Hacking Confirming SDXC Compatibility with Wii U - GUIDE

[cbutters]

I own a Wii U and a Samsung 64GB SDXC microSD card.
Achieved so far:
-formatted to fat32 from exfat
-Running Homebrew Channel + Wii Flow
-Wii Menu Reports Blocks Open of 409456+ (this is greater than a 32GB Card reports, so success... the wii is seeing the space!
-Have successfully run wii backup from wbfs file on the SDXC card using WiiFlow


Here is the quick guide:
Step 1: get a SDXC card and Place it in a windows PC with a card reader that supports SDXC

Step 2: Grab this utility:
http://www.ridgecrop.demon.co.uk/index.htm?guiformat.htm
Use the utility to format to Fat32, you basically just do a quick format using default settings.
(Don't try to format a SDXC card to fat32 using windows... it wont work. YOU NEED THIS TOOL)

Step 3: Copy over your apps and homebrew files, etc... whatever you want to run. Then place it into your Wii U.
I couldn't get USB Loader GX to load isos from the SDXC card, but I'm not very familiar with the process for getting usb loader GX to load ANY isos from sd card before.
Wii flow worked just fine for playing back wbfs game backups.


Still to be tested:
Need to test one of those 128GB SDXC cards.... my guess is that it will probably work though... Will be nice once I have one of these installed, can run plenty of game backups off a 128GB and no external drive needed!
Also need clarification on getting this to work on USB Loader GX, I don't think it is a SDXC problem provided it is converted to FAT32 correctly.

 

[GorTesK]

ummm sry but not sure what exactly you are trying to tell us...the Wii supports sdxc, so why shouldn't the wiiu? don't really see the big news there

edit: yes yes yes, before somebody starts shouting around, that the wii is far older then the sdxc format.... difference between sdxc and sdhc isn't that big. normally every sdhc compatible device should be able to read sdxc, too. all you - normaly - need to do, is format the card from exfat to fat32, like cbutters already said

 

[BenRK]

Not exactly useful information. Sure, 128GBs is cool and all, but I have yet to fill up an 8GB SD card with virtual console games. Not to mention the Wii U doesn't use the SD card slot for storage (which is BS, but that's another rant), so what's really the point?

 

[GorTesK]

well his point is to use the card for homebrew and backup loading...
but1. an hdd is cheaper
and 2. its absolutely no new info. like I said, Wii supports sdxc, so WiiU does that naturaly, too
only point in using such a big sd instead of an hdd would be to easily bypass that annoying hdd format message in WiiU mode if you wanna play backups in vWii mode

edit: Oh and don't understand me wrong. I very much appreciate it, when people experiment with their WiiU and post their findings. :-) It's great that you tried to find something new. Just sadly, this time, it wasn't new. :-/

 

[BenRK]

You know how I feel about "backup loading" as you call it. Everyone does. So I'll put that aside, saying how horribly stupid that is for an excuse.

If the Wii U used the SD card slot for game storage, I would be all thumbs up and whatnot. The 3DS uses the SD card for storage, so I very well might get a 128GB memory card in the future (when the price goes down, by then more retail games will be on the eshop that a 32GB SD card wont be enough), but not for the Wii U... I mean, it would be cool not having a 500GB external hard drive hooked up to my Wii U looking like an ugly growth...

 

[cbutters]

I had read tons of posts of people asking if SDXC cards would work on FAT32, most people assumed they would but nobody actually had tested yet, I also was reading a ton of posts about USB HDDs not working that well on the Wii U because it constantly asked you to format the HDD. I thought this information might be useful. Sounds like it may have just been reading old posts. If this information isn't useful, sorry for wasting your time, I'm still new to the wii scene.

 

[DeadMan]

I own a Wii U and a Samsung 64GB SDXC microSD card.

Still to be tested:
Need to test one of those 128GB SDXC cards.... my guess is that it will probably work though... Will be nice once I have one of these installed, can run plenty of game backups off a 128GB and no external drive needed!
.

I use Sandisk 128GB SDXC card on my WiiU with out any problem

 

[BenRK]

I had read tons of posts of people asking if SDXC cards would work on FAT32, most people assumed they would but nobody actually had tested yet, I also was reading a ton of posts about USB HDDs not working that well on the Wii U because it constantly asked you to format the HDD. I thought this information might be useful. Sounds like it may have just been reading old posts. If this information isn't useful, sorry for wasting your time, I'm still new to the wii scene.

Actually you brought up a good point. For honest to goodness backup loading, 128GB is good and removes the annoying formatting notice. However, where I take issue is that when most people say backup loading, they actually mean running pirated copies. So if you removed piracy from it, 128GBs doesn't appeal all that much until the Wii U it self uses the SD card slot for storage, which may never happen.

 

[Elliander]

when most people say backup loading, they actually mean running pirated copies.

On an SD card, the primary "backups" are normally for emulators. Although, technically, it is piracy if available to purchase, I think there is a big difference between running a pirated NES game and a pirated Wii game when it comes to ethics, and in regards to Wii games I actually do own mine, and whenever I do a video I always show the game discs to prove it.

In this case I highly doubt a 128 GB would really be needed - then again, everyone said that about 2 GB cards and I prefer 32 GB cards.

I purchased a 128 GB SDXC card as well, primarily because I wanted to see if the EmuNAND works any better from SD cards than USB hard drives. My concern is if the Wii U mode would be able to see or use any of it since, officially, it only supports 32 GB. I just bought a Wii U online along with it so I can post my test results here if you guys like.

 

[Öhr]

Maximum partition size for FAT32 is 2TB, which is also the SDXC specifications upper limit.
Theoretically, the Wii U should support 2TB, though especially when trying to reach that upper limit, unexpected incompatibility issues can arise.
I believe anything short of 2TB (e.g. 1.5TB, 1TB, 512GB, etc) should be safe to be used in a Wii, Wii U or Nintendo 3DS. Not that these extreme sizes exists in the regular consumer market yet, just saying for future reference.

A far more interesting assessment would be, whether Wii (highly doubtful), 3DS (denied by Nintendo) or WiiU (could be) can benefit from the UHS extension, allowing transfer-rates beyond the 30MB/s spectrum.

Right now, there is no need to put any SDXC in either your WiiU or 3DS, as its cheaper to get 10x the space using a HDD(Wii) or just not necessary for all those worthy 3DS DL titles.

P.S. I have a 64GB SDXC im my 3DS just because I can.

 

[DebraJean]

I use Sandisk 128GB SDXC card on my WiiU with out any problem

I just attempted to use a 64 SDXC CARD ON MY WII U, AND IT SAYS IT CANNOT BE READ.... ANY ADVICE??

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

 

[Masterwin]

i use 512 GB micro sd, work nice!!!

 

[DebraJean]

I personally just stick with multiple 32GB cards and see how that goes. I don't have to worry about compatability since the Wii U surely supports 32GB SDHC. I'm going to see if I can wire a USB extension cable to the end of a Micro SD to SD adapter and see if I can get my 1TB HDD working on my Wii U as a SD card. It won't work off the power of the SD card slot alone, you will most likely need a Y cable plugged into one of the Wii U's ports, and even then, it might not work.

I hear you, and agree but dumb me opened the package WITHOUT reading.....duh, deb!!! Lol!! Now I am snowbound and just want to transfer my Wii stuff to my Wii u..... So being that I am snowed in, any ideas how to format the sdxc card to work in the Wii u? Ty so mucj

 

[DeslotlCL]

I hear you, and agree but dumb me opened the package WITHOUT reading.....duh, deb!!! Lol!! Now I am snowbound and just want to transfer my Wii stuff to my Wii u..... So being that I am snowed in, any ideas how to format the sdxc card to work in the Wii u? Ty so mucj

If your pc sd card reader doesn't support sdxc, just download its latest driver and then format it to fat32 using sdformatter or any other tool... it's way easier than getting a compatible sd card reader.

 

[Xplic1T]

edit:delete

 

[craftsk8]

Can anyone tell me, 128gb sdxc work in vWii mode for Homebrew Channel for Wii games images?

 

[WiiuGold]

I am using 512GB sdcard too , Mine is Working good , its Full. Need to buy one more ,

 

[craftsk8]

I am using 512GB sdcard too , Mine is Working good , its Full. Need to buy one more ,

its work in the Wii Virtual Console mode for games in wbfs format?

 

[Jaxon]

I'm using a 256gb PNY SD card for vWii mode.

HBC boots fine, Wiiflow boots fine, and both GameCube and Wii boot fine, in wbfs/gcm or iso format.

I'm assuming 512gb cards will work fine too. I see at least one confirmed report above.

 

[zekepliskin]

Does anyone think this Kingston 512GB SD card would work?

I'm seriously considering getting one so I can have all my GameCube, Wii and Wii U backups in one place and finally get rid of that "format USB drive" nag screen all the time, just a nice tidy SD card only situation. I know USB Loader GX won't work with GC/Wii stuff, but will CFG USB Loader? Or am I stuck with Wiiflow? If only Wiiflow then does it support ISO or only WBFS?