WAD Manager 1.5 and HDD mounting

Hi i can't seem to find any definitive answer to this.
I need to be able to manage wads from my hard drive. however, it doesn't work giving me the error: unable to mount ret= -1
mods i have performed are the Simplistic mod prior to the recent update, and i was using Hermes v4, with Waninkokos cISO v17.
i implemented IOS53 and IOS70 Trucha Patched using DOP-IOS MOD get NSMB working with my kruddy mod chip wiikey v1, and the last update i performed was following the instructions posed by wiibricker - Best cIOS Selection for Newbies.

i can use the hard drive in USB Loader GX, so compatibility with my hardware is there. however, i cannot under any circumstance get the hdd to load in WAD Manager. i have tried using different IOS when loading Wad Manager, i have tried a combination FAT32 and WBFS partition scheme, sole FAT32 set to active, and Sole WBFS. and i still get nada, nothing but unable to mount ret= -1.

Any suggestions or advice?

 

thanks for the reply bloodlust. sorry if i was not clear, i did try that, a single FAT32 partition set as the primary partition and marked as active. still nothing. any other suggestions?

 

is there really no hope, is this to be a lesson in futility? seriously ive been searching the forums for the past 6 - 7 hours now, and no one has a definitive answer, and ive tried near everything.
Anyone...anything???

 

thanks for the reply WiiNinja, ive tried using wad manager 1.5, custom wad manager 1.6. Ive also got the folder named wad in the root of the drive. Ive tried uppercase and lower case and have also placed another folder called WADS just for fun, and to see if it would work. no go.
i've tried nand emulation, and now I'm thinking i'll remove cIOS 19, and try version 18 instead, ive just found some posts with suggestions hinting to this. if you have any other suggestions please share, thanks again

update
no go with rev18, ver 17 seems to work. However i want to use rev18, anyone got any ideas whats killing it??