Hacking I found someone who could mod my WiiU for me, and...

[bdhobbs1]

Okay, let me set this up. First off, I know I am guilty of not educating myself more on this.

I have a white 8gb WiiU with a 128gb USB Stick for extra storage for downloading games and save data. The 8gb U was all I could afford at launch time, I am on disability.

I found someone on a facebook group who was selling a homebrewed WiiU and I asked him to mod my U for me.
After several emails and texts, I took it to his job, he works in IT in the same town I live in.

I took the following to him:
WiiU
Gamepad
Wii remote
Classic Controller
128gb USB stick* (by Silicon Power, ordered off Amazon months ago)
32gb SD Card
* - the 128gb USB stick had my club nintendo free game + 3 other games I got with my club nintendo points. It also had Zen Pinball and Star Wars pinball. And some saved data for each of those games. Which are no longer there because the 128gb stick is no longer formatted for my U.

2 hours later, he was done (and he wouldn't let me see how he did it)
He added the following to the Wii area
Homebrew channel (but no Wad manager)
Configurable USB loader channel
fceugx channel (NES games)
snes9xgx channel (SNES games)
WiiMC channel (no clue what that does)

And he added the following Wii ware games
Super Mario 64
Super Smash Bros 64
Mario Kart 64
Cruisin USA 64

RESULTS:
I lost some WiiU channels and save data that was on my 128gb USB stick (my fault on that one, I should have backed it up, or he should have asked me since it was obviously on there to begin with)
128gb USB stick is not compatible, it won't load the Wii games on it and it won't play the Gamecube games, says No Fat Device Found.
I have to transfer the games between the USB sticks, using my pc
So he had to end up giving me a 32gb USB stick that he had and I use that to transfer games to.
No Wad Manager in Homebrew (I would like channels for my games I frequently play, I've heard it's risky to do Wads though)
NES and SNES games work fine, no issues there
N64 games, I think he said that I need a USB adapter for my gamecube controller, I have the link to the website for it.
Gamecube games work from USB or SD card, however, not all games I copy and paste from USB stick to SD card appear on the SD card list when I load it in Nintendont.

WHAT I WOULD LIKE:
I would like a better way to manage this stuff, gets confusing quickly.
I am thinking I need more storage space on a compatible USB stick that's FAT formatted, to avoid the transfer issues via the PC.
And I want my WiiU stuff back, my existing 128gb stick could be used for that (I am sure I can get some of it back via eshop, but not my saved data)
And I would still have to switch USB sticks depending on what I wanted to play.

Thanks for listening
Hobbs (newbie to this stuff)

 

[FaTaL_ErRoR]

Just out of curiosity what did he charge you? This part of it sits real bad with me. These guys work so hard at making these things and giving them away to the public for free. Only to have some asshat charge someone to "mod" their wii u. I'll be willing to bet there are numerous people on this site alone that you could have shipped it to and they would have done it for free.Also I'll bet your 128gb flash drive is compatible he just didn't format it correctly.
Your save data may be gone forever, but someone here may have an answer for you. (but I'm pretty sure it's gone)
WiiMC was a failed attempt at xbmc for wii.
For most of the things you asking for Cyan will be the best at answering. (Cyan is really great at helping on vwii homebrew and all things related)
Next time don't pay anyone to install for you. The people on this site have managed to help pretty much everyone that needs help reguardless of how computer literate they are.

 

[WiiCube_2013]

That dipshit ripped you off but I take it you didn't know any better.

How much was it, $50?

 

[bdhobbs1]

$70 and I feel ripped off...

 

[the_randomizer]

Hate to say it, but you got f*cked, dude.

 

[The Real Jdbye]

Hate to say it, but you got f*cked, dude.

Yeah you could have bought an exploitable game for way less and DIY and then you would have the game for doing mods on other WiiUs in the future if you wanted.

 

[EmceeKerser]

$70 and I feel ripped off...

That is really unfortunate.

Had you known at the time about the easy to follow tutorial this site has to offer, you could have performed the modification yourself in a matter of minutes.

 

[laudern]

Lol the vwii smash bro. exploit is easier than the wii exploit. I did mine in under 5min. But trust me, in this world there are FAR WORSE ways to be ripped off. And in the grand scheme of things, I'm sure you will financially survive.

 

[bdhobbs1]

That is really unfortunate.

Had you known at the time about the easy to follow tutorial this site has to offer, you could have performed the modification yourself in a matter of minutes.

Well I just found this place recently

I did manage to add Homebrew to my Wii, my wife wanted to play some old NES games, I have a separate post for that.

 

[EmceeKerser]

I did manage to add Homebrew to my Wii

You realise that modding the vWii is more or less exactly the same as the wii, right?

 

[bdhobbs1]

Somewhat, I did the Wii via Letterbomb and the WiiU is via a specific game (one of 5) is what I've learned.

 

[laudern]

It sounds to me that he thought your usb stick was meant to be used for pirated games so he erased it without checking it. Which I can understand the mistake. It's as much your fault for leaving it in the console as it is his for not checking what was on it in the wii u system settings.

You can just redownload your dlc easy enough. Your save files are gone forever.

And just buy a norma usb hdd and pick up a y-cable from ebay to sort out your loader games.

 

[sarkwalvein]

Yeah, but you can rent SSBB for cheap or even free in some places.

 

[EmceeKerser]

Also, please make sure to read the stickied threads. They contain all the information you need. It boggles the mind how many visitors we have who don't bother to read up on the subject matter and instead rush headlong into mistakes. Familiarize yourselves with the stickies, first and foremost.

 

[bdhobbs1]

Also, please make sure to read the stickied threads. They contain all the information you need. It boggles the mind how many visitors we have who don't bother to read up on the subject matter and instead rush headlong into mistakes. Familiarize yourselves with the stickies, first and foremost.

Are you saying that I should have read the stickies before I gave him my WiiU to mod it?

 

[sarkwalvein]

Are you saying that I should have read the stickies before I gave him my WiiU to mod it?

That would have been a good idea, but too late for that.

 

[Hanafuda]

well, you mostly got what you paid for. it is what it is. go play something.

 

[TehCupcakes]

Your best bet is going to be to read the stickies on this forum extensively. It will save you a lot of headaches.

But here are some answers to questions you may be thinking:
1) You can simply download WAD Manager and add it to your sd card. When you boot up homebrew channel, it loads all the apps on your sd card. I'm not sure if there is a vWii forwarder for it, but you really shouldn't be using it super often so it's not terrible to go through the homebrew channel to get to it.
2) "Forwarders" are the term for those icons that show up on the Wii home menu. vWii and Wii forwarders work differently, so do NOT install any forwarders unless you are sure they are for vWii! (This is referring to forwarders which send you to a homebrew app. WiiWare and Wii VC games install just like they would if downloaded from the Wii shop, so nothing to worry about with those.) Furthermore, if it is missing a file when installed, it can brick your vWii, so be very cautious.
3) The 128gb flash drive should work fine if formatted correctly. However, you cannot have it formatted for Wii U games AND use it for homebrew... It's going to be one or the other. Personally, I would recommend you get an external hard drive for your Wii games/homebrew, and format the flash drive back to the Wii U format using the Wii U's menus. Then you can redownload your games from the eShop, but your save data will be lost. (UNLESS you use a data-recovery tool on your flash drive and are able to recover the files, in which case you would want to do this before formatting. However, I'm not sure if there's a way to transfer them back after formatting to Wii U format, as I'm not sure if that's accessible by a PC.)
4) Back to the external harddrive, if you plan to do that... It is recommended to either use one with external power or with a Y-cable, simply because a single USB ports on the Wii and Wii U is not powerful for most hard drives. You will also need to plug the hard drive into the back ports, rather than the front ports for most things.
5) Your classic controller should work just fine for WiiWare, WiiVC, emulators, and Wii games that support it. (So you do not "need" an adapter to play N64 games, as your post suggested.) However, if you want to play with a Gamecube controller... the Wii U doesn't have Gamecube ports. This means you need an external adapter, and by far the most popular are the official Wii U Gamecube Adapter and the Mayflash Adapters (#1 and #2) Each has its strengths and weaknesses, but keep in mind that regardless of which adapter you buy, they have limited compatibility and your controller is generally being emulated as a classic controller. (Except with Nintendont, in which case it is being emulated as a standard Gamecube controller.) This means that it may not behave exactly like you expect, and non-standard controllers (like bongos and dance pads) will have compatibility issues.

There might be other things that I'm not thinking of or didn't mention. Like I said, make sure to read the stickies and become informed before making any purchases or modifying something you are unsure about. When dealing with homebrew/non-proprietary modifications to any console, it is your responsibility to make sure you know what you are doing. The reality is, you can make much better use of everything that is available if you are well-informed, and it is possible to do irreparable damage if you are not.

 

[cearp]

hahahahaha wow, you got fucked.
You could have done this for free in half an hour if you just read the stickies. hahahahahahahahahaha

you must be young and rude, no need to rub it in.
bad attitude... not a pleasant guy

 

[bdhobbs1]

Here's the timeline...
May 4th - I began inquiring with the dude about modding my wiiu and trying to learn about it online. Maybe I ran across this website, maybe not. I sure as heck didn't feel comfortable with doing it by myself based on what I was seeing. I have a hard time with understanding stuff sometimes, my disability is post concussion syndrome and I get daily headaches and dizzy spells and sometimes it gives me more trouble than I want.

May 8th - I took my WiiU to him to get modded

May 11th - I added Homebrew to my Wii via letterbomb, I found a youtube video that really made it easy for me to grasp and understand

May 13th - I joined here

May 16th - I made this post

Now I just want to move forward, but I need to know what else I need to do in order to do so efficiently.