External Hard Drive - As an SD card- The Possibilities!!

I've asked a bit on this before, but I did think of a few more key topics I wanted to clear up.

Firstly, are you able to set the FAT32 portion of your external hard drive as an SD card, so that you can open that partition just by simply clicking on the SD card icon on the Wii. If not, is there any similar way to make your hard drive work like this?

Next... and I've looked this up to only find dissappointment... if you do the manner above (if possible) are you able to install .wad files on the hard drive, and are you able to create wii channels on the hard drive that load from both the Wii's channel database on the menu, or in place of the SD cards channels, or is that a lost hope?

I see so many different things, and people have different answers on whether any of this can happen, and I figured that if I could gather opinions in my own topic, then maybe I could get a more straight forward answer to my question, other than trying to relate similar topics.

So lets here it:

-Can the hard drive double as the SD card?
-Would that mean it will take up the SD card icon instead of the actual SD card, and I should keep mine removed unless needed for applications that HAVE to be run from an SD? Such as certain installation programs?
-Would that mean channels can be installed on it, such as self created ones and official ones?
-Are you limited to the amount of channels allowed to show on the Wii's menu under the SD card icon like you are limited to 4 screens of channels on the actual Wii's Menu? If hard drive SD is possible, is your only limit the memory size of the partition?
-Can you install and run .WADs from a hard drive?
-If the external can run as an SD, is there a limit to the size that can be read, such as 32GBs?

If any of this can be done, and if any of you have done it, list me some of the programs that can be used, or if you used a guide, direct me in the right direction. I'm going to look more into this in the mean time.

EDIT:
What I am trying to get at with all this... is if I can get this Hard drive to double as an SD card, a backup loader for Wii games, an App launcher, run my emulators, run .WAD files, and have a channel database on it. I want it to do everything in place of the SD card pretty much. Also, the point of the channels is to cut out the whole going through HBC to load everything, just do it straight from an HDD or the Wii Menu.

My firmware is 4.2U, by the way.

Okay, for you many questions, here are some answers. =) Some answers may not be correct, and may need correction by a more experienced member.

-Can the hard drive double as the SD card?
Not technically. Not directly. There is no one app that will make the HD function exactly as an SD, but there are several options
1. Triiforce: http://www.wiihacks.com/recommended-...e-sd-card.html
This is an app to emulate NAND on your SD/HDD. Basically, it loads up a screen that looks somewhat like the wii channels screen, and you can select channels from there. It basically looks to the Hard Drive as Wii memory, and runs channels and stuff from there.
2. Forwarders: Some apps have channels that you can install as wads that will redirect the wii to look at the HD for apps.
3. SNEEK/UNEEK: I don't know much about this one, but you can search around. It basically emulates the whole wii NAND memory on an SD/HDD, and you can then run EVERYTHING from there. The USB version (which you need) is hard to find. The SD version is not. You will also have to compile the USB version yourself.
4. HBC: You already know this option. HBC can load apps from USB.
5. For backup loaders, you can load games (and the app itself) from USB using USB Loader GX. It's the best loader around, generally. There's forwarders for that.

That's all I know. If I recall another option, then I will add to this post. Good luck!

Fred

I'm liking the sound of Triiforce, and the forwarders. The thing I'm trying to do, is to make a channel to all my games on the hard drive, so each one will show up as a channel and I can preset each channels options on how to load the games. I will probably have to look into that. I know there is a way to make .WADs of the games on the USB, set what they use to load the game, such as Config USB Loader, and what methods to boot, but I need to also look into that.
Then, I would make all my emulators into channels, so that I could load them all straight from the channel menu via the hard drive or an SD card (if I absolutely have to).
The same thing with most of my apps as well, making them into WADs so that I can load them from each of their own channel on my menu.

My hopes is to cut out the middle man... the whole loading of the homebrew channel to get to the Neo Gamma or USB loader or GC Backup to run my games. I figure it would be much more convenient to find a way to do this. Plus, the nifty little app PlayStats would keep track of all the games I play, instead of adding up all my hours into one title called Homebrew channel, or NeoGamma R7... I'd rather it keep track of each individual game, so making a channel would do that. Also, I think the Wii's version of the playstats that it mails you every day would keep track of my times playing the games too. And overall, the Wii would just have a nice easy user interface if I can get all the stuff I have onto straight up channels on the menu, instead of browsing through multiple programs to get one game to work.

But anyways... Triiforce.... is that an app itself? I have heard about it, but most sights that I look to to explain it hardly do much more than tell you how to download it...

Everything u just mentioned above u can do to a certain extent, that extent being the wii's memory. Triiforce link

Triiforce, yes, that is an app itself. With USB Loader GX, it can be downloaded as a channel, and inside the loader, it records playstats for you. If you don't like that, you can make each into a channel. However, as said by Pob, the limit is the wii's memory. Once you have filled up the memory, there is no way to add more, unless you use NAND emulation.

Anyway, good luck!

Actually, as long as the playstats are recorded, and I can cut out a few of the app launching steps such as going from Wii menu to homebrew menu to NeoGamma menu just to run a game, that's fine.
What is wrong with using the NAND emulation though? Isn't that what Triiforce is capable of doing? I know it's a step to copy the entire NAND and put it in either an SD card or USB media device.
I plan to use both USB Loader GX and Config, just in case I come across a game that works with one and not the other.
I also have this guide I came across, if any would like to look at it... it tells how to make channels to load things from the USB Loader. Is that something I should also look into?

Creating Wii Channels from USB Loader | Jason's Blog

What is the USB Loader, does it just run backup iso's? Or is it capable of running .WADS installed and apps installed on the USB device? See, I would figure this out myself... but my external hard drive doesn't get here till next Monday, all these questions and figuring is to get me ready so I can decide what I will be doing with the USB device, and how I will need to configure it, to cut my time down trying to do it at the last minute when it gets here.

Crap is good for auto making channels for games but I use customizemii for other channels and forwarders.

Okay. When I use CRAP, where do the channels go? Do they go to the main Wii Menu? Or are they placed in a USB loader menu?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by fallen666shadow

Okay. When I use CRAP, where do the channels go? Do they go to the main Wii Menu? Or are they placed in a USB loader menu?

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Crap creates a .wad file which goes in the wad directory on your sd card, loaded with wadmanager creates a channel on the wii menu.

Is there a way to have apps, games, and .wads run from a usb loader menu, and have the playstats record the usage of them all?

EDIT: I saw this post... don't answer it, this was a stupid question. XD