@GerbilSoft - The program is so simple i don't know if a gui is even needed... but it would be nice to add in a command line switch to allow it proceed without a keypress after completion so this can be used easily in a batch file.
Thanks for the info! I kept the backup in WBFS format and made a PPF patch file with a very old tool (Playstation Patch File) which corrects the wrong bytes of the unscrubbed ISO. All other WBFS I tested either had the same CRC from the dat file or from a release listed in the srrdb site, so the tool works perfectly.Wii Backup Manager corrupts the partition table for SSBB.
I have no plans to implement this unscrub feature, because I don't see any sense to restore garbage.
+1 for ssjkakaroto's suggestion.
Being able to use WIT for everything would be nice, rather than having to rely on other tools like Wii Ultimate Unscrubber.
If the user wants to archive/preserve their original disc collection, they'll want to keep (or have a way to recreate) the virgin/untouched images. Being able to unscrub means they can greatly reduce the amount of disk space used since scrubbed images compress much better.
An unmodified image is the only reliable way to tell you have a good one. You can compare with other people's SHA1 hashes. Different scrubbing software leaves varying amounts of padding/junk data in scrubbed ISOs, so there's no single good/canonical SHA1 for a scrubbed image.
One question:
If anyone of you buys a new harddrive/sdcard will you then make a copy of the initial unused blocks to be able to restore them?
I have to spent time for Implementing this unscrub feature without any benefit. But there are more interesting things to do (mkw-fun, mkw-ana, Wiimmfi, Wii U, ...) . And so my decision is clear. If ever we found out, that the unscrubbing has any advantages, the we can discuss it again.
What I don't understand is how "ISO -> ISO -> Unscrub" can yield a different result to "ISO -> WBFS -> ISO -> Unscrub", where only the latter works. Indeed, I'm also not sure what exactly was used on that original dump, to make it how it is. Perhaps older scrubbing tools did something quirky-but-nondestructive? And, perhaps there's a `wit` option which would make "ISO -> ISO -> Unscrub" give the same output as "ISO -> WBFS -> ISO -> Unscrub", which I'm just ignorant of. (IIRC, @Wiimm said something once about how it uses something timestamp related for its padding, which would mean that it would *not* be reasonable to expect "ISO -> ISO" to match "ISO -> WBFS -> ISO", even if both the Unscrubbed results would be identical)
Lots of time spent, but I think it's all very interesting! What would be even better, though, is if someone could advise me on how I could better "analyse" or "visualise" how exactly these ISOs are differing each time. I can generate xdelta diffs, but I don't really know how to make heads or tails of them.
that probably reflects how redump.org database was created or the way how cleanrip work. The database is not public any way.
Just so you know, the content of Wii retail game disks are encrypted. Modern Wii dumping tools decrypt the data on the fly, and there are areas on the disk that are not included in the iso (e.g. BCA?}so they are not true "raw images". It all depends on how you want to do something for historical preservation.
There are 3 ways of scrubbing (read this). And the third way differ by tool and wbfs chunk size. So you get different results. Also way 2 is done or not.
I don't see any benefit for an unscrub feature of wit. If you want to archive an original dump, just do it. The is no need to scrub and then unscrub an image. Scrubbing way 2 make unscrubbing imposible, not sure about way 3. But both are usually used to keep the compact image (WBFS/WDF/CISO) small.