Hacking Wii backup Manager for Windows

[Cyan]

Wii Backup Manager does not work with gamecube games. I don't know why you keep trying to do it with that program, it's a WII program, not gamecube renamer/installer.


You don't need the titleID in the blue part ! that's the thing ! "whatever YOU want", as long as it's not 6 letters followed by underscore (because it could conflict with the loader thinking it's a TitleID6)

games/zelda/game.iso !! working fine
games/mario/game.iso works fine too
games/luigis_mansion/game.iso <-- will have cover issue, gametdb will search for a gameID "LUIGIS".

"Luigi's mansion" is fine, "Luigi_mansion" too, but not 6 letters followed by underscore.

 

[TheRiceKing]

Wii Backup Manager does not work with gamecube games. I don't know why you keep trying to do it with that program, it's a WII program, not gamecube renamer/installer.


You don't need the titleID in the blue part ! that's the thing ! "whatever YOU want", as long as it's not 6 letters (because it could conflict with the loader thinking it's a TitleID6)

I am not insisting on using Wii Backup Manager. I explained to you earlier that the reason I tried to do it with that tool is because it had some GameCube tools like finding the cover.

Look on the screenshot below and try to understand as to why I was trying with this tool. Look how far I got. If the tool wasn't meant to be use the way I was trying then why did it even let me get that far? Nothing said it wasn't unsupported. My guess is that is was poorly written and not setup to grey out the option to rename when detecting GameCcbe games.

 

[sideskroll]

Game limit question.

1. I have a 2TB HDD formatted with FAT32 32KB cluster. Is there a limit to how many GameCube games I am allowed to have in order for the games to display on USBLoader?

2. I ask because my backup games ISOs aren't showing up in USBLoader GX. (All however show in Nintendont)

3. I think is because I need to properly rename the GameCube ISOs, however I tried the tools provided at GameTDB without success. Wii Backup Manager can see and download GameCube covers but fails to rename (crashes) It also fails to transfer from one drive to the other. (crashes)

4. Can someone recommend a GameCube ISO renaming tool?

@GreyWolf ask him for his GCN tool.

 

[Cyan]

He said "I tried ALL your suggestions and none worked" when I suggested greywolf tool.
even DMToolbox doesn't work for him ! (yeah, I suggested that one too)



Downloading cover can be done with anything (wii, gamecube, other file with proper header).
the program just get the URL based on the titleID you provide, so of course it "can" download covers on gametdb website. it doesn't mean it was designed to be compatible with gamecube just because it can download "any" URL.
that program could even have messed your gamecube games by trying to rename them the "wii" way. hopefully you didn't enable the "auto rename" option.

I also don't see why you persist to get covers from that program by using a method which is not the proper way, when USB loaders can download covers and even more things (cheats, animated banners) directly from the console.
but, if you like to mess with how a program is designed just to trick it in order to get files from a website that you could have get from ... direct link on the website with your PC internet browser. https://www.gametdb.com/Wii/Downloads#cover_packs

 

[GreyWolf]

I don't have it anymore. :/

There was some kind of script that someone made to rearrange GC games but I don't have a link to the topic. I think it's in the Emulation & Homebrew section.

EDIT: https://gbatemp.net/threads/transfe...older-in-game-iso-format.501469/#post-7925080

 

[TheRiceKing]

He said "I tried ALL your suggestions and none worked" when I suggested greywolf tool.
even DMToolbox doesn't work for him ! (yeah, I suggested that one too)



Downloading cover can be done with anything (wii, gamecube, other file with proper header).
the program just get the URL based on the titleID you provide, so of course it "can" download covers on gametdb website. it doesn't mean it was designed to be compatible with gamecube just because it can download "any" URL.
that program could even have messed your gamecube games by trying to rename them the "wii" way. hopefully you didn't enable the "auto rename" option.

I also don't see why you persist to get covers from that program by using a method which is not the proper way, when USB loaders can download covers and even more things (cheats, animated banners) directly from the console.
but, if you like to mess with how a program is designed just to trick it in order to get files from a website that you could have get from ... direct link on the website with your PC internet browser. https://www.gametdb.com/Wii/Downloads#cover_packs

Dude relax. I did PM @GreyWolf about his program, I did try DMToolBox and I already knew about downloading the cover packs directly from GameTDB. BTW - USBLoader GX doesn't download or use full covers. It only uses front, 3D and disc. I wanted the full covers too. My main thing was renaming the folders and files correctly so it can work perfectly.

You clarified to me last night that all I needed was to rename all the ISOs to game.iso which I already knew it would work that way however, Nintendont no longer needs that file name scheme unless is a two disc game [game.iso, disc2.iso]

I was hoping I can rename all my ISOs with the GameTDB naming scheme gamename [ID].iso because is more elegant and more organize but apparently USBLoader still requires the old game.iso in each folder naming scheme in order to see it.

Anyways, I did it the less elegant way and renamed all my ISOs to game.iso and disc2.iso Everything is working perfect and I have all the covers available from GameTDB

PS: Why I prefer using Wii Backup Manager to grab covers? Because is faster than the Wii and I can get extra covers that USB Loader doesn't use but I still want.

 

[Cyan]

USBloaderGX download full covers too. they are used when looking at the 3D box art. press 1 (or 2, I always forget) on the wiimote, or X or Y on gamecube controller.

 

[Myster]

hey everything works great, with my 32 gb flash drive. the wii can read m y 2tb but....when transferring more than half of the titles are invalid, but i can see them in explorer.
settings are normal, fat-32, 64 kb allocation, what am i dong wrong? i do just what i do with the 32gb

 

[Jerzeeloon]

Dude relax. I did PM @GreyWolf about his program, I did try DMToolBox and I already knew about downloading the cover packs directly from GameTDB. BTW - USBLoader GX doesn't download or use full covers. It only uses front, 3D and disc. I wanted the full covers too. My main thing was renaming the folders and files correctly so it can work perfectly.

You clarified to me last night that all I needed was to rename all the ISOs to game.iso which I already knew it would work that way however, Nintendont no longer needs that file name scheme unless is a two disc game [game.iso, disc2.iso]

I was hoping I can rename all my ISOs with the GameTDB naming scheme gamename [ID].iso because is more elegant and more organize but apparently USBLoader still requires the old game.iso in each folder naming scheme in order to see it.

Anyways, I did it the less elegant way and renamed all my ISOs to game.iso and disc2.iso Everything is working perfect and I have all the covers available from GameTDB

PS: Why I prefer using Wii Backup Manager to grab covers? Because is faster than the Wii and I can get extra covers that USB Loader doesn't use but I still want.

@TheRiceKing
It seems you already solved your issue but for future reference there is a program in the pctools folder of the latest wiiflow mastermod pack called GameCube folder renamer that automatically renames all folders to you choice of [gameID]gamename, gamename [gameID] or just [GameID]. I'm in a similar situation as you were as I am dependent upon the Wii Backup Manager to provide full cover art for my GameCube games because I simply cannot connect to my network connection with my Wii and have no ability to download assets through the backup loader itself. I had downloaded the full pack offered directly from Wiitdb that provided the 3d covers required by ulgx but as you said it doesn't include full covers required by wiiflow and my latest endeavor was setting up Wiiflow with plugins as a single solution frontend to play all my Wii,gcn games and retro roms. I was able to find full covers for most retro ROMs here on gbatemp and used Wii backup manager for Wii full covers. But unfortunately as you said I wasn't able to get Wii backup manager to recognize my GameCube isos even when I had folders renamed to show proper gameID. It still just scans the games as game.iso and creates a wbfs folder on my gamecube partition. I'm not familiar with all the capabilities of Wii backup manager I understand it's not directly compatible with GameCube isos but considering the Wiitdb has GameCube covers in the same library as Wii covers using the same gameID conventions you would imagine there is or at least should be a way to aquire your gamecube covers through it. I see the moderator was insistent that you use the said loaders built in ability to download assets but unfortunately it's not an option for me cause my Wii won't connect to my network. My original Wii wouldn't regardless of settings and even though my Wii U has connection to my network when I switch to Wii mode it again doesn't have connection. So I'm with you in there should be alternative solutions to aquire assets in advent of not having the primary ability available. For now looks like illI have to look up all my 100+ gcn games up individually for full covers cause there is no packs available to my knowledge.

 

[eyeliner]

Would there be any possible need for a new iso transfer tool?
I ask this because I've been hacking a small app that reads all the isos/wbfs in a folder (next up is the ability to read .zip/.rar) files.

At the moment it's completely useless, but one never knows...

 

[Joe_B]

Hello,

I ran the MD5 and SHA-1 on my .wbfs backups, and some of them were in red at the end, but they seem to play right, but I just tried the games for 10 minutes... What does it mean to have a result in red at the end of the hashes? I tried to find some documentation, but I found nothing. In fact, what I want is to double-check my backups to make sure they are ok... I tried to install WiiBackupFusion, but it crashes, and I don't feel like learning the command lines for WIT or WWT.

Thanks

 

[Cyan]

the game contains many files (the program, but also the pictures, music, maps data, etc.)
it's possible your game has a corrupted and wrong file not used at the beginning of the game (for example the last boss music ! or the ending credit), so you can launch the game and play it up until the bad file.
based on how the game is coded, either it will crash the console, or you'll not even notice the problem (the game could just not load corrupted music for example).

I think only Wit/wwt will provide enough information to know which exact file is corrupted.
but you can't do anything with that information, either the game will work or not you'll have to play until you encounter the problem.


Usually, corrupted games are due to using the "WBFS Manager" program (or old wbfs managers). that program and old managers had a bug which marked some of the existing game as free to be overwritten by new game.
when you added a new game, one block of existing game could be replaced with the newly added game. the last game is full, but one of your existing game became corrupted with data from another game.

another possibility is that the dump was done wrong. either incomplete (only dumped the first layer for dual layer games), or that the data was wrongly read/written.

the best is to dump it again if you care about this game and want to complete it.

 

[Joe_B]

the game contains many files (the program, but also the pictures, music, maps data, etc.)
it's possible your game has a corrupted and wrong file not used at the beginning of the game (for example the last boss music ! or the ending credit), so you can launch the game and play it up until the bad file.
based on how the game is coded, either it will crash the console, or you'll not even notice the problem (the game could just not load corrupted music for example).

I think only Wit/wwt will provide enough information to know which exact file is corrupted.
but you can't do anything with that information, either the game will work or not you'll have to play until you encounter the problem.


Usually, corrupted games are due to using the "WBFS Manager" program (or old wbfs managers). that program and old managers had a bug which marked some of the existing game as free to be overwritten by new game.
when you added a new game, one block of existing game could be replaced with the newly added game. the last game is full, but one of your existing game became corrupted with data from another game.

another possibility is that the dump was done wrong. either incomplete (only dumped the first layer for dual layer games), or that the data was wrongly read/written.

the best is to dump it again if you care about this game and want to complete it.

So, I dumped the games which were giving me SHA-1 errors... Now the SHA-1 tests are all green...

Does this absolutely mean that the games are fine? I mean, some of the discs are scratched... What does it mean that the SHA-1 is green? Where does WiiBackupManager take the data to do these tests?

Also, is the MD5 test necessary? I only re-did the SHA-1, because it is longer and I assumed that because it was longer, that it was more accurate.

Thanks

 

[Cyan]

if it's green, the game is good.
don't worry if the disc is scratched, as long as it's green it means the scratch wasn't a problem.

the sha-1 is done from the disc content itself.
nintendo added a Sha1 info for all the files present on the disc (the .tmd file is used for that). So, the sha1 is checked based on the data in that file.
the md5 is unnecessary.

 

[Joe_B]

Awesome, thanks a lot!

 

[Codemastershock]

some small fixes for portuguese-br translation

 

[niuus]

Would there be any possible need for a new iso transfer tool?
I ask this because I've been hacking a small app that reads all the isos/wbfs in a folder (next up is the ability to read .zip/.rar) files.

At the moment it's completely useless, but one never knows...

A Wii Backup Manager replacement would be great, since this one is not developed anymore, i think?

 

[Brawl345]

Well what else do you need? This program is complete, it doesn't need constant updates.

 

[Shadow#1]

A Wii Backup Manager replacement would be great, since this one is not developed anymore, i think?

Nothing needs updated

 

[eyeliner]

A Wii Backup Manager replacement would be great, since this one is not developed anymore, i think?

Well what else do you need? This program is complete, it doesn't need constant updates.

Nothing needs updated

Maybe adding GC support?
But yes, all the needed functionality is there.