vWii USB Loaders on my Wii U don't recognize games

kiki885 · Dec 1, 2022

I tried using the same NTFS hard drive for loading backups on my wii, but on my Wii U.
I don't know why they aren't showing up, I installed the d2x cIOS and I tried enabling USB Loader GX to show Wii games, which many people forget.
It sees the device in the settings, but the games don't show up.
When I select it to show wii games, the whole game list is blank and the buttons stop working. Any ideas? Thanks in advance

EDIT: Issue has been resolved! The lack of a Y-Cable was the issue.

mrmagicm · Dec 2, 2022

In what format are the files of your games?
I dont remember Wiiu reading ntfs hard drive well in Vwii, it has always read fat32 better as far as I remember.
Usb loader is supposed to work with "Supported Hard Drive format:NTFS, Ext2/3/4", but for me in wiiU, it didn't work well.
Might depend on the HD abd Size of partition when in NTFS format, you might have a try with wiiflow lite.

SylverReZ · Dec 2, 2022

What method did you use to load the games onto the HDD?

kiki885 · Dec 2, 2022

mrmagicm said:
In what format are the files of your games?
I dont remember Wiiu reading ntfs hard drive well in Vwii, it has always read fat32 better as far as I remember.
Usb loader is supposed to work with "Supported Hard Drive format:NTFS, Ext2/3/4", but for me in wiiU, it didn't work well.
Might depend on the HD abd Size of partition when in NTFS format, you might have a try with wiiflow lite.

WBFS. I also figured that FAT32 would probably work better, but there is no way in hell I am converting that giant 1TB drive to fat32

Post automatically merged: Dec 2, 2022

M4x1mumReZ said:
What method did you use to load the games onto the HDD?

What do you mean?

mrmagicm · Dec 2, 2022

M4x1mumReZ said:
M4x1mumReZ said:

What method did you use to load the games onto the HDD?

Click to expand...

What do you mean?

he means, did you simply copy the files from a Pc in directory with name of the file on the HDD or did you use a WBFS manager or used a specific tool....Seems you did the 1st one

I also figured that FAT32 would probably work better, but there is no way in hell I am converting that giant 1TB drive to fat32

I never recommended to convert the 1TO NTFS drive to Fat32, that's in your brain...
Maybe you have another external hard drive?
Format it to Fat32, Copy some files from the NTFS drive on it, then try to open it on the vwii mode to see if seen.
For me, a recommended convertion would be having 2 drive of 1TO, you format one of the drive to FAT32, copy all file and it and have a try, problem with this is that WBFS image more that 4GB can't be copied on a fat32 drive.
Also, you might check if there is a config file concerning usbloader gx on the hard drive or in the directory of usbloader gx on the sd and have a look.

Sypherone · Dec 2, 2022

Nice guide https://gbatemp.net/threads/usb-loader-gx-troubleshooting-guide.617564/

kiki885 · Dec 2, 2022

mrmagicm said:
he means, did you simply copy the files from a Pc in directory with name of the file on the HDD or did you use a WBFS manager or used a specific tool....Seems you did the 1st one

I never recommended to convert the 1TO NTFS drive to Fat32, that's in your brain...
Maybe you have another external hard drive?
Format it to Fat32, Copy some files from the NTFS drive on it, then try to open it on the vwii mode to see if seen.
For me, a recommended convertion would be having 2 drive of 1TO, you format one of the drive to FAT32, copy all file and it and have a try, problem with this is that WBFS image more that 4GB can't be copied on a fat32 drive.
Also, you might check if there is a config file concerning usbloader gx on the hard drive or in the directory of usbloader gx on the sd and have a look.

The thing is, I don't have another external drive and I wouldn't be asking this if I did. I'll check the config files when I get home, but as it stands, I'll probably just use a workaround like playing games from the SD card

jeannotte · Dec 2, 2022

kiki885 said:
The thing is, I don't have another external drive and I wouldn't be asking this if I did. I'll check the config files when I get home, but as it stands, I'll probably just use a workaround like playing games from the SD card

Hello,

do you have a Y-cable with your external hard drive??

The wii U usually needs it with a hard drive (for more connectivity).

as @Sypherone points out in his tutorial

kiki885 · Dec 2, 2022

jeannotte said:
Hello,

do you have a Y-cable with your external hard drive??

The wii U usually needs it with a hard drive (for more connectivity).

as @Sypherone points out in his tutorial

Hi, no I do not, but that is why I ordered one today.

Side note, do you know why I can't reply to the person who posted that guide?

mrmagicm · Dec 2, 2022

if you didn't used the Y-Cable, it might be the reason why it was corrupted the first time.

TheAvacado · Dec 3, 2022

kiki885 said:
Hi, no I do not, but that is why I ordered one today. Side note, do you know why I can't reply to the person who posted that guide?

But if the Drive didn't have power, USB Loader wouldn't have initialized the Drive anyway

kiki885 · Dec 3, 2022

TheAvacado said:
But if the Drive didn't have power, USB Loader wouldn't have initialized the Drive anyway

That's what I think too, since it was initialized, but i know using a Y cable is still recommended so I'll do it.

TheAvacado · Dec 3, 2022

kiki885 said:
That's what I think too, since it was initialized, but i know using a Y cable is still recommended so I'll do it.

Yeah but, If you are on a vWii rather than a Real Wii, using a flash drive is your best bet because the back ports don't provide much power anyway.

kiki885 · Dec 3, 2022

TheAvacado said:
Yeah but, If you are on a vWii rather than a Real Wii, using a flash drive is your best bet because the back ports don't provide much power anyway.

If that's the case, I'll probably use my SD card. I'm not about to dig up one of my old flash drives since I'm fed up with the inconvenience of remembering which is what. It would just be hell of a lot better if this giant HDD with the games already there was my source of playing them.

V10lator · Dec 3, 2022

TheAvacado said:
But if the Drive didn't have power, USB Loader wouldn't have initialized the Drive anyway

Yes, it would. In most of the cases the drive is initialised just fine but when you do excessive I/O, like loading the game list in USB Loader GX, the head movement & co draws too much power. This in return causes I/O errors which trigger a software lockup which stops the buttons from responding.

Sypherone · Dec 3, 2022

TheAvacado said:
Yeah but, If you are on a vWii rather than a Real Wii, using a flash drive is your best bet because the back ports don't provide much power anyway.

Flash drive pen- sticks or (micro)SD adapter are not recommended to use with USB Loaders. They might work, but mostly cause Problems or not compatible. Therefore a hdd is recommended.

The Wii and vWii uses a USB 2.0 Standart port for 500mA max, but on Wii it seems not that strong regulated. On WiiU all ports are limited and secured to max 500mA output and the power is cut by drawn higher mA. If intended exist the possibility by soldering to remove this limitation on own risk.

kiki885 said:
I'll probably use my SD card

The actuall versions of USBLGX doesnt support to play Wii games from SDCard in the front slot. Gamecube games work.

WBFS (Wii Backup File System)

It is from the beginning of the USB Loaders to be able to use external drives, as other filesystems cant be used.
Its based on fat32 and a outdated unofficial filesystem for the Wii. Between fat32 and WBFS can be converted in 1 second without data loss with wbfs2fat.py .
It can be tryed to be used as alernative if a drive with standard filesystems wont work properly under USB-Loader GX.
Not compatible natively with computers, a dedicated program to manage the content of this partition is needed.
Not Compatible with other homebrew, as only Wii games (500 limit) can be stored on it.

The Real Jdbye · Dec 3, 2022

V10lator said:
Yes, it would. In most of the cases the drive is initialised just fine but when you do excessive I/O, like loading the game list in USB Loader GX, the head movement & co draws too much power. This in return causes I/O errors which trigger a software lockup which stops the buttons from responding.

Yes, this is a thing. The drive will either not spin up or will spin up but not work correctly. Trying to use the drive like this can damage it.

V10lator · Dec 3, 2022

The Real Jdbye said:
Yes, this is a thing. The drive will either not spin up or will spin up but not work correctly.

Exactly. What we see here is a drive spinning up just fine, so initializing works, but then it fails (cause of the excessive head movement when trying to load all the files).

//EDIT:

The Real Jdbye said:
Trying to use the drive like this can damage it.

While this could indeed trigger a head crash, which would damage the drive beyond repair, all modern drives should have protection against this (a none-electrical magnet pulling the head away from the plattern before thy stop spinning, for example). So I wouldn't be worried about this but still this drive needs a better power source (Y-Cable).

The Real Jdbye · Dec 3, 2022

V10lator said:
Exactly. What we see here is a drive spinning up just fine, so initializing works, but then it fails (cause of the excessive head movement when trying to load all the files).

You can tell if the drive is making odd sounds, that's bad as it will cause wear and tear on the drive.

mrmagicm · Dec 3, 2022

The Real Jdbye: You can tell if the drive is making odd sounds, that's bad as it will cause wear and tear on the drive.

True, but not always, I have seen many cases of drives that had problems, but no odd sounds. so that is why I recommended a low level format of the drive. If it passes, the drive is good.

vWii USB Loaders on my Wii U don't recognize games

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