Hacking wfsdump - PC util for dumping WFS devices (WiiU File System)

Anthropod

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Hello. I am having trouble with my Wii U external hard drive. I am trying to get it to read my external hard drive that I have been storing games on and now when the hd is connected to the console, it asks me to format it. I was recommended this wfsdump for fixing the problem of not recognizing my Wii U and I just need some confirmation. If I dumb this program into the hd for my Wii U, will it then start to recognize the hard drive again?
 

MultiKoopa

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Hello. Wondering if in 2021 there's anything that lets you modify WFS? I want to copy a large file to a Wii U formatted external USB drive. I know ftpiiu-EVERYWHERE lets you do this, but even with an Ethernet cable attached, transferring a 3 GB file this way would take over 10 hours. Hell, even transferring a smaller 147 MB file takes half an hour.
 

Arnold101

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my hdd not appear anymore on wiiu. before worked fine, is not recognized :(( how i can fix it? help please

the hdd and usb converter is working fine on pc (no format)
 

wiiuguy12345

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can someone please explain how to use this? im not good with code. i transfered all my games to my usb drive then i reset my wii u and cant get the games back on it, i think this is the tool i need but i dont know how to use it :(
 

EyeKey

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It is time for v1.0. wfslib v1.0 is released along side WFS Tools v1.0.
I refreshed the code a bit in preparation for the next stage - being able to modify the file system.
At this point I figured out the whole file system, now it is time to implement it.
I don't have an ETA since it is a lot of development, but I hope that it will happen soon.

The biggest part that I have to implement is the free blocks allocator.
There is also the transactions area (which is used to track and store changes of blocks until flush, probably to reduce the risk corruption because of power failure). I figured that part out but luckily it isn't important at all for this tool or any future tool because that part is cleared out every time the Wii U mount the disk. (as expected, any unfinished transaction is lost)

Some of tools that are planned:
* A GUI tool to edit the file system
* Transfer the drive to another console (change the encryption keys)
* chkdsk utility for wfs
 
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godreborn

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It is time for v1.0. wfslib v1.0 is released along side WFS Tools v1.0.
I refreshed the code a bit in preparation for the next stage - being able to modify the file system.
At this point I figured out the whole file system, now it is time to implement it.
I don't have an ETA since it is a lot of development, but I hope that it will happen soon.

The biggest part that I have to implement is the free blocks allocator.
There is also the transactions area (which is used to track and store changes of blocks until flush, probably to reduce the risk corruption because of power failure). I figured that part out but luckily it isn't important at all for this tool or any future tool because that part is cleared out every time the Wii U mount the disk. (as expected, any unfinished transaction is lost)

Some of tools that are planned:
* A GUI tool to edit the file system
* Transfer the drive to another console (change the encryption keys)
* chkdsk utility for wfs
Visual studio 2015 or 2019? There's a problem with the latter.
 

EyeKey

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Visual studio 2015 or 2019? There's a problem with the latter.
I use Visual Studio 2022. The new code uses some features of C++20, not sure if 2019 support them all, but I think that it should, haven't tested.
(Don't forget to initialize the git submodules, after that you can just open the directory in visual studio and build)

And if you want to build the tools make sure to check out the wfs-tools repository and not wfslib.


BTW maybe because some of this changes there are some performance improvement. I tested with 32GB MLC that contains ~3500 files in ~2.5GB. with the new extractor it took ~10 seconds, with the old one it took about 50% more. (all the files were on SSD)
 
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godreborn

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Didn't know there was a 2022. 2019 delisted something so I was unable to compile wfs extract with it. It was related to boost iirc.
 

godreborn

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It was nuget on 2015, I do remember that. It downloaded the nuget of boost. I might try to compile it once ready. That's how I knew about the uppercase issue. I was able to compile the fixed version
 
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godreborn

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@EyeKey , what sdk does visual studio 2022 use? I have microsoft sdk 10, and I think I have 8 or 8.1 somewhere:

1641921502737.png
 

godreborn

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I might try to compile your new version, but first I need to get rid of 2019 vs and replace it with 2022. I just have 2015 installed for old projects as I know wfs-extract is one project that had major problems compiling on 2019. no issues on 2015 as it installed the nugets automatically.
 

godreborn

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I had major issues and confusion getting boost to be acknowledged on 2019, but 2015 didn't have this problem. that's where I had no idea what was going on. I think it was boost anyway with wfs extract, I've tried compiling so many different things for different systems just to learn how to do it.
 

EyeKey

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I had major issues and confusion getting boost to be acknowledged on 2019, but 2015 didn't have this problem. that's where I had no idea what was going on. I think it was boost anyway with wfs extract, I've tried compiling so many different things for different systems just to learn how to do it.
Yeah the older version of wfslib was VS2015 only. The new version isn't tied to any specific version, it uses CMake as build system and vcpkg for the required dependencies. It will work on any IDE that support the proper version of CMake (3.20+) and C++ (C++20).
 
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godreborn

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Yeah the older version of wfslib was VS2015 only. The new version isn't tied to any specific version, it uses CMake for compilation configuration and vcpkg for the required dependencies. It will work on any IDE that support the proper version of CMake (3.20+) and C++ (C++20).
I wasn't able to make it with windows cmd prompt either. that's where it kept nagging about not finding boost. I spent a lot of time trying to figure out boost, and no matter what I did, it wouldn't detect it. I added it to the environmental variables too, so I'm not sure. I had someone look at it, and he said it wasn't possible to compile through cmd prompt and make in windows.
 

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