Hacking cloning wii U USB HDD?

[cots]

So I just tried to clone the Wii U HDD using Acronis and it did not work. The HDD is not recognised/initialised and therefore cannot be cloned.
Now I am "cloning" it using the Wii u Data Management tool on the Wii u itself. And since it only has a USB 2.0 controller (and not a fast one, that's for sure) it takes forever.
Just copying 19GB of data (Xenoblade Chronicles X) to the other USB device took almost 30 minutes which makes sense (28 MB/s for the USB 2.0 controller divided by 2 because there is 14 MB/s read and 14 MB/s write at the same time).
That's a bummer because all the HDDs are USB 3.0 capable
Guess I have to leave the system on over night.

You can dump a RAW image of the entire drive using tools like Paragon. You need to clone the entire drive not just the first partition. You will probably need the exact some make/model of drive to clone to. It's just easier to buy a 200GB sd card and a spare USB hard drive and install your games again if the first drive becomes corrupted.

 

[ratmandom]

You can dump a RAW image of the entire drive using tools like Paragon. You need to clone the entire drive not just the first partition. You will probably need the exact some make/model of drive to clone to. It's just easier to buy a 200GB sd card and a spare USB hard drive and install your games again if the first drive becomes corrupted.

what paragon tool there are a few. can you tell me some more about this?

maybe make a walkthrough?

 

[cots]

what paragon tool there are a few. can you tell me some more about this?

maybe make a walkthrough?

Paragon Hard Disk Manager Professional. If it can't detect the file system on the drive it still allows you to clone it or make an image of the RAW data. The program costs money though and I'm not sure if there is a free alternative.

It's pretty simple, plug in the drive, run the program, make a backup and select the entire drive and specify to read it as "RAW"

 

[ratmandom]

Paragon Hard Disk Manager Professional. If it can't detect the file system on the drive it still allows you to clone it or make an image of the RAW data. The program costs money though and I'm not sure if there is a free alternative.

It's pretty simple, plug in the drive, run the program, make a backup and select the entire drive and specify to read it as "RAW"

I have got the paragon's extfs dude I brought it yes. I hope this program is about the same price and a lifetime license.

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just looked yeah it is a bit pricey I probably will get it if you sell it to me £57.99.... I do love the extfs software for life on one computer why not.

 

[naddel81]

I guess no matter which program you use, you cannot clone a Wii U HDD simply because it will not be recognized in any wii u after that.
why? the cloned drive is not "known" to the wii U and therefore will not be recognized even if you have a 1:1 copy.
it could work if we were able to clone the HDDs internal serial number/firmware to the new drive, but that is not possible.
what should work is cloning the drive and swapping the drive controller. but to be serious: what a hassle if you could just grab the second drive and "clone" it using wii U's internal file manager. takes a full day for a 500GB drive, though.

 

[Kafluke]

This has been dicussed... at length. Just search the forums. It's not possible.

 

[ratmandom]

This has been dicussed... at length. Just search the forums. It's not possible.

man thanks I like the profile picture I know its you.

 

[DivideByZer0]

Sorry to bump an old thread (one which I keep finding on Google), but this does seem to be possible. I just cloned a Wii U filesystem hard drive using a hardware drive cloner, and it worked fine. I had cloned a 2TB drive to a different model and manufacturer 2TB drive. The newly cloned drive worked fine and the Wii U recognized it the same as the original drive, with all my folders still intact. (I had used the same enclosure for both drives though.) The cloner I used was a cheap one from Amazon. No guarantees this will work with all hard drives and enclosures.

 

[naddel81]

what hardware cloner?

 

[Psd99]

interesting thread, old but I did ask something similar on here recently. perhaps the idea of having a spare SD memory card loaded with games is also a good suggestion

I struggled with clone zilla it just did not see the partition of the WII u HDD no matter what I did so be good to know which hardware cloner was used here.

 

[DivideByZer0]

what hardware cloner?

It was

"WEme USB C 3.0 to SATA External Hard Drive Dock Docking Station, SSD HDD Disk Duplicator Cloner for Dual Bay 2.5 3.5 Inch SATA I II III, Support UASP and Auto Sleep and 2X 12TB, Black"

Maybe not quite cheap as I had remembered (its $36) but it's come in useful for backing up modded console drives with custom filesystems. (It also worked with an unlocked original Xbox drive)

 

[ukigh4ie]

Do yourself a favor and use professional software that is also open source. Clonezilla clones anything.

 

[Blavla]

I understand that's how it works ordinarily under normal operating systems, but the Wii U would detect that you're using a partition that isn't equal to the volume size of the drive. This is the exact same reason you can't use vWii and Wii U on the same drive despite the fact partitions exist

You can certainly try it but I would bet on it not working.

no it whould not detect it if you clone it. Clone is 1 to 1 size

 

[The Real Jdbye]

interesting thread, old but I did ask something similar on here recently. perhaps the idea of having a spare SD memory card loaded with games is also a good suggestion

I struggled with clone zilla it just did not see the partition of the WII u HDD no matter what I did so be good to know which hardware cloner was used here.

You can use software cloning tools just make sure you do sector based clone and not file based clone. Sector based clones the entire drive as is so it doesn't matter what file system is on it.
You have to use the same enclosure though, the encryption key is tied to it.

no it whould not detect it if you clone it. Clone is 1 to 1 size

Yes but if the drive you're cloning to is a different size it won't work.

 

[Blavla]

You can use software cloning tools just make sure you do sector based clone and not file based clone. Sector based clones the entire drive as is so it doesn't matter what file system is on it.
You have to use the same enclosure though, the encryption key is tied to it.

Yes but if the drive you're cloning to is a different size it won't work.

noup the wiiU will not detect that because the unused Partition size is not Partitioned . It does not exist in the eyes from wiiU but you can´t partition the leftover because then the wiiU will see it and want to partition it

 

[The Real Jdbye]

noup the wiiU will not detect that because the unused Partition size is not Partitioned . It does not exist in the eyes from wiiU but you can´t partition the leftover because then the wiiU will see it and want to partition it

I'm pretty sure people have tried not partitioning the whole space and it doesn't work. Otherwise, it'd be possible to have Wii/GC games on part of the drive, by just modifying cIOS to read from unpartitioned space.

 

[godreborn]

I wouldn't partition the drive if you want to clone it. @The Real Jdbye is right, I think you need the same size drive, then sector by sector due to encryption.

 

[Blavla]

I'm pretty sure people have tried not partitioning the whole space and it doesn't work. Otherwise, it'd be possible to have Wii/GC games on part of the drive, by just modifying cIOS to read from unpartitioned space.

Have a 1 tb lying around somewhere. 500 gb is on my WiiU. I am gonna test it later , just for science

 

[godreborn]

it won't work. the wii u will format the entire drive once you have it format.

 

[Psd99]

So how are y’all backing up/cloning your wii u HDD in 2022?!