Hacking USB Loader / Launcher

[screamq3]

Hi all, for a long long time i've been using disc backup launchers, but fancy a change. I'm getting a new USB HD tommorow, id like to know which launcher is the best around.
1) Is there any compatibility issues with these launchers?
2) Do we still need to patch games using wiibrickblocker?
3) What format must i format my drive when i recieve it?
4) Which application should i use to change the format?
5) Is loading Speeds any faster than 3x?
6) Thats about it for the time being lol

any help is greatly appreciated, thanks in advance

 

[Szalkow]

Hi all, for a long long time i've been using disc backup launchers, but fancy a change. I'm getting a new USB HD tommorow, id like to know which launcher is the best around.
1) Is there any compatibility issues with these launchers?
2) Do we still need to patch games using wiibrickblocker?
3) What format must i format my drive when i recieve it?
4) Which application should i use to change the format?
5) Is loading Speeds any faster than 3x?
6) Thats about it for the time being lol

any help is greatly appreciated, thanks in advance

USB Loader GX is the de facto standard for most users. It offers a clean look, excellent compatibility and options. Other choices to consider are Configurable USB Loader which offers even more options as well as wider theme support, Hermes' uLoader for its compatibility, or Cover Flow because it looks nice (albeit lacking in options).
1. There are a few newer games that cause issues due to the anti-backup protections they use (IOS reloading, alt-dols, etc). Many of these can be worked around - search the Backup Loaders forum and GBAtemp Wiki for compatibility and potential fixes.
2. Nope. When you import a game using a WBFS Manager on your computer or in the loader on the Wii, it automatically scrubs the update as well as filler space, meaning the games often take much less than 4.3GB on your drive. You can also re-extract these scrubbed isos for later use, or compress them to a much smaller size using WinRAR.
3. You will use WBFS Manager to format it in WBFS, a format native only to the Wii and WBFS Manager.
4. Again, WBFS Manager. Look it up. It's also what you'll use to load games onto the drive if you have them stored on your PC.
5. Much faster! Most USB-loaded games can clock 12x speed, sometimes loading even faster than the original disc channel. This also means that some games which were unplayable due to load lag (Guitar Hero Aerosmith, for example) will work great here.

 

[screamq3]

ok thanks for the reply that has answered all my questions cheers buddy

 

[screamq3]

oh i have one more question

Is there a certain amount of GB that the wii will support on an usb drive? If possible id like to partition my 1tb, have 500gb for wii and 500gb for other use, is this possible? thx in advance

 

[buby78]

i have a 1tb split in to two 1 is 700 and the other one is 300
700 one is for game

 

[HellFireXS]

It is possible to partition a drive in both WBFS and NTFS I dont remember how but I am sure google or the Wii - Backup Loaders forum can help.

Though I don't think you will need 500 GB for your Wii, games are between 1 and 4 GB (Usually 2 - 3) even if they were all a full 4 GB size that is 125 Wii games you could fit on there (more like 250+) are there even that many Wii games in existance?

Im using 250 and even that is alot.

 

[Szalkow]

And there is actually a hard limit - most loaders will get mad if your WBFS partition is larger than 500GB or so. I've used 150 GB for all my games so far with plenty of room to go.

You can partition your drive so that you have a WBFS and a FAT/NTFS partition (probably go with FAT for an external). Most loaders will detect the WBFS partition whether or not it is the active, first partition.

 

[screamq3]

ok thanks all for your help

now i understand fully

 

[vettacossx]

same as my brother from another mother buby78 has stated...

I have mine partitioned The First partition is the WBFS and the second in mine is a FAT32 (but it can be NTFS if your HDD supports the file system at all

...

The best most efficient way to do this is to "source or obtain" a copy of nortons (yeah I HATE NORTON 2 but trust me on this 1)

Nortons Partition Magic (there are sourceforge open sourced apps that also do the job but not this well)

For a Usb Loader

USE MORE THAN ONE!

Usb Loader GX the best looking with the most features and very much compatable...IT IS NOT THE MOST STABLE OR EFFICIENT CURRENT LOADER

the spanyards of our sister hacking site eldolarado hold this title with an application that (may not infact IS NOT nearly as "pretty as GX or Coverflow" however...

ULOADER is a very powerful loader developed by some of waninkoko's team m8t's (Kwirk, and Hermes most notably)

This simple designed loader is VERY POWERFUL in compatibility and actually WORKS WITH OCCARINA CHEATS WITHOUT CRASHING UNLIKE USB LOADER GX

It also uses Ios222 in a "smarter way" than usb loader GX (noticable load time differences let me show you 2 vids one from GX loading GH5....One from Uloader Loading GH5 wait till you see the difference at the load times to the main menu

Proof of concept that Uloader is twice as fast even if (granted) its not as cool or pretty as our GX is

USB LOADER GX 1:59 TO 2:19 (loading under ios223 NOT 249) 20 seconds



Uloader From 4:47 TO 4:59.... (loading under ios223 NOT 249) 12 seconds to the title screnn

 

[Midnightzak]

I personally use (and love) USB Configurable Loader.

I have a Seagate 1.5TB drive with multiple partitions:
-- 1gb for loader files (should have made it smaller)
-- 500gb for WBFS (wii games)
-- 900gb for NTFS (movies, tv, music)

I should have made my WBFS partition smaller, I've got about 110 games and it's only taking up about 300gb of space.

 

[screamq3]

hmm uloader or usb loader gx, configurable usb loader? which one of these 3 is better for later games, but also good with older games like mario kart etc...?

Posts merged

if for example, i install usb loader gx... and put my games on the drive and download the covers like i seen on a youtube video... if for example id like to change to try uloader or configurable loader... will i have to get all the covers again, or will they be stored on the drive? thanks in advance again peeps

 

[screamq3]

regarding my games, can i just copy and paste over my backups that i have already stored on my pc rather than putting disc in and read each one individually?

 

[Szalkow]

Which loader is ultimately up to you. I have forwarding wads in my System Menu that use USB Loader GX, I manage my master collection in Cover Flow, and I use uLoader/Cfg USB Loader for specific games which cause problems (GH5).

All the loaders store the downloaded cover art on your SD card, usually in the /usb-loader/ folder. Note that some of them don't use the exact same folder structure, so downloading the covers in one loader does not guarantee that they'll be there in the others. In addition to downloading cover art in the loader, you can import album art of your own, such as that downloaded from wiiboxart.com.

WBFS Manager can queue up and load all of your game ISO's on your computer into the WBFS drive. That's what it's made for.

Reading the discs in the Wii is useful for games which you have not yet backed up.

 

[screamq3]

ok thanks for that info, which cios would you recommend using with usb loaders? is it best to keep to the upto date one? cios rev 14? or must i use another? thanks

 

[Szalkow]

ok thanks for that info, which cios would you recommend using with usb loaders? is it best to keep to the upto date one? cios rev 14? or must i use another? thanks

Most would recommend Waninkoko's cIOS installed as 249. Rev14 works great overall but can cause issues with Smash Bros Brawl. Rev10 is another popular option. I personally use Rev13a and have had no problems. Try rev14 and install a different one if you have problems.

For some games, you will also want to install Hermes' cIOS as IOS 222/223, an alternate cIOS that you can use for individual games in most loaders (Cfg, GX, uLoader). Most people use IOS36 as 222 and either 37-merged-36 or 60-merged-36 as 223. Note that 37-36 is needed for Guitar Hero 5.

 

[Cerozero]

Since I just got into USB loading I'm gonna go ahead and ask this question.

Do USB loaders still have that fragmentation problem when you delete games from an HDD?

 

[ViciousXUSMC]

You can just get all the loaders and try them all. I use and like Configurable USB Loader, it gets cover art for me, its worked with every game so far, and it has all the important options you may need to make something work right.

Also the UI and custom skins are great too.