Hardware External hardrive issue (idkk if i shoudl ask this here or if its already an known issue)

CEOofYT · Mar 30, 2026

Hello, i have re-modded my vwii after formating and cleaning my whole wii u with isfshax n stuff, the thing goes here, i insstalled another external drive on my wii u for vWii, doing the correct steps of like already 3 tutorials, everything okay but this happens, my hdd is an 500gb hdd, when i get into vWii and enter to my usbloader gx it just, doesn't show any game or smth, it just detects the sd or smth like that, on nintendont in fact it gets the games detected but idk if they work cuz i didn't tested them, but here starts the thing, when i plug back on my pc the hdd says its "Not inizializated" and it just doesn't have any partition at all, it literally wipes itself, i have 2 theories

- my sata to usb its a garbage cuz i think its one of the generic ones cuz i already tested it with another hdd and same result
- or js my dumb configuracion even tho its quite solid

atp i don't know, i just got back my wii u after 2 years being lost and now this happens, any tip? any suggestion?

Yhodarks · Mar 31, 2026

Sounds like you're formatting the HDD into WiiU format instead of vwii format.
Assuming the sata adapter is good (should be one with Y-cable aka two USB, or one connected to the current, since WiiU USB ports don't give enough current to make the HDD work fine), connect to the PC and format as NTFS or FAT32 (I remember NTFS not making work GC games, but could be wrong), then add your games to the HDD with Wii backup manager.
Once that's done, make sure you plug the adapter on the back ports of Wii U (those are what vwii can recognize). You should connect to the upper port on the back, which is usually the one USB Loader GX should recognize immediately.

CEOofYT · Mar 31, 2026

Yeah i wish what i did was wrong. the hdd was already on Fat32 32KB cluster, even tho i used the correct tools for format & Games related, when i plug it on my wii u its gets detected in fact it tells me to format but i ignore it, usually i use usbhide from aroma to just make the system ignore it quite of cuz i use 2 hdds for my wii u, One for vWii, one for Wii U, And yeah the sata-usb cable i have has the Y-Cable, Even tho i have it on the right ports that happens everytime, also i forgot to mention, when i get to usbloadergx the disc is not even spinning so it gets me more confused tbh

jeannotte · Mar 31, 2026

Hello,

Is your external hard drive in MBR format and not GPT?

CEOofYT · Mar 31, 2026

jeannotte said:
Hello,

Is your external hard drive in MBR format and not GPT?

hi, Im 100% sure it was on MBR and not GPT

Yhodarks · Mar 31, 2026

CEOofYT said:
Yeah i wish what i did was wrong. the hdd was already on Fat32 32KB cluster, even tho i used the correct tools for format & Games related, when i plug it on my wii u its gets detected in fact it tells me to format but i ignore it, usually i use usbhide from aroma to just make the system ignore it quite of cuz i use 2 hdds for my wii u, One for vWii, one for Wii U, And yeah the sata-usb cable i have has the Y-Cable, Even tho i have it on the right ports that happens everytime, also i forgot to mention, when i get to usbloadergx the disc is not even spinning so it gets me more confused tbh

I remember something similar happened the first time I tried. Could be a misconfigured USB Loader GX. Unfortunately I don't have a Wiimote now, so can't say for sure what I moved on the configs, but on the hardware side, what I did was keeping changing the data port form upper to lower, and plugging the HDD only when USB Loader GX is loading and shows a message like "Waiting for disk media" or similar and gives you a 20sec countdown (try this turning on the WiiU without any HDD plugged, just the sata adapter).
That's how far I can help you for now unfortunately, even tho I still find weird the HDD unformat itself. If you have, try another adapter just to rule it out.

CEOofYT · Mar 31, 2026

Yhodarks said:
I remember something similar happened the first time I tried. Could be a misconfigured USB Loader GX. Unfortunately I don't have a Wiimote now, so can't say for sure what I moved on the configs, but on the hardware side, what I did was keeping changing the data port form upper to lower, and plugging the HDD only when USB Loader GX is loading and shows a message like "Waiting for disk media" or similar and gives you a 20sec countdown (try this turning on the WiiU without any HDD plugged, just the sata adapter).
That's how far I can help you for now unfortunately, even tho I still find weird the HDD unformat itself. If you have, try another adapter just to rule it out.

Hmmm i can try right now that thing of connecting the hdd to the sata cable when the countdown pops up, ill respond any update bout that, also!! i have other adapter but it doesn't have the Y cable for power soo, idkk, anyways ill try what u sayed and ill update anything necessary

Post automatically merged: Mar 31, 2026

Tried what u said, didn't worked, it wiped itself again idk why LOLL, im really thinking atp its fault of my Sata-usb cable, sumtimes fails on my own pc but ts never happened to me ever, wtf

Yhodarks · Mar 31, 2026

CEOofYT said:
Tried what u said, didn't worked, it wiped itself again idk why LOLL, im really thinking atp its fault of my Sata-usb cable, sumtimes fails on my own pc but ts never happened to me ever, wtfView attachment 565600

Seems is the adapter then. You can confirm it using a USB stick (if have any lying arround), and make all the steps again (put just one game to test). Also I would test with the other adapter on PC, if the HDD is really OK using something like CrystalDiskInfo and reformatting again. Maybe is just the adapter not working well to format the disk, but works well for reading.

CEOofYT · Mar 31, 2026

Yhodarks said:
Seems is the adapter then. You can confirm it using a USB stick (if have any lying arround), and make all the steps again (put just one game to test). Also I would test with the other adapter on PC, if the HDD is really OK using something like CrystalDiskInfo and reformatting again. Maybe is just the adapter not working well to format the disk, but works well for reading.

I think i can confirm its fault of the adapter, i formated my ventoy usb i use always to test, and it worked perfectly without any trouble this time

I forgot to mention, both hdd i teested on the console via crystaldisk they were on a good state, also the another adapter i have works in fact, but yk it just doesn't get the enough power from the wii u to work, but idc tbhh, so its def issue of the adapter with the Y-cable aka 2 usbs cable adapter, so ill just find any replacement for that shi, thx anyways!!!

Hardware External hardrive issue (idkk if i shoudl ask this here or if its already an known issue)

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