Hacking FAT or WFBS

[spritefreak]

Currently I am using a HDD which is formatted as WFBS. I recently purchsed a larger HDD and was thinking about using FAT vs. WFBS format. I am wondering if that would be better or if I should stick with WFBS?

Side question, I know with the WFBS manager, some games transfer as smaller than the normal 4.36 GB size. Does it do the same thing with FAT formatting and is there a specific FAT manager that I would need??

 

[Riley]

Use FAT32.

Format and then make a folder called wbfs.
Use Wii Game Manager to convert your .iso files to .wbfs files.
Put those .wbfs files onto your HD in the wbfs folder.
Play with cfg-loader.

EDIT: The game manager will make files smaller then 4.37 GB because it takes out everything except the actually game data.

 

[spritefreak]

So there is no way to just transfer the converted .iso files that are already in wbfs format to FAT?

Also, does every game take up 4.36 GB of space??

 

[ddetkowski]

Wii Backup Manager AUTOMATICALLY takes care of converting ANY file format your games are.
Format your entire drive to FAT32. Use FAT32 GUI Formatter.
No, each game on your FAT32 drive will be scrubbed, downsized, taking out the junk data.
Some games will be 300mb, others, 4GB and so forth.
That way, it'll hold MORE games!!!
You need to transfer those games off the WBFS drive first, to a PC or other drive, so you dont lose them!

 

[qwertymodo]

No matter which format you use, you still have to spend the time to transfer the files. Wii Game Manager (which is just a GUI frontend for ogzee's wbfs_file.exe) automatically transfers directly to the desired output, so you won't see any difference between WBFS->WBFS and WBFS->FAT32. That being said, go FAT32. There is no reason for WBFS partitions anymore, they are just wasteful.

 

[spritefreak]

Are all USB loaders compatible with FAT formatting? Meaning, can I use FAT format for Config USB Loader, WiiFlow, etc.

 

[gloweyjoey]

Personally, I think you should partition the HDD. make a smaller one WBFS and the larger one FAT.

No every game does not take up a full 4.36G. However the .iso will be this large regardless of the size of the game data. (example NSBW game data is only 350 mb, the rest of the 4gigs is just garbage data).
So transferring WBFS files will be quicker except for the larger games and the dual layer games(other m).

 

[Evo.lve]

Personally, I think you should partition the HDD. make a smaller one WBFS and the larger one FAT.

No every game does not take up a full 4.36G. However the .iso will be this large regardless of the size of the game data. (example NSBW game data is only 350 mb, the rest of the 4gigs is just garbage data).
So transferring WBFS files will be quicker except for the larger games and the dual layer games(other m).

Don't do this.

Format your HDD to FAT32 or NTFS if you have a modchip that supports NTFS, and use the .wbfs format.

 

[gloweyjoey]

Personally, I think you should partition the HDD. make a smaller one WBFS and the larger one FAT.

No every game does not take up a full 4.36G. However the .iso will be this large regardless of the size of the game data. (example NSBW game data is only 350 mb, the rest of the 4gigs is just garbage data).
So transferring WBFS files will be quicker except for the larger games and the dual layer games(other m).

Don't do this.

Format your HDD to FAT32 or NTFS if you have a modchip that supports NTFS, and use the .wbfs format.

Regardless of the of how you choose to format your drive, go with WBFS files.

 

[qwertymodo]

I can vouch for WiiFlow's FAT32 compatibility, and I'm 99% sure cfg supports it as well. Not sure about GX, but personally I would just say use WiiFlow. Just be sure to use Wii Game Manager to convert them to .wbfs files (not .iso's). It'll ask for a folder, point it at {driveletter}:\wbfs. I also suggest the subfolders option. File split size is up to you, but I use 4gb split for fewer files.

 

[smf]

I can vouch for WiiFlow's FAT32 compatibility, and I'm 99% sure cfg supports it as well. Not sure about GX, but personally I would just say use WiiFlow. Just be sure to use Wii Game Manager to convert them to .wbfs files (not .iso's). It'll ask for a folder, point it at {driveletter}:\wbfs. I also suggest the subfolders option. File split size is up to you, but I use 4gb split for fewer files.

usb loader gx was one of the first to support fat32 (IIRC uloader was the first).
personally I find it to be the most user friendly.

 

[PsyBlade]

Personally, I think you should partition the HDD. make a smaller one WBFS and the larger one FAT.

No every game does not take up a full 4.36G. However the .iso will be this large regardless of the size of the game data. (example NSBW game data is only 350 mb, the rest of the 4gigs is just garbage data).
So transferring WBFS files will be quicker except for the larger games and the dual layer games(other m).

Thats the reason nobody uses (split) .iso files on FAT
Instead most use .wbfs files on FAT, NTFS or WBFS: they are smaller.
Or .iso on NTFS which can be small too if you use "sparse" files.
All "small" possibilities use aproximatly the same space btw.

Some assheads spread the lie that you have to use big iso files on FAT and NTFS.
In fact you can not do that even if you wanted to because FAT has a max filesize of 4GB and no loader reads split .iso

You can use .wbfs on FAT for games larger than 4GB.
The loaders/managers support split .wbfs files without the user noticing a difference.

edit: reading whole thread before replying has advantages

 

[Coto]

I had 2 WBFS drives which tended up to become corrupt, meaning loss of the whole partition.

Until I saw USB CFG´s compatibility with FAT, and that´s ONE of the best things that happened to Wii.

If a corrupted file start bugging, you can just delete or chkdsk the whole disk preventing data loss, besides (if a windows user) the pop-up screen "Unrecognized format, Format?", once made me lost my whole partition of games.

 

[Bladexdsl]

i've had my wd 320gb mypassport in wbfs since the very 1st usb loaders and it's still going strong. so i dont know why every1 complains that your drive gets corrupted cos i've never seen it and i've installed and uninstalled many many games to it. i even have a partit on it so i can use it regularly on my pc to back up shit.

 

[rip-it-up]

i currently use 1tb hard drive with 700gb wbfs and 300gb fat32
my games have corrupted once (think it was due to deleting games and then installing over games which already were on the wbfs partition)

if i had to do it again i'd probably just use fat32 with a folder called wfbs.
less risk of windows asking me to format the wbfs partition

 

[fattest]

you can manage your drive and format it to fat32 using wii backup manager. i use fat32 and every wii i've softmodded used fat32 and no one has had issues. games larger than 4gb will be split into multiple files (.wbf1, .wbf2, etc) although i can't think of any other than ssbb.

 

[qwertymodo]

I can vouch for WiiFlow's FAT32 compatibility, and I'm 99% sure cfg supports it as well. Not sure about GX, but personally I would just say use WiiFlow. Just be sure to use Wii Game Manager to convert them to .wbfs files (not .iso's). It'll ask for a folder, point it at {driveletter}:\wbfs. I also suggest the subfolders option. File split size is up to you, but I use 4gb split for fewer files.

usb loader gx was one of the first to support fat32 (IIRC uloader was the first).
personally I find it to be the most user friendly.

I reformatted after GX claimed Hermes v5 compatibility (including FAT32 compatibility), and never got it to work. I posted a bug report and was told it wasn't actually fully supported yet, so I went back to WBFS until WiiFlow 2.0 came out and I switched and never looked back. So yes, they were one of the first to CLAIM compatibility, but if they ever did get it working it wasn't until after WiiFlow 2.0.

 

[hybridLearner]

I used wfbs for about a year and liked it very much, until I tried fat32. Much simpler to be able see in windows, and I am able to place wiiflow, and other homebrew applications on my hdd instead of sd. Would highly recommend it. I am able to free up space for dlc on my sd card now. I don't even really need to run it with an sd card if i choose.

 

[joe_blow]

My 2 cents...

I have just moved to a single fat32 partition with wbfs files and...

It is nice that I now don't have to worry about the annoying windows prompt telling me to format my wbfs partition every time I hook my drive to my computer. And since my old setup had a fat32 partition and a wbfs partition, it is nice that I don't have to worry about how the space is divided. I had to repartition and start from scratch once because I did not foresee how much fat32 space I would need for DLC using nand emulation with uLoader. I also like how easy Wii Backup Manager is to use converting between ISO, wbfs files under fat32, and native wbfs partitions.

But... Compatibility is not the same with all usb loaders. I liked being able to use either Wiiflow, uLoader, or Neogamma to load any game off my wbfs partition. Wiiflow seems to work great with fat32 with wbfs files but uLoader uses ciso files under fat32 and from what I can tell there will never be wbfs file support added to it. That may be ok for some people but I do have some games that give me problems with other loaders and work fine in uLoader (your setup may be different). Also to a lesser degree I couldn't get Neogamma to detect my fat32 with wbfs files partition (most people don't use it anymore but I liked having the option). I also dabbled briefly with usbloader gx and could not get it to see my fat32 with wbfs files setup even though I did see some posts of people that had it working (it may have something to do with the subfolder option I selected in Wii Backup Manager).

To make a long story short, I would probably go back to a dedicated WBFS partition for myself and just deal with the annoying prompt to format my drive, it gives me the most Loader options. I also now have a better idea of what my DLC nand emulation space requirements are for my fat32 partition. On the other hand I would defiantly stick with a single fat32 setup and Wiiflow if I was setting up something for some noob friend of mine. My luck he would accidentally format the drive and I would be stuck reloading everything for him.

That being said there may be ways to get all or some of the loaders to play nicely with fat32 wbfs files but I couldn't on my first try and a brief search or two here. If someone out there reading this knows of any tricks feel free to reply