How do i import Wii games from WBFS format HDD? - SOLVED

[Diverdown]

hello - i have ~500 Wii games on a HDD formatted by WBFS. (from a softmodded wii)

When i search for Roms in LB it only shows the wad files on that disc that are Wiiware- not the Wii games.

I used WBFS 3 to convert Animal crossing to an ISO and placed in on an NTFS drive and LB sees and imports and plays that game perfectly.  I thought LB could handle Wii images in the WBFS format.

 

Am i wrong or just doing it wrong?

Edited September 20, 2016 by Diverdown

[Lordmonkus]

WBFS files work fine.

Launchbox has no effect on whether or not the file type is supported or not, it's the emulator that matters.

[Diverdown]

Thanks

hmm - when i go to import rom in LB i cannot actually see the roms when i browse for them. The disc is formatted as a WBFS - the games just dont show in windows. I have tried some other browsers too. i have a feeling there was a linix one i may search for too.

From other threads - do you have your HDD formatted as a WBFS or as NTSC with .wad files on that. I think this is a WBFS HDD format issue. This HDD is wdfs format so the Wii will read it too. (it wont read a NTFS/FAt drive)

So i have no way to select the roms to import.  The reason i am trying to import them in the wbfs format is they are a LOT smaller than an 4.xGb iso.

i have found a LONG way around.

Step 1

Use WBFS file manager to export the game to an ISO (4GB)

Step 2

Import said ISO into dolphin

Step 3

Use dolphin option to compress the iso into a .gcz file (300mb)

Step 4

import .gcz file into dolphin (to check it plays)

Step 5

delete iso file

Step 6

drag .gcz file into LB.

 

[Lordmonkus]

Drag the WBFS file into Launchbox and import it that way.

[Diverdown]

my computer wont display the wbfs file in any browser and LB cant see them when it browses.

 

I can only see the content of thedrive through wbfs. When i click on the drive letter in win10 the only option i have is to format the HDD.  How did you see files on a wbfs formatted drive?

[Lordmonkus]

Ahh you got the games on an actual WBFS formatted hard drive. We had this discussion come up before and I have no idea what the end result was. No clue how you can get the files off it to a normal formatted drive at all. All I can tell you is if you can get the file off that drive on to a normal fat or ntfs formatted drive they will import just fine.

[Diverdown]

Yep - i saw that thread- and a hole lot of people went down all sorts of rabbit holes.

I think the answer is exactly as you have above - except as far as i can find - there is no file browser that allows me to drag a file off a wbfs drive onto a NTFS drive.

[Lordmonkus]

Well obviously there is a way to get it off because it has been done my guess would be through Linux. If you don't have a Linux computer around to try that out you might be better off just looking for a download of whatever game somewhere on the net.

[Diverdown]

Solved -

Thanks Lordmonkus.  The simple answer is - reading a WBFS drive is basically impossible from a WinX machine. So - the reason it was WBFS was because the WiiLoader required that format (when i set it up 5 years ago!!). It seems WiiLoaders do NOT need that format now and can handle Fat32.

So - use this link to download the WBFS2FAT app. https://gbatemp.net/threads/how-to-convert-from-wbfs-to-fat32-or-ntfs.292391/

in less than 30 seconds the entire drive ws conferted to FAT32 and RETAINED ALL GAME DATA.

LB now sees the files and can import them.

[Lordmonkus]

Very nice, someone figured a way to format the file system without data loss.

[DOS76]

Yeah that's not a normal occurrence usually changing formats destroys everything. That sounds like a good tool for that scenario.