HDD still works on Wii, but can't connect to PC

By Joker649, Mar 4, 2021 696 16 0

  1. Joker649

    OP Joker649 Newbie
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    Hi Guys,

    I'm really hoping someone can help me with this.

    I have a 1TB HDD that I set up years ago with 1 WBFS partition and 1 FAT32 partition.
    I have a couple hundred games on the WBFS side and backed up pics on my FAT32 side

    Oddly enough the Wii will still read the games and play them. But I can not get it to connect to my PC on either partition using wbfs manager and just windows

    I really don't want to format this drive as none of the games are backed up.

    I'm not convinced my son didn't hook it to a Wii U at some point, but like I say the games still work on the Wii.

    Any ideas? Any utility anyone can think of to try?

    Joker
     
  2. godreborn

    godreborn GBAtemp Legend
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    Check disk management.
     
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  3. alexander1970

    alexander1970 Cook
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    Hello.:)

    The wbfs Format can not be read from Windows,only the WiiBackup Manager has access on this Drive.

    - plug in the HDD on your PC please
    - Ignore the "Format Warning !!" please
    - open the WiiBackup Manager (I presume you have used WBFS Manager before..)
    - select the Drive Letter from your HDD.
    - WiiBackup Manager lists now your Games

    If you do not know the Drive Letter,please open -> Pc Management -> -Disk Management
    There should be your Drive listed (it should be listed as RAW)


    Good Luck
    Thank you.:)
     
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  4. godreborn

    godreborn GBAtemp Legend
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    I'm going to assume the wbfs partition will show up as unallocated memory, but the fat32 partition should be there.
     
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  5. Joker649

    OP Joker649 Newbie
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    both drives show up when i plug the HDD in, but ask to be formatted so I ignore that obviously.

    both partitions show up as unallocated memory

    I have tried both wbfs manager and wii backup manager and both won't recognize either drive. I even tried running an win xp on a virtual machine with the same results.
     
    Last edited by Joker649, Mar 4, 2021
  6. godreborn

    godreborn GBAtemp Legend
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    it's probably the wbfs partition causing the problem. it must think it needs to be formatted because it's unallocated memory. select no, then go into disk management and make the fat32 partition the primary partition. that might work.
     
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  7. Joker649

    OP Joker649 Newbie
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    well either is showing as FAT32 in disk management and I honestly can't remember how I originally set it up lol

    is there anyway to use a wii app to pull the games off to another USB?
     
  8. godreborn

    godreborn GBAtemp Legend
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    never heard of such an app. the wii's data port is usually only one port on the back, so I don't know how that would work.
     
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  9. Joker649

    OP Joker649 Newbie
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    Well lets say my son hooked it to his Wii U at some point and it did some kind of weird lock on it. do you have any insight to how that Wii U format lock thing works?

    Maybe he did a format on the FAT32 partition, and that locked the wbfs partition some how?

    I never really messed with the Wii U so I have no experience with this lock I've read in various posts (and he sold it so I don't even have one to plug it into anymore)
     
  10. godreborn

    godreborn GBAtemp Legend
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    Ustealth?
     
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  11. duwen

    duwen Old Man Yoshi
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    That's exactly what I thought too.
     
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  12. Joker649

    OP Joker649 Newbie
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    just being lazy here.. but what does that mean? Is there a way to turn it off (or on) on my drive?
     
  13. duwen

    duwen Old Man Yoshi
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  14. Joker649

    OP Joker649 Newbie
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    it see the drive, but ..."You cannot make changes to unknown boot sector type"

    — Posts automatically merged - Please don't double post! —

    upload_2021-3-4_12-54-24.png
     
  15. jeannotte

    jeannotte GBAtemp Addict
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    Hello,

    you can convert WBFS external hard drive to FAT32, using this tool (wbfs2fat) ==>https://gbatemp.net/threads/wbfs2fat-py.291320/

    wbfs2fat convert partitions to FAT32 ==> So your PC will read the partition which was converted to fat32.

    At the time my external hard drive was in wbfs format, so I used this tool, and it worked great for me.:yaywii:
     
    Last edited by jeannotte, Mar 5, 2021
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  16. Joker649

    OP Joker649 Newbie
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    thanks for the help guys but no go. I'm thinking the one of the partition maybe got locked with a wii U. It still works on my wii just can't connect with a PC, my pictures are gone (they were on the FAT32 side of the drive). Anyone ever stumbles along this thread and knows of a way to pull stuff off an external USB drive to a the SD card let me know. thanks
     
  17. raxadian

    raxadian GBAtemp Addict
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    Have you tried using Linux? Fatdog Puppy Linux maybe will be able to read your hard disk.
     
    Last edited by raxadian, Mar 9, 2021
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