Aroma - External HDD and Emulator Issues

Darren Tickle · Monday at 8:23 AM

Hi All,

I recently purchased a WiiU and got it all setup with Aroma. Everything works but it all abit of a mess.

Currently I have 2 HDDs plugged in, the one in the back with a Y splitter USB cable holds all my Wii and Rom content and this works fine with all my loaders.

The one in the front ysplitter is my WiiU formatted 2tb drive, and has been hidden so no nag on boot up.

But when the front drive is plugged in and I am in my vWii none of my emulator apps will read the USB drive plugged in the back. They just error as if no USB drive is plugged in. As soon as I unplug the WiiU drive they all start to read. I have looked but none of the emulator apps seem to let me specify to use the back USB. I cant switch them around as for some reason the Wii drive doesnt work in the front USBs.

Anyone any ideas what I can do to keep all the drives always plugged in?

Thanks

mazingetter · Tuesday at 3:51 PM

The WiiU can't have 2 HDD's plugged in at the same time. You might want to use this instead: https://gbatemp.net/threads/usb-partition-use-partitioned-usb-hdds-with-the-wii-u.656209/

It will let you partition your hdd so you can use the same device for vWii and WiiU stuff

Blythe93 · Tuesday at 4:20 PM

mazingetter said:
The WiiU can't have 2 HDD's plugged in at the same time.

Not sure about you but my dual HDD setup is working just fine.

One HDD was Wii U only games, while the other one has Wii/GC games. Both of my HDDs are in their own enclosures, connected to the Wii U via 2 USB3.0 Y cables. On vWii side I use USB Loader GX to view my games and in its settings I've set the Loader and Game IOS to 249. vWii HDD's data cable should go into port 0 which should be the top one on the back if the console is placed horisontally. Wii U HDD can be connected to whichever port you want, it'll work without issues. I plugged it into the bottom back USB port and connected the power cables to an external 5V 3A charger.

Of course, I've set this up following one of the older guides, long before SDIO made a tutorial about parititoning USB HDD (or even SD card, which is really cool).

Unfortunately, I'm not sure what's causing those homebrew not seeing those games.

mazingetter · Tuesday at 4:35 PM

Blythe93 said:
Not sure about you but my dual HDD setup is working just fine. One HDD was Wii U only games, while the other one has Wii/GC games. Both of my HDDs are in their own enclosures, connected to the Wii U via 2 USB3.0 Y cables. On vWii side I use USB Loader GX to view my games and in its settings I've set the Loader and Game IOS to 249. vWii HDD's data cable should go into port 0 which should be the top one on the back if the console is placed horisontally. Wii U HDD can be connected to whichever port you want, it'll work without issues. I plugged it into the bottom back USB port and connected the power cables to an external 5V 3A charger.

Of course, I've set this up following one of the older guides, long before SDIO made a tutorial about parititoning USB HDD (or even SD card, which is really cool).

Unfortunately, I'm not sure what's causing those homebrew not seeing those games.

Maybe it's not "can't have" and more like "can't manage". Either way, did you use UStealth in your vWii HDD? Normally the WiiU would ask to format or disconnect one of the 2 drives when it detects 2 connected in WiiU Mode. Paint me very curious about your WiiU Setup.

Blythe93 · Tuesday at 6:49 PM

mazingetter said:
Either way, did you use UStealth in your vWii HDD?

Yep, that's what I did in order to remove the format nag.
I've made a detailed post here about my setup and my finding if you want to check it out. it's been a while so I've might have forgotten to mention a thing or two.

Nowadays, if you can get a big enough high endurance SD card recommended by SDIO in his SDUSB thread, you can partition it so that you can store both Wii U and Wii/GC games on the same SD card, plus there are no cables running around. I'm not sure whether whether it'll wear down the SD card slot or something, though. Very clean looking setup.

If unsure, dual HDD setup is the 2nd best option (unless you prefer making injects and keeping Wii and GC games on the Wii U HDD as well).

SDIO · 2024-11-01T15:00:41+0000

An option you also might consider: just put all the Wii and GC stuff on a large enough SD card, so you don't need a second HDD.

Also VC injects might also be an option, so you can just install the Wii and GC games to the Wii U HDD and launch them directly from the Wii U menu.

One thing you could also try if you want to use two HDDs: swap them around, use the one you currently have for Wii U for vWii and vice versa

Jayinem · 2024-11-01T15:41:44+0000

SDIO said:
An option you also might consider: just put all the Wii and GC stuff on a large enough SD card, so you don't need a second HDD.

Also VC injects might also be an option, so you can just install the Wii and GC games to the Wii U HDD and launch them directly from the Wii U menu.

One thing you could also try if you want to use two HDDs: swap them around, use the one you currently have for Wii U for vWii and vice versa

Suggestions 1 and 3 are obvious but he probably doesn't want to buy an additional big sd card, and he obviously doesn't want to swap them out every time who would. Your #2 solution is the best solution if he has the space for all of his games put everything on one hdd. But he might have to buy a different hdd just to accomplish that.

pankos · 2024-11-02T06:42:41+0000

In case of dual USB setup there is seems to be no working all-purpose solution so far. The best I could achieve:

https://gbatemp.net/posts/10513524/

Blythe93 · 2024-11-02T08:01:25+0000

pankos said:
In case of dual USB setup there is seems to be no working all-purpose solution so far. The best I could achieve:

https://gbatemp.net/posts/10513524/

Did you try setting Game IOS and Loader IOS to 249? That's what works for me. I did the standard cIOS installation on my vWii side and I followed Wii U Hacks Guide back in the day.
Also, note that there might be some issues with some HDD enclosures when having 2 HDDs connected, especially for the vWii HDD, even if it works fine on its own when it's the only drive connected. Luckily, my Logilink HDD enclosures are working just fine.

SDIO said:
just put all the Wii and GC stuff on a large enough SD card, so you don't need a second HDD.

Probably the best modern way to have plenty of games on your Wii U nowadays without having to drag around additional external HDDs around. I might do that in the future, but for me my dual SSD setup should do the trick for the time being. The only issue I have with this setup is whether it'll damage the SD slot or something over time? I'm not an expert but I'd love to hear an opinion from someone more experienced and knowledgeable about hardware longevity, I guess.

pankos · 2024-11-02T08:51:53+0000

Blythe93 said:
Did you try setting Game IOS and Loader IOS to 249?

cIOS 249 is setup by default in USBLoaderGX and Wiiflow. Only USBLoaderGX works with cIOS 249 when vWii disk is attached to the top back USB port. Though the app itself could be run only from SD card. Problem is, that HBC and some other apps are using IOS 58 and can see vWii USB disk only if it is plugged in to bottom back USB port in dual disk setup. So to be able to load app directly from vWii USB disk cIOS of the app should be setup to IOS 58 or cIOS 251.
Wiiflow could also be run from vWii USB disk with cIOS 251 in this configuration and could even run emulators/plugins. But for some reason it won't run Wii games. I'm being always kicked back to Wiiflow menu after trying to run any Wii game.
I need to run Wiiflow from USB disk because I have huge Wiiflow plugin pack with tons of covers taking several gigabytes. It runs fine on my original Wii console and also on WiiU when WiiU disk is disconnected.

Could you please check if your HBC in vWii mode is able to see your apps on vWii disk in your configuration? The source of HBC apps could be changed in it's menu.
My working setup: top USB - WiiU disk, bottom USB - vWii disk.

Blythe93 · 2024-11-02T09:20:37+0000

pankos said:
HBC in vWii mode is able to see your apps on vWii disk in your configuration?

I keep my vWii apps on my SD card, not the vWii disk. Therefore HBC sees them without problem.
I keep only Wii and GameCube games are on my vWii disk and I'm not using any emulators on vWii side as I'm using RetroArch on Wii U side with roms on the SD card.

I can try placing the apps on the vWii disk to see if that will work, if that's what you want me to test?

pankos · 2024-11-02T09:29:37+0000

Blythe93 said:
I can try placing the apps on the vWii disk to see if that will work, if that's what you want me to test?

Yes I would very much appreciate if you could test it. I assume you have your vWii disk plugged into top USB port?

Blythe93 · 2024-11-02T10:57:59+0000

pankos said:
I assume you have your vWii disk plugged into top USB port?

Indeed.

One question: How do you make HBC read files from vWii HDD? I haven't found an option to switch between SD card and vWii HDD (i.e. USB drive).

EDIT: Nevermind, found it (press 1 when in HBC). I've changed the source to USB device. HBC refreshes but I'm still seeing the ones from SD card, as I only have USB Loader GX and WiiFlow on the vWii HDD. Not sure why.

pankos · 2024-11-02T11:05:10+0000

Blythe93 said:
One question: How do you make HBC read files from vWii HDD? I haven't found an option to switch between SD card and vWii HDD (i.e. USB drive).

Pressing button 1 on wiimote while in HBC brings up menu where you can change app source. If it can't read USB it will loads SD card apps again

Blythe93 · 2024-11-02T11:08:44+0000

Yep, that's what I did. As I've mentioned, HBC refreshes after changing the source to USB device but I'm still seeing the ones from SD card, as I only have USB Loader GX and WiiFlow on the vWii HDD. Not sure why.

I've placed them inside of the apps folder on the root of the external HDD (the same way you'd usually place them on the root of the SD card).

pankos said:
If it can't read USB it will loads SD card apps again

Gotcha. Must be the case then. Not sure if i can change anything about it?

pankos · 2024-11-02T11:12:10+0000

Blythe93 said:
Yep, that's what I did. As I've mentioned, HBC refreshes after changing the source to USB device but I'm still seeing the ones from SD card, as I only have USB Loader GX and WiiFlow on the vWii HDD. Not sure why. I've placed them inside of the apps folder on the root of the external HDD (the same way you'd usually place them on the root of the SD card).

Now try to swap external USBs to other ports(while console in power off state). Check again how it works.

Blythe93 · 2024-11-02T11:23:38+0000

pankos said:
Now try to swap external USBs to other ports(while console in power off state). Check again how it works.

I tried putting it into

the bottom back USB port
one of the front USB ports
the top back USB port with only vWii HDD connected.

None of those worked, unfortunately.

pankos · 2024-11-02T11:28:29+0000

Blythe93 said:
I tried putting it into

the bottom back USB port

one of the front USB ports

the top back USB port with only vWii HDD connected.

None of those worked, unfortunately.

Mine is working when vWii disk is plugged in bottom back and Wii U top back. At least with the exception of Wii games on Wiiflow. cIOS set in apps to 251

Post automatically merged: Today at 12:07 PM

So at least I have a confirmation, that there is still no working all purpose solution for dual USB disk setup. Probably have to do with current cIOS 249/251 limitation.

Aroma - External HDD and Emulator Issues

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