best wasy to format a wii hdd

[the man]

hi guys
any tips on the best way / program to format a hdd for the wii? easyer the better
thanks guys

[happy_highlander]

Depends what you want to format it to. If it's wbfs then use either wbfs manager or wii backup manager. If it's fat32 then either wii backup manager or aeseus partition master home edition. All are free.

[Keithuk]

Well I use WBFS Manager 3.0 as its simple and easy to use.

WBFS Manager 4.0 is out if you it but its on another Wii forum which we aren't encouraged to show.

[the man]

thanks guys

prob is , i got a loaded one from ebay with games on it ,
and got a new one
when i copy the loaded one to the new hdd , the new hdd works but is very slow to lad games (ebay one takes 1,2 seconds to load a game , new one 5/10 seconds)
could it be a bad hdd? or is there any thing i can do to sopt it out ?
thanks guys

[Keithuk]

First off what type of HDD's do you have a USB powered or a mains powered drive?

Some people can get the self powered drives to work and some can't the problem being is these drives can use a bit of power to operate and the USB port near the edge doesn't supply that, the other one does but you can't use that one. Not all HDD's work USB Compatibility List

What size are these drives?

I bought 2 1TB FreeAgent GlowFlex drive 3 months ago for ?55 (now ?75) and they work though the price has gone up alot since.

When you bought it some Wii games where pre-installed how is it formatted FAT32, NTFS or WBFS? Windows will read FAT32 and NTFS but not WBFS. So how it did you copy the games of the eBay drive to your other drive?

Which USB Loaders are you using?

I will comment more when you answer what I've asked?

[the man]

there WD 1t ac powered , did 2 before and they was fine , i just cant remember how i did them tbh ,

fat 32 via wiimanager you linked to ,
all the games seam to start but take 5 + seconds to load ,

im trying to defragment hdd , see if that helps

When you bought it some Wii games where pre-installed how is it formatted FAT32 yes

copyed by graging and droping ( other 2 i did the same)

thanks mate

[Keithuk]

im trying to defragment hdd , see if that helps

I wouldn't bother with a defrag as someone on here did that now no games worked.

I think you can drag and drop the game iso's from one drive to another.

fat 32 via wiimanager you linked to ,

It was HH that told you about FAT32 as I've only use WBFS Manager on my old 120GB drive and my new 1TB drive.

Well if you wanted to be sure that the drive was good sector wise then you would need to remove all files but if these are in bad sectors they could be corrupted. You would need to do a FULL format not the Quick format of the drive to NTFS that will initially show up any bad sectors. Then set it to do a Scandisk on startup and a chkdsk to make sure all sectors are error free. I'm sorry but this will take a long time to do on a 1TB drive but then you will know the drive has no faults/errors.

Then I would install WBFS Manager 3.0 and format the drive WBFS (3 seconds) then add your saved iso files and add the back to the drive.

Did you check if your drives are in that USB Compatibilty List?

[the man]

I wouldn't bother with a defrag as someone on here did that now no games worked.

I think you can drag and drop the game iso's from one drive to another.



It was HH that told you about FAT32 as I've only use WBFS Manager on my old 120GB drive and my new 1TB drive.

Well if you wanted to be sure that the drive was good sector wise then you would need to remove all files but if these are in bad sectors they could be corrupted. You would need to do a FULL format not the Quick format of the drive to NTFS that will initially show up any bad sectors. Then set it to do a Scandisk on startup and a chkdsk to make sure all sectors are error free. I'm sorry but this will take a long time to do on a 1TB drive but then you will know the drive has no faults/errors.

Then I would install WBFS Manager 3.0 and format the drive WBFS (3 seconds) then add your saved iso files and add the back to the drive.

Did you check if your drives are in that USB Compatibilty List?

thanks , i only have the wbfs files not ios , the rives are all the same and on that list ,
i think i need to do slow format , but it could take days?
it just stays on 1 % for a long time , just testting the games there taking there time loading but seam fine once loaded , i will keep an eye on it
thanks again kind sir

[Keithuk]

i only have the wbfs files not ios

Ok then providing you have copied these wbfs files to your computer or somewhere then you can convert a wbfs file to an iso file with either Wii Game Manager 1.5.0.2, Wii Game Converter GXS or Wii Backup Manager to add back to a WBFS drive. Now its very strange WBFS Manager won't load wbfs files don't you think?

I've used the first two and they work great. wbfs file are smaller 1.5GB compared with iso 4.5GB.

[happy_highlander]

I would advise to format to fat 32 instead of wbfs. Wbfs is very good at what it does and is stable but is very limited to only working on usb loaders and files being visible by third party program. Nowadays almost all loaders can be run direct from hdd on fat 32 without the need for an sd card. Fat 32 is now way up there in terms of stability as wbfs, all files can be seen without third party apps films and loaders can all be stored on it, it is compatible with nand emulation and for partial emulation where you use your hdd to store your game saves instead of your wii's very limited memory. The only downside is that no file bigger than 4gb could be stored on it, making dual layer games a problem. That however has now been solved by wii backup manager consistently and successfully automatically splitting the game at the correct point to enable full gameplay without any problems loading the second part of the game. This is done by adding the game to the drive as though it was a standard game.

[Keithuk]

The only downside is that no file bigger than 4gb could be stored on it, making dual layer games a problem.

Well most iso's are 4.5GB so your stuffed unless you converted them all to wbfs which are alot smaller.

Everyone to their own but I prefer WBFS Manager its simple and easy to use like me. It also tells you the game type PAL, NTFS or RF and its ID number.

[happy_highlander]

Well most iso's are 4.5GB so your stuffed unless you converted them all to wbfs which are alot smaller.

Everyone to their own but I prefer WBFS Manager its simple and easy to use like me. It also tells you the game type PAL, NTFS or RF and its ID number.

Backup manager converts iso's to wbfs just as wbfs manager does so it is only the four or five dual layer games that used to cause a problem and as well a giving you all the info that about the game that wbfs tells you it gives the added bonus of telling you what original ios the game runs on taking the guess work out of what cios and base number to use, if you remember the base number relates to the original ios the games use.

[the man]

thanks all

update , was not really the hdd , when i have the loder on the hdd its slow to load games , so put loader on sd card and now its fine , the box has a wii key in it so im unsure if this is the problom ?

thanks guysr

[N8Parks]

I wouldn't bother with a defrag as someone on here did that now no games worked.

Yeah, that was me. NEVER EVER DEFRAG wii games hdd. It will screw up some if not all of your games, and you will have to back and install all of your games again.

[the man]

Yeah, that was me. NEVER EVER DEFRAG wii games hdd. It will screw up some if not all of your games, and you will have to back and install all of your games again.

i did it and it was fine ,