Hacking abandoning WBFS...

[gcb]

After dusting off my wii and updating all the cIOS and launchers, i was throw back into what a pain it is to convert my iso and gc/gcz files into wbfs.

also, i don't even know what do to with my WADs as this is the first time i need to restore those.

what is the best way to hook up my backups to the wii?

I have all latest d2x cios over IOS56/57. Latest wiiflow and latest usbloadgx.
i have at my disposal a small SSD, a big HDD, and a 8GB sd on the front.

Can I format everything as FAT? and use the HDD to play and archive?
or should i archive everything as WBFS nowadays?

what do you do?

 

[gcb]

what i'm thinking:

8gb SD -> FAT -> homebrew + wads
SSD -> wii games i play more often. don't care if WBFS or what... will not update often. if ever now.
HDD -> one FAT partition for dio mios. rest NTFS with wii games as iso.

are there downsides of running from NTFS?

 

[Sicklyboy]

what i'm thinking:

8gb SD -> FAT -> homebrew + wads
SSD -> wii games i play more often. don't care if WBFS or what... will not update often. if ever now.
HDD -> one FAT partition for dio mios. rest NTFS with wii games as iso.

are there downsides of running from NTFS?

Not all homebrew is compatible with NTFS, support is still not 100%.

You'd be better off just going with a FAT32 partition for -everything- and then if oyu want to use the drive for non-Wii related things, format the remainder as NTFS if you so choose.

@OP - Ditching WBFS? Finally? Sheesh, took you long enough

 

[YamiZee]

Id just dump everything in a hard drive

 

[gcb]

Not all homebrew is compatible with NTFS, support is still not 100%.

You'd be better off just going with a FAT32 partition for -everything- and then if oyu want to use the drive for non-Wii related things, format the remainder as NTFS if you so choose.

@OP - Ditching WBFS? Finally? Sheesh, took you long enough

I'd love to go with FAT32 everywhere... but what do i do with ISO files larger than 2GB? which are almost all of them...

I don't really care about the filesystem. All i want to get rid of is using an aplication to convert between formats/add games to one drive. Honestly, using FAT and having to still drag my ISOs via some odd application is not ideal. If there was a nice command line to convert to wbfs at least...

 

[Sicklyboy]

I'd love to go with FAT32 everywhere... but what do i do with ISO files larger than 2GB? which are almost all of them...

4GB* and you can use Wii Backup Manager to load games onto your hard drive which will scrub garbage data from the ISOs and then any that remain over 4GB after that will be automatically split into 4GB chunks, all of which requires no intervention from you other than the fact that you're using this to copy games to the hard drive rather than Windows Explorer.

Gamecube games are 2.7GB so no worries there, those can just be dragged and dropped though there is also a tool to scrub them but it's not usually as much of a benefit, and I could also never find one to do it in a batch operation, just ISO by ISO.

* = FAT32 has a filesize limit of 4GB, not 2GB

The only time you'd run into an issue with FAT32 is trying to load movies onto it that are greater than 4GB, those are generally not able to be split and still read as one file (at least not easily, to my knowledge). That's where NTFS would excel, but it's such a minimal benefit in my opinion. There's so many readily available, cheap media players that are better than the Wii if you're using it to watch movies. Otherwise though, FAT32 is 100% the way to go.

 

[gcb]

for me the biggest benefit would be not having to use any application just to copy/split files... but well, i think there is no way to get away from it...

well, WBFS on FAT32 is still worlds better than full on WBFS. Think i have to be glad this is an option.

Should i even keep my ISOs? or WBFS conversion/split is as undestructive as it gets?


So,
what are all the cool kids using today for linux for that conversion?

 

[gcb]

I always used wbfs-manager on linux. and it still is full WBFS partition or nothing still.

 

[abdezca]

I have two partitions on my 1Tb, The first one (and logical too) is my FAT32 format (32k cluster). This mainly for apps and gc games. Second partition is NTFS for Wii games. Keep it simple. No need for SD these days, unless you do some project m or play some MKWII distributions (which I do). Hope it helps.

 

[gcb]

I have two partitions on my 1Tb, The first one (and logical too) is my FAT32 format (32k cluster). This mainly for apps and gc games. Second partition is NTFS for Wii games. Keep it simple. No need for SD these days, unless you do some project m or play some MKWII distributions (which I do). Hope it helps.

awesome! that sounds nice.

all the guides i've seen mention that the HD can only have one partition... .e.g. http://www.wiihacks.com/recommended-faqs-guides-tutorials-only/96770-guide-fat32.html

that's good, because right now i'm moving all my ISOs to one NTFS 300GB partition and leaving a 100GB partition for my GC and wads.... glad to know i won't have to change that as i'm almost done with the file copy

Care to share a little more of the setup? or just point me to the guides?

i'm not even sure where to dump the WII backups. and in which format...

 

[Acidflare]

The only time you'd run into an issue with FAT32 is trying to load movies onto it that are greater than 4GB, those are generally not able to be split and still read as one file (at least not easily, to my knowledge). That's where NTFS would excel, but it's such a minimal benefit in my opinion. There's so many readily available, cheap media players that are better than the Wii if you're using it to watch movies. Otherwise though, FAT32 is 100% the way to go.

There's 2 easy solutions to that but not everyone wants to do it, A) Split the video into parts stored in a single folder for that video and make a playlist file So all parts get played in sequence. B) Setup an SMB share which is honestly the easiest and most effective way

 

[gcb]

There's 2 easy solutions to that but not everyone wants to do it, A) Split the video into parts stored in a single folder for that video and make a playlist file So all parts get played in sequence. B) Setup an SMB share which is honestly the easiest and most effective way

or just watch on your HTPC cmon, who wants to use wii to watch movies in 480p? </flame>

but please, do share what you do for games.

Any more recent guides? do all loaders work with ISO on ntfs?

 

[Acidflare]

for me the biggest benefit would be not having to use any application just to copy/split files... but well, i think there is no way to get away from it...

well, WBFS on FAT32 is still worlds better than full on WBFS. Think i have to be glad this is an option.

Should i even keep my ISOs? or WBFS conversion/split is as undestructive as it gets?


So,
what are all the cool kids using today for linux for that conversion?

install wine and use wiibackup manager i know it can be done i've done it myself on Lubuntu but only if you create a config and match the hd you plugin for wbfs files as a windows drive letter I used "Z" it worked also set the Windows version for XP SP3 with a desktop resolution of 800x600

 

[gcb]

ok, i simply connected the HDD on the wii and launched wiiflow.

no preparation, just one HDD with an empty FAT32 as the first partition and a NTFS as second. games in \WBFS\whatever name it had [PAL]\img.iso

it did load 10 games out of 30 something. i have no idea what was the criteria...

ah ok, some were ISO and some i had as wbfs. but it loaded a mix of them....

 

[Acidflare]

you should use .wbfs files you'll have the actual game size instead of over 4GB .iso files for each game. you can also use wiimms ISO tools to convert iso to wbfs http://wit.wiimm.de/

here's the command to use for converting .iso to split wbfs files
wit copy game.iso game.wbfs --split
this will be useful if you plan on having games stored on the fat32 partition aswell as on the ntfs partition

use this command if you don't want to split the wbfs files
wit copy game.iso game.wbfs


I completely forgot earlier that Wiimms ISO Tools was made for linux and ported to Windows using CygWin

 

[tswntk]

usbloaders require the games to be placed in proper folder structure with proper names
e.g. SD\USB:\wbfs\whatever name [game ID]\[game ID].wbfs(\iso)
there are a few supported formats but this one is pretty universal.

If you can run Windows, just use Wii Backup Manager which can transfer/convert you games and place them in proper folder structure.

.wbfs will save you a lot of space compared to .iso.
wbfs conversion is destructive but I have yet to see a game that won't work purely by converting.

 

[DjoeN]

I always use Wii Backup Manager on windows, hassle freee copying and it does the iso to wbfs by itself if you like

 

[Jayro]

My Wii runs all my Wii games from an NTFS hardriv, as .wbfs files. Not a single issue so far.

I also have a 4GB SDHC inside the Wii as FAT32, for all my homebrew apps, emulators, and roms. My USB harddrive also has a controller chip that does not spin down, it will stay on and spinning as long as the Wii os powered on, and my games don't lag or have any loading issues. Highly recommended to get one that doesn't spin down.

 

[Acidflare]

My USB harddrive also has a controller chip that does not spin down, it will stay on and spinning as long as the Wii os powered on, and my games don't lag or have any loading issues. Highly recommended to get one that doesn't spin down.

That's not good, your killing your HDD by doing that. less lifetime expectancy. higher temperatures. higher chance of data corruption due to high temps, if the drive gets too hot it will shut down don't think it won't because it will. your better off using a usb 3.0 dock that supports 2.5"/3.5" HDD's and using a 7200 RPM HDD with a 64MB Cache

 

[Acidflare]

I always use Wii Backup Manager on windows, hassle freee copying and it does the iso to wbfs by itself if you like

yes but your not using a linux OS. you can't run a .exe file in Linux without installing and configuring WINE or setting up virtualbox.
Kind of hard to use a software that was made only for windows when windows isn't your OS on the other hand WIT(Wiimms ISO Tools) can be used on Linux/Windows/Mac it's a CLI program, it's real simple to make a windows batch file that asks you the filename of the ISO you want to convert into a wbfs file.


here's a package that I've put together it's got windows batch files for specific operations for converting ISO into WBFS or WBFS/WBF1 there is also a wbfs to WIA converter for compressing wii games for storage mind you a usb loader can't read .wia but it is useful for compressing the game data, for example if you wanted to upload your wii games to a server for backup purposes or to store them on a HDD as backups you now can in a compressed format to save disk space

https://www.dropbox.com/s/of538r3zbe41f9s/ISO-WBFS-WIA Wiimms ISO Tools For Windows.exe?dl=0

gcb if you now how to write a .sh script(I don't or else I would convert the .bat scripts into .sh) here's the .zip archive of the .exe 7zip archive I just linked.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/se3wkjiw9jnrp3p/ISO-WBFS-WIA Wiimms ISO Tools For Windows.zip?dl=0