Wii NTFS Hard Drives

[Cile]

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This is a simple guide with full setup instructions for an NTFS Hard Drive that can be used with your softmodded Wii. When using an NTFS Hard drive with the Wii it can be used for Wii backups, Wii media, some homebrew apps and shared for other purposes. USB Loading is much faster than loading from a backup disc or retail disc.

Includes formatting, ripping/transferring backups, setting up a USB Loader, and Extras.



Guide written by Cile | Krank | Desperado836 |

[NTFS USB Loading will only work with Hermes cIOS222/223 v4+ or with cIOSx Rev19+]

Advantages/Disadvantages

[NTFS Advantages]

• No Wasted WBFS Space as the partition can be shared for other purposes
• Can be used for Storing your USB Loaders files,Movies etc
• Game files can be copied using normal file managers
• Better choice of file system recovery/defragmentation tools
• Can load files larger then 4GB(no need to split in two)
• You don't have to convert ISO(s) into .WBFS

[NTFS Disadvantages]

• Homebrew channel can't load apps off NTFS formatted HDD
  
• No Nand Emulation
  

[Similarities]

• Loading speed is the same compared to WBFS/FAT32

Before You Begin

Your Wii MUST Be successfully Soft-modded. Hopefully using our
recommended softmod Guide.

• Softmod ANY Wii

Installing The Right cIOS

If you have followed one of mauifrog's guides you can use 250,248,247 & 222,223,224

If you didnt follow Softmod ANY Wii follow it or look here cIOS Wads Guide.Read the FAQ spoiler in that guide.

Setup

**You WILL Lose ALL data on the Drive following this guide**
**Backup any files you want to keep before continuing**

New USB Hard Drive -- Ready to Use(all new HDD come in NTFS format all you have to do is set it to active through disk management)

Used USB Hard Drive -- Run Check Disk

• Click "My Computer" -- Right click your USB Drive and select "Properties"
• Click "Tools" and "Check Now" -- Check Disk Opens
• Select Both Options by Checking the boxes and click "Start"

Or open a command prompt and run the PC Chkdsk /r command

**You WILL Lose ALL data on the Drive following this guide**
**Backup any files you want to keep before continuing**

Formatting

**Backup any files that you want to keep**

Download -- <Easeus Partition Manager[Home Edition]> Install It

Connect your External USB Hard Drive to your PC

1. Open EASEUS Partition Master -- Start Menu > All Programs > EASEUS Partition Master 6.5.2 Home Edition > EASEUS Partition Master 6.5.2 Home Edition
*or C:\Program Files (x86)\EASEUS\EASEUS Partition Master 6.5.2 Home Edition\bin\epm0.exe

2. Under "Disk 3" you will see my USB Hard Drive Disk - [SIZE=2](Notice - your Disk number may/will be different - Also notice that mine is formatted)



3. Right Click on the USB HDD you want to use and select "Delete" -- "Delete the Selected Partition?" Click "OK".

• Do the same for ALL partitions on this Hard Drive ONLY
• The Drive will now show as "Unallocated"

4. Right click your now "unallocated" USB HDD and select "Create" -- Change the following Options :

***Notice: Using the recommended values will aid in diagnosing any problems you may have, until you are familiar with your Wii and it's operation, please try to use these.

• Partition Label : Wii HDD --(Recommended Label -- Name it whatever you want)

• Create As : Primary

• Drive Letter : K: (Recommended Drive Letter -- Choose whatever letter you want)

• File System : NTFS

• Cluster Size : Default -- (This will be set Automatically)

5. Size And Position

Set The Following:

• Unallocated Space Before should say "0.0 MB"
• Partition Size : (Whatever size you want, in the example I used all available space)
• Unallocated Space After should say "0.0 MB"
• Click "OK"

6. Set As Active

• Right Click your USB HDD -- Click "Advanced" then "Set Active" -- Click "OK"

7. Look to the bottom left hand side of the program. Listed under Disk Operations should be the steps to make your USB HDD ready to go for setup. In my case, 1) Set the Label for J: Wii HDD; 2)Delete J: on Disk 3; 3)Create K: on Disk 3; 4)Set Active Wii HDD K: on Disk 3.

• Now Click "APPLY"

• A new window will pop up informing you to "Apply Changes" and list the amount of operations are currently pending. If you want to click the box to "Shut down the computer after changes are applied" is up to you, otherwise, click YES.

• Another window pops up and it is doing the operations you have made for it, see example. This process is particularly fast to do, so it shouldn't be a waiting game unless your computer is really slow.

• When the program finishes you should get a pop up stating the the operations have been executed successfully!

• Click OK. You are back to the program's main interface, exit the program, you are done!

Congratulations, your HDD is now formatted to NTFS, move onto installing a loader

Installing Loader & Forwarder Channel

Note: You must have ios58 installed or the forwarders wont work.

This installs a forwarder channel that looks for the boot.dol on SD card or USB Hard Drive. To Update, just replace the boot.dol with a different revision. If you want to load from HBC rather then a Forwarder, just extract the appropriate RAR file to your USB Root.

Password: hacksdenrules
Configurable USB Loader

1. Install One of the Forwarder Channels With Wad Manager. Extract One of the RAR's

|1. CFG NForwarder58-UXCF -v7 | 2.CFG NForwarder58-UXCF -v7 Alternate

• cIOS222 Users -- Download THIS -- Extract the RAR File directly to USB:/

• cIOSx 249 Rev19/20/21 Users -- Download THIS -- Extract the RAR File directly to USB:/

To get CFG to boot with certain ios add..... ios = XXX to config.txt

Example ios = 250

WiiFlow

1. Install One of the Forwarder Channels With Wad Manager. Extract One of the RAR's

|1. Violet NForwarder58-WFBV |2. Orange NForwarder58-WFBO | 3. Green NForwarder58-WFBG

• cIOS222 Users -- Download THIS -- Extract the RAR File directly to USB:/

• cIOSx 249 Rev19/20/21 Users -- Download THIS -- Extract the RAR File directly to USB:/

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
[How To Install The Forwarder WAD]

Wad Manager 1.7

Copy the Wad file to the "Wad" folder on your SD Card
Start HBC and Load Wad Manager
Select <IOS249> -- Press A -- Nand Emulation <Disabled> -- Source <Wii SD Slot>
Select the Wad file and Press A -- Press A again to install - Wait - Finished

- - - - - - - - - - - -


Forwader paths:
SD:/apps/******/boot.[dol/elf]
SD:/******/boot.[dol/elf]
USB:/apps/******/boot.[dol/elf]
USB:/******/boot.[dol/elf]

Ripping/Copying Game Backups to your USB Hard Drive

Copying your Original or Backup of your Original disks to your USB HDD

1. Start your USB Loader.

2 . Put the disk in and Select the Install Button in the loader you're using.
1. Start your USB Loader.

2 . Put the disk in and Select the Install Button in the loader you're using.

Configurable USB Loader

Install - Press + on the Wii Remote to install a game

Options & Settings - Press 1 to access the settings - Press 2 to Save

Delete/Disc Menu - Press " - " (Minus) to access the Disc menu or delete games.

Change boot IOS - Use the Cfg Configurator to edit the config.txt (Example: ios = 250) or select the game press 1 to go into settings and change the ios.

WiiFlow

Install Option 1 -- Load Wiiflow -- Insert Game Disk -- Select Go to Install

Install Option 2 -- Settings >Page2 > Install >Select Go to Install

Change Sub Directories -- Only possible with a backup manager

Change Boot IOS -- Use the correct .dol (222,223,249,250) or select a game go into settings and change the ios.

Using Wii Game Manager to Convert/Transfer your ISO Backups

(This is For People with a broken Wii Drive or Badly Damaged discs that will not install Properly)
Wii Game Manager 1.5



Make a Folder on you HDD called wbfs --> USB:\wbfs
This will be the directory for your games.
(You can also make this folder with Wii Game Manager)

1. Load up Wii Game Manager - Select:
Options-> Copy Options-> You can select 1:1 copy, Game Partition only, All Partitions. Do This before moving On.
*Choose "Game Partition Only" if you are not sure*

OPEN> Select what you want to load, .ISO(s) files or your WBFS Partition.
Once you have Selected the directory it will load up the files found in that folder/wbfs partition.

• Yes you can convert all the iso(s) on your wbfs partition to .wbfs files making change easier.
• The info about your drive will be displayed at the bottom.
• If you are converting iso(s) from your wbfs partition you will need to save them to your pc until you format the HDD to NTFS, then just drag and drop in the .wbfs Folder.
• To load iso(s) from one main folder with sub-directories you have to go Options and select recurse sub-directories

2. Right click on the ISO(s) and select Create .WBFS file(s) with sub-directories.
This Option will create a folder for the .wbfs file. Then just put it in the USB:\wbfs

• Example....USB:\wbfs\Mad Tracks [R4IPNK]\R4IPNK.wbfs
• Example.....USB:\wbfs\Mad Tracks [R4IPNK]\R4IPNK.iso

You can change it to any of the following:

Spoiler

[Folder Set up for .wbfs or .iso | .iso must be under 4GB in size -- Using .wbfs is reccomended]
USB:\wbfs\GAMEID.wbfs/.iso (Hard to know which game is which..messy)
USB:\wbfs\Title [GAMEID].wbfs/.iso
USB:\wbfs\Title [GAMEID]\GAMEID.wbfs/.iso (Best/Clean Way, no Clutter)
USB:\wbfs\GAMEID_Title\GAMEID.wbfs/.iso

You can edit the Folder Game Title to Example:

Spoiler

MADTRACKS
MaDtRaCkS
M A D T R A C K S
As long as you include [GAME ID]
Attachment 2941

3. If the gameis more then 4GB you dont have to convert it to .wbfs(two parts) you can leave as ISO(the guide is about using .wbfs files to save hdd space)

4a. After You have converted the ISO(s) to .WBFS right click and move it to the wbfs folder on your HDD through Wii Game Manager.
(If you select more then 5+ to move This Takes Time So Be Patient)

Or

4b. Drag and Drop from the directory you saved them to your HDD wbfs folder.

You can load up one drive On A and another on B so you can transfer your games easily from one to another.

5. You can use Wii Game Manager to download covers, Print the List of the games you have etc. Explore, Learn Extra Features...really not that hard.

Using Wii Backup Manager to Convert/Transfer your ISO Backups

(This is For People with a broken Wii Drive or Badly Damaged discs that will not install Properly)
Wii Backup Manager 0.3.5



Make a Folder on you HDD called wbfs -->USB:\wbfs
This will be the directory for your games.
(You can Also make this folder with Wii Backup Manager)

1. Load up Wii Backup Manager, Select:
Options-> Settings-> You can configure how the backup manager works. Do this Before Moving On.
You can set if you want to just copy game partition or 1:1 copy of the Game, Choose the folder layout and if the .wbfs files should have sub folders, and how you want to deal with files over 4gb.

a) Select what you want to load up Files, DVD, HDD.

• You can load up your wbfs drive and convert all the iso(s) on your wbfs partition to .wbfs files making change easier. The info about your drive will be displayed at the bottom.
• If you are converting iso(s) from your wbfs partition you will have to save them to you PC until your format the HDD to NTFS, then just drag and drop in the .wbfs Folder or use the backup manager.
• You can have files in different sub directories as long as you select the main folder. All the files will load up.

2. Tick the ISO(s) you want to convert, select Transfer and choose WBFS File then select the Directory you want them to be saved to.

3. Depending on your settings when you transfer your wbfs file to the wbfs folder on your HDD.

• Example....USB:\wbfs\Mad Tracks [R4IPNK]\R4IPNK.wbfs

You can change it to any of the following:

Spoiler

[Folder Set up for .wbfs or .iso | .iso must be under 4GB in size -- Using .wbfs is reccomended]
USB:\wbfs\GAMEID.wbfs/.iso (Hard to know which game is which..messy)
USB:\wbfs\Title [GAMEID].wbfs/.iso
USB:\wbfs\Title [GAMEID]\GAMEID.wbfs/.iso (Best/Clean Way, no Clutter)
USB:\wbfs\GAMEID_Title\GAMEID.wbfs/.iso

You can edit the Folder Game Title to Example:

Spoiler

MADTRACKS
MaDtRaCkS
M A D T R A C K S
As long as you include [GAME ID]
Attachment 2941

4. 3. If the gameis more then 4GB you dont have to convert it to .wbfs(two parts) you can leave as ISO(the guide is about using .wbfs files to save hdd space)

5. You can load up one drive On Drive1 and another on Drive2 so you can transfer your games easily from one to another.

Extra Info

Cover Art
All Loaders have the ability to download cover art. If you dont have internet access on your wii then use www.wiitdb.com to acquire your covers.

Configurable USB Loader:
2D Covers - SD:/usb-loader/covers
3D Covers - SD:/usb-loader/covers/3d
Full Covers - SD:/usb-loader/covers/full

Or - USB:/

Wiifllow:
Full Covers -- SD:\wiiflow\boxcovers
2d Covers --- SD:\wiiflow\covers

USB Loader Settings

| CFG Loader | WiiFlow


Forcing PAL/NTSC

Playing PAL game on NTSC Wii -- Force NTSC

Playing NTSC game on PAL Wii -- Force PAL


Create Game Forwarder Channel's
Create Channels for your Wii Games {coming soon}


Install Hermes cIOS 222/223 v4
Instal IOS222/223/224
Wanin & Hermes cIOS Wads


Install cIOSx Rev19/20/21
Wanin & Hermes cIOS Wads

How to Extract a RAR or ZIP to USB or SD Root - USB:\ SD:\

In this guide (and others here) you will often see instructions like this
"Download [Download Link Here] Extract to SD:\ or USB:\ " (The Root (First) Directory of your USB Device or SD Card)

To Extract to the Device Root:
1. Connect the USB Device Or SD Card to your PC
2. Right click the RAR file and select "Extract Files..."
3. Browse for your USB Device or SD Card (Example "Removable Disk (F)
4. Double Click the Device. Click "OK" to Extract the RAR - Overwrite/Merge/Replace *If Asked

Frequently Asked Questions

Q. Will playing games non-stop from a USB HDD cause it to fail/break?

A. It depends, any HDD can be prone to failure. As with most things, long term repeated use will cause more wear and tear then moderate use.


Q. Will NTFS Loading work with cIOS38 Rev 17 ?

A. No. However, you can install Hermes cIOS 222/223 v4 and use that for your Loader/Games


Q. Can I use USB Loader GX with my NTFS Formatted Hard Drive?

A. Yes use 2.1


Q. Can I use .iso or do I have to convert to .wbfs?

A.You can use .iso's but there is no point. Using .WBFS files will save space on your drive. The manager will convert from .iso to .wbfs automatically.


Q. Some games converted to .wbfs.tmp. Why?

A. Your NTFS Partition does not have enough space to transfer the game.


Q. When I load games I get this error : cIOS249rev18-cIOS222v4-IOS223v4-IOS224v5 or higher required to load games from NTFS. Upgrade IOS249.

A. NTFS Loading does not work with Rev 17. You can use Hermes cIOS 222 v4 instead (Or cIOsx Rev 19 or 20).


Q. Why would I use NTFS when WBFS scrubs the game to a smaller size?

A. It doesn't! The file size once converted to .wbfs will be the same or smaller then the file loaded to the WBFS drive. Converting to .wbfs format uses the same compression method as a WBFS drive and outputs the same file format.

Q. Can I install a game from Disc to NTFS in .wbfs format?

A. Yes CFG and Wiiflow both give you the option

First time users easy process - For people swapping to NTFS from WBFS/FAT32, it is more work but you will be happy when it's done.

Credit:

Jiiwah,Benjay,Narolez - Forwarders
Ithian WiiFlow Guide
Krank - CFG Guide
Stomp - Hermes cIOS 222/223 Install Guide
Robgee - Awesome Banner

CFG Loader - oggzee,usptactical, gannon,dr clipper
USB Loader GX- dimok, nIxx, cyrex, hungip, giantpune, Neorame, wiishizzza and ardi
WiiFlow - Hibernatus,r-win,miigotu
Forwarder Source- Narolez
Customizemii - Leathl
WiiGameManager - Ppcfatman
WiiBackupManager - Fig2k4
wbfs_file.exe - Oggzee
cIOSrev19/20 - Waninkoko
cIOS222 - Hermes

FAT32 Hard Drives - Formatting, Loading, Ripping, Playing
[BEST OPTION/RECOMMENDED WORKS FOR EVERYTHING]

It is illegal to obtain/distribute backups of games you do not own.
This guide, myself, and this site DO NOT SUPPORT OR PROMOTE SOFTWARE PIRACY. Play Fair
No help will be given to individuals with questions relating to this. You have been warned!

[desperado836]

hey Cile, both the cIOS222 and cIOS249 for CFG are pointing to the same file

[Cile]

Fixed.. Thanks Desperado... wow me an mediafire really don''t get along .....

Updates

*Updated the CFG packs with v66 and added some more lines in config....+theme