Hacking USB Loader GX

[Logan]

If the exact same config works on a 1 partition drive, and doesn't work on a 2 partition drive it points to an issue with the loader with dual partitions.

Both Jono and Oldboy have similar setups and dual partition...so that's that theory out the window.

The only thing I can see being done differently is Jono wants to run GX off the USB drive, whereas Oldboy has it off an SD (which, I would guesstimate, is about how 80-90% of GX users run it).

 

[jono@home]

If the exact same config works on a 1 partition drive, and doesn't work on a 2 partition drive it points to an issue with the loader with dual partitions.

Both Jono and Oldboy have similar setups and dual partition...so that's that theory out the window.

The only thing I can see being done differently is Jono wants to run GX off the USB drive, whereas Oldboy has it off an SD (which, I would guesstimate, is about how 80-90% of GX users run it).

not quite..

he is not a pal user..

where as I am.. now maybe that could have something to do with it, I dunno?

someone mentioned they get code dumps on booting some games, I don't unless its ntsc games I try to boot otherwise its a black screen or back to the sytem menu..

I had no issues with the same set up as oldboy prior to rev 648 so for me, that does point to an error in the code..

incidently just tried the SD card route for the loader with all the necessary files.. same results...

However I deleted the fat32 partition on the usb.. guess what.. it works...

 

[Nollog]

QUOTE(jono@home @ Jul 30 2009, 06:03 PM) not quite..

he is not a pal user..

where as I am.. now maybe that could have something to do with it, I dunno?

someone mentioned they get code dumps on booting some games, I don't unless its ntsc games I try to boot otherwise its a black screen or back to the sytem menu..

I had no issues with the same set up as oldboy prior to rev 648 so for me, that does point to an error in the code..

incidently just tried the SD card route for the loader with all the necessary files.. same results...

However I deleted the fat32 partition on the usb.. guess what.. it works...
I'm on a PAL 4.1E too... Interesting.

 

[Smiff]

PAL user here with dual partition hard drive (FAT32,WBFS), no problems in recent versions.

 

[Logan]

Further PAL users with dual partitions in IRC channel without problems too. So its not that.

 

[retKHAAAN]

@jono

what program do you create your partitions with? Are you setting them both to primary? I updated to rev672 last night and had no problems.

Starting with a FAT32 formatted drive, I used EASUS Partition Master (Freeware) to shrink the partition down to 32Gb. It requires a reboot to complete the format and leaves the rest of the drive unformatted. I then went to Control Panel/Administrative Tools/Computer Management (in XP) and clicked on Disk Management. I rightclicked on the blank partition and assigned it a drive letter. I did not format it at this point. I did make sure that both partitions were Primary. I went back to EASUS and formatted to blank partition to FAT32. I then went to WBFS Manager 3.0 and Loaded the drive letter I assigned to my empty partition and formatted it to WBFS.

 

[lithium210]

I have test it again. I have installed the Forwarder and have the USBloader on my other Partition on HDD. My system is 4.1 without preloader etc.. Now when i Boot the usbloader an my Game " The Conduit " the USB loader make a reset into the system Menue ! Now i make the same but without my SD Card ( There are a few Homebrew apps), the Game loads perfect.

Works fine for me (just played through the 1st mission). 4.1U cIOSrev14 preloader running from SD with 1 partition using GXrev672, all I had to do was enable 002 Fix: Anti and everything else worked fine. I did get a warning saying a nunchuck was needed even tho i had already plugged it in, a quick replug fixed it, but i suspect it may have been unrelated.

Works fine with 674 too, but I still get the nunchuck error.

i can second that! works fine with just 002 fix on. I think the nunchuck message is suppose to be there, if you just wait or press A itll go away, many games do that.

 

[hdhacker]

@jono

what program do you create your partitions with? Are you setting them both to primary? I updated to rev672 last night and had no problems.

Seconding this. I've found most people who have problems with multiple partitions didn't make them primary. Because of the FAT32 limitation in XP (32GB Max), people are using third party tools that might not be creating the partitions correctly.

My hard drive is NTFS and WBFS. (No, the Wii doesn't use the NTFS partition. I'm using it for backup files.) I've never had a problem either.

Of course, I've also NEVER used the loader to format, partition, or put games on the hard drive. I've done all that maintenance using WBFS Manager 3.0.1.

 

[retKHAAAN]

@jono

what program do you create your partitions with? Are you setting them both to primary? I updated to rev672 last night and had no problems.

Seconding this. I've found most people who have problems with multiple partitions didn't make them primary. Because of the FAT32 limitation in XP (32GB Max), people are using third party tools that might not be creating the partitions correctly.

My hard drive is NTFS and WBFS. (No, the Wii doesn't use the NTFS partition. I'm using it for backup files.) I've never had a problem either.

Of course, I've also NEVER used the loader to format, partition, or put games on the hard drive. I've done all that maintenance using WBFS Manager 3.0.1.

I use my PC for formatting, never used the loader. EASEUS Partition Master does allow you to set your partitions as Primary. I do use the loader for game installations though since it would take way too long to dump my discs via wifi to my PC and then install them via WBFS Manager. Not that I don't trust the loader to do the formatting, I just trust WBFS Manager more.

 

[jono@home]

@jono

what program do you create your partitions with? Are you setting them both to primary? I updated to rev672 last night and had no problems.

Starting with a FAT32 formatted drive, I used EASUS Partition Master (Freeware) to shrink the partition down to 32Gb. It requires a reboot to complete the format and leaves the rest of the drive unformatted. I then went to Control Panel/Administrative Tools/Computer Management (in XP) and clicked on Disk Management. I rightclicked on the blank partition and assigned it a drive letter. I did not format it at this point. I did make sure that both partitions were Primary. I went back to EASUS and formatted to blank partition to FAT32. I then went to WBFS Manager 3.0 and Loaded the drive letter I assigned to my empty partition and formatted it to WBFS.

similar method to yours.... using norton/ powerquest partition manager and computer management.. both partitions are primary too... wbfs 200gb (approx) fat 32 100gb (approx)

I did have the fat 32 as the first partiition and changed it around after originally getting these problem, now it is the second..
Its sure got me beat... really has...

 

[Logan]

Just a bit of F.Y.I.

I just searched this near 10,000 replies, 620 page thread for "dual partition" and guess what? Results returned 3 pages (2 1/2 worth of results). I counted 6 users having problems. For virtually every post made by those 6 users, 1 or more multiple partition user who IS NOT having problems, counter replied.

 

[Nollog]

@jono

what program do you create your partitions with? Are you setting them both to primary? I updated to rev672 last night and had no problems.

Starting with a FAT32 formatted drive, I used EASUS Partition Master (Freeware) to shrink the partition down to 32Gb. It requires a reboot to complete the format and leaves the rest of the drive unformatted. I then went to Control Panel/Administrative Tools/Computer Management (in XP) and clicked on Disk Management. I rightclicked on the blank partition and assigned it a drive letter. I did not format it at this point. I did make sure that both partitions were Primary. I went back to EASUS and formatted to blank partition to FAT32. I then went to WBFS Manager 3.0 and Loaded the drive letter I assigned to my empty partition and formatted it to WBFS.

What cluster size did you use?

 

[Logan]

By the way, is it JUST GX you're having this problem with? What about the other loaders?

 

[retKHAAAN]

@jono

what program do you create your partitions with? Are you setting them both to primary? I updated to rev672 last night and had no problems.

Starting with a FAT32 formatted drive, I used EASUS Partition Master (Freeware) to shrink the partition down to 32Gb. It requires a reboot to complete the format and leaves the rest of the drive unformatted. I then went to Control Panel/Administrative Tools/Computer Management (in XP) and clicked on Disk Management. I rightclicked on the blank partition and assigned it a drive letter. I did not format it at this point. I did make sure that both partitions were Primary. I went back to EASUS and formatted to blank partition to FAT32. I then went to WBFS Manager 3.0 and Loaded the drive letter I assigned to my empty partition and formatted it to WBFS.

What cluster size did you use?

Just the default. And it's EASEUS Partition Master not EASUS as I typed it previously. The first drive I did was a WD My Book 160GB. I only formatted 1 partition to FAT32 and left the other unformatted. I then formatted the unformatted partition to WBFS using WBFS Manager. That one worked fine too. My SeaGate I formatted both partitions to FAT32 and then formatted my larger one to WBFS with WBFS Manager. The guide I followed way back when I did it was right here only I didn't use NTFS and I used WBFS manager instead of the command prompt stuff near the end.

 

[Nollog]

Just the default. And it's EASEUS Partition Master not EASUS as I typed it previously. The first drive I did was a WD My Book 160GB. I only formatted 1 partition to FAT32 and left the other unformatted. I then formatted the unformatted partition to WBFS using WBFS Manager. That one worked fine too. My SeaGate I formatted both partitions to FAT32 and then formatted my larger one to WBFS with WBFS Manager. The guide I followed way back when I did it was right here only I didn't use NTFS and I used WBFS manager instead of the command prompt stuff near the end.

You can't format a drive without a drive letter in wbfs manager.

And I can't format anything but the first partition in wbfs manager now for some reason...
Strike that, one second after posting this, it formatted.

 

[Smiff]

ui suggestion:
some way to get at the game info that isn't hidden (no one who might need to know it, will know to press 2 on a game to access ..)
e.g. an "info" button on the disc popup with settings and back.

 

[jono@home]

By the way, is it JUST GX you're having this problem with? What about the other loaders?

no just GX... Every other loader, Every other homebrew, works just fine..

which again arguably points to an error in the code..

 

[spinneruk]

I've been using all the previous revisions with no problems at all, however since updating to 675 my wii no longer detects my USB hard drive which is in the compatibility list. I have tried 3 different drives all of which won't work.

I have gone back to 674 and everything is fine again, have also tried different ios revisions, currently on 14 (latest) but have tried others which have made no difference.

Tried deleting config files, formatting sd card etc but no go so looks like the "code beautification" has done something to the hard drive detection because as I said going back to 674 and everything is working perfectly. Tried the manual update of the dol (forwarder) of 675 if that makes a difference as it's not for auto download yet.

Wii Details: -

Pal
3.2e
ios 249 rev 14
USB Loader GX Rev 675 (reverted back to 674 for now)
HBC channel installed

No other hacks / modifications installed
Maxtor Basics 500Gb USB Drive
Sandisk 2gb sd card (have tried a 512 and 1gb just in case)

Just thought I would let you know in case it's something to do with the latest revision.

 

[Logan]

QUOTE(jono@home @ Jul 30 2009, 07:08 PM)

By the way, is it JUST GX you're having this problem with? What about the other loaders?

no just GX... Every other loader, Every other homebrew, works just fine..

which again arguably points to an error in the code..

Then, with everything exhausted, it's a mystery. And your only option is to revert to a revision that works for you, until the dust has settled with cIOS rev 14.

 

[retKHAAAN]

Just the default. And it's EASEUS Partition Master not EASUS as I typed it previously. The first drive I did was a WD My Book 160GB. I only formatted 1 partition to FAT32 and left the other unformatted. I then formatted the unformatted partition to WBFS using WBFS Manager. That one worked fine too. My SeaGate I formatted both partitions to FAT32 and then formatted my larger one to WBFS with WBFS Manager. The guide I followed way back when I did it was right here only I didn't use NTFS and I used WBFS manager instead of the command prompt stuff near the end.

You can't format a drive without a drive letter in wbfs manager.

And I can't format anything but the first partition in wbfs manager now for some reason...
Strike that, one second after posting this, it formatted.

If you read my @jono post you saw that I did assign the drive a letter. I just didn't format it. It is possible in the Administrative Tools in XP.