How I finally extracted .wud files.
Cemu Emulator
I’ve made a few posts regarding Dolphin, an emulator for Wii and GameCube, but I recently decided to try Cemu Emulator, an emulator for Wii U. It is not as refined as Dolphin, but development has seen some major improvements over the last few weeks. For example their Patreon website has nearly doubled in the $ per month, most likely due to the fact Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild was released. If you would like to contribute you can click here. Not only are you supporting the developers, but there are some benefits for being donating to Cemu’s Patreon.
What are .wud files?
Being new the Cemu application there are a lot of things to learn. One of the first things I needed to learn was how to extract .wud files. If you don’t know the .wud file is the name of the .iso that Wii U games are found. There are a bunch of tools that are able to extract the .wud file, but for whatever reason no matter what tool I used I constantly ran into errors until I finally found an application that worked.
Tools I have tried:
I tried DiscU, wud2app, Wii U USB Helper, NUSGrabberGUI, etc., and they all gave me issues. One or two of the tools is ran via command prompt and I wasn’t able to find some clear documentation which didn’t help. The application that did end up working for me to extract is called VGMToolbox. I will outline below the steps to follow to extract the code, content, and meta files from a .wud file.
What you’ll need:
HxD Freeware Hex and Disk Editor
Wii U Common Key
Game Title Key
Let’s Begin:
Install both VGMToolbox an HxD Editor.
Navigate to the location vgmtoolbox > external > wiiu.
Create a new text file and call it ckey.bin.
VGMToolBox ckey.bin file
Open HXD Editor and drag and drop ckey.bin into HxD Editor.
Paste the Wii U Common Key. Click OK on the prompt on the file size change notification.
Navigate to the directory where the .wud file is located.
Create a new text file and call it disckey.bin.
Drag and drop disckey.bin into HxD Editor.
Paste the title key for the game you’re wanting to extract. Click OK on the prompt on the file size change notification.
Open VGMToolBox.
Navigate to Misc. Tools > Extraction Tools > Generic > ISO/Archive Extractor.
Drag and drop the .wud file into VGMToolBox. If all goes well you should see something similar to the screenshot below.
VGMToolBox Extract
Browse the drives until you find one with code, content, and meta folders.
Right Click the parent folder ( \ ) and extract it to your desired location.
Done.
Final Thoughts
After trying so many different tools VGMToolBox was the only one I had success with. Hopefully this guide was helpful in extracting your .wud file.
Note: A common issue I’ve seen which I also encountered was “Partition TOC Signature bytes not found”. I believe it is related to the .bin, ckey.bin and disckey.bin, being created using a standard text editor. HxD Editor fixed the issue for me.
14 Comments
Frank · April 5, 2017 at 6:10 pm
this was reaaaaaaally usefull. thanks.
Hoang Nguyen · October 29, 2017 at 10:55 pm
I’ve done everything as you instructed but when I dropped the .wud file into VGMtoolbox, it stated “Key not found: E:\VGMtoolbox\external\wiiu\ckey.bin”, which is a weird thing, since the ckey.bin file I created is still there clearly as day. Thus, I can’t proceed any further.
Can you help me with this? Much thanks!
thegeekfix · October 30, 2017 at 4:23 pm
Did you add the key to the file? Did you use the text editor I mentioned?
Joseph · January 10, 2023 at 7:25 pm
I have the same issue. I followed the steps and same error
Tyler · November 5, 2017 at 9:13 pm
Sometimes systems like to automatically add hidden file extensions to the end of file names, causing the files not to be found. So while the visible title of your file may be ckey.bin, the computer has really named it ckey.bin.txt, preventing it from being found. To change this, you can go into your start menu, click on File Explorer, click on the view tab, select options, click on view tab, scroll down the advanced settings and uncheck a box that says something like “Hide extensions for known file types.” Click okay. Now you should be able to see all hidden file extensions. So if your ckey.bin file has “.txt” on the end, just rename it and delete the “.txt.” This goes for the disckey.bin folder as well. If you’re still having trouble finding these settings, you can simply just google “How to make file extensions visible.” Hope this helps!
johnny · August 5, 2018 at 3:59 am
youre the best m8
Anonymus #Blanenc(a town of spain) · November 30, 2018 at 3:49 pm
Thanks. it Works for me!!!!
Tanner · February 7, 2019 at 8:15 pm
I followed the instructions to a T, and redid them 10 times and I still got the error “Partition TOC Signature bytes not found”.
I used the HXD Editor. I remade the files. I checked with a seperate .txt file to make sure the keys were correct.
I’ve used UWizard, and This, and still I am getting absolutely no luck and I’m about ready to implode. I have all the correct files, and keys. I extracted the disc image myself with my own WiiU, SD, and Disc.
Please. Somebody. h e l p m e.
David · March 10, 2019 at 7:44 pm
The keys are possible wrong. I’ve got the same problem but only with one game.
Jimmy · December 15, 2019 at 3:44 pm
Your title key is wrong. Try changing it.
Joseph · January 10, 2023 at 7:35 pm
Same with me, could you fix it?
David · March 10, 2019 at 7:42 pm
I’ve got a problem with the extraction part, click on the \ and then choose the file but only extract two files (conde and content) and this lastone I think is not complete. Do you know what happen?
fran · January 31, 2021 at 9:24 pm
i think the step is missing is to google for the “Wii U Common Key”, i’ve found the key on one of those pastebin like websites. super simple: you need to copy and paste that into the hex editor and paste it with the name it asks on the folder it needs
Joseph · January 10, 2023 at 7:10 pm
Someone can help me. When I paste the Wii U Common Key/ Game title key I get no prompt on the file size change notification. Nonetheless, I continue with the step and after doing everything I get this error: “Key not found and the game folder location. It is weird because I see it is next to the game. Any suggestions?