Hardware Can a PC read Wii disks?

AkikoKumagara · Jan 25, 2021

jeffyTheHomebrewer said:
Hmmm... I know this sounds dumb, but what's stopping us from just taking the drive out of a (already broken/bricked) Wii U, (aside from the cables not being SATA or IDE, and drivers) and plugging it into a PC?

I don't think many people think it's worth the effort when you can just dump discs (I believe even over the network) from a Wii U drive.

The Real Jdbye · Jan 25, 2021

jeffyTheHomebrewer said:
Hmmm... I know this sounds dumb, but what's stopping us from just taking the drive out of a (already broken/bricked) Wii U, (aside from the cables not being SATA or IDE, and drivers) and plugging it into a PC?

Apart from the Wii U drive requiring a console-unique encryption key to work (which there are no public tools for dumping AFAIK), not much. But as you say, it's not IDE/SATA, so it would actually require custom hardware (likely FPGA based) in order to connect to a PC.
We might have seen something like that had the Wii U been as successful as Nintendo hoped, but it kinda flopped, so it never reached its full potential, both hacking wise and otherwise.

jeffyTheHomebrewer · Jan 25, 2021

alexander1970 said:
The Question is,who invests Time and Energy in this.....many "new" Homebrewers" and/or Developers have unfortunately
the "Wii U is a dead and unpopular Console" Attitude...
Sad,but understandable...

I don't have that attitude but unfortunately I couldn't program to save my life, unless scratch somehow counts :/

GerbilSoft · Jan 30, 2021

The Real Jdbye said:
Apart from the Wii U drive requiring a console-unique encryption key to work (which there are no public tools for dumping AFAIK), not much. But as you say, it's not IDE/SATA, so it would actually require custom hardware (likely FPGA based) in order to connect to a PC.
We might have seen something like that had the Wii U been as successful as Nintendo hoped, but it kinda flopped, so it never reached its full potential, both hacking wise and otherwise.

Wii U drives actually are SATA internally, but you'd need a custom adapter to connect it to a standard SATA host interface. That, and as you've mentioned, there's the console-unique encryption key, so even if an adapter was available, you'd still need some sort of interface board (with an FPGA or similar) to convert between encrypted Wii U SATA and standard unencrypted SATA.

Overall, it's not worth it. The easiest method is running a disc dumping program on a hacked Wii U.

NeoGaming · Jul 13, 2022

Uhh I lost my wii but still have the wii disks is there any other way to dump the games?

KleinesSinchen · Jul 13, 2022

NeoGaming said:
Uhh I lost my wii but still have the wii disks is there any other way to dump the games?

Did you read through this thread? Specific old PC DVD drives can be used to dump Wii games with Rawdump or Friidump. It works, but it is very slow. As far as I know those LG readers are all IDE/PATA read-only drives. Requires not only finding such a drive, but also an older computer.

Of course you could modify a DVD drive to be under your full control (if you prefer a hardcore way).
https://debugmo.de/2007/07/read-your-dvds-the-raw-way/

Or – by far the easiest and fasted method – Get a Wii (U).

Good luck and have fun!

NeoGaming · Jul 13, 2022

KleinesSinchen said:
Did you read through this thread? Specific old PC DVD drives can be used to dump Wii games with Rawdump or Friidump. It works, but it is very slow. As far as I know those LG readers are all IDE/PATA read-only drives. Requires not only finding such a drive, but also an older computer.

Of course you could modify a DVD drive to be under your full control (if you prefer a hardcore way).
https://debugmo.de/2007/07/read-your-dvds-the-raw-way/

Or – by far the easiest and fasted method – Get a Wii (U).

Good luck and have fun!

i'll do the hardcore way i am not buying a wii u only to find out i have to buy the table that comes with it

Dust2dust · Jul 13, 2022

NeoGaming said:
Uhh I lost my wii but still have the wii disks is there any other way to dump the games?

Dumping games is like re-inventing the wheel. Most games have been dumped already. You just need to download the scene release. That's the best and fastest way, but probably the least legal option.

NeoGaming · Jul 13, 2022

Dust2dust said:
Dumping games is like re-inventing the wheel. Most games have been dumped already. You just need to download the scene release. That's the best and fastest way, but probably the least legal option.

it takes a LONG time for my laptop to download something

EddieEddie90 · Jul 13, 2022

godreborn said:
afaik, wii discs are read in the opposite direction. no idea about a separate driver.

oh, and wii u discs are proprietary bluray discs.

edit: I remember making burns of wii games, but I can't remember how. I think all wii games were the same size with padding. 4.37GBs?

I used to burn wii games on dvds quite often, IMGBurn is the software to go. You have to burn them with the slowest burn speed, though. Normally it takes a little while.

SaulFabre · Oct 26, 2022

EddieEddie90 said:
I used to burn wii games on dvds quite often, IMGBurn is the software to go. You have to burn them with the slowest burn speed, though. Normally it takes a little while.

or you can burn Wii games to a DVD-R using Wii Backup Manager

jeffyTheHomebrewer · Oct 26, 2022

Okay okay, but why not just use a USB loader? (while HDDs are recommended, even by me, I am walking talking undying proof that SOME flash drives can work well, but some may still have issues like read speed. If using a Wii U, avoid using a flash drive as the Wii U will make a LOT of writes) Just seems like a waste of a DVD-R unless you /really/ wanna relive 2008 to the fullest.

~~also as unrelated as this is, any idea how to properly repack PS2 games, specifically Parappa 2?~~

Hardware Can a PC read Wii disks?

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