Hacking HDD makes strange sound while Wii U checks for updates

[Davor]

Hello!

I have 2.5" 500 GB USB 3.0 Western Digital Elements HDD connected via Y USB cable to the Wii U. The disk works fine in vWii, doesn't make any noise and vWii loads and runs everything smoothly. The only strange thing I've come to realize was clicking sound it makes just a moment before the Wii U finish checking for an update (2-3 seconds before a LED on the Wii U goes from yellow to red). I've noticed that the HDD turns on while the Wii U checks for an update (the LED light on the HDD turns on), and it goes off after the checking is over. I was wondering if anyone else encountered similar situation, and if that could damage hard drive? I've tried searching the forum, but all I could find were issues with low power, manifesting in clicking sound while disk was in use (in vWii, not while Wii U was on standby), which doesn't happen to me.

Edit: Not directly related to this, but I would like to know if there is any way to use u-stealth to hide only one partition (WBFS partition) on external HDD instead of hiding whole physical drive? It would be very useful to have FAT32/NTFS partitions available for other purposes - although I'm not sure what part of FS does u-stealth alters and if this is achievable at all.

Best regards,
Davor

 

[Davor]

Anyone?

 

[AdityaNese]

So, I believe a clicking sound of a hard drive indicates the drive is beginning to fail. For more information, I recommend a search on your favorite search engine or go here: http://support.wdc.com/KnowledgeBase/answer.aspx?ID=197

 

[Davor]

So, I believe a clicking sound of a hard drive indicates the drive is beginning to fail. For more information, I recommend a search on your favorite search engine or go here: http://support.wdc.com/KnowledgeBase/answer.aspx?ID=197

Hello!

I know a clicking sound means that HDD is failing, but, HDD is new (worked for maybe 2 hours), it doesn't click when connected to the PC, nor while using it in the vWii (all games work flawlessly and it doesn't make any sound while loading/playing), so I guess there is something specific to the procedure of shutting down a Wii U after a standby checking for an update.

Best regards,
Davor

 

[fodil]

Thanks for sharing information, will test and see if it makes such noise!

Regards.

 

[EclipseSin]

Using a Y-Cable, I wouldn't be suprised if it's a power-down click. Like if you unplug a running HDD. My powered external does it with 2.5" drives if they are spinning and I unplug it. They do like a metallic/electric like click and spin down.

 

[Davor]

Using a Y-Cable, I wouldn't be suprised if it's a power-down click. Like if you unplug a running HDD. My powered external does it with 2.5" drives if they are spinning and I unplug it. They do like a metallic/electric like click and spin down.

I guess it's the same click you are talking about. Probably, the Wii U just cut the power on the USB after it finishes checking for the updates. I'm just not sure if it can make any damage to the hard drive connected to it.

Thanks for sharing information, will test and see if it makes such noise!

Regards.

I was wondering if you've tried to reproduce this behavior? Does your HDD makes the same noise after checking for the updates?