Soft Modding the Wii and Using a USB Loader 4.3U (Guide)

[D.D.D.]

It's working great! DML 1.4d has pretty high compatibility, with the only games that have problems being ones with audio streaming. USB Loader GX also does a great job at being the loader, since it has a fantastic GUI (check out the latest 3.0 update).

My external HDD used to be formatted to WBFS, but then I made the swap to FAT32 using wbfs2fat. Which I vastly prefer and I needed to do so in order to use the new DIOS MIOS that will be released soon (USB support)...

https://code.google.com/p/diosmios/

I updated my USBLGX to 3.0 and loaded DML for the MIOS... This does work pretty well. The only thing I've noticed is that the picture doesn't seem centered or take up the entire screen once a GC game has been loaded.

The USB non-lite version does sound cool. I use a 4GB non-SDHC for the Wii so I can retain MP3 playability in Excite Truck and have emulators but loading them on my USB hdd would be so much better (that and ripping the discs wouldn't be an issue any more).

Oh also, for the wbfs2fat converter, I've never looked too closely but, if you've got your ext.hdd wbfs'd and you rip a game, I presume it's gonna rip it as wbfs format. So when you use the program, does it alter the size of the file (like re-pad with junk data taking up more room)?

[LentFilms]

The only thing I've noticed is that the picture doesn't seem centered or take up the entire screen once a GC game has been loaded.

I remember reading something about this in the issue section of USBLGX's google code page . Is this the problem your encountering?
http://code.google.com/p/usbloader-gui/ ... %20Summary

Oh also, for the wbfs2fat converter, I've never looked too closely but, if you've got your ext.hdd wbfs'd and you rip a game, I presume it's gonna rip it as wbfs format. So when you use the program, does it alter the size of the file (like re-pad with junk data taking up more room)?

No, I don't believe it does.
There is a nice guide on GBAtemp on how to convert a WBFS drive to FAT32, that should be able to answer any questions you have on the subject.
http://gbatemp.net/topic/292391-how-to- ... 2-or-ntfs/

[Hazerd]

I didnt backup my NAND, i used LetterBomb, and im booting from a WBFS Partition, also my Wii is Red, im living on the dangerous side and i dont give a !@#$

[KDub]

Woah dude I hope you are wearing a safety harness. Pretty soon you're gonna get so far on that dangerous side you'll just fall off!

[D.D.D.]

The only thing I've noticed is that the picture doesn't seem centered or take up the entire screen once a GC game has been loaded.

I remember reading something about this in the issue section of USBLGX's google code page . Is this the problem your encountering?
http://code.google.com/p/usbloader-gui/ ... %20Summary

Yeah that's the exact issue. My guess is it's localized to USBLGX so I'll try another loader (I like USBLGX and CFG about the same but I've never tried WiiFlow...).
EDIT: Yeah I just loaded up MKDD in CFG and the screen issue isn't there. I guess USBLGX will need to update sometime.

Oh also, for the wbfs2fat converter, I've never looked too closely but, if you've got your ext.hdd wbfs'd and you rip a game, I presume it's gonna rip it as wbfs format. So when you use the program, does it alter the size of the file (like re-pad with junk data taking up more room)?

No, I don't believe it does.
There is a nice guide on GBAtemp on how to convert a WBFS drive to FAT32, that should be able to answer any questions you have on the subject.
http://gbatemp.net/topic/292391-how-to- ... 2-or-ntfs/

Thanks~ Nice guide! I'll give it a shot when DiosMios USB version comes out. Until then, I don't see the need (unless you have a recommendation for something cool).

[LentFilms]

(unless you have a recommendation for something cool).

Formatting your external HDD to FAT32 just makes Wii hombrew allot more unified because now every homebrew app that supports USB supports FAT32.

For example, I also use my external HDD to store video files for WiiMC and use it for disk based emulators, such as the TG-CD and the soon to come out Sega CD emulation.

Originally I had my HDD formatted with dual partitions, with the main one being WBFS and a smaller secondary 25gb one being FAT32. I did all this when WBFS was still the only viable way to load Wii games. Quickly after I did this FAT32 become compatible with all loaders and instantly eclipsed WBFS as the standard file format

It was becoming a pain in the butt to constantly swap between partitions and to have my FAT32 section be limited to only 25gb; so I finally decided to swap my WBFS partition to FAT32 and then merged the two partitions together using Gparted! Now my external HDD is just one big FAT32 drive that houses all my games and is compatible with everything under the sun!

To sum up: FAT32 wipes the floor with WBFS any day of the week

[D.D.D.]

(unless you have a recommendation for something cool).

Formatting your external HDD to FAT32 just makes Wii hombrew allot more unified because now every homebrew app that supports USB supports FAT32.
...
To sum up: FAT32 wipes the floor with WBFS any day of the week

All that does sound good and alleviates a lot of previous problems I had with FAT32 before also. The one thing I'm still uncertain about is the file size limitation of FAT32 - 4GB... I know I have 4 or 5 Wii games that are dual-layer; wouldn't there still be the 4GB limitation or have they worked some miracle with that??

[LentFilms]

The one thing I'm still uncertain about is the file size limitation of FAT32 - 4GB... I know I have 4 or 5 Wii games that are dual-layer; wouldn't there still be the 4GB limitation or have they worked some miracle with that??

USB Loader GX (and I believe all other loaders as well) split any game that goes over 4GB into two parts so they can fit. Wbfs2fat also does this to all your games that are over 4GB as it's formatting your drive.

[D.D.D.]

The one thing I'm still uncertain about is the file size limitation of FAT32 - 4GB... I know I have 4 or 5 Wii games that are dual-layer; wouldn't there still be the 4GB limitation or have they worked some miracle with that??

USB Loader GX (and I believe all other loaders as well) split any game that goes over 4GB into two parts so they can fit. Wbfs2fat also does this to all your games that are over 4GB as it's formatting your drive.

Nice, didn't know that. I presume it's automatic/behind the curtains...

[LentFilms]

I presume it's automatic/behind the curtains...

Yup, and I should note that file splitting doesn't have any side effects, such as compatibility issues.