Hacking Wii External Harddrive issue

[appleburger]

I just recently softmodded my wii using Modmii without any issues - up until it came to formatting my external harddrive. It's a Hitachi 332 Gb harddrive, and I formatted it to FAT32 using the GUI Formatter through modmii. I hooked it up to the wii, booted up the loader, and I get an error regarding the partition, so I choose another partition, and it starts up.
So then, I hook it up to my PC (windows 7) and the computer makes the same noise it usually does when it accepts a usb device.

But it doesn't show up under my computer anymore. I tried uninstalling the device and the computer, but that didn't do anything. I installed a different loader on the wii, and that one won't recognize the drive either!

The loader that comes with modmii still recognizes the drive, and still makes me choose the secondary partition when I boot it up.

I don't get it - did this loader ruin my external harddrive?

 

[Tom Bombadildo]

Sounds like the drive letter was removed. Right click on My Computer -> Manage. On the panel on the side there should be a "Disk Management" Option. Click that and wait for it to load. Once it does, look for your external HDD in the list, right click on the Fat32 partition, click "Change Drive Letters and Path" (or something of the like) and give it a drive letter. It should show up now in explorer. If not, than I have no idea...heh.

 

[XFlak]

if there are multiple partitions on the drive, it would be best to delete both partitions from disc management in order to create 1 large ntfs partition. The process is similar to this modmii video, but instead of created 2 partitions, create one large ntfs partition, then u can use fat32 gui formatter afterwards to format it as fat32.

 

[appleburger]

So, I had tried assigning it a drive, because it did show up blank under disk management, but it wouldn't let me select any options. So, then I deleted the partitions, and it no longer showed up with the other drives at all - until i noticed that it does show up on the bottom portion after looking at that modmii video! I was able to reformat it to ntfs and reassign a drive letter to it - sweet.

But, now that I've got the drive formatted, when I try and add the .iso over, it's telling me that there isn't enough space! It shows up as having 298 gigs free, and the .iso is 4 gigs....

In disk Manager it shows that it has a single, healthy FAT32 partition.

 

[nisbahmumtaz]

Ah, the infamous FAT32 Not-more-than-4GB-per-file limitation.
You're better off using the WBFS file format, bro.

 

[appleburger]

Aw, damn - you beat me to the punch. I just realized the FAT32 limitation. Urgh.

 

[RoMee]

Did you use Wii Back Up Manager to transfer your games to your HDD??
My whole 1TB is fat32 and I've had ZERO problems.

All though I've never used it, I've been told wbfs format is inferior to fat32 and ntfs.

 

[Lucif3r]

You're better off using the WBFS file format, bro.

No, he isnt. WBFS is a very limited filesystem and not optimal for every day usage, as you cant use it for ANYTHING but wii games.

FAT32 is the best, just use WBM to transfer your games and they will be automaticly splitted.

 

[appleburger]

I was just copying the .iso over to the USB originally - didn't realize I should be using the backup manager. I had a modded wii a few years back, and these apps were never this organized!

Now I've got covers, the sound when I select the game - this is nuts.

The loader I originally had just had crude green text, and you'd select the .iso, get coma-inducing green flashes, and the game'd start.

Alright, I got everything working - I love you all!

 

[obcd]

NTFS is a microsoft format. While some wii applications support it, not all do. The only limitation you have with fat32 is the 4Gig filesize limit. I use wii game manager to convert my game iso's to wbfs format. The program automatically splits games that would exceed the 4Gig into pieces. A wbfs game is basically the same a game iso. It just has all the data removed that doesn't belong to the game, so it takes less space on the harddisk. The remaining wbfs sometimes is only a few 100 MB instead of the usual 4.7 Gig.

While windows computers will refuse to natively format a partition to fat 32 when it's size is bigger than a defined limit. (M$ promoting their own system), once the harddisk is partitionned and formatted, it should be recognised fine by windows, linux and mac computers. There is no need to provide multiple partitions, as at the end when the disk is almost full, you will lose free space on every one of them.

The 4gig limit usually only becomes a problem when you store hd movies on it or images of other drives.

 

[appleburger]

Oh wow, I didn't think it would save THAT much space. I'm planning on just using this one application, GFX, for the drive - so other applications support (or lack of) NTFS shouldn't be a problem.
But when it comes to space, I'd definitely like to have more of it. I'm already using Backup Manager to download the covers and place the .isos on the drive correctly (when I tried this manually it wasn't read), so if I'm going to be using it ANYWAY, would you say it's worth it to go ahead and reformat my drive to FAT in order to save space? In the end, is it going to be a negligible amount? Right now I can fit ~85 games on my external drive.

 

[wii knee]

You're better off using the WBFS file format, bro.

No, he isnt. WBFS is a very limited filesystem and not optimal for every day usage, as you cant use it for ANYTHING but wii games.

FAT32 is the best, just use WBM to transfer your games and they will be automaticly splitted.

Agreed. There is a history of files becoming corrupt on a WBFS partition. I've experienced this many times, myself. If you are going to use UNEEK, the FAT32 is the way to go with a WBM to convert your ISOs to files. Can anyone clarify that NEEK2O is able to access an NTFS partition and run WBFS games.

 

[obcd]

fat32 or ntfs shouldn't make much difference considering space. It's just the conversion of the iso game files to wbfs game files that makes the difference.
An iso takes the full space of a single layer dvd disc which is 4.7Gig. After conversion to wbfs, the same game can take much less.
It depends from game to game, but most of them shrink 50% or more.
If you intend to do a neek setup (perhaps later.), it will only work on a fat32 formatted partition.
neek has the advantage that you are not limited anymore to 47 channels for your VC's and Wiiware.

In my opinion, it's better to try to do it right now than to have to do it over again once it's filled with games.
You could try a ntfs setup with just 1 or 2 games as proof of concept that your harddisk is compatible and working fine on the wii, but after that I would spent a little more time
to make the switch to fat32.

Don't intermix a wbfs partition with a wbfs game file. The first one is a partition on the harddisk that can only be accessed on a pc using special programs.
The second one is just a file representing the backup of a game disk. What you need are wbfs files.
A couple of years ago, a wbfs partition was the only possible way to play backups from a harddisk without additional hardware.
Now, they can be played from fat(32) ntfs and ex(2)(3) partitions. It's easier to transfer and maintain them on such partitions as they are directly accessible from your os file browsers.

 

[PsyBlade]

You're better off using the WBFS file format, bro.

No, he isnt. WBFS is a very limited filesystem and not optimal for every day usage, as you cant use it for ANYTHING but wii games.

FAT32 is the best, just use WBM to transfer your games and they will be automaticly splitted.

lol
Guess which file format WBM uses to copy games to fat32 ... WBFS.

 

[wii knee]

Wiims ISO Tool will do it and QTWitGui is a nice little interface if you're not big on running command lines.

 

[Lucif3r]

Guess which file format WBM uses to copy games to fat32 ... WBFS.

I said filesystem, not file format

 

[ddetkowski]

+1 to Lucif3r on that!

 

[PsyBlade]

I said filesystem, not file format

The post you quoted was about using .wbfs instead of .iso.
You said that was bad advice. I disagree

 

[mike333]

I said filesystem, not file format

The post you quoted was about using .wbfs instead of .iso.
You said that was bad advice. I disagree

Are You sure?

 

[wii knee]

@[member='PsyBlade'] and @Lucif3r you guys can kiss and make up now. Appleburger edited his/her post to say thanks that everything is now working.

btw, @[member='PsyBlade'], I took Lucif3r to mean that when backing up from iso...wbfs is a bad choice compared to fat32 not that wbfs is a bad choice vs iso.