Hacking Wii backup Manager for Windows

[longtom1]

Tried using the latest version of this app again today on a vista 64 bit machine today and once again it would not see the hard drive at all.I even unchecked the mounted volumes only box from the settings and it made no difference at all.

Wbfs manager worked just fine on it though and even after formatting the drive to wbfs with it and then trying this app to load the hard drive it would load the hard drive but wouldnt show any of the games that were on it and also told me it the drive was unusable.

I've only tried it on a 64 bit operating system twice now and both times i could never get this app to show the drive properly.The first time i was told it was the drive unmounted/mounted volume issue since when i tried it the first time the option to look for mounted/unmounted volumes was not there.


So whats the issue im having?

Is this app not compatible with 64 bit systems?
*People have posted in this thread it works for them on 64 bit systems
so i don't think that's the reason*

Is it the 64 bit operating system?

Is it Vista?

Nope doesn't work on my win xp pro sp3 finds fat32 and ntfs drives but not wbfs Try an earlier version of the app

 

[benrock]

Hello Fig, thanks for the backup manager. I'm trying the 0.3.3 version now. I have a question: is it possible to simply MOVE the ISO to the simulated WBFS folder instead of COPying if the ISO are in the same disk and partition where the simulated WBFS folder in?

It seems to me that backup manager just copied the ISO to WBFS folder and renamed it according to it's 6 digit game ID, and made a folder for it (the name is game id plus game name, I guess this is not mandatory). I'll try do it manually tonight.

 

[pontomedon]

It didn't copy it - it converted it to the wbfs format, so manual copy-rename won't work

 

[benrock]

It didn't copy it - it converted it to the wbfs format, so manual copy-rename won't work

No, pontomedon, seems you misunderstood my post. I'm talking about ISO in the simulated WBFS folder on a NTFS partition, not wbf file in a wbfs disk. Actually, I've tried and found it workable, at least Wii Backup Manager recognized my manually renamed and moved ISO as installed game!

The only problem for manually ISO rename&move is efficiency, I have to use Wii Backup Manager (or other tools) to find out the Game ID first, then create a folder, move the ISO and rename it, create a TXT file to assign a name for the ID. It is not a big problem for one ISO, but becomes something for a pile of ISOs. Hope Fig can add this feature soon. I guess it is not difficult - we need a dection of the source file location and compare it to the target location, if the same, then provide the MOVE option (or simply provide this option lest people don't want to keep the original ISO), this will certainly save a lot of time. Of course, there will need to be a notice about the renaming&Move so that people won't get confused.

Now time to try on the Wii!

 

[pontomedon]

I'm not sure if i understand you. You renamed the .iso to a .wbfs file and moved it into a subfolder of the wbfs folder an a ntfs drive. correct?

if yes: that won't work on the wii, because as i said, the iso needs to be converted into wbfs format (no matter if on a wbfs drive or as wbfs files)

if no: please enlighten me ;-)

 

[fig2k4]

@benrock
Probably the best way to do this is move the file into the WBFS folder using explorer. Then make sure "Automatically convert storage convention..." is enabled and mount the drive.

There's a little flaw in the code just now though that makes that a bit trickier. The rename function expects the ISO to be named ID6.iso. I've just changed the code so you can move it to the WBFS folder and it'll automatically get renamed and moved into the appropriate folder when you mount the drive, regardless of the ISO filename.

In the future, a move function could be implemented so it's possible to move files rather than copying them. eg. moving an ISO to another folder would change the filename to title.iso. Moving to the WBFS folder would use the chosen naming/storage convention.

I was wondering though, why you'd want to move the files from the WBFS folder to another one on the same partition and vice versa..

@icpmattj
Did you try it under an administrator account or "Run as administrator.." ?

 

[juggy]

what is the difference between

> remove update partition
> keep game partition only

what is recommended?

 

[Cyan]

what is the difference between

> remove update partition
> keep game partition only

what is recommended?
think about games with many partition, let's take Smash brawl.
There are 3 partitions : update, game, demo VC games

or Mario kart :
- update, game, Channel to install on Wii menu


> remove update partition : it will copy game+VC, or Game+channel
> keep game partition only : game only, it removes any other partitions.

Some selfmade iso are multi-boot games where many partition exists, you need to keep them all.



fig2k4I was wondering though, why you'd want to move the files from the WBFS folder to another one on the same partition and vice versa..

It's maybe because he extracts the iso to this hdd because he doesn't have the place elsewhere, then moving only would be quicker.
but if he can just extract to his wbfs/ folder and let WBM rename the files, then I think he will use it

 

[icebrg5]

@icpmattj
Did you try it under an administrator account or "Run as administrator.." ?

No I didn't try that.I was modding someone wii at their house and was setting up all the apps on the laptop
so they would have everything they needed.I already passed this info along to the guy so he can try it out hopefully it works.

When i hear back from him i will post an update letting you know if it worked or not.


Thanks again for the great app it's for sure the best wbfs manager out there.

 

[icebrg5]

Talked to the guy that had the issues with windows vista 64 bit system.

He said the program worked fine once he ran it as administrator.

I knew it had to be something simple and it was.

Thanks again

 

[fig2k4]

I've embedded a manifest that's supposed to automatically request admin privileges, but I can't test it since I removed UAC from my Windows install using vlite. I'll try to install the full version on a virtual machine to test.

Some selfmade iso are multi-boot games where many partition exists, you need to keep them all.
With multiboot games, I'd recommend using "game only". I've set up the app to deal with multiboot partitions as if they are individual discs. eg. 9 games = 9 entries in the list, which are handled like 9 different ISOs. The thinking behind that is so you can extract the games to individual ISOs for burning, copy each game to WBFS etc. Even if you keep all partitions, only 1 game partition is ever used.

QUOTEIt's maybe because he extracts the iso to this hdd because he doesn't have the place elsewhere, then moving only would be quicker.
but if he can just extract to his wbfs/ folder and let WBM rename the files, then I think he will use it

OK.

I could check to see if the ISO is in the WBFS folder and just rename it then, like suggested. I was over-thinking it because I thought he would want to move files in and out of the WBFS folder, but if it's for the reason you mentioned, it could be easily handled..

 

[Cyan]

With multiboot games, I'd recommend using "game only". I've set up the app to deal with multiboot partitions as if they are individual discs. eg. 9 games = 9 entries in the list, which are handled like 9 different ISOs. The thinking behind that is so you can extract the games to individual ISOs for burning, copy each game to WBFS etc. Even if you keep all partitions, only 1 game partition is ever used.

It's the best way to install multi-game disc, you are right. There's no need to run a game to see a multi-boot menu to chose another game, while you can install each game individually without a boot menu.

 

[bnm81002]

is there a way to copy from 1 drive to another drive in a faster way? I have an abundance amount of games that I want to transfer and it takes a day or 2 to complete the transfer?

 

[pontomedon]

if you have wbfs files on ntfs/fat you can simply copy them with any file explorer. if you have a wbfs partition you can try to raw clone it if the source and destination drives are equal, although i would not recommend that.

 

[XFlak]

I've embedded a manifest that's supposed to automatically request admin privileges, but I can't test it since I removed UAC from my Windows install using vlite. I'll try to install the full version on a virtual machine to test.

Some selfmade iso are multi-boot games where many partition exists, you need to keep them all.
With multiboot games, I'd recommend using "game only". I've set up the app to deal with multiboot partitions as if they are individual discs. eg. 9 games = 9 entries in the list, which are handled like 9 different ISOs. The thinking behind that is so you can extract the games to individual ISOs for burning, copy each game to WBFS etc. Even if you keep all partitions, only 1 game partition is ever used.

QUOTEIt's maybe because he extracts the iso to this hdd because he doesn't have the place elsewhere, then moving only would be quicker.
but if he can just extract to his wbfs/ folder and let WBM rename the files, then I think he will use it

OK.

I could check to see if the ISO is in the WBFS folder and just rename it then, like suggested. I was over-thinking it because I thought he would want to move files in and out of the WBFS folder, but if it's for the reason you mentioned, it could be easily handled..

@ fig2k4, if u pm me a version 2 test, I can check if it auto-requests for admin priviledges (I have win 7 ultimate 64-bit with UAC enabled)

 

[fig2k4]

Sorry for the late response.

I used this as an excuse to install Win7 on my daughter's netbook.

It seems to be working OK, UAC pops up asking if you want to allow the app to make changes to your computer. I've still to test if the WBFS drives are then usable, but I'll hopefully do that tonight.

I still need to finish off a few things before the app's fully usable again. I'll send a test version once it's in a near release state.

 

[OlivierTheBest]

Hello,

I like WII BACKUP MANAGER but I have a comment on last version 0.3.3 :

There used to be an option to define if .wbfs shall be split (Maximum WBFS File size).

Now it is handled automatically.

The trouble is that I convert .iso (or WBFS partition) on my computer so NTFS partitions ! and copy that to my external harddisk so FAT32 !!!

Is there a solution (except to do the conversion directly to the FAT32 partition) ?

Thanks

Regards

Olivier

 

[fig2k4]

The option will be back in the next version.

I should've made "Automatic" a new option instead of a replacement for the manual selection. A silly decision..

 

[TeenTin]

Just curious. For the coming version, is it possible to create .wbfs and iso identical to that created by wbfs_file.exe ? That is, have a freedom to disable the MD5 stuff (also, transferring games to WBFS drive without the MD5 stuff)?

Thanks.

 

[fig2k4]

That should be easy enough to do, yeah. I'll add it as an option, something like "Calculate MD5 hash during transfers".