optimum placement of files on the usb

[ber71]

Can't find any related thread but I think it may be useful to others.
I've got a large fat32 drive, for storing (v)wii and other stuff. Bored of waiting up to two minutes when launching any wbfs game, or any snes9xgx game, but without any errors, started to investigate.
These long delays happens mostly when there is some write operation, such as storing the last game played, statistics and such.
There are two most probable culprits:
- Too many files on the drive
- Bad performance for searching holes for placement of new files.
Both of them could be ultimately caused by the small RAM available at the wii. The wii is unable to cache the full ram table (just the table, not the volume).
I proceeded to defragment the drive. The delays lowered, to 50sec approximately, which still sucks.
Drastic measures. Moved all files to another drive. Put some big dummy files, several GB, inside the empty drive. Bring back all the files. Deleted the dummy files, so there is a very big hole for new files at the very beginning of the disk.
Result? No delays. Any wbfs loads in under 1sec.

TLDR: just after formatting any usb disk for wii, put several gb of dummy files, put all the games you're going to need, and delete these dummy files. Then, keep the drive for wii usage only, because if you write new files such as movies you will lose the space allocated at the beginning of the disk.
This will optimize the i/o for daily usage.

 

[Alexander1970]

Good Morning.

Can't find any related thread but I think it may be useful to others.
I've got a large fat32 drive, for storing (v)wii and other stuff. Bored of waiting up to two minutes when launching any wbfs game, or any snes9xgx game, but without any errors, started to investigate.
These long delays happens mostly when there is some write operation, such as storing the last game played, statistics and such.
There are two most probable culprits:
- Too many files on the drive
- Bad performance for searching holes for placement of new files.
Both of them could be ultimately caused by the small RAM available at the wii. The wii is unable to cache the full ram table (just the table, not the volume).
I proceeded to defragment the drive. The delays lowered, to 50sec approximately, which still sucks.
Drastic measures. Moved all files to another drive. Put some big dummy files, several GB, inside the empty drive. Bring back all the files. Deleted the dummy files, so there is a very big hole for new files at the very beginning of the disk.
Result? No delays. Any wbfs loads in under 1sec.

TLDR: just after formatting any usb disk for wii, put several gb of dummy files, put all the games you're going to need, and delete these dummy files. Then, keep the drive for wii usage only, because if you write new files such as movies you will lose the space allocated at the beginning of the disk.
This will optimize the i/o for daily usage.

A very good Choice.



Honestly,I do not really understand,why a HDD for a special (a Wii for Example) Console is used for other Consoles....
Or storing PC Stuff on it....

HDDs are not really expensive these Days and is it really necessary to have ALL Roms/ISO´s/Games on ONE Single HDD.....?

Maybe.....it saves physical Space....but it do not save your Nerves...for sure.....

 

[tswntk]

If you are sure it is the writing operations to the HDD that caused the delay, why don't you use the Wii's SD slot to store all homebrew apps and limit all writing operations to the SD card? It help save wear and tear to the HDD too.
I personally never have any issue with delays from day one since the SD comes with the Wii and SD are cheap nowadays and much easier to backup.

PS. IIRC, Nintendont is the only app I come across that insists on writing to the device where the games are stored and that is the main reason why I switched to Dolphin and never look back on gamecube gaming.
I never used any emulator from the Wii since the PC is much more powerful and flexible. Don't know if any of those behaves like Nintemdont. So my Wii as well as the HDD are solely for Wii gaming.

 

[ber71]

If you are sure it is the writing operations to the HDD that caused the delay, why don't you use the Wii's SD slot to store all homebrew apps and limit all writing operations to the SD card? It help save wear and tear to the HDD too.
I personally never have any issue with delays from day one since the SD comes with the Wii and SD are cheap nowadays and much easier to backup.

Yeah forgot to say that. I tested a mixed setup as you suggested, with almost no delays. Most probably, because the sd is way smaller so its file allocation table does fit in memory. However, call me maniac, I don't trust sd cards, so wanted a pure usb setup.