Virtual SD Card Guide

Dolphin can store data to a virtual SD card named sd.raw. It is stored under "%userprofile%\Documents\Dolphin Emulator\Wii" for Windows. By default, it will be created with the size of 128MB.

The virtual SD card is very important for homebrew apps on Dolphin. Project M and Mario Kart Wii custom tracks are the best example of this, as some homebrew apps can only work using files stored on the SD card of the real hardware for which they were designed.

Creating a Virtual SD Card
It is recommend you create one with size at least 512MB for large homebrew apps, for example, Project M, and no more than 2GB for best compatibility as there are compatibility issues with some homebrew apps trying to run under an SDHC card on the real hardware.

Easy Dolphin SDCard Maker – Windows only
A simple user created UI for Windows is available here: Easy Dolphin SDCard Maker

Command Line and Executable Files
Go to SDK Tools Only and download one for your system. Unzip it. The file mksdcard from \tools\ will be used throughout this section.

Open the Command Prompt or Terminal then follow the supposed command line: mksdcard 2048M sd.raw Or elsewhere to create new.
 * Drag and drop mksdcard file from \tools\ into the command window for the full directory pointing to mkscard.
 * Type 2048M for 2GB, or if desired, replace it with different size like 512M (512MB), 1024M (1GB), etc.
 * To replace the virtual SD Card, simply drag and drop an existing sd.raw file into the command window. (The virtual SD card on OS X will most likely located in ~/Library/Application\ Support/Dolphin/Wii/sd.raw )

Windows
The Windows users must use a third party software that can mount the virtual SD card. Speaking of which... ImDisk Virtual Disk Driver

Quick guide for mounting and editing the virtual SD card with the ImDisk Virtual Disk Driver:
 * 1) Right-click on sd.raw file then click "Mount as ImDisk Virtual Disk" from the context menu.
 * 2) Then in the very bottom left of the window, select "Harddisk volume" then hit "OK"
 * 3) *The virtual SD card will now appear as "Local Disk" in which the native Explorer window can read and write in there.
 * 4) When done editing the virtual SD card, simply unmount it by right-click on the "Local Disk" then click "Unmount ImDisk Virtual Disk" from the context menu.
 * 5) *The virtual SD card must be dismounted before using with Dolphin.

OS X
In Terminal window, type the following to mount the virtual SD card: hdiutil attach -imagekey diskimage-class=CRawDiskImage ~/Library/Application\ Support/Dolphin/Wii/sd.raw The virtual SD card can then be ejected through Finder when done being edited.

Linux
The virtual SD card can be edited by mounting it to a virtual disk: mount -o defaults,umask=000 sd.raw /media/sdcard When you are done, simply unmount it like this: umount /media/sdcard

Dolphin Setting
Go to Options > Configure... > Wii > and enable Insert SD Card.

Usage with Homebrew App
The external files used for the homebrew app must be stored within sd.raw and the homebrew app itself (boot.elf or boot.dol) must exist outside of it for Dolphin to load. Project M, for example, will load from SD root \projectm\ and Dolphin will need to launch Project M through \homebrew\apps\projectm\boot.elf, NOT in the virtual SD card. It is very ideal to have same copies paralleled between inside and outside of the virtual SD card, so you will have nothing to lose.

The homebrew app that was programmed to hack the Wii game will not work if you haven't set a particular Wii game as the default ISO! Within the Dolphin game list, open context menu (right-click) on any Wii game and click Set as default ISO. Do this before loading a homebrew app with Dolphin.