How to play Wii backups from a usb stick with no modchip.

Step 2: Download the Wii iso to your usb device.

This next step explains how to load a Wii ISO to you usb device.

The first step is to get a Wii iso backup file. (I can't tell you where.)

Plug in your usb device in your computer . Click on the WBFS Manager 2.5 icon on your desktop. A new scree n will open. Use the drop-down tab under "Edit" in the upper left corner to choose your usb device drive letter.

(WARNING: Be very careful not to format your hard drive! Make sure you're drive number is right!)

Now click format to delete the contents on your USB device and change the format to WBFS.

(Note: You will not be able to use the USB drive only to store Wii isos because the computer operating system doesn't recognize the WBFS format).

After you're done formatting click the "Load button to load the contents of your USB device. It's empty.

Click the "Browse" button in the lower right corner to open a new window, locate your Wii ISO, click it, and click "Open" in the lower right corner.
It will take a few seconds to load. You should see it in the right half of the WBFS Manager window. Hover your mouse over it to see it's game cover.
Now click "Add to Device" to compress your Wii ISO and add it to your usb device.
It will take about 5 minutes to upload the file to a usb device.
After it's done, either close the program and take your usb device out of your computer and go to the next step, or add more games to your usb device.

Comments

[catcha_fallinstar69]

I really want to be able to play free games but I have a couple questions before I do it...do i have to mod my system in order to play downloaded games? and if i do mod my system will i still be able to do everything i could before on it? such as play store bought games? please somebody help :(

[roperdoug]

I'm new at this. I have my black Wii with 4.3U modded with Homebrew and am able to play games loaded onto a 16 gb USB Flash drive. I use WBFS Manager to load the games. I have loaded two games ISOs which are 4.5 GB no problem. But I have other ISOs the same size that will not load. I know the WBFS are partitioned. I had three games loaded and all three runs. Why do some load and others not?

[applesaucejones]

quick question, does the wbfs partition have to be the first partition on the drive? and by this i mean i have an external hdd with 3 partitions of data and about 200gb of unpartitioned space, would the wii still be able to pick up the stuff on partition 4 or would it read from only partition 1? if possible i would like to avoid having to move all my data to another partition

heres a diagram if that was too confusing
| data | data | data | unpartitioned |

just wondering if anyones tried this and if it worked or whatnot
other than that little issue, i love this instructable, this whole website is just amazing

[Sydneysyd]

Thx 4 ur instructable, always run ! Great ! ^^

[kakashi.hatakae]

i got a error when formatting, why id that

[IamElliF]

This is my problem. So from the wiibrew website I installed homebrew and bootmii threw the Indiana pwns exploit. From this point I'm totally clueless because all vids and websites instruct me on how to do it all at once with there packs but I've already installed homebrew and bootmii...I need to know what to do from this point on in order to play downloaded games from my USB external hard drive. I also need an up to date program that will format my external hard drive to wbfs and transfer the downloaded games onto the hard drive as well. Any assistance will be greatly appreciated

[darrenthorpe]

I have transfered wii sports resort to my usb devise but it has gone over as 0.83GB as apposed to 4.38GB that it actually is. is this correct? I have done the same with bolt and it shows the same in both and works fine!!!!!!

[Solderguy]

Yes it is the correct size. 4.3 GB is the size of the DVD, not the size of that game data. You'll be surprised how small they can make the games.

[Jrwhar]

For some reason when I transfered SSBB it went up to 6.8 gig from 4.7 any ideas on how to fix that? Any help would be greatly appreciated because id be able to fit alot more games on my 16 Gb flash drive. Awesome work on the tut by the way :)

[Jrwhar]

Nevermind, did some research and SSBB is a dual layer game which takes up a massive amount of space.

[le-Sid]

yup, ssbb is one of the few games that are burnt on double-layer dvd ... (same thing for Metroid trilogy)

[darrenthorpe]

Hi,
I am also having lots of problems with the screen getting lots of strange symbols when scrolling through the games and then it crashes with a dsi error and other comments. I have to turn the wii off at the mains. this is happening with probably 80% of the games that I put on the hard drive. Once I delete the game off (that was downloaded last that caused the issue), all is ok with the games that are on and ok. Can you help?? Daz

[Solderguy]

Try using another usb loder program. I use Uloader 3.0 now because I got the same error.

[darrenthorpe]

Thanks, Took some time finding uloader 3.0 but now installed and worked well with the first game. Thanks for all your help. I'll now try the others.

[adi badaya]

i wanna convert my flash drive to WBFS format .but after that can i use it the same before or that will be permanent

[le-Sid]

the wbfs format is a partition type, you can always reformat your drive in fat32 afterwards, but keep in mind that you'll lose what was on the wbfs partition

[MTB2010]

I downloaded the WBFS and tried putting my game file in its a .rar but says it fails becaus theres a password on it, how do i get past this?

[boyflai]

I have been trying to put games on my wii for months and still have no idea how to do it. For step 2, I got a game that is a ciso and made a rar file out of it. So when i try to put the game to load into the wii, all it did was pop up and then close. Do i need a better game? any is there anysuggestion for a game download website since i don't know how to use torrent.

[pcjoeyd]

Hi boyflai, You have to mod your system before you can do any of this. Also (and this is for everyone that has asked), do NOT update your wii system to the latest update (4.3U) DO NOT UPDATE YOUR WII !!! If you do, you will not be able to mod your system. Eventually there will be a fix, but it's not out yet.. Having said that, if you are anyone else wants their wii modded, I'll do it for you for a small fee....I can mod any version EXCEPT 4.3

[Ghost99]

4.3u can be modded in minutes. I did mine this morning and the entire process took me literally under 10 minutes. What you will need: Lego Indiana Jones - The original Adventures Indiana PWNS hacked save file Hackmii installer 1-2GB SD card (DO NOT use larger then 2GB, DO NOT use a SDHD card) Process: 1. Back-up or delete your Wii saved files system memory. 2. Start Indiana Jones and play through the first level WITH the Nunchuck attached. 3. Save your game at the end of the first level. 4. Exit to Wii Menu, Access save file, delete the current Indiana Jones save and copy the the Indiana PWNS save from your SD card (use the save for your region e.g. USA, EU, JAP) 5. Extract the HackMii files to the ROOT of your SD card. Make sure that boot.dol is in the ROOT and named "boot.dol" (If the .dol file is named something else rename it to boot.dol) 6. Start Indiana Jones and load the save file. 7. You will be loaded into the College or Museum or whatever it is, walk to the Art Room at the end of the Courtyard. 8. Walk up to the guy on the first pedestal and select the option of the two silhouette's 9. When the Indiana PWNS exploit runs select "load from SD" 10. HackMii should load on its own 11. Install the Homebrew Channel and BootMii loader 12. Voila! HBC is installed on your 4.3 Wii in under 10 minutes!

[p2d2r2]

um ive made a way to put the homebrew channel back on the wii 4.3... 1 have a working wad manager channel (not application) 2 update to 4.3U 3 download this wad: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=J7XAKSV8 4 install this wad with wad manager 5 it will be an orange homebrew channel 6 load the channel 7 it will be upside down so wait and a message will pop up saying to update to the latest version of hbc 8 update the homebrew channel and it will open the hackmii installer where you can install hbc and bootmii 9 at the first screen press a the go to install hbc 10 exit and you will have the new hbc on a 4.3 wii!! ----p2d2r2

[cubemike99]

will this work for gamecube games?
 

[Lukissio]

My WBFS software can't format my SD card is that because I did something wrong or is it that it's an SD card? :/

[Ganoderma]

 I had the same problem, taking the SD out, rebooting comp and putting it back it seemed to work. 

[twinkymartinez]

 for some reason it lets ne start to load the iso ro the hard drive but it like freezes and stops like after 4 minutes and hey scrubbed games so theyre not that long to upload i have done it before and it went quick but my hard drive messed up for some reason so i had to upload it again but it is taking forever to upload

[seashark]

 so if i format the drive i cant use it for other stuff EX:/store movies,songs,exec...etc

[Garield]

Hi, I've transfered several games however the ones I put on the HDD via the computer don't work. Eventhough the ones caputerd from a disc do work. First i thought of a corrupet iso but after 6 differnt iso's, i think something else is wrong. Can you help?

[nope2dope33]

Actually though... it's a software limitation, hence it won't let you play certain games from certain media. USB, CD, and HDD, should all be valid sources for media, it's very feasible, they just chose not to support it in there software they wrote for the 'already capable hardware.'

[ultimatesx9]

One quick Qeustion, does this work for GameCube games or not? I'm hiting holes in my door since it fails to put them on...

[Solderguy]

No, unfortunately this will never work with Gamecube games. While playing Gamecube games the Wii is restricted from using the usb, wi-fi, and bluetooth controller. This doesn't have a workaround since it is a hardware limitation and not a software limitation.