Efficiently managing my wii HDD

Hi, Im having trouble deciding how to manage my HDD. From what i have read the need to partition is no more. I'm coming from a wbfs+ntfs partitioned drive. The wbfs is for backups while the ntfs is for pc purposes (backups, music, videos etc). I'm currently stuck because i want to be able to have space for my wii and PC purposes but i also want to include some of my old Gamecube backups. I know that fat32 is a preferred format among the softmodders, but i heard something about it splitting wii backups into 2 parts. Also, i know that you have to format to fat32 with a 32kb cache for gamecube backups. Im wondering if i should have 2 partitions or just one or even 3. Lastly, i want my wii isos to remain as ciso not iso so that i can retain some space, and i think only wbfs can do this. Suggestions would be appreciated. I would like to include nand emulation also.

I only have fat32 with 32k clusters as a 1 tb hd. plays everything I throw at it. one important thing about dios mios is you have to make sure your drive has an option to not go into sleep mode, as the drive needs to be on all the time or else various games lock up when they need to load. I use a western digital.

Thanks for your input. I was wondering can i load a ciso file on Ntfs or does it have to be an iso? do you know? Also, i want to be able to use my hardrive for big media files on my pc so i don't think that fat32 is the one singular answer. I think i may go with 2 partitions fat32 and NTFS

cios files are custom ios files, files that exist on you nand or emunand that your games use to run. ciso would be a new one on me. make sure fat32 is the first partition if you decide to make the change. you could always run dml off of an sd card if you only want to run a few games.

lol, ciso is a scrubbed iso file. It's a wii game iso that has been cut down from all the unnecessary disc data. I was wondering if a usb loader could play these files from an NTFS drive. Thanks for your help i think i have the information that i need to move on

cIOS = custom system IOS file

CISO = Compressed ISO game image

If you wish to continue using compressed WBFS formatted games, fear not. With a NTFS or FAT32 HDD 32kb clusters (primary and active) you can play GameCube games via Devolution or DIOS MIOS (look into both and see which you like better, you can use them in sync as well if desired), Wii games in WBFS or ISO format (use Wii Backup Manager to load the games and in the settings you can tell it to make the games WBFS or ISO...some games, mostly the big ones of 8gb, will be split into 2 files but they will show as 1 single game in your loader so no worries about needing to load them separately...2 files but they play as 1).