Hacking FAT32 vs NTFS vs WBFS

[ToddofWar420]

Is there anyway to convert from FAT32 to NTFS without losing any of my games?? I tried to do it with Windows Command but it fails everytime and I do it exactly but its says convert failed when done. Is there like a program out there that can do this without the hassles? Thanks.

try doing a format that should be a choice of the format type(i think)

I have already tried that.

 

[DwightSchrute]

Oh, I can't decide now. What all will I need FAT32 for besides ripping games? I'm trying to decide how big of a partition to make.

 

[Mantis41]

Is there anyway to convert from FAT32 to NTFS without losing any of my games?? I tried to do it with Windows Command but it fails everytime and I do it exactly but its says convert failed when done. Is there like a program out there that can do this without the hassles? Thanks.

try doing a format that should be a choice of the format type(i think)

I have already tried that.

Google easeus and download their partition manager software. It is free and a brilliant program.

 

[ToddofWar420]

Is there anyway to convert from FAT32 to NTFS without losing any of my games?? I tried to do it with Windows Command but it fails everytime and I do it exactly but its says convert failed when done. Is there like a program out there that can do this without the hassles? Thanks.

try doing a format that should be a choice of the format type(i think)

I have already tried that.

Google easeus and download their partition manager software. It is free and a brilliant program.

Thanks Mantis41. I will give it a try.

 

[the_randomizer]

NTFS all the way

Store virtually an file size (fat32 has limitation of

 

[DwightSchrute]

I asked this earlier but I didn't really get an answer. I don't want to be pushy or annoying, but is there a way to rip games to a FAT32 partition and then transfer them to an NTFS partition on the same drive?

 

[Haloman800]

NTFS all the way

Store virtually an file size (fat32 has limitation of

 

[the_randomizer]

How can you tell SSBB has decreased sound quality, do you have an audio comparison I can listen to? I didn't think USB Loader GX had NTFS support.

 

[Mantis41]

I use NTFS now as I had problems with wiiflow on FAT32 and I found FAT32 a little slower under cfg loader. When I was using FAT32 the utilities I used to convert the files just split the WBFS for me. I have not bothered merging them again now I am on NTFS as they work fine and I don't see the point. You do not need to compress them to use FAT32.

 

[smf]

Do you have Super Smash Bros. Brawl on there? The trimmed .wbfs alone is near 7GBs think there's a "compressed" version made to fit on single-layer discs, but it removes the cut-scenes and drastically decreases sound quality.

You can run the full version of super smash bros brawl from FAT32, it's not a problem. Any game larger than 4gb is automatically split into multiple files.

It's easier to use a single FAT32 partition if you only use the drive for the Wii. You can fall back to NTFS if you really need to but it's not as convenient.

 

[Cyan]

I asked this earlier but I didn't really get an answer. I don't want to be pushy or annoying, but is there a way to rip games to a FAT32 partition and then transfer them to an NTFS partition on the same drive?

I don't see what problem you could have.

Dumping a game = creating a file on your hard drive.
That file can be copied/moved/deleted/send/shared/pirated/hacked/translated/modified/etc. as much you want.

Dump your game on any FAT2/NTFS/Ext partition, then use your computer to move that file(s) to any other FAT32/NTFS/Ext partition.
You can even use your Wii to move the files with Wiixplorer.



Split files is not ONLY 4GB, it can be 2GB too, or any size.
It has no effect on the USBloader or while playing the game.
On NTFS or Ext, you can have the file in a single piece (8GB .wbfs file), or in 4 pieces (wbfs, wbf1, wbf2, wbf3), and it would be the exact same thing. so for me it's better to have them split, so you can place them on all possible partition format.
just copy the files on another HDD or partition, and it's that easy.

 

[PsyBlade]

I asked this earlier but I didn't really get an answer. I don't want to be pushy or annoying, but is there a way to rip games to a FAT32 partition and then transfer them to an NTFS partition on the same drive?

You would need to

setup the loader to use partition F (fat32)
rip the game
copy the game from F to N (ntfs) eg using a computer
change the setup of the loader from F to N
play it

its certainly possible but completely and utterly useless imho
why anyone would want to do that is beyond me

 

[DwightSchrute]

I was asking because I was pretty much set on making one FAT32 partition and possibly an NTFS partition for computer files, but Mantis said that the Wii loads games more quickly from NTFS, so I considered making the bulk of the drive NTFS and making a smaller portion FAT32 to use for Homebrew and ripping games, but I think now I'll just make most of the drive FAT32 and use it for loading games and just deal with the possibility of slow loading times.

Also, I have USB Loader GX, CFG Loader, and Wiiflow on my Wii (becase that's what the youtube tutorial told me to do). I could care less about the interface of the loader as long as it loads the games correctly. I mostly use USB Loader and sometimes CFG Loader, but I haven't really tried Wiiflow.

 

[PsyBlade]

whats so bad about ripping to NTFS?

btw I only expect the loader to be faster with ntfs, not the game

 

[XFlak]

writing to NTFS has come a long way. I wouldn't say it's 100% stable, but it seems to be getting close as I haven't heard about it causing problems for quite some time now.

Main arguments for your Wii hard drive to be formatted as FAT32 over any other file system:
-can be used via the homebrew channel to load apps (if using NTFS, u'll have to install\use a forwarder channel channel with ntfs support)
-can be used to load emulated nands for use with uneek, uneek+di, mighty channels, postloader, triiforce, etc.
-can be used to load games via sneek+di and uneek+di
-IIRC, aside from usbloaders, most other apps (e.g. wad managers, mymenuify, some emulators) only support FAT32 when loading wads\roms\myms\etc.
-same hard drive can be used on jailbroken PS3s (which requires FAT32)


There is only one drawback to using FAT32, which is you can't save single files larger than 4GB to it (with the exception of wii games which can be split). So unless you're using the same HDD to store HD movies or PC game ISOs or something, that will probably never even be an issue for most people. And the nonsense about NTFS being faster than FAT32 is exactly that, nonsense.

 

[Dr Eggman]

Actually, I think it's possible for NTFS to be faster than FAT32 - depends on sector size though (4kb vs 512 etc etc, don't quote me )

Don't even consider WBFS; old, outdated, prone to fragmentation, not resizable, and you can't recover. It's too much hassle.
I personally use FAT32 because of an important reason mentioned by XFlak above - The PS3 is ONLY compatible with FAT32.
Not sure if multiple partitions are supported on PS3, but if you do use it for movies etc with your PS3, FAT32 is the way to go.
The only downside as mentioned is you cannot store files larger than 4GB. But you can split files if needed.

 

[ToddofWar420]

I'm currently converting my drive from FAT32 to NTFS. My question is do I keep my Wii games in .wbfs format in a wbfs folder on the root of the drive, or do I have to set it up a different way?

 

[JoostinOnline]

I'm currently converting my drive from FAT32 to NTFS. My question is do I keep my Wii games in .wbfs format in a wbfs folder on the root of the drive, or do I have to set it up a different way?

Just leave it as FAT32 and avoid problems.

 

[ToddofWar420]

I use WiiFlow and I converted from a WBFS drive. Since I converted to FAT32, I had more problems with my drive. Like WiiFlow don't always pick up my drive partition and I have to reset my Wii and it sucks too. So I want to try out NTFS to see what its like.

 

[stomp_442]

I've been using a wbfs formatted hdd since waninkoko's first usbloader release. Never quite needed to change it to fat32 or ntfs since the drive is full and will only be used for Wii games, it just don't make sense for me to change the format. I can't see why somebody would say that WBFS format is obsolete, it works great and will never be out dated, the usbloader will always support WBFS fromatted usb hdd, not to mention Neogamma will only read a WBFS partition from a SD card to load Wii games. But, if I upgrade to a new usb hdd, then FAT32 is what I will use.