Wii softmod and apps questions...

[Ziggy]

OK, I've been playing around with some more things. I got USB Loader GX installed, but I need to get a HDD. Any suggestions?

I was thinking about getting a self-powered HDD so I don't have to ever worry about turning it on and off (also, one less power plug to worry about!). Do these work alright with the Wii? It would defeat the purpose if I'd have to power on the Wii, then unplug/plug the USB cable before booting USB Loader GX. Should I just use a powered external HDD? I just don't wanna be bothered with turning off the Wii then having to go over and switch the HDD off.

When picking out a HDD, what's the safest bet to avoid compatibility problems? I took a look at a compatibility list, but they all seem to be outdated. WD drives seem to work way more often then not. Would I be safe with pretty much any WD external drive? Or is there something specific I should look out for?

edit: I just ordered this one: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00CI3 ... UTF8&psc=1

It can also protect you from bricks that bootmii is no help with. If you have priiloader + bootmii as boot2, there is absolutely nothing you can do to brick your Wii. Nothing.

That's what I wanted to hear. OK, I guess I install Priiloader.

Just for my own knowledge, what exactly will Priiloader do that Bootmii can't? What kind of a brick situation would I be in that Bootmii is no help? I thought the NAND memory contains the OS, and since Bootmii backs up the NAND, that meant that no matter what I do to fuck up the OS I could always restore it with my backed up NAND file.

I've installed Priiloader, and now I can see and understand better what it does. But I'm still wonder what Priiloader will help me with in a brick situation. Is it simply because it boots before anything else? So I can use it to get into Bootmii?

So, ModMii will just hold my hand and do everything automatically for me? Where's the fun in that?

Just to explain a little, I'm a nuts a bolts kind of guy. If there's a hand-holding version, and a DIY version, I'll usually opt for the DIY version. I like to know what's going on, rather then having everything done for me. From my understanding of what ModMii is, I'll never use it.

You can always disconnect the light. Just a couple of screws and a plug are between you and freedom...

Maybe turn the Wii around to face the wall away from you?

Meh, I'll probably just hunt for hard patched images for each hack. The multiple hacks interfere with each other, the drive light wont stop flashing, and I want to limit use of the optical drive as much as possible anyway. If it weren't for all that, I'd probably just unplug the drive light.

[Sarge]

In general, you're not going to be able to use a USB-powered hard drive. The Wii doesn't give enough juice. The only way you can do it is with a Y-cable so you can draw juice from both USB ports.

I'd definitely look at some compatibility charts, make sure you've got what you need. Me, I just used a 16GB flash drive that I'm no longer using. It's not much room, but it's fine for playing what I'm currently embroiled in. Even some flash drives end up having issues, though, so beware that as well. I have a cheap 32GB that I got for free, and the Wii doesn't want to read it at all.

[Ziggy]

Ah, good to know! I just grabbed a WD Elements and two different Y cables. Hopefully it'll work without any problems. I checked it on here: http://wiki.gbatemp.net/wiki/USB_Device ... ility_List


edit: What file system do you all recommend for the hard drive? I think I've made up my mind with NTFS. I know a lot of homebrew needs FAT, but I have all my homebrew stuff on a 32GB SD card. I don't plan to use the HDD for anything but backed up Wii games. I've used the WBFS before and I hated needing software just to access it. From what I've read, it seems that games are stored as .wbfs which shrinks them anyway, so having a WBFS partition is kinda pointless. And since FAT has the 4GB limit, even though games would be auto split by USB Loader GX, it just seems that NTFS is easier since I have the SD card for whatever needs FAT. Am I missing anything?

edit: Ah, so DIOS MIOS needs to read the first partition, and it needs to be FAT32. Well I suppose I could create FAT32 partition for GCN games, then format the rest as NTFS for Wii games.

[KalessinDB]

Let me know what you come up with on the Y-Cables to power... I also have to get a hard drive for my Wii (and bigger for my PS3 and 360 for that matter... I've fallen behind lately on electronics) and would LOVE to not have a separate wall wart for the HDD.

[Hazerd]

Some of the things in this thread for modding are bothering me a bit, so im just going to post the way i have mine modded and if you disagree, well i cant change that, but i have modded 4 different Wii's for friends and they all work great.

- I use a Seagate 500gb 3.0 USB HDD "Self powered", it is partitioned with a WBFS partition for Wii, and FAT32 for Gamecube games and extra storage, it works great and all my friends have similar drives, i also use Wii Game Manager for transfer WBFS files, works great.

Here is the drive i use:
http://www.amazon.com/Seagate-Backup-Po ... B00829THSW

- 8gb SDHC card for ROMS and other needed modding software.

- I use Configurable USB Loader for Wii games.

- Use DIOS-MIOS and DIOS-MIOS Lite for GCN games, compatibility is wonky and i think there is better modding out there now for GCN games.

If you have any questions about modding your Wii, feel free to PM me.

In general, you're not going to be able to use a USB-powered hard drive. The Wii doesn't give enough juice. The only way you can do it is with a Y-cable so you can draw juice from both USB ports.

Not sure where you got your info from, but it is very wrong, the Wii has plenty of power from the USB ports to support a portable USB HDD.

[stickem]

^ yeah mine turns on/off with the system, still got to plug it in though. of course only one of the ports recognize a hdd.

[Ziggy]

In general, you're not going to be able to use a USB-powered hard drive. The Wii doesn't give enough juice. The only way you can do it is with a Y-cable so you can draw juice from both USB ports.

Not sure where you got your info from, but it is very wrong, the Wii has plenty of power from the USB ports to support a portable USB HDD.

A lot of people report having to use a Y-cable for self-powered HDDs with the Wii U. I've read that on various forums and Amazon reviews. I don't know if it's a perpetuated fallacy or not, but I ordered a Y-cable along with my HDD just to be safe. I was actually planning on using the cable that comes with the HDD first, and only trying the Y-cable if needed.

edit: And you know, it IS possible that some drives will require a Y-cable while others will. Not all HDD are equal. You might have a really power thirsty 3.5" drive, then a sleek and power efficient 2.5" drive. And that's usually the case since 3.5" drives assume desktop usage, and 2.5" drives assume laptop usage and being powered from the battery. There's also the fact that USB devices are requiring more and more power, and Nintendo probably never intended for the USB ports on the Wii to power anything that requires ridiculous power. The Wii came out way back in 2006.

WBFS partition for Wii

Not saying that WBFS doesn't work, but nothing relevant requires it anymore. I had a WiiKey Fusion some time ago, and I hated having to use the WBFS. USB loaders can load from FAT32 and NTFS now, and store Wii games as .wbfs so you get the same benefits as storing games on a WBFS drive but without the hassle of not being able to directly access it by a computer.

[Ziggy]

So who can give me a quick run down on where we're at with GCN HDD loading on the Wii? I'm trying to decide if it's worth it or not...

Currently, what's the best GCN USB loader? Dios Mios? Devolution? Something else? It seemed like Dios Mios was the best bet, but the download links are gone from the Google Code site, so I have no idea where to get it officially now.

[Sarge]

Not sure where you got your info from, but it is very wrong, the Wii has plenty of power from the USB ports to support a portable USB HDD.

It very much depends. Some will work, some won't, and it's worth being safe about it. If you've got one that's stable, that's awesome! Some folks won't have theirs work, though, because they're slightly over the power requirements, and that's where the Y-cable comes in.

[Ziggy]

So does anyone have any tips for me on GCN HDD loading? I should be getting my HDD soon, and I wanna set it up right away. But I want to avoid having to reformat/repartition it down the road to accommodate GCN loading.