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[Caesar III]

does the usb thingy work with the SD card as well?

 

[Mejilan]

The newer versions of USB Loader are called SD/USB Loader for a reason.

 

[GaimeGuy]

does the usb thingy work with the SD card as well?

yes

 

[Xabora]

I was having the problem where Bootmii was taking 10+ seconds to load. Went out and bought a new SD card today figuring I could use the old one to backup my NAND, and now Bootmii comes up almost instantly with the new card. Phenomenal.

Bug Tracker says they are working on a fix for that currently.
Along with support for the Wii Remote.

 

[Caesar III]

The newer versions of USB Loader are called SD/USB Loader for a reason.

:lol ok, did not know this

But I need to create a new partition anyway, right?

IF I'm going to use the Loader, I'll only install like 5 games or so, so the SD card would be enough for this matter I think.

 

[Clipper]

What do I do if HBC doesn't recognize my apps but I have everything set up correctly. Does my SD card need to be formatted to FAT32 or does it come out of the factory already formatted to FAT32? If I need to format, can I just chuck my old files back in?

If you never formatted your card before, it should work just fine.

Are you sure you have things set up correctly? You should have a folder called apps in the root directory of your SD card. Each app should be in a subdirectory of the apps folder (this subdirectory can have any name) and the executable should be called boot.dol or boot.elf. There should also be a meta.xml file in the directory and possibly an image.png.

Also, are you possibly trying to use an SDHC card? HBC 1.0.2 doesn't support them (the previous versions do).

can someone explain the whole IOS/CIOS thing to me?

i keep seeing warnings about which versions you need and none of it makes any sense to me. is it something to do with the wii firmware version? it sounds like you can have more than one installed at once or something?! how do i know what i have on my wii at the moment?

There are plenty. The main ones seem to be 249 and 222, although the only one you really need is 249, also known as Waninkoko's cIOS36 rev 10. To find out which ones you have installed, if you've already used Bootmii, check out the installer.log file on your SD. You could also use Title Lister.

Hrm, was able to update my HBC, but couldn't install bootmii. It failed the test for trying to read boot1 and boot2. As far as I know, it's a launch wii, still sitting on 3.2. Stiil @ IOS51. I checked out the bootmii option and set up and SD card, bit that's all I was able to do.

It seems your problem has been detected on other Wiis. Watch here for a possible solution to arise.

 

[panda21]

Of course, that's the main benefit of circumventing the optical drive.

awesome

the loading nigh on broke some games for me..

also, i just updated to 4.0E and now my homebrew channel won't load?! wtf? even from bootmii it won't run.. is there some way i can fix this from bootmii?

 

[Mejilan]

Don't know. Try using the Hackmii installer to reinstall the new HBC, perhaps?

:lol ok, did not know this

But I need to create a new partition anyway, right?

IF I'm going to use the Loader, I'll only install like 5 games or so, so the SD card would be enough for this matter I think.

Never bothered with the SD loading, to tell you the truth. The second USB loading hit, I bought a 500GB portable drive with confirmed compatibility. Too awesome.

5 games on 8GB? It entirely depends on the games. They can range from 100MBs to almost 8GBs in size, each.

 

[Caesar III]

Never bothered with the SD loading, to tell you the truth. The second USB loading hit, I bought a 500GB portable drive with confirmed compatibility. Too awesome.

Then I would need a slim Harddisk AND a slim and good looking USB hub.

5 games on 8GB? It entirely depends on the games. They can range from 100MBs to almost 8GBs in size, each.

I already checked that list, I want to install Animal Crossing and some other Everyday Games I have

 

[Linkhero1]

Then I would need a slim Harddisk AND a slim and good looking USB hub.

I already checked that list, I want to install Animal Crossing and some other Everyday Games I have

Where can I find this list? I might buy a 500 GB HD.

 

[Mejilan]

Then I would need a slim Harddisk AND a slim and good looking USB hub.

I'd recommend the Seagate FreeAgent Go portable drive. You can get 500GBs for under $100 these days. I think I paid $90 for mine. And you can easily get much smaller ones for cheaper.

Pros:
+100% USB Loader compatible. No known issues.
+Tiny, quiet, cool, lightweight.
+Silver color matches the Wii fairly well.
+USB powered means there's no external power source, and it can auto-power on/off with the Wii. No power switches.
+One of the only portable drives to come with onboard software that can permanently disable spin-down, which if it happens, will freeze any game at the next load attempt. Software even works if the drive has been reformatted to WBFS.

Cons:
-Not the best buck vs. size value.

 

[eznark]

I hate to ask but is there a good step-by-step for getting the USB Loader working?

 

[Caesar III]

Where can I find this list? I might buy a 500 GB HD.

few pages before in this thread. Check out Huelens postings afair

 

[Mejilan]

If you can find the files yourself, you don't need to do the network installation.
Also, if you find yourself failing with a network install via wireless, try via the ethernet LAN adapter if you have one. Or vice-versa.

 

[minor effort]

If you can find the files yourself, you don't need to do the network installation.
Also, if you find yourself failing with a network install via wireless, try via the ethernet LAN adapter if you have one. Or vice-versa.

Yeah, I'm trying to find files for the wad installation now. Hopefully I will soon, since the network installation is beginning to seem hopeless.

I installed HBC a few months back and messed around with it lightly, but most of these new hacks and cISO stuff are things I'm just reading about today. Hopefully this stuff won't turn out to be a bigger headache than what it's worth. This tutorial has already consumed most of my afternoon, and it's such a nice day out. :lol

 

[Mejilan]

I got all of my shit running properly in one shot about a month ago. Though, I did spend a solid week researching and learning.

 

[panda21]

yeah the documentation for this stuff is so confusing because its always changing

i had to reinstall my hbc using the banner trick after i updated to 4.0, even though it was working fine with bootmii before :S

then it refused to recognise my usb drive until i installed cios rev 9. after that the waninkoko loader still wouldnt see it, but one of the other modified ones formatted it, and then crashed immediately :lol

after that the waninkoko one can see it again and am ripping rockstar tennis right now

can't wait to get geometry wars and a few others on too. fast loading from a 250gb hdd is going to kick ass and hopefully with bootmii it should stay compatible for the foreseeable future

 

[DeathbyVolcano]

installed bootmii. I'm not having the issues with this ten second load time, it loads nearly instantly for me.

 

[Milpool]

installed bootmii. I'm not having the issues with this ten second load time, it loads nearly instantly for me.

I am having trouble with the massive load times with 2 SD cards I've tried, I was in IRC the other day and saw the devs know what's causing it and think theres a fix. I thought the install bricked my Wii since my TV said 'no signal' for over 10 seconds after powering the Wii on.

 

[Xabora]

installed bootmii. I'm not having the issues with this ten second load time, it loads nearly instantly for me.

Its been noted here: http://bugs.hackmii.com/index.php?do=details&task_id=43

 

[eznark]

never mind, didn't see the flashing post above.

 

[POWERSPHERE]

Can you run WADs off the HD as well as ISOs? I would LOVE to be able to put all my VC games on there.

 

[blu]

Are you sure you have things set up correctly? You should have a folder called apps in the root directory of your SD card. Each app should be in a subdirectory of the apps folder (this subdirectory can have any name) and the executable should be called boot.dol or boot.elf. There should also be a meta.xml file in the directory and possibly an image.png.

the metafile is optional.

 

[Clipper]

Can you run WADs off the HD as well as ISOs? I would LOVE to be able to put all my VC games on there.

Why not put them on SD?

 

[StopMakingSense]

Oof, finally got usbloader working well with this hard drive. It really does not like to work with disks partitioned in OSX.

 

[scitek]

How the hell do I install Bootmii? It's not showing up in the HBC, do I not put it under "apps"?

Or does it go into the root of the SD card?

 

[Bii]

I currently have a 3.4U Wii with HBC installed and USB Loader works perfectly. I want to be on 4.0U; do I just install it using Nintendo's official 4.0 update? Or do I need to install something before (or after) the official update?

Edit: Updated with official Nintendo 4.0 and USB Loader still works. Now onto moving all my VC games to the SD card.

 

[Wario64]

Can you run WADs off the HD as well as ISOs? I would LOVE to be able to put all my VC games on there.

Who the hell uses WADs? Oh wait.

 

[pakkit]

How the hell do I install Bootmii? It's not showing up in the HBC, do I not put it under "apps"?

Or does it go into the root of the SD card?

Did you rename the file to "boot.elf?"

 

[scitek]

Did you rename the file to "boot.elf?"

That did it! Thanks. Now can I install softMii?

 

[StopMakingSense]

Bah, what the crap. I did a homebrew browser update, and now this 8gb SDHC card isn't loading any apps in Homebrew Channel. Have a 1gb laying around that's working fine. Ugh.

 

[Clipper]

Bah, what the crap. I did a homebrew browser update, and now this 8gb SDHC card isn't loading any apps in Homebrew Channel. Have a 1gb laying around that's working fine. Ugh.

They have noted the bug and expect to fix it soon. The new version of HBC only adds the run BootMii button (if installed as IOS) and uses a different IOS itself, but using that breaks their SDHC support.

Here's exactly what they say (from hackmii.com):

Q: What’s HBC v1.0.2, and why doesn’t it support SDHC?
A: The only changes are a “launch BootMii/IOS” button, and it uses a new IOS. The latter breaks SHDC compatibility; we’re working on it.

 

[StopMakingSense]

They have noted the bug and expect to fix it soon. The new version of HBC only adds the run BootMii button (if installed as IOS) and uses a different IOS itself, but using that breaks their SDHC support.

No, homebrew browser was the thing updating.

 

[Clipper]

No, homebrew browser was the thing updating.

Oops, sorry. Didn't see that. That is strange. Have you checked the contents of the card to see it hasn't been corrupted or something?

 

[StopMakingSense]

Oops, sorry. Didn't see that. That is strange. Have you checked the contents of the card to see it hasn't been corrupted or something?

Yeah, I even formatted it and recopied shit over.

 

[Disguises]

Ugh been looking forward to Bootmii for ages. Now i find out that when i sent my Wii back for repair they must have replaced the motherboard since i have an incompatible boot1 . Grr

 

[Clipper]

I tried to follow those directions but couldn't due to a issue with loadmii, so I decided to use bootmii and I successfully installed HBC on my wii. However, I didn't install cIOS rev 10 and I was wondering how I could do so. Unfortunately my SDHC card isn't working with HBC so I think I have limited options. I would appreciate any help.

You're going to need a standard SD card and follow Stump's tutorial (big flashing text on previous page). If you don't have a normal SD, then you could try using Bannerbomb to load the apps of Stump's tutorial (see my big, long list of steps a few pages back).

 

[TheCrow]

I couldn't get the WAD manager to work. I think it has something to do with my SD card. Will I still be able to use the USB Loader once HBC 1.0.3 comes out?

 

[Dalthien]

Is there any concensus yet on Western Digital drives with the USB Loader? Specifically referring to spin-down issues?

There are some good deals available on the WD Elements and WD MyBook drives, but I want to be sure about the spin-down issues before I pull the trigger. Does anyone have either of these drives that can report on how they work with the USB Loader apps.

Greatly appreciated!

 

[BigFwoosh]

Is there any concensus yet on Western Digital drives with the USB Loader? Specifically referring to spin-down issues?

There are some good deals available on the WD Elements and WD MyBook drives, but I want to be sure about the spin-down issues before I pull the trigger. Does anyone have either of these drives that can report on how they work with the USB Loader apps.

Greatly appreciated!

I have a 1TB MyBook Essential. I've played a bit of Tatsunoko vs Capcom, Trauma Center: SO, Excitebots, Boom Blox, Ghost Squad, Mario Party 8, Warioware, and HOTD Overkill with it. Everything runs fine for the most part, though Boom Blox freezes every time I play it, but it seems to be totally random. I also tried playing Mario Kart once and as it was about to load a race it went to a black screen and just hung there. All the other games have been fine though. I don't think the problems I've had with it have been due to spindown, so I'm hoping cIOS rev11 will maybe make those games perform a little better.

Now, as far as spindown is concerned, the drive I have does go to sleep after some period of inactivity, but the only time it has happened for me was once when I was playing Boom Blox and kept the game paused for 15 min while I was on the phone. After I unpaused, the game froze. As far as I know there's no way to disable the spindown on these drives.

 

[Mejilan]

Spindown is known to be a game killer, since USB Loader doesn't know how to wake the drives back up, or wait for them to wake up.

Also, games that cache heavily and only spin the disc occasionally stand a greater chance of allowing an HDD to spindown. The next time the game tries to cache, it'll get stuck at the sleeping drive and kill the game.

 

[Dalthien]

I have a 1TB MyBook Essential. I've played a bit of Tatsunoko vs Capcom, Trauma Center: SO, Excitebots, Boom Blox, Ghost Squad, Mario Party 8, Warioware, and HOTD Overkill with it. Everything runs fine for the most part, though Boom Blox freezes every time I play it, but it seems to be totally random. I also tried playing Mario Kart once and as it was about to load a race it went to a black screen and just hung there. All the other games have been fine though. I don't think the problems I've had with it have been due to spindown, so I'm hoping cIOS rev11 will maybe make those games perform a little better.

Now, as far as spindown is concerned, the drive I have does go to sleep after some period of inactivity, but the only time it has happened for me was once when I was playing Boom Blox and kept the game paused for 15 min while I was on the phone. After I unpaused, the game froze. As far as I know there's no way to disable the spindown on these drives.

Thanks for the feedback.

Spindown is known to be a game killer, since USB Loader doesn't know how to wake the drives back up, or wait for them to wake up.

Also, games that cache heavily and only spin the disc occasionally stand a greater chance of allowing an HDD to spindown. The next time the game tries to cache, it'll get stuck at the sleeping drive and kill the game.

So I am pretty much stuck with Seagate as the only viable option?

Do all Seagate USB drives have the option to disable spin-down? Or does it have to be a specific drive such as the FreeAgent Go? What about the FreeAgent Desk?

 

[Mejilan]

I can't speak for all Seagate drives, but I will tell you what I went with. And why.

I'd recommend the Seagate FreeAgent Go portable drive. You can get 500GBs for under $100 these days. I think I paid $90 for mine. And you can easily get much smaller ones for cheaper.

Pros:
+100% USB Loader compatible. No known issues.
+Tiny, quiet, cool, lightweight.
+Silver color matches the Wii fairly well.
+USB powered means there's no external power source, and it can auto-power on/off with the Wii. No power switches.
+One of the only portable drives to come with onboard software that can permanently disable spin-down, which if it happens, will freeze any game at the next load attempt. Software even works if the drive has been reformatted to WBFS.

Cons:
-Not the best buck vs. size value.

 

[Dalthien]

I can't speak for all Seagate drives, but I will tell you what I went with. And why.

Thanks for the help Mejilan!

Did you have any issues formatting your drive?

I'm asking because when I look up the Seagate FreeAgent drives on the 'USB Devices Compatibility List', this drive is listed as having Issues with USB Loader, with notes such as this attached. But from what I can tell, you didn't seem to have any such issues with your drive.

"Only works if the whole drive is formatted in FAT32 by a 3rd party app(Fat32Format), and then WBFS is installed from the pc as well. In order for the loader to see your partition, hook up the USB but leave the drive unplugged. Boot up the wii and plug in the drive in the HBC. The previously reported issue was incorrect, as long as you follow this process you can also connect the drive to a Vista pc to add/delete isos. Update!!! Drive appears to go to 'sleep' during some games (even with sleep mode set to never and using hdparm) creating black screen, thus some causing some games to crash. "

 

[larvi]

Is there any concensus yet on Western Digital drives with the USB Loader? Specifically referring to spin-down issues?

There are some good deals available on the WD Elements and WD MyBook drives, but I want to be sure about the spin-down issues before I pull the trigger. Does anyone have either of these drives that can report on how they work with the USB Loader apps.

Greatly appreciated!

I have an older MyBook 250GB and it works fine with USB loader and I've never had it spin down

 

[Bii]

I'm asking because when I look up the Seagate FreeAgent drives on the 'USB Devices Compatibility List', this drive is listed as having Issues with USB Loader, with notes such as this attached. But from what I can tell, you didn't seem to have any such issues with your drive.

I had to use Fat32Format to format my 320GB Seagate FreeAgent Go since Windows XP/Vista has a 32GB limitation. Why, I'm not sure; which is why you would have to use a third-party app a la Fat32Format. Other than that, I didn't have any problems with the drive.

"In order for the loader to see your partition, hook up the USB but leave the drive unplugged."

This quote is untrue for me. I power on my Wii with the HDD plugged in and it recognizes the drive once USB Loader is up.

"Update!!! Drive appears to go to 'sleep' during some games (even with sleep mode set to never and using hdparm) creating black screen, thus some causing some games to crash."

I set sleep mode to never using Seagate's software and so far, it hasn't given me any problems. Before, I would play Super Mario Galaxy and it would freeze up after I've been in a level for too long. After I disabled the sleep mode, the game works perfectly fine.

 

[Mejilan]

Thanks for the help Mejilan!

Did you have any issues formatting your drive?

I'm asking because when I look up the Seagate FreeAgent drives on the 'USB Devices Compatibility List', this drive is listed as having Issues with USB Loader, with notes such as this attached. But from what I can tell, you didn't seem to have any such issues with your drive.

"Only works if the whole drive is formatted in FAT32 by a 3rd party app(Fat32Format), and then WBFS is installed from the pc as well. In order for the loader to see your partition, hook up the USB but leave the drive unplugged. Boot up the wii and plug in the drive in the HBC. The previously reported issue was incorrect, as long as you follow this process you can also connect the drive to a Vista pc to add/delete isos. Update!!! Drive appears to go to 'sleep' during some games (even with sleep mode set to never and using hdparm) creating black screen, thus some causing some games to crash. "

1) I used the Seagate Manager software that comes with the drive to set sleep to never.
2) I used Fat32Format to format the drive in Windows XP.
3) I used WBFS Manager (currently at 3.0.1, IIRC) to format the entire drive to WBFS.

Since then, I've had NO issues with the drive. No spindowns or crashes, no USB Loader failure recognition. Though, it bears mentioning that I'm not using the "vanilla" USB Loaders from Waninkoko, which lack all kinds of improvements, including increased HDD compatibility, when compared to the various mods that have seen substantial improvements. I recommend Configurable USB Loader v29d. The drive natively powers on/off with the Wii, and USB Loader has no issues finding it instantly.

The earliest versions of vanilla USB Loader did have problems recognizing the drive if it was plugged in before USB Loader was launched, but that hasn't been a problem with even the dinkiest USB Loader mods.

 

[Fuzzy]

So I am pretty much stuck with Seagate as the only viable option?

WD My Passport Essential 320GB here and I've encountered no spin down. The only times I've read about spin down on these drives have been with the larger capacity ones.

I formatted it with Vista to FAT32 and created two partitions then let Ultimate USB Loader 7.4 format one of the partitions to WBFS.

 

[Dalthien]

Thanks for the help everyone. Definitely appreciated.

 

[Tenbatsu]

Wanna ask:
1) If I delete away my Wii Shop account will I still be able to play those games I downloaded before that are stored in my SD card?
2) Any region changer works only for Wii system menu 3.2?

Thanks in advance!