1. My PartTools.zip (source code included)
http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?zymmyoznmuw
2. Thanks calimero100582 for supporting PhysicalDrive scan of WBFS management
http://gbatemp.net/index.php?showtopic=152666
3. Configurable USB Loader
http://gbatemp.net/index.php?showtopic=147638
