Prepare a SD/USB

This guide will tell you how to prepare a USB device (or SD card) for various homebrew applications.

The guide will show you how to format your drive to FAT32, which is the most ideal as it is supported by almost all homebrew applications.

There are various methods to prepare a USB device, depending on what OS you have.

WARNING: Formatting or re-partitioning will erase all data on your drive! Make sure to keep backups if needed!

Choose your method:

• Windows Disk Management (Windows) - Up to 32GB drives only

• EaseUS Partition Manager (Windows)

• gParted (Linux/Any through Live CD)

Windows Disk Management (Windows)

Windows has a simple disk management utility built-in which we can use to manage our drive.

It can however only create FAT32 partitions of up to 32GB, which is small. Therefore I recommend using this only for smaller devices or SD cards.

1. Open up Disk Management

In your start menu, right click (My) Computer and choose Manage. Alternatively you can also use Run -> compmgmt.msc.

2. On the left, choose Disk Management

3. Find the drive you want to format. Right-Click on it and choose the Format option.

4. Optionally enter a name for the partition (in my case "WII"). Choose FAT32 as file system and leave the allocation unit size as default (or pick anything 32K or lower).

5. Once done, click OK and the drive will be formatted.

6. Make sure the partition is the Active partition. Right-Click it and choose "Mark Partition as Active".

Congratulations! This drive is now correctly set-up for Wii Homebrew!

EaseUS Partition Manager (Windows)

EaseUS partition manager is a free to use partition manager that gives a lot more options than the default Windows partition tool.

You can download the program from their website: http://www.partition-tool.com/landing/home-download.htm

Note that the installer for this tool will by default try to install some other programs, make sure you don't allow it to do so.

1. Install EaseUS partition manager and Launch it (Choose Partition Manager if asked)

2. Locate the drive/partition you want to format and Right-Click -> Format partition.

Make sure the partition you use for Wii homebrew is the first on the drive (if you have multiple partitions)

3. Again, give the partition a label if needed. Choose FAT32 for the file system. Also choose 32KB for the cluster size (if you are formatting an SD card, you may choose 64KB)

4. Click OK. It is important to know that it has not yet made the changes!

5. Look over your drive to make sure everything is correct (You can use the pending operations on the left side).

Once you are done, click the Apply button on the top. Then confirm the change when asked by clicking Yes.

After a short while it should say everything has been done successfully. It will then refresh the drives list.

Your drive will now be correctly formatted, but we still have to set it active for it to work.

If it is already marked active, you can skip step 6.

6. Right click the partition again. This time choose Set active. Click OK to confirm. Then again click Apply to actually make the change.

Congratulations, your drive is now correctly set-up for Wii Homebrew!

gParted (Linux / Any through LiveCD )

gParted is a free partition editor for Linux based operating systems, but it can be used on any computer through a Live CD.

There are multiple tutorials on how to create a live CD/USB if you need it.

1. Launch gParted (how is up to you). It will scan all your drives for partitions.

2. Change to the correct drive with the dropdown box on the upper-right. You will see all partitions on the drive.

Note: The name may be different for your drive! The above is an example.

3. Find the partition you want to edit and make sure it is unmounted (else the format option will be blanked out).

You can right-click the partition and choose Unmount in gParted.

4. Right click the partition again, go to format and choose FAT32. It should now appear as a pending operation on the bottom.

5. On the top, click the Apply icon to apply the changes (Or go to Edit -> Apply All Operations). Then confirm by clicking Apply.

It will format the partition and refresh the drives list.

6. To make the partition active, right click it and choose Manage Flags. Make sure the boot flag is set and close the dialog.

Congratulations, your drive is now correctly set-up for Wii Homebrew!