Homebrew Play games from external HDD

[KalleKula]

Hi, total noob on Wii U system and what I want is to be able to play backups or downloaded games on an external hard drive. The same way that is possible to do on the Wii. What would the necessary steps to be done? What method is the easiest and most safe? What tools to use in order to extract the files? What tools to add the image (wux?) on the harddrive and then be able to play them? Sorry for the noob questions but I don't want to brick my kids Wii U. They would never forgive me for doing that. Thanks.

 

[Deleted User]

Software present on game discs can be ripped from the disc and then installed as a title on your console.

There is a program called disc2app (I think) that turns the disc data into installable contents, all on your console (no PC needed).
You can then install these contents on your console (system memory or USB drive) by using WUPInstaller Y-Mod or WUPInstaller GX2.
Its actually really simple. You don't even need to run a CFW to do this (disc2app does its own patching, WUPInstaller does not need CFW to install legitimate titles)

 

[KalleKula]

Software present on game discs can be ripped from the disc and then installed as a title on your console.

There is a program called disc2app (I think) that turns the disc data into installable contents, all on your console (no PC needed).
You can then install these contents on your console (system memory or USB drive) by using WUPInstaller Y-Mod or WUPInstaller GX2.
Its actually really simple. You don't even need to run a CFW to do this (disc2app does its own patching, WUPInstaller does not need CFW to install legitimate titles)

Hi, ok, but if I have WUX images, can I just install them on my external USB HDD? This is the part I don't get. I assume that WUPInstaller Y-mod or the WUPInstaller needs to run via Loodine? Again, sorry for the dumb questions, I don't do much stuff of this. I would like to have this running just as on the Wii, a lot of games run from the external HDD. Even better if both Wii and Wii U games could coexist on the same drive. Is that possible? Once again, thank you for any help I can get.

 

[nexusmtz]

Hi, ok, but if I have WUX images, can I just install them on my external USB HDD? This is the part I don't get. I assume that WUPInstaller Y-mod or the WUPInstaller needs to run via Loodine? Again, sorry for the dumb questions, I don't do much stuff of this. I would like to have this running just as on the Wii, a lot of games run from the external HDD. Even better if both Wii and Wii U games could coexist on the same drive. Is that possible? Once again, thank you for any help I can get.

You'll have to read about each of these steps:

• You run the browser hack to start up Homebrew Launcher.
• You use Homebrew Launcher to start WUP Installer y mod or WUP Installer GX2.
• You use WupInstaller to install packages (WUP files / *.app,*.h3,title.*)

Where to get packages / wup files:

• You extract them from disc using Disc2App.
• You extract them from WUD images using WUD2App (wudump thread).
• You extract them from WUX files (compressed disc images) using JWUDTool on your PC. (Or decompress the wux to wud with WUDCompress, and see above.)
• You download them with WiiU USB Helper, FunkiiU, JNUSTool, or other downloaders.

The only Wii games that can live on your WiiU-formatted drive are the ones available as Virtual Console titles. You can't use the same FAT32 drive for both configurations without running a development version of an in-memory CFW called Mocha, and taking several other steps, which I would not advise at this time.

 

[KalleKula]

You'll have to read about each of these steps:

• You run the browser hack to start up Homebrew Launcher.
• You use Homebrew Launcher to start WUP Installer y mod or WUP Installer GX2.
• You use WupInstaller to install packages (WUP files / *.app,*.h3,title.*)

Where to get packages / wup files:

• You extract them from disc using Disc2App.
• You extract them from WUD images using WUD2App (wudump thread).
• You extract them from WUX files (compressed disc images) using JWUDTool on your PC. (Or decompress the wux to wud with WUDCompress, and see above.)
• You download them with WiiU USB Helper, FunkiiU, JNUSTool, or other downloaders.

The only Wii games that can live on your WiiU-formatted drive are the ones available as Virtual Console titles. You can't use the same FAT32 drive for both configurations without running a development version of an in-memory CFW called Mocha, and taking several other steps, which I would not advise at this time.

Hi, thanks for your reply. So basically I need WUP packages and a separate HD for my Wii U. What format should my HD have? Is it FAT32 or something else?

 

[nexusmtz]

Hi, thanks for your reply. So basically I need WUP packages and a separate HD for my Wii U. What format should my HD have? Is it FAT32 or something else?

The WiiU formats the drive as its own type, and it's encrypted. It takes over the entire drive. You can't read or write that file system on your computer. You put the wup files on an SD card, which is where WUPInstaller will look for them.

 

[KalleKula]

The WiiU formats the drive as its own type, and it's encrypted. It takes over the entire drive. You can't read or write that file system on your computer. You put the wup files on an SD card, which is where WUPInstaller will look for them.

OK. I don't mind that it will hog the entire HDD. I can of course use a SD card but I will limit myself to a couple of games. I think it can handle 64 GB, and that is not much. So it seems that I it's hard to achieve the same solution as for the old Wii I guess. There I have a 320Gb drive filled with games. And adding them via an application in Windows is no problem. That is what I'm aiming for with the Wii U.

 

[lacrima08]

Hi, all,

I'm a noob too in WiiU hacking and I encounter a problem

I 've setup my RedNAND today with mocha cfw. I 'm on 5.5.1 firmware.

I made a dump of my first game which is Pokken tournament with disc2app. This part was ok.

I've remove the disc from my WiiU and installed the freshly dumped game with WUP Installer - Mod Y.

This part seems to be good too.

The "problem" is :

I can launch my game without disc from SysNAND (I've just loose my savegame but I think it's due to SD Card change ?) without any problem, BUT I can't launch my game from RedNAND.

I got an error message which says that the NNID used to download the game was deleted, and I must buy it again from the eShop.

However, no problem with the eShop (bought) version of Pikmin3 stored in the WiiU SysNAND before I create my RedNAND.

I installed the game to an external USB Drive (formatted from the SysNAND)

Any idea of the problem is ?

PS : sorry for my english..

 

[nexusmtz]

I can of course use a SD card but I will limit myself to a couple of games. I think it can handle 64 GB

Look at your games in WiiU USB Helper. That will show you the size that the game will take on the SD, and give an idea of how much space it will take on your hard drive. Many games are only a few GB. (You don't put the .wux on the SD, you put the extracted wup files there.) You can load several games' wup files on the SD, then install that batch, then erase those and put several more. You don't keep the wup files on the SD. They're only there while you're installing them.

I can launch my game without disc from SysNAND (I've just loose my savegame but I think it's due to SD Card change ?) without any problem, BUT I can't launch my game from RedNAND. I got an error message which says that the NNID used to download the game was deleted, and I must buy it again from the eShop. However, no problem with the eShop (bought) version of Pikmin3 stored in the WiiU SysNAND before I create my RedNAND.

This is perfectly normal. If you don't have a specific reason for running redNAND, please don't. If you followed a guide and it told you to install redNAND, ask for help from the people who wrote the guide.

 

[lacrima08]

This is perfectly normal. If you don't have a specific reason for running redNAND, please don't. If you followed a guide and it told you to install redNAND, ask for help from the people who wrote the guide.

Ok Thank you for your response !!

No I didn't follow a guide who told me to install game to redNAND but as I saw the game both in the redNAND and in the sysNAND I thought I could, as well, launch it from the redNAND.

 

[nexusmtz]

I saw the game both in the redNAND and in the sysNAND

The game files are visible to both because they're on USB, but since you don't have the ticket and title rights entries - they're added to whichever NAND is active at the time that you install - you can't run the game. Your pre-redNAND games work because the rights were already in the NAND that you copied.

 

[lacrima08]

Thanks for your explanations, I understand a little better

 

[KalleKula]

Anyway, is the SD card equivalent to external HDD from Wii U system point of view? Or they are treated differently? I understand that it will be formatted and encrypted according to Nintendo proprietary format. Can any Windows application be able to read the filesystem?

 

[nexusmtz]

Anyway, is the SD card equivalent to external HDD from Wii U system point of view? Or they are treated differently? I understand that it will be formatted and encrypted according to Nintendo proprietary format. Can any Windows application be able to read the filesystem?

The WiiU uses an SD card formatted as FAT32 for things like saving Mii snapshots. That allow us to use the SD card in that format (FAT32) within homebrew. Because it's FAT32, you can read and write that on the PC. The WiiU doesn't reformat it, but it also won't use it as a storage drive for games.

You load homebrew on it to run with Homebrew Launcher, and you put wup format install files on it to load games onto the system storage or USB. You can also run extracted games from it using Loadiine GX2 , but they don't run quite as well as properly installed games.

 

[KalleKula]

The WiiU uses an SD card formatted as FAT32 for things like saving Mii snapshots. That allow us to use the SD card in that format (FAT32) within homebrew. Because it's FAT32, you can read and write that on the PC. The WiiU doesn't reformat it, but it also won't use it as a storage drive for games.

You load homebrew on it to run with Homebrew Launcher, and you put wup format install files on it to load games onto the system storage or USB. You can also run extracted games from it using Loadiine GX2 , but they don't run quite as well as properly installed games.

OK, so it seems the SD card solution is the easiest and most convenient. Do you know how big SD card the Wii U can handle?

 

[KevinLSX]

You can only install the games onto the hdd not sd card. You'll put the games on the sd card. Go to wup and install them. Once they are installed you can delete them off your sd card. You cant install them to an sd card or have the game files put onto a seperate usb to install them off of. Wup doesnt install files from your usb to a wiiu formatted usb.

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

Youll need
Sd card (put game files on and for launching homebrew)
Usb hdd (games will be installed to the usb and usb will be wiiu formatted)

Follow this tutorial

 

[KalleKula]

You can only install the games onto the hdd not sd card. You'll put the games on the sd card. Go to wup and install them. Once they are installed you can delete them off your sd card. You cant install them to an sd card or have the game files put onto a seperate usb to install them off of. Wup doesnt install files from your usb to a wiiu formatted usb.

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

Youll need
Sd card (put game files on and for launching homebrew)
Usb hdd (games will be installed to the usb and usb will be wiiu formatted)

Follow this tutorial

Thanks. I will give a try.

 

[xtheman]

Youll need
Sd card (put game files on and for launching homebrew)
Usb hdd (games will be installed to the usb and usb will be wiiu formatted)

Follow this tutorial

That guide is shit, it still recommends the outdated as fuck fw.img and other problems, just do run mocha cfw to get sig patches and to rip discs use disc2app

 

[KevinLSX]

It still lets you play games off an hdd though. So im not complaining

 

[KalleKula]

I just want to install games on external harddrive. Also that my kids could be able to start them from the menu without any major hassle. In the same way you can do it on the old Wii. Is that possible?