Hacking change the size of partitioned HDD without losing data?

[priapism]

i realized that when i initially chose the size of Wii partition, i made it way too big. with the shrinking of the files and the lack of games i am highly interested in, there is no way i am going to ever use all of that space. so, can i make that partition smaller and make the regular partition for normal media bigger without moving everything off of my HDD?

 

[Riicky]

I am wondering this myself atm

 

[Elritha]

Depends. Is it FAT32, NTFS or WBFS? You never specified the file system.

The first two should be pretty simple with a partition program.

 

[Riicky]

my question is can we shrink a wbfs partition with games on it, without losing data?

 

[Elritha]

my question is can we shrink a wbfs partition with games on it, without losing data?

To my knowledge it can't be done as it's a custom file system. No partition program would recognise the structure.

 

[bdr9]

my question is can we shrink a wbfs partition with games on it, without losing data?

To my knowledge it can't be done as it's a custom file system. No partition program would recognise the structure.

Well, we've already written a bunch of tools that can handle WBFS. Look at all of the managers... Don't you think something could be done about it? I hate having to re-add all of my games when I have to change the size of my partition.

 

[Elritha]

FAT32 and NTFS are options now to use with usb loader.

 

[Dan_Aykroyd]

Yeah, but each of them have they pros and cons.

For example, in FAT32 you have to split the images bigger than 4 GB. And in NTFS you don't get write access from the Wii, meaning that you can't dump your discs directly from there. Also, for both of them you still need a "manager" (converter) that turns the .iso in .wbfs, so it's no drag-and-drop from the Windows explorer.

 

[Elritha]

Also, for both of them you still need a "manager" (converter) that turns the .iso in .wbfs, so it's no drag-and-drop from the Windows explorer.

That's not true. You can put isos directly on the drive without a manager. Of course they will be full sized. Unless you use sparse files on NTFS which does require a manager, but retains the iso file format.

 

[Guild McCommunist]

TBH you can just transfer all the games to your computer, resize the partition, and re-transfer them. It'll take quite a while if you have a lot of games on your drive but it's the best option.

 

[supagusti]

my question is can we shrink a wbfs partition with games on it, without losing data?

To my knowledge it can't be done as it's a custom file system. No partition program would recognise the structure.

Acronis Disk Director Suite® Version 10.0 (build 2.161) can detect WBFS partitions as fat32.
I've tested a successful move of al whole wbfs partition from the beginning to the end of a harddisk. (for adding an additional fat32 partition on the beginning) The partition size was about 60gb, the hdd was 80gb
But a 2nd attempt with a 1TB drive and a 800gb partition failed and i lost all my data. (thank god i had a backup)

So - i would try it, but only if you've got a valid backup of your data !!!

 

[Dan_Aykroyd]

Also, for both of them you still need a "manager" (converter) that turns the .iso in .wbfs, so it's no drag-and-drop from the Windows explorer.

That's not true. You can put isos directly on the drive without a manager. Of course they will be full sized. Unless you use sparse files on NTFS which does require a manager, but retains the iso file format.

Yeah, of course you can copy them to directly to the disc. You can also copy the Diablo II game ISOs to it too, but you can't read neither one of them on a backup loader on the Wii, can you?

 

[wiiuser2]

Yeah, of course you can copy them to directly to the disc. You can also copy the Diablo II game ISOs to it too, but you can't read neither one of them on a backup loader on the Wii, can you?

Configurable USB loader supports direct loading of iso images from an NTFS volume only.....

 

[priapism]

what is the easiest way that i can...

get the Wii games off of the WBFS partition

shrink the WBFS partition

get the Wii games back on the WBFS partion?