Creating discs that work on unmodded Wiis

Discussion in 'Wii - Hacking' started by CambridgeGuy, Mar 19, 2008.

Share This Page

Share This Page

  1. CambridgeGuy
    OP

    CambridgeGuy GBAtemp Regular

    Member
    1
    141
    Level 1
    Nov 22, 2006
    I was wondering about how one would create a disc that will work on an unmodified Wii console. Clearly Datel have managed this with their Freeloader; the question is: how?

    What is the difference between a burned Freeloader, and a genuine one from Datel? Well, the most obvious thing about the Freeloader disc are those little circles that are at the centre of the underside of the disc... Do these trick the Wii into thinking the disc is a real Wii disc. If so, then could we add our own little circular notches to discs to make discs that will work on an unmodified console?

    Or is there actually a small amount of data written to the disc in a region that is just not there on a DVD-R?

    What does gbatemp think? Is this at all possible?
     
    #1 Mar 19, 2008
  2. Shuny

    Shuny I'm in yr forum, reading yr postz

    Member
    3
    1,034
    Level 3
    Nov 15, 2006
    France
    Somewhere in the world
    Datel discs are pressed, your disc is burnt.

    You won't get a working disc with a burner with an unmodded Wii.
     
    #2 Mar 19, 2008
  3. PikaPika

    PikaPika GBAtemp Advanced Fan

    Member
    2
    695
    Level 2
    Jul 25, 2006
    United States
    AZ
    about this, my friends grandpa works for GE or something, and I think he owns an industrail disc press. Is there any way I could use that to burn working Wii backups on an unmodded Wii?
     
    #3 Mar 19, 2008
  4. CambridgeGuy
    OP

    CambridgeGuy GBAtemp Regular

    Member
    1
    141
    Level 1
    Nov 22, 2006
    Indeed I won't. What I'm trying to figure out is: What exactly is it that the pressed discs have that our DVD-R discs lack?
     
    #4 Mar 19, 2008
  5. kedest

    kedest GBAtemp Psycho!

    Member
    3
    3,289
    Level 3
    Feb 6, 2007
    Netherlands
    What I'm curious about is how Datel can get their freeloader to run on un-modded wii's. So the drive recognizes it as a real disc instead of a burned disc, but that's only the first step. Freeloader isn't an official product. How can Datel get their code to run and get it signed? I don't think they have a wii developer kit, since only official developers get those.
    Are they perhaps using a secret exploit they discovered?
     
    #5 Mar 19, 2008
  6. Kyusuke

    Kyusuke Advanced Member

    Newcomer
    2
    98
    Level 2
    Jun 24, 2007
    United Kingdom
    I may be wrong, but it would be the same way as pressing PS1, PS2, GC etc.... action replay or such unofficial discs.

    If I remember reading about Swap Magic disc and how they're made. Basically, they used previously burnt game discs and press in their own data. Therefore, the sector that verifies whether the disc is authentic or not is still there but with the new data pressed in.

    That's how it should work for Wii as well, it isn't any secret exploit, just a known trick used for a long time.
     
    #6 Mar 19, 2008
  7. superrob

    superrob H4X H4X H4X!

    Member
    2
    2,465
    Level 2
    Apr 4, 2007
    GBATemp factory.
    Truacha signer [​IMG]

    And they press the disc.
    The drivechip checks if the disc is burned if yes disallow the disc.


    And pressing discs requires a very very expensive machine.
     
    #7 Mar 19, 2008
  8. FAST6191

    FAST6191 Techromancer

    pip Reporter
    21
    26,420
    Level 21
    Nov 21, 2005
    United States
    Before this gets massively off track it is pressed versus normal. Writers are made so as not to be able to pass as official disks for precisely these reasons (although some of the more industrious among us can abuse some things in this area).

    There was a thread a few months back on the subject but it got lost (read I am hungry so I am not going to dig for it) with the release of the trucha signer and all the other stuff from the last few weeks.
     
    #8 Mar 19, 2008
  9. ProdigySim

    ProdigySim GBAtemp Regular

    Member
    2
    191
    Level 2
    Nov 23, 2005
    United States
    Burnable discs aren't "made" to identify as burnable.
    Well, not all of them, anyway. DVD-Rs have a pre-written header that declares them as DVD-R discs, but bitsetting allows you to make DVD+Rs identify as DVD-ROMs, because they have no pre-written header.

    What makes Wii Pressed discs work and burned discs is the securty information written on the inner ring on a physical section that can't be written to on burnable discs, but can be read from if your drive is set up to do so, like the Wii disc drive.

    There's more information on this stuff on wikipedia and other places. It's pretty similar to the Security Sector for the Xbox/360 discs. You can read about that, too, to learn about the concept.
     
    #9 Mar 20, 2008
  10. HaTaX

    HaTaX GBAtemp Regular

    Member
    3
    171
    Level 3
    Mar 4, 2007
    United States
    The reason burnt media doesn't work in an un-modded wii is because of the BCA (Burst cutting area, or bar code area). It is a barcode that is pressed onto the disc when made that is not present on blank media.

    Here's a little more info on it from this page:
    http://www.patentstorm.us/patents/6921336-description.html

     
    #10 Mar 20, 2008
  11. CambridgeGuy
    OP

    CambridgeGuy GBAtemp Regular

    Member
    1
    141
    Level 1
    Nov 22, 2006
    Thanks for the replies everyone [​IMG]

    Maybe I'm focusing on something that's actually totally irrelevant but... just out of sheer curiosity...
    What are those little circular notches on the underside of the Freeloader disc. Are they there to try to emulate the burst cutting area of a genuine Wii disc... or are they just a strange quirk of how that particular disc is manufactured.

    The reason I ask is because that would be a lot easier to replicate than a particular bardcode.
     
    #11 Mar 20, 2008
  12. paul1991

    paul1991 Banned

    Banned
    1
    680
    Level 1
    May 5, 2007
    United States
    We went over this in another thread.

    It is all about structure! I will find my post and report back.

    EDIT:
    Found it!

    DVD-ROM:

    4bytes 2bytes 6bytes 2048bytes 4bytes
    - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
    | ID | IED | CPR_MAI | User Data Frame | EDC |
    - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
    ^ | 2048bytes cipher stream |
    ^ - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
    scrambling
    seed index

    Gamecube/WII Optical Disc:

    4bytes 2bytes 2048bytes 6bytes 4bytes
    - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
    | ID | IED | User Data Frame | unknown | EDC |
    - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
    | 2048bytes cipher stream |

    You would need special discs that have this modified file system.

    Edit2:
    http://gbatemp.net/index.php?showtopic=71462&hl=
     
    #12 Mar 20, 2008
  13. arctic_flame

    arctic_flame GBAtemp ATMEGA8 Fan

    Member
    2
    2,840
    Level 2
    Nov 4, 2006
    England land
    That's nothing to do with it. Filesystem structure is irrelavant. You don't even know what that means. (I'm sure I said this in the last thread)
     
    #13 Mar 20, 2008
Loading...
Similar threads with keywords: Creating unmodded discs Hide similar threads
  1. WunSick

    GC Discs /w cheats on unmodded wii

    WunSick, Dec 20, 2008, in forum: Wii - Hacking
    Replies:
    0
    Views:
    624
    WunSick
    Dec 20, 2008
  2. ThirdEyeCx

    Question Creating an alternative YouTube application?

    ThirdEyeCx, Nov 9, 2018 at 2:13 AM, in forum: Switch - Emulation, Homebrew & Software Projects
    Replies:
    20
    Views:
    1,752
    nmkd
    Nov 12, 2018 at 11:17 PM
  3. JR_44

    Gamecube spins discs but laser assembly moves to one place

    JR_44, Sep 9, 2014, in forum: Nintendo GameCube
    Replies:
    16
    Views:
    4,267
    Red_Beani
    Nov 10, 2018 at 6:19 PM
  4. Thandor

    Question Creating new NAND backup for every firmware and keeping old NAND useful?

    Thandor, Nov 6, 2018, in forum: Switch - Exploits, Custom Firmwares & Soft Mods
    Replies:
    4
    Views:
    416
    Thandor
    Nov 6, 2018
  5. ThaKarra

    Question about VC Game injects that have 2 discs...

    ThaKarra, Nov 1, 2018, in forum: Wii U - Games & Content
    Replies:
    2
    Views:
    190
    niche2k
    Nov 6, 2018