Hardware USB HDD Partition Question?

[tonybologna]

Hey again guys! It's been a rough few weeks. My dad has now passed away & things just aren't like they should be nowadays. Anyway, thanks for all the support to the ones that posted. I have a question regarding USB Loader & partitioning. I have already formatted my USB HDD for usage with WBFS Intelligent. I have since installed a few games to the HDD. I formatted the entire drive & what I want to do now is place some movie & music files onto that same HDD.

Do I have to now go back & reformat the whole drive into 2 partitions before this can be done? I am hoping that I can still format what space I wanna use for my movies & music. I'd hate to go back to reformat the drive & wipe all that's been done to date. Also, would I format what I need for the movies & music to FAT32 or NTFS? I'm just confused to what order this needs to be done! Thanks!

 

[tonybologna]

Anybody? I think from what I read that I'm gonna have to start all over though & format two separate partitions because I can't format a partition for Windows now since I have formatted the entire drive for the Wii. Am I right? Thanks!

 

[ddp127]

first delete the wbfs partitin, and then first make a partition for your music/movies (it needs to be a primary partition) and then you can make the wbfs partition, also primary

 

[psiguy]

You can also try partition magic or other similar software to resize your partition and create a new one. I just did something similar yesterday but went the other way, Reduced a NTFS partition and created new partition and formatted it to WBFS. Partition magic took a while but it also kept my original data intact.

 

[tonybologna]

first delete the wbfs partitin, and then first make a partition for your music/movies (it needs to be a primary partition) and then you can make the wbfs partition, also primary

I wiped the entire drive clean. I first formatted 50GB to NTFS as a primary for my music & movies with Paragon Partition Manager. However, when I try to use WBFS for another partition I have no option of any other drive letter from the WBFS Intelligent guide. Do I need to format the entire HDD from the Wii first or go ahead & create a fresh partition(NTFS) for my music & movies from the PC first and then create my Wii partition aftwerwards from the Wii? I'm kind of confused to what route to take first because when I created an NTFS partition first then I didn't have a drive letter showing to format from WBFS. Thanks!

 

[psiguy]

You have to make sure that the wbfs partition is set as primary and not logical.

 

[tonybologna]

I finally got both partitions fixed now. The problem is that I can't get any files to be showing up from the NTFS partition for my music & movies. I copied several movie & music file onto the USB HDD. I tried both MPlayer Wii & GeeBox to play files from the drive but they either don't show up at all or show up jumbled(can't really see clearly). Do I need to make folders for each type media on the drive like a folder for "Movies & a folder for "Music"? What's the best media player for playing both movie & music files or do I need separate players for each of these type files? BTW, my movie files are only AVI or DIVX & no DVD. I know MPlayer works for DVD files. Thanks!

Edit: I made folders for each type & still my files will not show up from the Wii. I d/l the MPlayer CE & used that because it's the most liked it appears. I can see the contents of my SD Card from the player but my "Music" & "Movies" aren't showing up from the USB HDD. I have the option for USB but nothing happens when I click it. I've listened to my USB HDD for sound after trying to open it but don't hear anything other than the drive running. What I did was just drag & drop all my files onto the NTFS partition & then take to Wii to play with the MPlayer CE. I already have the other partition setup(FAT32) for my Wii games & some games installed. They show up from USB Loader just fine. What am I missing with the NTFS partition & playing the movies & games from the Wii? I've actually also tried the MPlayer Wii & that too didn't show my files. Geez! Help a fellow out here please! Thanks!

 

[tonybologna]

I seen that I needed the "cios installer.dol" file for USB 2.0 support. I added that to the MPlayer CE folder on the SD Card. I sill have no files showing up from the HDD. Am I supposed to delete the original boot.dol file & replace with the cios installer or just add the new cios installer to the folder & keep the original boot.dol file too? When I click on USB from MPlayer CE I get nothing. I have watched my USB HDD & see that the blue light blinks once but nothing else afterwards. I am using the Western Digital My Passport Essential Edition(160GB) which is confirmed working with USB Loader but don't know about the homebrew media players but I assume that wouldn't matter. Thanks again & someone let me know what I'm doing wrong here!

 

[psiguy]

I'm not sure if the wii will be able to see a NTFS partion I do believe it needs to be FAT. I could be wrong though as I am just learning as well

 

[tonybologna]

I'm not sure if the wii will be able to see a NTFS partion I do believe it needs to be FAT. I could be wrong though as I am just learning as well

But, if you don't format the other partition to NTFS then how are you gonna copy your music & files to the non-Wii partition? If it's in FAT32 then Windows can't recognize the partition in order to transfer files to it. I don't know what to do next. I have my files on the 2nd partition but the Wii doesn't show them from the USB HDD. I hope somebody will help me out. Thanks!

Edit: Just read this from another forum:

"Currently the Wii can only access the WBFS partition of a multiple partitioned drive. Other homebrew such as media players will not detect any files you put on the non WBFS partition."

I guess there's not a way to do this with homebrew media players from the Wii. I thought I read that this was possible before. Thanks!

With this being noted, WHAT'S THE PURPOSE FOR THE USB HDD OPTION FROM MPLAYER CE IF THE PARTITION CAN'T BE READ? You'd have to format the other partition to FAT32 & therefore you couldn't use Windows to transfer media files. You can't transfer files to a FAT32 partition within Windows. How in the heck would you get media files to a USB HDD formatted in FAT32? That makes no sense to me but maybe I'm missing something like always.

 

[psiguy]

Why couldn't you transfer files to a FAT 32 partition Windows makes use of both the FAT and NTFS file system

 

[psiguy]

double post

 

[tonybologna]

Why couldn't you transfer files to a FAT 32 partition Windows makes use of both the FAT and NTFS file system

I just did this & something happened to my Wii. I placed my movies & music files onto the FAT32 partition. I then copied my Wii games onto the WBFS parition. I took the USB HDD to the Wii. I launched UniiLoader v0.6 to see how it looked/worked compared to USB Loader. I got a black screen now with the Wii not responding at all. I have a chipped Wii w/WiiKey 2 installed. I didn't attempt to play any games either from the HDD. I thought bricking was trying to play games out of region. I posted a topic about my problem now on the forums. Thanks!

 

[tonybologna]

What's up with my USB HDD or should I say what am I doing wrong? I have made 2 separate partitions(one for WBFS & one for FAT32). I copied my games to the WBFS partition. I copied my movies & music to the FAT32 partition. I then launched MPlayer CE v0.5 from Homebrew Channel. The program loads but after a couple seconds the Wii goes back to the Homebrew Channel menu. I also tried MPlayer Wii & it will not show anything from my USB HDD.

I did d/l & place the cios installer.dol file that's required for USB 2.0 support. Are you supposed to also delete the original boot.dol in the MPlayer CE folder or are you just adding the cios installer to that folder & keeping the boot.dol file too? Something from all the homebrew media players is not showing my HDD contents even after formatting to FAT32. Any help? Thanks!

BTW, I unplugged everything from the Wii & left it setting for a while. That appears to have it back working again. How common is this? I hope it's nothing major.

Edit: I finally got things working with GeeXBOX. I can't get any other media players to work from USB HDD. I like the looks & feel of GeeXBOX.

 

[nightwalker]

You have to make sure that the wbfs partition is set as primary and not logical.

How do you set the WBFS to primary?

 

[psiguy]

How do you set the WBFS to primary?

If the whole drive is WBFS then it will automatically set as Primary or if it is the first partition you made it will be primary. If you are not sure you right click your computer (assuming windows) and select manage, then disk management. It will tell you there if your drive or partition is primary, extended, or logical. I'm not sure if you can change it in that menu, I used partition magic to convert my partition. There are other software packages that will do it aswell.

 

[Irixion]

Here's what you do:


1. Delete your entire drive (Partition). This can be done using Windows' built in disk management.

2. Create two NTFS partitions. (Any size, one will be used for the Wii and one will be used for your own data

3. Use the wii to get one of the two partitions to WBFS format.

4. Plug it back into your PC. Open my computer, 'Local Disk' will be your WBFS. It cannot be renamed. Rename your remaining NTFS partition to anything you want.

You're done.

 

[momoski]

Edit: I finally got things working with GeeXBOX.

Did you get that working with dual partition on your USB HDD? And if so what are the characteristics of you HDD. I have a 500GB HDD. 250 GB is in WBFS format and 250 GB in NTFS. USB Loader works fine, but none of the mediaplayers was able to find the USB HDD. When using WIIExplorer, the NTFS drive can be found.