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Homebrew Tutorial  Updated

SDUSB - The modern way to play Wii U games from SD - at full speed

Why?

​Even though the Wii U has a built in SD slot, it doesn't support using it as a storage expansion to store Wii U games (unlike it's predecessor). USB pen drives are notoriously unreliable and hard drives are bulky and require extra power or a Y cable, using up multiple ports. Today big reliable SD cards have become cheap. Since a SD is needed anyway for homebrew, it would be nice to use that too as storage for games.
There have been solutions in the past like Loadiine, but this had various problems, the biggest of them performance and is not longer supported by current homebrew environments (Aroma).

SDUSB

​SDUSB solves these problems. It uses a second partition on the SD card, which will be formatted to the Wii Us native file system and therefore run at full speed. The partition will show up as a USB device and can therefore be managed using the built in Data Management in the system settings. SaveMii, WUP Installers etc. all work with this, like it is a USB storage device. Also HAI (VC Wii Titles) work with SDUSB.
SDUSB does all that by patching IOSU (the OS that runs on the ARM processor). It is implemented as a stroopwafel plugin.

If you instead want to partition your USB HDD to use it for Wii U games and other stuff look here: https://gbatemp.net/threads/usb-partition-use-partitioned-usb-hdds-with-the-wii-u.656209/

Wafel Installer



As a alternative to following this manual guide, you can now use the wafel installer. It guides you through installing the prerequisites, partitioning and setting up the plugin.
If you want to follow the manual setup, skip to the next section (Prerequisites)

On unmodded console
If you haven't modded your console yet, or lost the SD or SD content, just go to https://wafel.xyz on the Wii U web browser (Internet applet) and you can launch the wafel installer directly from that website. It guides you through partitioning the SD card.
Installing Aroma is optional.
Stroopwafel and ISFShax are required (will guide you through the setup).

On Aroma
If you are already using Aroma and want to keep the homebrew setup on the SD, then you need to manually shrink the existing partition on the SD (you can use Minitool Partition Wizard for that) and then put the wafel_installer.wuhb into your wiiu/apps folder on the SD. You find the download here: https://github.com/zer00p/wafel_installer/releases

If you don't care for your existing hombrew setup, boot without the SD card in and launch the wafel installer from the the web browser on the wii u https://wafel.xyz. When it tells you no SD detected just click abort

Once in the wafel installer main menu go to SDUSB to start the setup, it guides you through everything, including reinstalling Aroma, if needed.


Prerequisites

​You need two things:
  1. a way to launch minute
  2. a reliable SD card
For 1. the recommended way is to setup ISFShax, for that we have a guide here: How to set up ISFShax
If you don't want to commit to installing ISFShax yet you can skip the "Installing ISFShax" step in the ISFShax setup guide and instead run it manually through the chosen exploit on every reboot.
Instead if ISFShax you can also use defuse, in case you have that already.

For 2. It is highly recommended that you use an Endurance branded SD card from a reputable brand. Since your save games will also be saved there, you rather want to spend $5 more then to lose all your save games because your cheapo sd card died. Also be aware of fakes, even on Amazon you can get fake SD cards...
The speed of the SD card isn't too important, as the Wii U is limited to 25MB/s (same as the internal memory) anyway. Every somewhat recent SD card should be able to get that speed. Choose Reliability > Access Time > Throughput.

Setup

​

Partitioning the SD card​

On Windows you need to use a third party tool like Paragon Partition Manager Community Edition, Minitool Partition Wizard or Easeus, on Linux you can use gparted.
You need to have two primary partitions on the card:
  1. FAT32 - (in gparted set lba flag). This is what the PC will see and all your homebrew goes (you should already have this)
  2. NTFS - This partition will be the "USB", you use to store the Wii U games on (don't assign a drive letter)
Instead of NTFS you can also use exFAT. Shrink the existing FAT32 partition to make room and then create the primary NTFS partition after it. It's recommended to align the Partitions on 64MiB boundaries and use a multiple of 64MiB for the size. NTFS won't be the file system the Wii U will be using, it is just there to tell SDUSB which partition to use (it will pick the first NTFS one). The Wii U will later format it with it's own file system.

​

Installing the Plugin​

Get the latest 5sdusb.ipx from here: https://github.com/jan-hofmeier/wafel_sd_usb/releases and place it in your ios_plugins folder. That is either wiiu/ios_plugins on the SD card or /sys/hax/ios_plugins on the slc. For slc you have to rename it to something shorter like sdusb.ipx

Using SDUSB

​If you now boot back up, the Partition shows up as a USB device, which needs to be formatted and can then be used as usual. After formatting the SDUSB, you can also connect an existing USB storage and copy stuff over.
sdusb.jpg

Known Problems

​
  • GC VC Injectes don't work when installed to the SDUSB (they still work from Internal Memory)
 
Last edited by SDIO,
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Click to expand...
I did all the steps correctly, like doing the partition, installing the hack with the minute menu, but for some reason it still doesn't show the "USB needs to be formatted" pop-up. What do I do?
 
xenosidez said:
I did all the steps correctly, like doing the partition, installing the hack with the minute menu, but for some reason it still doesn't show the "USB needs to be formatted" pop-up. What do I do?
Click to expand...
Check if aroma doesn't "mute" this dialogue. There is an plugin which does that.
 
I've done all the correct steps to work SDUSB (I've thoroughly checked if I was doing it right), but for some reason it doesn't detect my SD card as a usb still. help!!
 
viinnyzz said:
I spent like five hours trying to fix an issue, so I've come to this thread for help.

I've launched minute frequently using the built in menu. i've also used autoboot.

Used paragon partition manager to set up my sd card. its in mbr, unformatted (WAS ntfs), and no drive letter assigned.

Any assistance that you can help me with? try to make it easy to understand.

Reverted the formatting back to its wiped state so I can use my wii u in the meantime.
Click to expand...
clarifying- the error i get is that the payload is not recognized in wii u, but the storage is recognized.
 
viinnyzz said:
clarifying- the error i get is that the payload is not recognized in wii u, but the storage is recognized.
Click to expand...
And you still had the FAT32 partition with all your aroma files? Can you show how you partitioned it?
 
SDIO said:
And you still had the FAT32 partition with all your aroma files? Can you show how you partitioned it?
Click to expand...
thanks for your conern but its been fixed a few days ago
Post automatically merged:

but now for some reason, everytime i try to download a game on wup installer, it starts downloading for a it then says usb not connected
Post automatically merged:

it wasnt like this a yesterday, what do i do!
 
SDIO said:

Why?

​Even though the Wii U has a built in SD slot, it doesn't support using it as a storage expansion to store Wii U games (unlike it's predecessor). USB pen drives are notoriously unreliable and hard drives are bulky and require extra power or a Y cable, using up multiple ports. Today big reliable SD cards have become cheap. Since a SD is needed anyway for homebrew, it would be nice to use that too as storage for games.
There have been solutions in the past like Loadiine, but this had various problems, the biggest of them performance and is not longer supported by current homebrew environments (Aroma).

SDUSB

​SDUSB solves these problems. It uses a second partition on the SD card, which will be formatted to the Wii Us native file system and therefore run at full speed. The partition will show up as a USB device and can therefore be managed using the built in Data Management in the system settings. SaveMii, WUP Installers etc. all work with this, like it is a USB storage device. Also HAI (VC Wii Titles) work with SDUSB.
SDUSB does all that by patching IOSU (the OS that runs on the ARM processor). It is implemented as a stroopwafel plugin.

If you instead want to partition your USB HDD to use it for Wii U games and other stuff look here: https://gbatemp.net/threads/usb-partition-use-partitioned-usb-hdds-with-the-wii-u.656209/

Prerequisites

​You need two things:
  1. a way to launch minute
  2. a reliable SD card
For 1. the recommended way is to setup ISFShax, for that we have a guide here: How to set up ISFShax
If you don't want to commit to installing ISFShax yet you can skip the "Installing ISFShax" step in the ISFShax setup guide and instead run it manually through the chosen exploit on every reboot.
Instead if ISFShax you can also use defuse, in case you have that already.

For 2. It is highly recommended that you use an Endurance branded SD card from a reputable brand. Since your save games will also be saved there, you rather want to spend $5 more then to lose all your save games because your cheapo sd card died. Also be aware of fakes, even on Amazon you can get fake SD cards...
The speed of the SD card isn't too important, as the Wii U is limited to 25MB/s (same as the internal memory) anyway. Every somewhat recent SD card should be able to get that speed. Choose Reliability > Access Time > Throughput.

Setup

​

Partitioning the SD card​

On Windows you need to use a third party tool like Paragon Partition Manager Community Edition, Minitool Partition Wizard or Easeus, on Linux you can use gparted.
You need to have two primary partitions on the card:
  1. FAT32 - (in gparted set lba flag). This is what the PC will see and all your homebrew goes (you should already have this)
  2. NTFS - This partition will be the "USB", you use to store the Wii U games on (don't assign a drive letter)
Instead of NTFS you can also use exFAT. Shrink the existing FAT32 partition to make room and then create the primary NTFS partition after it. It's recommended to align the Partitions on 64MiB boundaries and use a multiple of 64MiB for the size. NTFS won't be the file system the Wii U will be using, it is just there to tell SDUSB which partition to use (it will pick the first NTFS one). The Wii U will later format it with it's own file system.

​

Installing the Plugin​

Get the latest 5sdusb.ipx from here: https://github.com/jan-hofmeier/wafel_sd_usb/releases and place it in your ios_plugins folder. That is either wiiu/ios_plugins on the SD card or /sys/hax/ios_plugins on the slc. For slc you have to rename it to something shorter like sdusb.ipx

Using SDUSB

​If you now boot back up, the Partition shows up as a USB device, which needs to be formatted and can then be used as usual. After formatting the SDUSB, you can also connect an existing USB storage and copy stuff over.
View attachment 436848

Known Problems

​
  • GC VC Injectes don't work when installed to the SDUSB (they still w
Click to expand...

SDIO said:

Why?

​Even though the Wii U has a built in SD slot, it doesn't support using it as a storage expansion to store Wii U games (unlike it's predecessor). USB pen drives are notoriously unreliable and hard drives are bulky and require extra power or a Y cable, using up multiple ports. Today big reliable SD cards have become cheap. Since a SD is needed anyway for homebrew, it would be nice to use that too as storage for games.
There have been solutions in the past like Loadiine, but this had various problems, the biggest of them performance and is not longer supported by current homebrew environments (Aroma).

SDUSB

​SDUSB solves these problems. It uses a second partition on the SD card, which will be formatted to the Wii Us native file system and therefore run at full speed. The partition will show up as a USB device and can therefore be managed using the built in Data Management in the system settings. SaveMii, WUP Installers etc. all work with this, like it is a USB storage device. Also HAI (VC Wii Titles) work with SDUSB.
SDUSB does all that by patching IOSU (the OS that runs on the ARM processor). It is implemented as a stroopwafel plugin.

If you instead want to partition your USB HDD to use it for Wii U games and other stuff look here: https://gbatemp.net/threads/usb-partition-use-partitioned-usb-hdds-with-the-wii-u.656209/

Prerequisites

​You need two things:
  1. a way to launch minute
  2. a reliable SD card
For 1. the recommended way is to setup ISFShax, for that we have a guide here: How to set up ISFShax
If you don't want to commit to installing ISFShax yet you can skip the "Installing ISFShax" step in the ISFShax setup guide and instead run it manually through the chosen exploit on every reboot.
Instead if ISFShax you can also use defuse, in case you have that already.

For 2. It is highly recommended that you use an Endurance branded SD card from a reputable brand. Since your save games will also be saved there, you rather want to spend $5 more then to lose all your save games because your cheapo sd card died. Also be aware of fakes, even on Amazon you can get fake SD cards...
The speed of the SD card isn't too important, as the Wii U is limited to 25MB/s (same as the internal memory) anyway. Every somewhat recent SD card should be able to get that speed. Choose Reliability > Access Time > Throughput.

Setup

​

Partitioning the SD card​

On Windows you need to use a third party tool like Paragon Partition Manager Community Edition, Minitool Partition Wizard or Easeus, on Linux you can use gparted.
You need to have two primary partitions on the card:
  1. FAT32 - (in gparted set lba flag). This is what the PC will see and all your homebrew goes (you should already have this)
  2. NTFS - This partition will be the "USB", you use to store the Wii U games on (don't assign a drive letter)
Instead of NTFS you can also use exFAT. Shrink the existing FAT32 partition to make room and then create the primary NTFS partition after it. It's recommended to align the Partitions on 64MiB boundaries and use a multiple of 64MiB for the size. NTFS won't be the file system the Wii U will be using, it is just there to tell SDUSB which partition to use (it will pick the first NTFS one). The Wii U will later format it with it's own file system.

​

Installing the Plugin​

Get the latest 5sdusb.ipx from here: https://github.com/jan-hofmeier/wafel_sd_usb/releases and place it in your ios_plugins folder. That is either wiiu/ios_plugins on the SD card or /sys/hax/ios_plugins on the slc. For slc you have to rename it to something shorter like sdusb.ipx

Using SDUSB

​If you now boot back up, the Partition shows up as a USB device, which needs to be formatted and can then be used as usual. After formatting the SDUSB, you can also connect an existing USB storage and copy stuff over.
View attachment 436848

Known Problems

​
  • GC VC Injectes don't work when installed to the SDUSB (they still work from Internal Memory)
Click to expand...
Anyone know how to add two primary partitions to the SD card? I can't figure it out.
Post automatically merged:

Anyone know how to make two primary partitions on the Sd card? I downloaded the Paragon Manager Community Edition but I don't know how to use it :')
 
Last edited by CoffeeBerry,
You shrink the existing partition, so you have free space on the right and then you create a new partition there, making sure to select primary.
 
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any free program for making the partition recomended? Aldo, I tríes with comandante in windows and mac, but when i Plug the sd card it does not read it and the wii u starts without aroma (vainilla). If someone knows of a more detailed guide :), please let me know.
Post automatically merged:

any free program for making the partition recomended? Aldo, I tríes with comandante in windows and mac, but when i Plug the sd card it does not read it and the wii u starts without aroma (vainilla). If someone knows of a more detailed guide :), please let me know.
 
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jota2 said:
any free program for making the partition recomended?
Click to expand...

It's mentioned in the guide already:
SDIO said:
On Windows you need to use a third party tool like Paragon Partition Manager Community Edition, Minitool Partition Wizard or Easeus
Click to expand...
I've personally used Minitool Partition Wizard, I believe. It's been a while since I modded my Wii U.
 
I think Minitool works the best, but it bugs you so much with adds and tries to install something else, that Paragon seemed to more reputable option. But I think Paragon also has the 32gb limit on the FAT32 partition
 
SDIO said:
It's also possible that the SD card is just incompatible. I have two old samsung cards that can't run Wii VC, even if I have them as MLC, without any patches.
The alignment option there will probably do nothing, since when you created the partition, it should already have created it with that alignment. What is the start lba of that partition?
Post automatically merged:


you mean something like this? https://github.com/jan-hofmeier/wafel_usb_partition/releases/
Click to expand...
I'm having trouble getting Wii VC games to run from an NTFS formatted HDD using your USB partition plugin.

Any tips or tricks?

I read that Wii VC games only work on an SD card? Is that correct?
 
SDIO said:
no, they should work from HDD, but only below 2TB.

You can try v3.0 https://github.com/StroopwafelCFW/wafel_usb_partition/releases/tag/v3.0
please report back
Click to expand...
Edit/Testing Update: So the 3.0 version did work. And I discovered the plugin is running from the sd card's wiiu/ios_plugins folder. Not the hax/ios_plugins folder from haxcopy. I can see that 5usbpart.ipx is in "/storage_slc/sys/hax/ios_plugins" as it should be. Am I derping on something, or is something actually not correct here?

What's different about that 3.0 version that's making it work?

---------

Interesting. I will give that a try. It's a 750GB HDD.

I've been having an issue where Wii VC games from NUSpli only work when installed to NAND. If they're installed to the HDD they black screen then it reboots. WiiFlow is hvaing what appears to be a similar/parallel issue.

ISFShax is installed to SLC and that's where the plugin is running from.

What's different about 3.0 compared to the newest version that would make things work properly?
 
Last edited by Intoxicus5,

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