Help troubleshooting potentially corrupted thumb drive

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drbobbles

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EDIT: It has decided to start working again after 20 minutes of not actually changing anything. I love thumb drives. I'd still like to know if anyone has advice for avoiding hardlocks when ripping disc images with USBLoaderGX or if there is anything else to do after a hardlock to avoid potential damage. Thanks lol

Hi! I have a problem with my USB drive. It's a Micro Center 256gb drive. Here's the ASIN in case anyone has the same one"B08BPD8NHP". I know that thumb drives are notorious for having compatibility issues with the wii and loaders, but this one has actually worked quite well after being formatted to FAT32.

However, It looks like I shit the bed by trying to use USBloaderGX's install feature. I had Brawl in the disc drive, started the install, and then at some point it got held up, then froze. I don't know if there are any options to end a hardlock like this other than a hard reset, so that's what I did.

Since then, it hasn't been detected as a valid drive by my Wii. I've gone and deleted the partially ripped, obviously corrupted brawl ISO, but even then it doesn't read.

I've validated all the games that were on there and they are in tact, and I have a backup of all of them anyways. I've also used the Windows diagnostic and it didn't pick anything up, and Wii Backup Manager seems to agree. but I'm at a bit of a loss because I worry that even if I format the drive, it won't fix the issue, because why would it? I'm doing that right now anyways, but I just wanted to ask if anyone has any advice as far as troubleshooting potential damage to the drive and ways to prevent stuff like this from happening in the future.

Thanks so much.
 
Last edited by drbobbles,
EDIT: It has decided to start working again after 20 minutes of not actually changing anything. I love thumb drives. I'd still like to know if anyone has advice for avoiding hardlocks when ripping disc images with USBLoaderGX or if there is anything else to do after a hardlock to avoid potential damage. Thanks lol

Hi! I have a problem with my USB drive. It's a Micro Center 256gb drive. Here's the ASIN in case anyone has the same one"B08BPD8NHP". I know that thumb drives are notorious for having compatibility issues with the wii and loaders, but this one has actually worked quite well after being formatted to FAT32.

However, It looks like I shit the bed by trying to use USBloaderGX's install feature. I had Brawl in the disc drive, started the install, and then at some point it got held up, then froze. I don't know if there are any options to end a hardlock like this other than a hard reset, so that's what I did.

Since then, it hasn't been detected as a valid drive by my Wii. I've gone and deleted the partially ripped, obviously corrupted brawl ISO, but even then it doesn't read.

I've validated all the games that were on there and they are in tact, and I have a backup of all of them anyways. I've also used the Windows diagnostic and it didn't pick anything up, and Wii Backup Manager seems to agree. but I'm at a bit of a loss because I worry that even if I format the drive, it won't fix the issue, because why would it? I'm doing that right now anyways, but I just wanted to ask if anyone has any advice as far as troubleshooting potential damage to the drive and ways to prevent stuff like this from happening in the future.

Thanks so much.
Quit using thumb drives on wii it has alway had a good chance of killing them
 
EDIT: It has decided to start working again after 20 minutes of not actually changing anything. I love thumb drives. I'd still like to know if anyone has advice for avoiding hardlocks when ripping disc images with USBLoaderGX or if there is anything else to do after a hardlock to avoid potential damage. Thanks lol

Hi! I have a problem with my USB drive. It's a Micro Center 256gb drive. Here's the ASIN in case anyone has the same one"B08BPD8NHP". I know that thumb drives are notorious for having compatibility issues with the wii and loaders, but this one has actually worked quite well after being formatted to FAT32.

However, It looks like I shit the bed by trying to use USBloaderGX's install feature. I had Brawl in the disc drive, started the install, and then at some point it got held up, then froze. I don't know if there are any options to end a hardlock like this other than a hard reset, so that's what I did.

Since then, it hasn't been detected as a valid drive by my Wii. I've gone and deleted the partially ripped, obviously corrupted brawl ISO, but even then it doesn't read.

I've validated all the games that were on there and they are in tact, and I have a backup of all of them anyways. I've also used the Windows diagnostic and it didn't pick anything up, and Wii Backup Manager seems to agree. but I'm at a bit of a loss because I worry that even if I format the drive, it won't fix the issue, because why would it? I'm doing that right now anyways, but I just wanted to ask if anyone has any advice as far as troubleshooting potential damage to the drive and ways to prevent stuff like this from happening in the future.

Thanks so much.
The result with different drives will vary. Writing to flash memory with a Wii is more problematic than just reading. The general advise "Use a classic HDD with its own power supply." isn't wrong. Compatibility seems much better, especially for writing. But I must say that I've had newer external HDDs that didn't work nicely with the Wii.

Flash drive user on Wii (reading only) myself: 64GB mini stick, hardly larger than the USB plug. It more or less disappears in the USB jack and cannot break off. For dumping my discs I used an older 3.5" external HDD. For playing the games the mini drive has not caused an error for years (with many, many play hours). It was a bit trial and error to find a stick that works well, but I can't agree to the general hatred towards thumb drives on Wii.
If you encounter any strange errors when USB backup loading on Wii: Try a HDD and see if the errors persist to rule out or confirm issues with the thumb drive.

If a Wii really "kills" a flash drive on hardware level (I've yet to experience this myself: There is no constant writing to the thumb drive that could wear down the thing while playing Wii games )… well… they are not expensive.

There is not much that can be done if the computer doesn't find any file system corruption. It is unlikely that formatting will help (could try anyway – doesn't harm). Avoid writing to that stick on the Wii from now on and hope the problem doesn't repeat itself.


Good luck and have fun!
 
Last edited by KleinesSinchen,
EDIT
The result with different drives will vary. Writing to flash memory with a Wii is more problematic than just reading. The general advise "Use a classic HDD with its own power supply." isn't wrong. Compatibility seems much better, especially for writing. But I must say that I've had newer external HDDs that didn't work nicely with the Wii.

Flash drive user on Wii (reading only) myself: 64GB mini stick, hardly larger than the USB plug. It more or less disappears in the USB jack and cannot break off. For dumping my discs I used an older 3.5" external HDD. For playing the games the mini drive has not caused an error for years (with many, many play hours). It was a bit trial and error to find a stick that works well, but I can't agree to the general hatred towards thumb drives on Wii.
If you encounter any strange errors when USB backup loading on Wii: Try a HDD and see if the errors persist to rule out or confirm issues with the thumb drive.

If a Wii really "kills" a flash drive on hardware level (I've yet to experience this myself: There is no constant writing to the thumb drive that could wear down the thing while playing Wii games )… well… they are not expensive.

There is not much that can be done if the computer doesn't find any file system corruption. It is unlikely that formatting will help (could try anyway – doesn't harm). Avoid writing to that stick on the Wii from now on and hope the problem doesn't repeat itself.


Good luck and have fun!
Thanks so much. Good to know! I'm constantly amazed by the detail and accessibility of Wii homebrew by this community. Super excited to be messing around with this stuff as it's really neat to play all of these wii games I never knew existed. I'm getting ambitious now and trying to boot a custom built ISO with USB loader, wish me luck!
 
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