WBFS To FAT Transfer

Transfer your games on an old WBFS partition to a FAT partition

Games on the FAT partition are easier to manage and you can store other things on the same drive, unlike WBFS. Transferring your games using this method should be faster than ripping them all using the Wii drive again.

What you should install first

  • Nothing

What you need

  • USB Drive

What to download

  • wbfs_file v1.2 or later. wbfs_file v1.2 can be found here and information about the latest version can be found in the first post of the same thread.
    • A direct link to wbfs_file v2.8 is here.
  • Only if told you need it: dd for Windows v0.5 or later which can be found on this page.
    • A direct link for v0.5 can be found here.

Choose your Destination

If you want to copy your games from one drive to another partition that is big enough on the same drive or a different drive, then this can be done directly using the steps below. Your destination when asked for it will be X:\wbfs where X is the drive letter assigned to the drive (or however else you refer to the drive if non-windows).

If, instead, you want to use the same drive that you currently have formatted as WBFS and it does not already have a big enough FAT32 partition, you will need to use a drive on your PC as a medium to store the games temporarily as you reformat. Your PC's drive does not need to be formatted in any specific way so you will not need to prepare it in any way. Just use the steps below to copy the games to a directory on the PC, format your drive to FAT32 (GParted can be used, but FAT32Format is the recommended choice for Windows) and finally, just move the game files off your PC to X:\wbfs where X is the drive letter assigned to the drive after it has been reformatted to FAT32 (or however else you refer to the drive if non-windows). This final move does not require any special apps, just move the files over using your PC's OS.

Preparation

First, we need to find a way to address your WBFS partition. Follow the following procedure to determine what string you should use to refer to your WBFS partition. If at any point you get a method to refer to your drive, go to the Procedure. Instructions are separated by your PC operating system. If you have instructions for an operating system not listed, please let us know.

Windows XP:

  1. Plug the drive into your PC. If the WBFS partition is assigned a drive letter, then that is the way to refer to the drive (e.g., X:) and you can go to the Procedure now.
  2. Click Start…Run, type diskmgmt.msc and hit Enter to start the Disk Management Console.
  3. Identify the partition that is formatted as WBFS (it will be detected as a drive of unknown format).
  4. Right click the partition and see if you can select "Change Drive Letter". If so, select a letter and refer to the drive in that way (e.g., X:) and you can go to the Procedure now.
  5. Take note of the disk number listed on the left.
  6. Plug the drive into the Wii (remember to use the outer USB port) and run Configurable USB Loader.
  7. Push 1 twice to access Global Options.
    • If you have the option disable_options=1 or simple=1 in config.txt, then enter the unlock password first.
  8. Navigate to the partition field and push D-pad right.
  9. Take note of the partition number (on the left in the form P#) where the WBFS partition is.
  10. Your partition name should be "\\?\GLOBALROOT\Device\Harddisk#\Partition#" where the # marks should be the numbers you took note of earlier and you can go to the Procedure now.
    • HardDisk# was found in diskmgmt.msc, Partition# in Cfg Loader.
  11. If that name didn't work, download dd for Windows 0.5 from here.
  12. Unzip dd-0.5.zip and copy dd.exe to a directory.
  13. Click Start…Run, type cmd and hit Enter.
  14. Use the "cd" command to change directory to where you put dd.exe.
  15. Run "dd —list" and take note of the partition names. Try to find which one is the WBFS partition.
  16. The name of your partition can be created by inserting "GLOBALROOT\" after the \\?\ of the name of the partition listed and you can go to the Procedure now.

Windows Vista/Windows 7:

  1. Plug the drive into your PC. If the WBFS partition is assigned a drive letter, then that is the way to refer to the drive (e.g., X:) and you can go to the Procedure now.
  2. Click Start, type diskmgmt.msc in the search box and hit Enter to start the Disk Management Console.
  3. Identify the partition that is formatted as WBFS (it will be detected as a drive of unknown format).
  4. Right click the partition and see if you can select "Change Drive Letter". If so, select a letter and refer to the drive in that way (e.g., X:) and you can go to the Procedure now.
  5. Take note of the disk number listed on the left.
  6. Plug the drive into the Wii (remember to use the outer USB port) and run Configurable USB Loader.
  7. Push 1 twice to access Global Options.
    • If you have the option disable_options=1 or simple=1 in config.txt, then enter the unlock password first.
  8. Navigate to the partition field and push D-pad right.
  9. Take note of the partition number (on the left in the form P#) where the WBFS partition is.
  10. Your partition name should be "\\?\GLOBALROOT\Device\Harddisk#\Partition#" where the # marks should be the numbers you took note of earlier and you can go to the Procedure now.
    • HardDisk# was found in diskmgmt.msc, Partition# in Cfg Loader.
  11. If that name didn't work, download dd for Windows 0.5 from here.
  12. Unzip dd-0.5.zip and copy dd.exe to a directory.
  13. Click Start…Run, type cmd and wait for cmd.exe to appear in the list of found applications.
  14. Right click cmd.exe and select "Run As Administrator".
  15. Use the "cd" command to change directory to where you put dd.exe.
  16. Run "dd —list" and take note of the partition names. Try to find which one is the WBFS partition.
  17. The name of your partition can be created by inserting "GLOBALROOT\" after the \\?\ of the name of the partition listed and you can go to the Procedure now.

Procedure

  1. Determine how to refer to your partition using the steps under Preparation. The partition name will be referred to as pname from now on. Remember to replace it wherever it is used in the tutorial.
  2. Unzip the wbfs_file zip file and copy wbfs_file_#.#/wbfs_file.exe to a directory on your PC.
    • For Linux or Mac installations, use the files in the appropriate sub-directories instead
  3. Run a command prompt or shell and navigate to the correct directory.
    • In Windows XP, Click Start…Run, type cmd and return, then use "cd directory" to change to the directory where you put wbfs_file.exe.
    • In Windows Vista/7, Click Start and select the search box, type cmd and press return, then use "cd directory" to change to the directory where you put wbfs_file.exe.
  4. Try typing the command "wbfs_file pname ls" and the list of games on the WBFS partition should be printed
    • If this step doesn't work, go back to the preparation steps to check the name or get a different one.
  5. You are now ready to perform the copy of games on your WBFS partition into .wbfs files, you just need a destination directory
    • If copying to a FAT partition on the same drive or another drive that you want to use in the Wii, the files must go into X:\wbfs (where X: is the destination drive)
    • If copying to the PC, they can go anywhere.
  6. Run "wbfs_file pname extract_wbfs_all destination" replacing pname and destination, of course
  7. All games on the drive will be converted to .wbfs files in the destination directory. If this is on an external drive, you can start playing your games in Configurable USB Loader straight away. If elsewhere, you can copy them to a FAT partition in the /wbfs directory at a later stage.
  8. If you want Configurable USB Loader to automatically start with the new FAT partition, add the line "partition=FAT1" to your config.txt or choose the FAT partition in Cfg and save global settings (push 1 twice then push 2)

FAQ

  • Are there any restrictions when copying my games to FAT?
    • No.
Unless otherwise stated, the content of this page is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License