Best SD card partition scheme? (redNAND & SDUSB)

[4f4]

I'm using redNAND (after getting scared seeing Wii U NANDs die) and SDUSB, and when I went to upgrade my SD card I realized that I have two problems: It may not be possible to upgrade SD card without reinstalling everything, and I don't think there is any way for the vWii to see anything other than the 32GB redNAND because that's the first partition. Did I screw myself or is there a better setup? Dealing with multiple USB drives for vWii and Wii U seems like a pain.

The Wii U "USB" partition on SD is seen by the console and working but it shows up as an "unknown" partition on the PC, so even if I clone the SD to a larger one, I can't expand that partition (and I'm not sure if the Wii U would panic and demand it to be formatted if it changed size or position.)

Edit: Also, what voodoo does Wii Backup Manager do? Is it necessary? I don't have a Windows PC here... I just copied my .wbfs files (made from my discs on original Wii) to my SD FAT32 partition and everything works except Mario Kart Wii has the Super Paper Mario splash and crashes after the wrist strap warning. I don't even have Super Paper Mario...

 

[SDIO]

Are you using redNAND or SDUSB? You can't use both at the same time.

Resizing requires formatting which deletes everything

 

[4f4]

I thought I was using redNAND... I have ISFSHAX and a 32GB FAT32 as the first partition which I thought was the fake NAND... not sure why else I would have made the partition that small, it might have just been from cloning the previous SD card when I upgraded that one. I'm currently upgrading a 128GB SD to a 400GB SD.

I was hoping to use one big SD card for everything but reading more makes me think that the best setup may be a USB drive for Wii U stuff and one big FAT32 on SD for vWii one HDD partitioned for both modes with that USB partitioning setup, also by you.

What's best/least likely to corrupt? IIRC I do have the NAND that is not yet known to spontaneously die (Nanya?) and I have kids and can't trust them to have the correct HDD plugged in for each mode, and I could use my big SD elsewhere... Thanks for replying, hope my question is not dumb.

 

[SDIO]

The only thing that likes to corrupt is the FAT32 partition. It would be unusual for the Wii U partition goes bad.
I have no clue what you ar edoing. the FAT32 partition is only for homebrew and vWii and such and the other partition is formatted for the Wii U. Either used as redNAND or to simulate USB. You can resize the FAT32 partition, but you can't resize the Wii U partition, only move or recreate it

 

[4f4]

The only thing that likes to corrupt is the FAT32 partition... you can't resize the Wii U partition, only move or recreate it

Thanks, this is helpful!

Apologies... I received the console already modded, added some games from my old Wii, and then added ISFSHAX (when I heard U consoles were dying) and SDUSB. Apparently I do not have redNAND!

Now that I cloned SD for more space, KDE Partition Manager is seeing both the U partition and the unallocated space as separate "unknown" partitions and seems to be having trouble manipulating them. I'll figure something out, maybe just format for more U space.

 

[creedof69]

@SDIO What's the cons of using Rednand over SDUSB ?

 

[SDIO]

Now that I cloned SD for more space, KDE Partition Manager is seeing both the U partition and the unallocated space as separate "unknown" partitions and seems to be having trouble manipulating them. I'll figure something out, maybe just format for more U space.

You can't resize the Wii U file system. You would have to recreate the partition with the desired sizew and then format it again on the Wii U. To transfer over the games it would be the easiest to just copy them to a spare usb device first and then back to the new SD. Else there would also be the option to connect the old SD with a USB adapter and use the usb partition plugin together with the usb nocrypto plugin https://github.com/StroopwafelCFW/wafel_usb_nocrypto to access the old SDUSB and the new at the same time to copy over games using the Wii U data management

Post automatically merged: Jan 24, 2026

@SDIO What's the cons of using Rednand over SDUSB ?

Then you always need the SD to boot your system. With SDUSB your system just stays as it is and you just use the SD for expanding storage, without having to reinstall the system and everything.

 

[creedof69]

You can't resize the Wii U file system. You would have to recreate the partition with the desired sizew and then format it again on the Wii U. To transfer over the games it would be the easiest to just copy them to a spare usb device first and then back to the new SD. Else there would also be the option to connect the old SD with a USB adapter and use the usb partition plugin together with the usb nocrypto plugin https://github.com/StroopwafelCFW/wafel_usb_nocrypto to access the old SDUSB and the new at the same time to copy over games using the Wii U data management

Post automatically merged: Jan 24, 2026

Then you always need the SD to boot your system. With SDUSB your system just stays as it is and you just use the SD for expanding storage, without having to reinstall the system and everything.

You can't boot without sd and Wii U boot on the normal nand ? Like when you try to turn on the Wii U without the aroma sd card a message show up saying file is missing but then boot with the official firmware. Is it because the boot1 redirection of isfshax to sd is something static and not dynamic ?

 

[SDIO]

It would then boot from the eMMC. But that's then a different system and not what you normally use when using redNAND.

 

[creedof69]

It would then boot from the eMMC. But that's then a different system and not what you normally use when using redNAND.

Yes I guess that, it was just to know if without sd card, the Wii U would be just softblocked like the 1st days of isfshax when We had to install it to SLC to not block the console if We remove the SD card