Wii U can't read SD card

CyberPal69 · Sunday at 5:00 PM

I am having a very strange issue with my newly acquired Wii U. I was able to hack into it and install EnvironmentLoader, Aroma, etc. Everything was working great except for the brand new USB Partition Homebrew; The Wii U was seeing its partition just fine but the vWii was not. I thought I got this fixed, and switched to a larger SD card so that I could copy my Wii U backups to it, for installation on the Wii U partition. I copied most of my backups to the 128GB SD card (90GBish out of the 119GB available) but I accidently forgot to check the file system on the larger SD card; it was exFAT instead of FAT32. When I put the SD card into my Wii U, it could not read it, as expected. I removed the SD card, formatted it to FAT32 with 32K cluster size, and tried again with my backups. Ever since I accidently put the exFAT formatted SD card in the Wii U it has not been able to read any SD card that I have. I have tried all 3 of the SD cards that I own. They are a 16GB micro SD in an adapter, 32GB SD, and the 128GB micro SD card that I mentioned earlier in its own SD card adapter. Previously I was able to use both the 16GB and 128GB micro SD cards.

I have tried everything that I can think of; formatting the cards again, double-checking the filesystem, reloading the files, formatting the cards again using different software to format, and even redownloading the files from the web in case the files got corrupted. Before I messed up, I was having success with MiniTools Partition Wizard and GUIFormat for the FAT32 conversions. I looked at Nintendo's website for advice but they suggest the official SD Organizations tool, which formatted my micro SD card to exFAT. There doesn't seem to be an option on their software to change the filesystem.

Is there anything else that I can try before I assume the SD card reader in the Wii U is the culprit? I really don't want to return the Wii U if I don't have to, as I got a good deal and it included everything I needed except for a Wii and Gamecube controller. The tablet controller was also in excellent shape, with only one dead pixel and zero scratches. Also I am not even sure if I can uninstall the hacks without a SD card; I would need to do more research about this first. Replacing the SD card reader appears to require soldering skills, which I lack. I have a soldering iron and practice project, but have never used any soldering iron before. Thank you in advance for any help, advice, etc. offered!

Edit: I just physically checked the pins in the SD card reader, and they do not appear damaged. It is very hard to see inside the SD card slot, though. Also, I noticed something very strange while reformatting the 128GB SD card with GUIFormat. Before formatting it to exFAT, GUIFormat listed it as a 119GB drive, which is correct. However, after formatting it back to FAT32, GUIFormat sees it as 127GB. Windows still sees it as 119GB though. I have not been able to figure out why, or if this is even a problem for me yet.

SylverReZ · Sunday at 6:50 PM

It might be that the SD card slot is full of gunk. Maybe try using some fine tweezers to remove it.

CyberPal69 · Sunday at 6:59 PM

SylverReZ said:
It might be that the SD card slot is full of gunk. Maybe try using some fine tweezers to remove it.

That is a good idea. I will try that and post the results. Any other ideas, anyone?

WingedStar64 · Monday at 3:21 AM

If you're using microSD cards, make sure the pins on both microSD cards and their adapters are clean.
And if it still doesn't work, maybe the adapter is damaged and/or may not work properly.
Try another adapter if you can.

I'd say to try again and format your SD cards with MiniTool Partition Wizard (FormatGUI is also good, though) to FAT32.

Also, I think it's normal that some programs show the size labeled on the SD card (128 GB) instead of their actual size (~119 GB), so ya should be fine!

If you're using the same SD card for both Wii and Wii U homebrew, make sure your installed apps are located in these directories:
Wii Homebrew Apps = SD ROOT / apps
Wii U Homebrew Apps = SD ROOT / wiiu / apps

CyberPal69 · Monday at 3:52 AM

WingedStar64 said:
If you're using microSD cards, make sure the pins on both microSD cards and their adapters are clean.
And if it still doesn't work, maybe the adapter is damaged and/or may not work properly.
Try another adapter if you can.

I'd say to try again and format your SD cards with MiniTool Partition Wizard (FormatGUI is also good, though) to FAT32.

Also, I think it's normal that some programs show the size labeled on the SD card (128 GB) instead of their actual size (~119 GB), so ya should be fine!

If you're using the same SD card for both Wii and Wii U homebrew, make sure your installed apps are located in these directories:
Wii Homebrew Apps = SD ROOT / apps
Wii U Homebrew Apps = SD ROOT / wiiu / apps

The strange thing is, both of the adapters that I have (and all 3 SD cards) work just fine on my laptop. They only don't work on my Wii U. When I boot the Wii U, the homebrew is missing from the home screen, and trying to launch the Health and Safety app generates an error message "Can't find the sd:\payload.elf file" I will try again and let you know if it is working.

V10lator · Monday at 6:58 AM

CyberPal69 said:
"Can't find the sd:\payload.elf file"

Is the file on the SD card and is it the correct one (the one from https://aroma.foryour.cafe , not the one you used to install ISFSHax) ?
Is Mii Maker able to save an image of the Mii to the SD card (that's a good test to see if the SD card works at all, so is correctly formatted and everything, without homebrew) ?

CyberPal69 · 2024-07-02T01:40:08+0100

V10lator said:
Is the file on the SD card and is it the correct one (the one from https://aroma.foryour.cafe , not the one you used to install ISFSHax) ?

Is Mii Maker able to save an image of the Mii to the SD card (that's a good test to see if the SD card works at all, so is correctly formatted and everything, without homebrew) ?

I just got off of a 13 hour shift, so let me try and see.

Edit: Yeah, it let me save a picture of my newly created Mii on the SD card. So it must be the files then? I must have been correct about the files getting corrupted, but I used the file from ISFSHax when I recreated the SD card files from my backups. I will try recreating the files and let you know how it goes.

Edit2: That was it! I'm back in business baby! Thank you very much @V10lator

Post automatically merged: Yesterday at 3:18 AM

Well, I shut off my Wii U to copy some backups to the SD card that I just got working again, and now it doesn't work again. I am going to copy the hack files to it again, and if that doesn't work, delete the game backups.

Edit: None of that worked now. Also, I tried to save a Mii's picture to the SD card, and I did not get an error message. However, the file was not on the SD card when I put it in my computer.

Wii U can't read SD card

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