Hard drive not recognized o PC, but Wii still reads it

[Bonkdonky]

Hi! I need some help adding more games to my Wii hard drive as well as backing up my save files. These files are over 10 years old, as my dad got the Wii modded for us as we were kids, and I want to preserve these files somewhere in the event that I want to modify files or move them to a bigger hard drive. However, when I connect the hard drive to my laptop, it only asks to format it, and when I deny, it says the drive is not recognized. Any help is appreciated!

 

[morning_glory]

May have been partitioned in WBFS format, or your HDD has/is gone caput.
Use WiiBackupManager & see if it's a WBFS partition. If it can read your HDD contents, then it's WBFS. Windows won't read it.

 

[Bonkdonky]

May have been partitioned in WBFS format, or your HDD has/is gone caput.
Use WiiBackupManager & see if it's a WBFS partition. If it can read your HDD contents, then it's WBFS. Windows won't read it.

Okay, I'll try downloading WiiBackupManager and see if that works!

 

[jeannotte]

Okay, I'll try downloading WiiBackupManager and see if that works!

if your hard drive is in WBFS format, you can convert it with this utility (without losing the data)==>

WBFS2FAT ===>
https://gbatemp.net/threads/wbfs2fat-py.291320/

or ====>
https://forum.wii-homebrew.com/filebase/index.php/Entry/1312-wbfs2fat/

 

[Bonkdonky]

if your hard drive is in WBFS format, you can convert it with this utility (without losing the data)==>

Is there a guide anywhere, or a place where common errors are found? I'm having some issues getting the backups.

It says "WBFS" is corrupted, even though the files still boot on my Wii. I tried to run the program anyways, but I ran into an error called "class struct.error"

 

[a_username_that_isnt_cool]

Is there a guide anywhere, or a place where common errors are found? I'm having some issues getting the backups.

It says "WBFS" is corrupted, even though the files still boot on my Wii. I tried to run the program anyways, but I ran into an error called "class struct.error"

Try Wii Backup Fusion (guide on wii.hacks.guide/wii-backups)

 

[morning_glory]

I've never done it this way - Install WiiBackupManager to your PC, hook up your HDD through USB cabling to your PC & start WBM.
Access your HDD game files through WBM, insert a suitable sized Flash drive (Fat32 partitioned - NTFS will also work) to a spare PC USB port & copy over your game files.
You will need to educate yourself on using WBM. It's not hard.

As I stated - I never done it that way, but it should work & start you off retrieving your game files to a Flash drive (or other chosen media).

Somebody will chime in to correct me if my assumption is wrong.

 

[XFlak]

I've never done it this way - Install WiiBackupManager to your PC, hook up your HDD through USB cabling to your PC & start WBM.
Access your HDD game files through WBM, insert a suitable sized Flash drive (Fat32 partitioned - NTFS will also work) to a spare PC USB port & copy over your game files.
You will need to educate yourself on using WBM. It's not hard.

As I stated - I never done it that way, but it should work & start you off retrieving your game files to a Flash drive (or other chosen media).

Somebody will chime in to correct me if my assumption is wrong.

Solid advice, go for it

 

[matto21]

I've never done it this way - Install WiiBackupManager to your PC, hook up your HDD through USB cabling to your PC & start WBM.
Access your HDD game files through WBM, insert a suitable sized Flash drive (Fat32 partitioned - NTFS will also work) to a spare PC USB port & copy over your game files.
You will need to educate yourself on using WBM. It's not hard.

As I stated - I never done it that way, but it should work & start you off retrieving your game files to a Flash drive (or other chosen media).

Somebody will chime in to correct me if my assumption is wrong.

 

[berezm]

Have you checked whether your hard drive has partitions? You can do this in Disk Management (right-click on Start and select ‘Disk Management’ to see it). If there is unallocated space, you will need to create new partitions for your PC to recognize the external HD. I had a similar problem with my external drive not showing up and creating partitions helped me fix it.