Hacking What was the point of the WBFS file system?

[Deleted User]

Back in 2009 in the really early days of USB loaders we didn't load a .wbfs file from an NTFS or FAT32 formatted hard drive. We had to format an entire portion of a hard drive to WBFS (Wii Backup File System). USB loaders have undergone huge improvements in the last 8 years.

But I beg the question, was there any point to the WBFS file system in the first place? As far as I know it was just Waninkoko trying to fuck with the scene. Something he did very well if you read through some old hackmii posts.

 

[BlackWizzard17]

My guess would be easier to handle. Less of a Hassel to format your USB drive.
Also improvement to these loaders also allowed your SD card to load games and still be supported by the wii it's self with FAT32.

Of course you could probably have a loader that reads an .iso file but the .wbfs seems to shave off any extra unused disc space which is also useful. Not to sure, when I arrived on the hacking scene in 2011 it was the norm to use these .wbfs files.

 

[Shadow#1]

Was because all we had was wbfs formatted partition to work with

 

[GreyWolf]

There probably wasn't a FAT32 or NTFS library at the time.

 

[Sticksandstones]

Your question:

Was there any point to the WBFS file system in the first place?

Your answer:

USB loaders have undergone huge improvements in the last 8 years.

GreyWolf is right. Earlier, WBFS was just what was made to support USB loading through Wii before they figured out how to add support for more common file systems.
That was the point of it back then, but now that we have FAT32 support, WBFS is completely obsolete. It's not uncommon for backups to still be in .wbfs format outside of the WBFS file system, since loaders still recognize these in FAT32 file systems.

 

[GreyWolf]

The more recent versions of libWBFS were virtualized. They can open FAT32/NTFS/ext2 as if they were a WBFS partition and read the disc images that way. The "disc.nfo" file contains the data that a WBFS partition header would have had.

 

[eyeliner]

I know I'm shoveling a cadaveric corpse, but does someone somewhere know where can I find info on wbfs files?
I'd like to know how an ISO is converted to wbfs.

Or at least a .dll.

Much praise your way.

 

[Cyan]

the wbfs partition format has a header (1 sector to list number of games, each byte keep track of one game, so 512byte/sector drive could hold up to 500 games max + 12byte reserved). Then each game had a list of wbfs blocks (1 wbfs block = multiple hdd sectors) assigned to them.
the wbfs format was a raw data, without any file system table. Sector 0 was the header, then following sectors are the bloc list and (fragmented) game's data.

The wbfs file is just the same raw data, but inside a file system. it's like multiple individual WBFS partition stored on the file system. The FAT32 table has the information of the start of the header, and all its game's used blocs, stored as a file.wbfs on the FAT32 partition.
For convenience, it was decided that each .wbfs file would hold only one game. we never tried to support a multi-game wbfs file, thought wwt might be compatible.

for the wbfs format specification, I guess you can look at Wiimm's wit/wwt website, or libwbfs sources (https://github.com/kwiirk/wbfs/tree/master/libwbfs for example, it's a fork)
the "wbfs file" was created by Oggzee, based on kwiirk's wbfs. I have his (old) program's sources v1.4 if no new version can be found online anymore.

 

[eyeliner]

@Cyan Thank you, my friend.

I don't C very well, so I guess I'll have to use an external lib, or program.

 

[smf]

The wbfs file is just the same raw data, but inside a file system.

It's barely a file system, each game had to be contiguous. When you removed games the free space was fragmented, so you could not be able to add games that you should have plenty of space for.

I believe it was dealing with fragmentation that put him off supporting fat32 in the first place.

 

[Cyan]

I uploaded wbfs file v1.4 here : https://gbatemp.net/download/wbfs_file.35275/
It's probably an old version, I don't have 2.x
but it could be useful to learn how the format works and how to convert from WBFS partition to FAT32.
You can also look at the python script in my signature, wbfs2fat ! it's converting a full WBFS partition to FAT32 in 1 second with all games renamed and converted to files.

smf :
I agree WBFS partition wasn't a file system. That's what I said above. But there where no issue with fragmentation. Wiimm did a lot of tests to see if the fragmentation was a problem, but based on the bloc size the fragmentation was unnoticeable. FAT32 and NTFS are fragmenting files a lot more than WBFS did. It's still not a problem as WBFS lib can load more than 10 000 fragments per game. (edit: max fragment is set to 20 000)
what I meant with "inside the file system" is about the .wbfs file, it's a WBFS partition, with one single game, inside a FAT32's file system container.
I talked about FAT32 when I said the wbfs file is "inside a file system"


and with WBFS partition format, you could add new games in the fragmented space without issues. (well, with the fixed wbfs lib, because the first release had a fragmentation bug that WBFS manager kept). The WBFS format is purposely based on fragmentation, with a block map kept updated.

 

[joshiors]

Hi.
I've been reading this post seeing how go from wbfs to FAT32 my HDD. But now, I'm reading some comparisons wbfs vs FAT32, and they keep saying that keeping it in wbfs is better, for speed, simplicity, etc. Which do you think that will the best option?
The forums that I read were from 2010/2011, so I don't know I they are still true or things have changed.

 

[AkikoKumagara]

Hi.
I've been reading this post seeing how go from wbfs to FAT32 my HDD. But now, I'm reading some comparisons wbfs vs FAT32, and they keep saying that keeping it in wbfs is better, for speed, simplicity, etc. Which do you think that will the best option?
The forums that I read were from 2010/2011, so I don't know I they are still true or things have changed.

Don't use WBFS partition anymore, but do use .wbfs files.

 

[Proli]

i honestly dont really know

 

[joshiors]

Don't use WBFS partition anymore, but do use .wbfs files.

but why? In this thread some says that is obsolete vs fat32, but what are the reasons? Being in wbfs seems to be all pros

 

[Ryccardo]

For one, it's not a general purpose filesystem and is supported by no other software on the Wii, nor by any computer operating system

It may well have been invented due to a limitation in CIOS - when you select a disc image in an USB loader, it writes to nand a block list of where to find the virtual disc (so the CIOS doesn't care for filesystem or, up to a point, fragmentation) but maybe it wasn't like that at first?

Hell, when Waninkoko's "SD/USB Loader" was first invented, the only precedent ("famous" software ODE for a console) was the PS2's HDLoader, which also went (in retrospective) with some stupid choices

 

[AkikoKumagara]

but why? In this thread some says that is obsolete vs fat32, but what are the reasons? Being in wbfs seems to be all pros

There's not really a need for it anymore. All modern USB loaders support other filesystems which are more easily manageable in computer operating systems (a big plus if you ever want to quickly + easily load new titles onto your drive). Plus .wbfs format for games exist, so even the file size benefits achieved by having a WBFS partition are no longer exclusive to it.

 

[The Real Jdbye]

but why? In this thread some says that is obsolete vs fat32, but what are the reasons? Being in wbfs seems to be all pros

You can't put GameCube games or ROMs on it, that alone is a pretty big reason. Obviously, you also can't store coverart and USB loader settings and such on it, but that's not such a huge deal.
With a FAT32 formatted HDD, an SD card is not even needed, as homebrew can be loaded off the HDD, and emuNAND can also be loaded off the HDD (which WAD files can be installed to). Some people prefer loading everything off the HDD, but it's a matter of taste.

 

[joshiors]

Plus .wbfs format for games exist, so even the file size benefits

With a FAT32 formatted HDD, an SD card is not even needed

oh. These were the reasons why I thought wbfs was better. Thanks for the replies.
One question. I don't think if is much for this thread but now that I plan formatting HDD to FAT32, and knowing there's no need of SD card, my WII was hacked 2009 and never updated again. If I turn to FAT32, I guess there will be issues: how can I update it, or how update homebrew to read FAT32 hard disks?

 

[AkikoKumagara]

oh. These were the reasons why I thought wbfs was better. Thanks for the replies.
One question. I don't think if is much for this thread but now that I plan formatting HDD to FAT32, and knowing there's no need of SD card, my WII was hacked 2009 and never updated again. If I turn to FAT32, I guess there will be issues: how can I update it, or how update homebrew to read FAT32 hard disks?

The main thing you'd need to do is to drop in the latest versions of the homebrew apps you use. You can do this manually or with something like OSC's Homebrew Browser if your Wii is connected to the web. Many things, even from 2009, may just work with your FAT32 drive, but there are plenty of other improvements since then to a lot of apps.