Hacking Wii backup Manager for Windows

[FoGBaV]

Feature Request (another one -last requests were implemnted to fast by developer ...8) ) :

* Compare 2 Drives and give option to delete duplicates
* Hold list of all known games on drives and give option to delete duplictes (i'm using old 160 Gig Drives for backup purposes) --> Collector function !
* -> Opttion to display missing PAL/NTSC/whatever games in collection ... 8)

This would be awesome ...

thanx 4 the great work !

 

[fig2k4]

@redia

-disable format on system drive
Definitely

- titles.txt should be localized, right now it is downloading only the en one..
Do you know the URLs? I could only find /titles.txt

- allow file (iso and ciso) to be renamed from titles.txt
- allow drive display using titles.txt without renaming the games (only on the fly)... this is a viable option because some people (like me) want to keep untouched wbfs drives/files, but use titles.txt in the loader.
I didn't want to touch original ISOs. On the fly renaming would be better anyway.

- add a reset option to folder list... (when adding to a drive. if I use "remove files from list after copy".. I have to reload the folder if I want to populate another drive..)
Couldn't you just untick "remove files from..."?

- the right click on a file is not working yet (maybe not active yet)
Not yet..

@FoGBaV

* Compare 2 Drives and give option to delete duplicates
You can open 2 drives and then go to remove->items that exist... if that's what you mean?

* Hold list of all known games on drives and give option to delete duplictes (i'm using old 160 Gig Drives for backup purposes) --> Collector function !
* -> Opttion to display missing PAL/NTSC/whatever games in collection ... 8)
These functions would be more database related. If I have time, I could do a database page where you could sort, filter the games etc. Then you could copy to a drive, convert to other formats etc. just like the files list, except it would be persistent. The covers could be stored in the database too, so you could automatically copy covers to the cover folder when you copy a game to the drive.


I've just added a simple dialog to the tools menu, "WBFS recovery". It can be used if you accidentally format a WBFS partition, but only if you formatted to WBFS. It scans the selected drives for valid discs/games that can be extracted to CISO (for now).

Another feature I want to add is "Un-delete". So if you accidentally delete a game, it can be recovered as long as you haven't added any more games since. Although I could check if all blocks used by the game are still intact by checking all blocks used by other games, it's very unlikely they would be if you added another game.

 

[FoGBaV]

@FoGBaV

* Compare 2 Drives and give option to delete duplicates
You can open 2 drives and then go to remove->items that exist... if that's what you mean?

ups ... sorry ... i really have to do some more tests before i post stupid allready implemented things ...

Great to see the option ! Many thanks !

 

[redia]

@redia

- titles.txt should be localized, right now it is downloading only the en one..
Do you know the URLs? I could only find /titles.txt
http://wiitdb.com/titles.txt?LANG=XX
i.e. http://wiitdb.com/titles.txt?LANG=FR

- allow file (iso and ciso) to be renamed from titles.txt
- allow drive display using titles.txt without renaming the games (only on the fly)... this is a viable option because some people (like me) want to keep untouched wbfs drives/files, but use titles.txt in the loader.
I didn't want to touch original ISOs. On the fly renaming would be better anyway.
renaming the iso/ciso file should be an option.
tampering with them... not... but that's my humble opinion.
the "on-the-fly" was for the game title in all the modes (iso/ciso/wbfs drive/wbfs file)
I believe the best way should be to get the gameid from the file, and then the game title from the titles.txt.. and only if missing you should get the game title from the file... putting a small "*" next to the name so we know it is missing in our titles.txt and we can add it if needed.

- add a reset option to folder list... (when adding to a drive. if I use "remove files from list after copy".. I have to reload the folder if I want to populate another drive..)
Couldn't you just untick "remove files from..."?

ok I am going to give you a scenario.
I have two HD.. one for me one for my daugther
I plug them both on my comp
I launch the app
I add a folder
link the two drives
now to add game to my disc I click remove items that exists on drive 1...
I add the games to drive 1 (with or without the option "remove files from list after copy")
now I want to add games to drive 2...
I have to reload my folder..
not a big deal.
just pointing it out

QUOTE

- the right click on a file is not working yet (maybe not active yet)
Not yet..

@FoGBaV

* Compare 2 Drives and give option to delete duplicates
You can open 2 drives and then go to remove->items that exist... if that's what you mean?

* Hold list of all known games on drives and give option to delete duplictes (i'm using old 160 Gig Drives for backup purposes) --> Collector function !
* -> Opttion to display missing PAL/NTSC/whatever games in collection ... 8)
These functions would be more database related. If I have time, I could do a database page where you could sort, filter the games etc. Then you could copy to a drive, convert to other formats etc. just like the files list, except it would be persistent. The covers could be stored in the database too, so you could automatically copy covers to the cover folder when you copy a game to the drive.


I've just added a simple dialog to the tools menu, "WBFS recovery". It can be used if you accidentally format a WBFS partition, but only if you formatted to WBFS. It scans the selected drives for valid discs/games that can be extracted to CISO (for now).

Another feature I want to add is "Un-delete". So if you accidentally delete a game, it can be recovered as long as you haven't added any more games since. Although I could check if all blocks used by the game are still intact by checking all blocks used by other games, it's very unlikely they would be if you added another game.

the futur seems bright

Cheers,
R

 

[fig2k4]

http://wiitdb.com/titles.txt?LANG=XX
i.e. http://wiitdb.com/titles.txt?LANG=FR

Thanks.

QUOTEok I am going to give you a scenario.
I have two HD.. one for me one for my daugther
I plug them both on my comp
I launch the app
I add a folder
link the two drives
now to add game to my disc I click remove items that exists on drive 1...
I add the games to drive 1 (with or without the option "remove files from list after copy")
now I want to add games to drive 2...
I have to reload my folder..
not a big deal.
just pointing it out

2 options.

1. I could add a filter option to "show" only items that don't exists on drive #
2. You could untick "remove files after" and use the "select items not on drive #"
After the copy, just open the other drive and "select items not on drive #" again..

 

[Teivin]

Maybe I'm missing something, or maybe I'm just stupid.

Does this program recognize .wbfs files? I spent a good deal of time converting them a few days ago using the wbfs_file 1.3 program because the .wbfs took up less space than the rar files.. regardless, there seems to be no way to actually select wbfs filetypes when you go to add files or whatnot.

Using 1.9.

I'm probably missing something or just real daft, but the dropdown menu in the add files selection only showed iso/cso/rar as options, no wbfs.

Hum dum.

 

[fig2k4]

Select the drive that contains your wbfs folder on the drive 1 page. The wbfs folder should be in the root of the drive.

If your drive doesn't show in the list, see the options "Show USB drives only" and "Allow any file system for wbfs files".

Now you can add some ISOs and copy them to the drive, or extract from the drive etc..

Soon, I'll add the ability to import/export single .wbfs files.

 

[Teivin]

Ah, alright, so single wbfs files themselves arent supported yet, just turning things into wbfs and such? I suppose that makes more sense. Thanks.

 

[fig2k4]

This is how I pictured how it would be used...

I have a 500GB USB drive, formatted as FAT32 with the games in the wbfs folder. I use this with Configurable USB loader. So I plug this into my PC, select the drive letter and I can work with the games straight away. Easily adding ISOs from my other PC drives or extracting ISOs from it.

If you open a FAT32 drive as Drive 1 and WBFS as Drive 2, you can easily copy from one to the other too.

Obviously other people have different views and uses for it, so that's why I'm going to add single wbfs file support too. You'll be able to add .wbfs files like you expected to and also extract .wbfs from any other drive (FAT32, WBFS etc.)

 

[redia]

1. I could add a filter option to "show" only items that don't exists on drive #
2. You could untick "remove files after" and use the "select items not on drive #"
After the copy, just open the other drive and "select items not on drive #" again..

2. does not work.
I load disk 1 with game a,b,c,d
I load disk 2 with game b,e,f,g
and a bunch of iso a,b,c,d,e,f,g,h

if I click select items not on drive 1 my files tab is left with e,f,g,h
then if I switch to working on disk 2
if I click select items not on drive 2 my files tab is left with h.... instead of a,c,d,h

I hope I am clear... I just tested...

but don't consider that as an important matter.. I just happened to run into this.
it is only two clicks to reload my files folder.. so it is really not an issue.

I would be much more interested in having "switchable" localized version of the covers/titles
and full ciso iso wbfs file conversion
and html export
and display game title using titles.txt
and so much more things you are already working on.
let's be honest. I am pretty sure you have many more interesting things to work on. so don't worry.
(this list is in no particular order...)


Cheers,
R

 

[fig2k4]

2. does not work.
I load disk 1 with game a,b,c,d
I load disk 2 with game b,e,f,g
and a bunch of iso a,b,c,d,e,f,g,h

if I click select items not on drive 1 my files tab is left with e,f,g,h
then if I switch to working on disk 2
if I click select items not on drive 2 my files tab is left with h.... instead of a,c,d,h

I just tried your experiment

I can't confirm the results though. It works fine here, all the correct items are selected.

Edit: Are you sure you're using "Select->Items not on drive #"?

- "switchable" localized version of the covers/titles
I've added a language selection in the settings dialog for this, I just need to finish it up..

-and full ciso iso wbfs file conversion
Should be finished soon, unless you mean direct ciso to iso. That'll be later. I will do indirect conversion, using .wbfs as the inbetween step.

-and correction in the batch download of the covers
What OS are you using? IIRC, the progress dialog just closes straight away when you try to download all?

-and html export
You could have a look at the template folder and the readme to see how it's done, until I can get time. Everyone will probably want a different style of output, so designing your own template is the best idea I think. I'll do a simple HTML template as soon as I can. I need to add a couple of page filename tags, so when it outputs multiple files/pages, they can contain links to each other. e.g. you can have multiple html pages, with 10 games on each, with links to previous and next pages.

-and display game title using titles.txt
That's a high priority.

 

[gameshark]

for some strange reason i get with some fat32 wbfs files that i convert with this program to iso the compressed iso file for example anubis.wbfs (92 mb) becomes anubis.iso(504mb) and if i burn this 504mb iso with imgburn on a dvd-r disc it plays in my softmodded wii perfectly using neogamma r7.

now my question is why this happens with some fat32 wbfs and not with all of them

tested out with sin and punishment 2 but this ones becomes 4gb but with knockout party it becomes 1.4 gb (iso) and also playable burned on disc.

this could be a very space saving tool if someone could figure out why this happens

GameShark

 

[fig2k4]

Man it takes a while for the pages to load at this time.

Anyway, what version are you using? 0.1.8 should've fixed ISO sizes, they should all be 4 gig. I did also introduce sparse files at the same time though, which makes the 4 gig ISO only take up the same disk space as a CISO would.

I'll need to get a hold of Anubis to check it out..

 

[redia]

fig2k4,

once again I can only thank you for the effort you are putting in this app.
I will test again the "select items" again tomorrow.
maybe I messed up.

for the template I will also look into it to see if we can build something nice out of that. and I will comment tomorrow too.

for the rest.. I am dying to see it.

Cheers,
R

 

[Jman69]

I noticed this program is portable, in the sense that it writes files to an ini file and not the registry, which is great. I thought I'd be able to put it on my USB hard drive I use for my Wii, and run it from there.

Unfortunately, when I try to copy a file using the program, to the USB drive, the progress bars complete immediately, and after a couple of seconds it fails

I thought this was because the program locks the drive, and you cannot run the program from the same drive. So I created a new partition on the drive, and copied and ran the program from there, with the same result. I ran the program from a separate drive entirely, and it ran fine.

Does this program lock the entire device, or is there some other way to make it run from the same drive/device? I'd like this option so I can take my hard drive to another person's computer and be able to extract/add games from there.

Does this make sense?

 

[gameshark]

Man it takes a while for the pages to load at this time.

Anyway, what version are you using? 0.1.8 should've fixed ISO sizes, they should all be 4 gig. I did also introduce sparse files at the same time though, which makes the 4 gig ISO only take up the same disk space as a CISO would.

I'll need to get a hold of Anubis to check it out..

0.1.7 i used
it only works with some games like
a piggy party
anubis
deer drive
knockout party

but it would be great if all games could be converted to a much smaller iso that burns much faster and take a less amount of space on your computer

 

[fig2k4]

Does this make sense?

Makes perfect sense. It would be handy keeping it on the FAT32 drive, maybe even auto running when the drive is inserted. I'll check to see why it doesn't run correctly. It probably IS a locking issue.

@gameshark

I'm not sure if the smaller ISOs are working only with the softmod. Wii ISOs need to be a certain size for a reason, which I'm not sure about.

When you extract an ISO to an NTFS drive, even though it shows as 4 gig, look at the file properties, it'll show that it's only using the same size on disk as a CISO would because I'm using sparse files.

I've just converted all my ISOs to .wbfs so I can now check them all to see why some are not extracted to 4 gig.

New features added recently and should be in 0.2.0 when it's released:

-Direct copy to WBFS/WBFS file from a backup DVD.
-Multiboot disc support (From DVD only for now). It's possible to copy 1 or more games from these discs to WBFS/WBFS file, recovering the game title, ID etc.

In the future I should be able to copy them straight to ISO etc. too.

I have a lot of multiboot discs with no way to transfer the games to USB, so these features are a must for me.

 

[redia]

fig2k4,

I confirm what I was stating.
the "remove items that exist on drive x" does not work in my scenario
I created a very simple environment to test it :

folder contains A, B, C
Drive 1 contains A
Drive 2 contains B
the aim : have all 3 games on the two drives
(I unchecked the "remove files from list" option)

running the app
loading the folder
loading drive 1
loading drive 2

go to folder tab
click on remove items that exists on drive 1
I am left with B, C
add game B and C to drive 1

at the present moment in the folder tab I am still left with B, C
if I follow your advice (maybe I misunderstood) I should click on "remove items that exists on drive 2".
I am left with C... the A does not "magically" reappear

I can of course reload the folder, and then click "remove items that exists on drive 2" and this would work.

once again this is just a stupid thing. just pointing it out. don't put effort into it.

two thing I would like and that are missing.

1 - a way to know which images are missing. could be :
an export txt file
an extra column (kinda wiitdb style)
a button in the cover menu (list missing flat/disc/fake 3d/full)

2 - a way to populate a drive with the downloaded pictures.
I mean that I have a FAT HD on which I have both my WBFS folder, and my CFG loader folder
I would like to have a command that would check for missing covers in my CFG folder (that I would need to define somewhere) and copy them in case I have them.

Cheers,
R

 

[fig2k4]

if I follow your advice (maybe I misunderstood) I should click on "remove items that exists on drive 2".

What I was suggesting was to "select items not on drive 2". That way, you can transfer games that don't exist on the drives, without removing anything from the file list.

So..
Files has A,B,C
Drive 1 has A
Drive 2 has B

Select items not on drive 1 would select B,C
Copy to drive 1
Select items not on drive 2 would select A,C
Copy to drive 2

1 - a way to know which images are missing

I could add a menu item that opens up notepad with the list. Sound OK?

QUOTE

2 - a way to populate a drive with the downloaded pictures.

That sounds like another job for the database. With the database you could store all the covers, as many regions etc. as you want. Then transfer them to the working covers folder using various filters, like ones that are missing. Also remove covers that exist in the database, but the games aren't on the drive.

 

[redia]

What I was suggesting was to "select items not on drive 2". That way, you can transfer games that don't exist on the drives, without removing anything from the file list.

So..
Files has A,B,C
Drive 1 has A
Drive 2 has B

Select items not on drive 1 would select B,C
Copy to drive 1
Select items not on drive 2 would select A,C
Copy to drive 2
it only works if I Reload the folder between the two selection.
but seriously drop it.. I was just acting lazy. loading a folder is a quick thing.

I could add a menu item that opens up notepad with the list. Sound OK?

awesome, that's a very good way to start.

QUOTE

That sounds like another job for the database. With the database you could store all the covers, as many regions etc. as you want. Then transfer them to the working covers folder using various filters, like ones that are missing. Also remove covers that exist in the database, but the games aren't on the drive.

is that your way to inform us that you are planning on implementing a DB ??

my idea was much simpler, but way less elaborated :
- add a few variables that can be assigned per drive :
loader_img_flat = .....
loader_img_3d = .....
loader_img_full = .....
loader_img_disc = .....
- add in the cover sub-menu on the drive x tab something like "populate for usb loader"
and it is pretty straightforward :
list games in drive
check if img exist in drive
if not check if img exists in wiibackupmanager repository
if it does.. copy..
done

I created my own little script for this purpose. i store a small ini file in each of my drives WBFS folder.
I only copy the format I do need...


Cheers,
R