How to install WAD Files directly to your SD card without an emunand

Magnus87 · Jul 11, 2020

I always hated having to install the WADs to the NAND first with a WADmanager and then having to use the System Menu to transfer it to the SD.

I'm glad to hear that there are still people wanting to do things for the beloved old Wii.

Crazynoob458 · Jul 15, 2020

JoJoJoestarMario said:
@Crazynoob458

:not_windows_nt
echo dude why are you trying to run this in ms-DOS?
echo dont
echo just dont
echo git gud
echo buy a good pc

lol

ahahaahhhahahahahahhduijbusvsuo

Seishi · Jul 17, 2020

I wouldn't mind a guide, haven't touched the wii in ages and this is something i would like to do.

Sneethan said:
Very cool, i will grab it tomorrow and i might update this guide or make a video or something

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

Where?

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Sorry for mass quote. I am on my phone.

elenarguez · Aug 6, 2020

I have a question. If I have the DLC installed on the nand and run the game on the SD, will the DLC detect it correctly? The exact game is FF CC My Life as a Darklord but the support list says that the DLC of this game is not supported.

DarkMatterCore · Aug 6, 2020

elenarguez said:
I have a question. If I have the DLC installed on the nand and run the game on the SD, will the DLC detect it correctly? The exact game is FF CC My Life as a Darklord but the support list says that the DLC of this game is not supported.

No idea. I have never used cIOS-based NAND emulation features. You're free to try it, however.

And yes, that's because wad2bin only supports DLCs from games that are both capable of transferring DLC data to the SD card and reading it from there.

elenarguez · Aug 6, 2020

DarkMatterCore said:
No idea. I have never used cIOS-based NAND emulation features. You're free to try it, however.

And yes, that's because wad2bin only supports DLCs from games that are both capable of transferring DLC data to the SD card and reading it from there.

But the nand where I have the DLC is the real nand not emulated therefore would use official IOS, right?. The DLC for that game only contains clothes and I don't know what else, I don't remember right now.
Well, I'll do testing, thx anyway

DarkMatterCore · Aug 8, 2020

elenarguez said:
But the nand where I have the DLC is the real nand not emulated therefore would use official IOS, right?. The DLC for that game only contains clothes and I don't know what else, I don't remember right now.
Well, I'll do testing, thx anyway

If the game itself is stored in an emulated NAND, a cIOS with NAND emulation capabilities must be used. DLC data is sideloaded by the game at runtime, so odds are it will use the same cIOS.

Like I said before, I have no experience with cIOS-based NAND emulation, so I don't really know if it's possible to load DLCs from the physical NAND while running the game off an emulated NAND. Feel free to share your findings.

Tosnic · Sep 30, 2020

I really appreciate your effort writing a tutorial. Unfortunatley, this tutorial seems quite lacking.
Mostly, half of the things to do seem to be missing. E.g., section 2 does not even mention where I should do these things. I tried those steps in riiconnect, but there was never a step about the Wii's keys.

Even combining your tutorial with the RiiConnect tutorial mentioned in the RiiConnect24Patcher.bat left me wondering how I should get my WAD games to install.
I ended up with the WAD installer installing all those wonderfully patched and (IMO) useless channels being installed to the Wii's NAND,, not the SD card.

Magsor · Oct 1, 2020

Tosnic said:
I really appreciate your effort writing a tutorial. Unfortunatley, this tutorial seems quite lacking.
Mostly, half of the things to do seem to be missing. E.g., section 2 does not even mention where I should do these things. I tried those steps in riiconnect, but there was never a step about the Wii's keys.

Even combining your tutorial with the RiiConnect tutorial mentioned in the RiiConnect24Patcher.bat left me wondering how I should get my WAD games to install.
I ended up with the WAD installer installing all those wonderfully patched and (IMO) useless channels being installed to the Wii's NAND,, not the SD card.

I just did this. Thanks a bunch I am getting rid of emunands. Its very straightforward .
1. Download ricconnect24.bat and run it with sd card inserted.
2. Choose Install wad files directly to sd card.
3. When prompted put the sd card in wii and run xyzzy-mod.
4. Where you ran ricconect24.bat there will be a folder calll wad2bin. Put your wads there.
5. Put the sd back in computer. let the magic happen.
6. Put the sd back in wii install your wads and then click on sdcard in wii menu. Pick your game and play!!

In the games I tested, only Cave stroy did not work. I also tested on vwii but without the same luck.

Tosnic · Oct 3, 2020

Thank you very much for clarifying what to do. The OP should at least be amended by your guide.
Still, I did not get it to work. I tried 2 games: Moto Heroz, Swords vs Soldiers.
These did not work. Moto Heroz worked at first, but only because I had it installed on my real nand. After I had deleted that, it could not be started from SD any more.
As a side note, Moto Heroz is problematic when using Emunand: it requires basically all which the antique Triiforce method required. And Swords vs Soldiers only runs from real nand, AFAIK.

Anyways, I see 2 big issues with this method:

- if you have more than a handful of games, the SD card listing in the System Menu is very sluggish. And if you only have a few Wiiware games, you can install them to your real nand to begin with.
- I am not sure, but I assume that USB Loader GX does not offer to list the SD games. I use USB Loader GX as a System Menu replacement, since it can launch any any and all games.

Plus, I have concerns about the boogey.wad's that are installed in the process: how do I delete them, now that I tried this method and opt for the time-tested method? I know they are small in size, but it bothers me imagining a few dozen wad's remaining in my real nand forever.

Edit: I tried 8 more titles, but none of them worked. I think I am doing something wrong.
I always get the error message "failed to launch".

Magsor · Oct 5, 2020

Tosnic said:
Thank you very much for clarifying what to do. The OP should at least be amended by your guide.
Still, I did not get it to work. I tried 2 games: Moto Heroz, Swords vs Soldiers.
These did not work. Moto Heroz worked at first, but only because I had it installed on my real nand. After I had deleted that, it could not be started from SD any more.
As a side note, Moto Heroz is problematic when using Emunand: it requires basically all which the antique Triiforce method required. And Swords vs Soldiers only runs from real nand, AFAIK.

Anyways, I see 2 big issues with this method:

- if you have more than a handful of games, the SD card listing in the System Menu is very sluggish. And if you only have a few Wiiware games, you can install them to your real nand to begin with.
- I am not sure, but I assume that USB Loader GX does not offer to list the SD games. I use USB Loader GX as a System Menu replacement, since it can launch any any and all games.

Plus, I have concerns about the boogey.wad's that are installed in the process: how do I delete them, now that I tried this method and opt for the time-tested method? I know they are small in size, but it bothers me imagining a few dozen wad's remaining in my real nand forever.

Edit: I tried 8 more titles, but none of them worked. I think I am doing something wrong.
I always get the error message "failed to launch".

First Issue will be resolved if you get a faster SD card. I have no issue there.

Second, how much do you play wiiware games? It does not matter if they are not in another loader. As long as they are easily available and with this method they are so easy.

Tosnic · Oct 5, 2020

I play Wiiware occasionally. Its accessibility is probably only a factor for very few people like me, who boot directly into the USB loader and hence have no reason to go to the system menu.

ber71 · Jan 30, 2021

I wonder about what happens if you do more than 240 installs with this method. Has anybody tried that? Want to know if only the first 240 show up, the console bricks, reboots...

clandestine · Nov 28, 2022

I just want to say that this is amazing. I am recently encountering SD Card issues and think I have corrupted data. I was DREADING the extremely manual process of installing all the wads again manually in pieces and moving them to the SD card. I finally looked into what an emunand setup would look like, but was discouraged because of the various drawbacks/compatibility issues.

This is great.

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