Hacking ncWBFSTool

[pepxl]

strange ive added 15 in a row and all added perfectly

 

[REALDEAL]

i have added 8 so far but its really slow like 30 - 40 min a game................is it normally this slow.........aint got anything else eating up the system(running)

 

[pepxl]

it depends if its a USB1.1 or 2.0 device and maybe processor speed, when ever i have a bulk transfer to do i do it on the night then in the morn its done

 

[temp82]

i have added 8 so far but its really slow like 30 - 40 min a game................is it normally this slow.........aint got anything else eating up the system(running)

try to use Version 1.0, i have a similar problem with last version.

 

[morgoth123]

I just tried the latest version of ncWBFSTool (v1.1.b3) and it doesnt recognize my wbfs partition while the older version (v1.0) does recognize it fine as "WBFS @ PhysicalDrive5Partition2" (note: Windows doesn't give my WBFS partition a drive letter)..would it be possible to fix this? If you need more information i'd be happy to supply. Thank you in advance.

 

[morgoth123]

Ignore my post...only just found out about the enhanced drive detection setting. Sorry. WBFS partition is recognized fine now.

 

[viper831]

Has anyone tried this with ESata? I have all my backups on a 1.5TB sata drive in my PC and am looking for faster cloning. I tried WBFS Manager and the sata to esata transfer was the same speed as my usb to usb transfers.

 

[morgoth123]

I have a huge problem.
I used ncWBFSTool to copy 301 wii games from a 700 GB WBFS partition at an 1 TB USB drive to a 1300 GB WBFS partition at a 1.5 TB USB drive.
The 1300 GB partition was newly made by ncWBFSTool as well. I got no errors whatsoever during this copy process.
However starting games from an usb loader doesnt work anymore..screen stays black. I tried both WiiFLow and USB Loader GX. Ofcourse this works fine for the original 1 TB drive.
The amount of space available to WBFS seems to be recognized correctly in USB Loader GX however the number of games isnt somehow..it says 269 games are installed where the number should be 301 so 32 games have gone "missing".
When i connect the 1.5 TB drive again to the pc ncWBFSTool now shows a number of 269 installed games. So it almost looks like mounting the usb drive on the wii for a first time and trying to run a game from an usb loader destroyed the WBFS filesystem somehow.
When i extract a game using ncWBFSTool (.wbi file) from the 1300 GB partition and compare it with an extracted .wbi file from the same game of the 700 GB partition both files differ and they dont even have the same size.
When i extract a game using ncWBFSTool (.iso file) from the 1300 GB partition and compare it with the original iso residing on HD both files have the same size but differ binairy.
When i extract a game using ncWBFSTool (.iso file) from the 700 GB partition and compare it with the original iso residing on HD both files have the same size but ALSO differ binairy.
Maybe it's normal for dumped iso's to differ binairy since lots of disc space is "dummy space" for a wii iso..I don't know this, could someone confirm if this is the case?
In any case i take it both extracted wbi files should be exactly the same and yet they arent (even the size is different).
So the most important question is: what could be wrong here since as far as i understand it i should be able to copy/clone games from one wbfs partition to another just fine and how can i solve it to run my backups from the 1.5 TB drive which is the thing that i want to do?

 

[sjeps]

just a note

using Windows 7 64 bits (i dont think it is the problem)

i have a usb stick with a ntfs partiton and a wbfs partition.

ncWBFSTool 1.0 works perfetly while 1.1 b3 can't recognise my drive

 

[morgoth123]

Sjeps, did you use enhanced drive recognition under the config menu? I've had a likewise problem but that setting solved it.

 

[Dent]

Has anyone tried this with ESata? I have all my backups on a 1.5TB sata drive in my PC and am looking for faster cloning. I tried WBFS Manager and the sata to esata transfer was the same speed as my usb to usb transfers.

I use an eSata cable. The transfer was very slow with 1.1b3. Switching back to 1.0 made the speed back up to normal.

 

[nubecoder]

As far as the slowness of the newer versions...

I can't think of any reason this would be occurring, it is interesting tho. It is definitely something I will look into when I get some time.

Speaking of time, work has been keeping me very busy the past few weeks. I have not had any time to work on this project.

I still have plans to redo the entire project, but I cannot give any time frame as to when I'll be able to get around to it. So for now, you will have to make due with one of the 3 versions that are available.

If anyone is having a problem with a WBI file, just remember that all you need to do in order to "convert" it to a CISO is rename it (ex: gameTitle.wbi -> gameTitle.ciso). Then you can attempt to use it with another WBFS manager that supports CISO files.

So forgive me for being afk for a while, but don't worry I will be working on this project as time permits, hopefully the end result will all be worth it.
(Those of you using the current versions with out problems may already think that it is

).

@ morgoth123:
Your Original ISO files may or may not be scrubbed, an ISO extracted with (almost) any WBFS manager is going to be scrubbed, that is why the binary comparisons will differ.
Also the CISO format relies on the WBFS sector size of the WBFS drive it was extracted from, so that is why the sizes may also differ.

As far as games no longer working in a loader, I've not come across this before... You can try using hermes wbfs_win.exe (or whatever it's named) and running an integrity check. But as far as I know his integrity check is mainly supposed to find overlapping games from older WBFS binaries that had the "delete bug" that would incorrectly free blocks when removing (deleting) a game But it's worth a shot. GL!

@ all

One last note...

I would like to direct any future requests or problems to be posted on the official support forums.

roverxk9 has been gracious enough to offer his time to help me with support there (as well as allowing to me have a section there to support my programs).

It will be easier for me (and him) to organize the requests and such there. thankx

=]

 

[morgoth123]

Thanks for replying.
I will check out the integrity check tool but the point remains ncWBFSTool seems to have a huge bug when copying/cloning games in the situation i described above.
I mean appearantly i can't use your tool for copying to my new usb drive. If i can help squashing this huge bug by providing more information i'd be happy to. Just tell me what you need to know. I do hope you will try to sort it out. Thanks again.

 

[Dent]

i have added 8 so far but its really slow like 30 - 40 min a game................is it normally this slow.........aint got anything else eating up the system(running)

The solution or at least a workaround for the slow transfer I found on nubecoder's official support forum. I'll quote the post:

Transfer speed issues
Hi!

About the transfer speed issue, I think it may be caused by the screen refresh of the gui.

When the gui is visible, CPU tops at 100%, and when the gui is hidden (reduced to the task bar), cpu usage drops to about 15-25% and the USB transfer rate clearly goes up. This should be easy to fix by limiting the refresh to 4-5 times per seconds instead of continously updating like it does right now.

Workaround for 1.1b3 : hide the window while transferring an iso.

nubecoder, please continue your good work!

 

[hatredg0d]

is there any hope of this getting compatibility of Trimmed iso's?

 

[George Dawes]

Bug - if a games extension has uppercase .ISO then it doesn't show in ncwbfstool. Rename to lowercase .iso and everything is fine.

 

[mousex]

If anyone is having a problem with a WBI file, just remember that all you need to do in order to "convert" it to a CISO is rename it (ex: gameTitle.wbi -> gameTitle.ciso). Then you can attempt to use it with another WBFS manager that supports CISO files.

So why do you call it .wbi if they are .ciso files?

 

[redia]

If anyone is having a problem with a WBI file, just remember that all you need to do in order to "convert" it to a CISO is rename it (ex: gameTitle.wbi -> gameTitle.ciso). Then you can attempt to use it with another WBFS manager that supports CISO files.
So why do you call it .wbi if they are .ciso files?

from the readme.txt
QUOTE

WBI file extension details:
----------------------------------------------------------------
More than a few people have stated that the CISO file extension is confusing. The PSP's CISO file extension being noted as the biggest source of confusion.
I have therefore implemented the WBI file extension.
The WBI file format is 100% identical to the CISO format, unlike the chinese WBF format, I've only changed the extension as to avoid consufion.
CISO files and WBI files are interchangable, to change a WBI to a CISO or vise versa, simply change the file extension (rename the file).
----------------------------------------------------------------

this is quite explicit.

R

 

[TheDark]

Hi,

I notice a bug, i try to remove a games, but it is not listed when i choose "Remove Games" option, but i see the game in question when i use "Change Title or Id on WBFS".

How can i remove this game properly ?

I would like to remove it because i install this game from USB Loader, but the install/copy process has been failed due to a bad DVD backup i think.

Thks to advise.

Regards

 

[execdec]

Can someone point me to instructions on using the ncwbfs tool please? I am new to this, in short is it possible to: -split (partition) a new external hd to use as wbfs manager, and to use for normal windows files? I am just backing up my wii games that I use with wiiflow usb loader so I have another copy. Will the ncwbfs tool format the drive, or just the part of the drive I want? Thanks! Sorry if this is in the wrong area.