Hardware Could changing the enclosure of my external HDD make it (more) Wii U compatible?

Meckload · Feb 26, 2020

Hey guys!

I have been having issues with loading Wii games off my external HDD on my Wii U. Whenever I start a Wii game that is saved on it, I get a black screen and have to shut off the console. I was really surprised by it because (1) the HDD has a separate power source and (2) all my Wii U games start just fine. However, I realized that whenever the Wii U plays a Wii game it seems to reboot in some fashion. This makes my HDD lose power and made it shut down. At first, this was weird because it shouldn't depend on the Wii U for power. I did some research and found out that my particular external HDD is programmed to not turn on/shut off whenever it is not connected to power (Page 8).

Initially, I was planning on just getting a new HDD, however, then it dawned on me that it might not my the HDD but the enclosure that manages this function. I watched a video that shows that removing the HDD from the drive is not that hard. And now I am thinking about buying a new enclosure (like this one), hoping that my HDD would then survive the reboot into the Wii mode.

Does anyone have experiences with external HDDs and knows if that would work? Do you think its an issue of the HDD itself or the enclosure?

Thanks a lot!

godreborn · Feb 26, 2020

rebooting is normal. the system switches to wii mode even if the game is a wii inject. your hdd may be falling asleep. if you go to the manufacturer's website, they'll probably have an app to change settings including turning off sleep mode.

Alexander1970 · Feb 26, 2020

Meckload said:
Hey guys!

I have been having issues with loading Wii games off my external HDD on my Wii U. Whenever I start a Wii game that is saved on it, I get a black screen and have to shut off the console. I was really surprised by it because (1) the HDD has a separate power source and (2) all my Wii U games start just fine. However, I realized that whenever the Wii U plays a Wii game it seems to reboot in some fashion. This makes my HDD lose power and made it shut down. At first, this was weird because it shouldn't depend on the Wii U for power. I did some research and found out that my particular external HDD is programmed to not turn on/shut off whenever it is not connected to power (Page 8).

Initially, I was planning on just getting a new HDD, however, then it dawned on me that it might not my the HDD but the enclosure that manages this function. I watched a video that shows that removing the HDD from the drive is not that hard. And now I am thinking about buying a new enclosure (like this one), hoping that my HDD would then survive the reboot into the Wii mode.

Does anyone have experiences with external HDDs and knows if that would work? Do you think its an issue of the HDD itself or the enclosure?

Thanks a lot!

Hello.

To reply to your Question:

Could changing the enclosure of my external HDD make it (more) Wii U compatible?

YES of Course.

Myself had the funny Behavior,when placed the HDD on the TOP of the Wii U,the Internet Connection is no longer working.

https://gbatemp.net/threads/wii-u-wifi-suddenly-cant-connect-to-router.376888/page-2#post-8933649

Thank you.

ChiefReginod · Feb 26, 2020

As said, it can most certainly make a difference. I have a newer WD Passport that has trouble initializing, but I also have an older Samsung enclosure that works fine even with ustealth.

In the meantime here are some things to try with your current drive and enclosure:

1. Download the drive's utility from the manufacturer's website and disable the sleep timer. You don't know for sure if it's disabled unless you check it yourself.
2. Disconnect your Wii U USB.
3. DON'T use a Wii U forwarder channel to launch directly into the vWii Homebrew Channel. It won't work.
3. Start vWii manually, launch the Homebrew Channel and then launch your USB loader. For some reason, some drives fail to initialize when launching the loader from a forwarder channel but they work fine when launched from the Homebrew Channel.
4. Use USB Loader GX, go into Loader Settings and change the Loader's IOS to 58.

If all else fails, simply keep your Wii HDD disconnected until you've already launched the vWii. If you plug it in at the main Wii menu it will usually work just fine.

Meckload · Feb 26, 2020

godreborn said:
rebooting is normal. the system switches to wii mode even if the game is a wii inject. your hdd may be falling asleep. if you go to the manufacturer's website, they'll probably have an app to change settings including turning off sleep mode.

ChiefReginod said:
1. Download the drive's utility from the manufacturer's website and disable the sleep timer. You don't know for sure if it's disabled unless you check it yourself.

Just tried this, but the external HDD still powers down the moment it does not get any power through the USB.

One (less radical) option I just thought about is getting a Y-Cable so the drive survives the reboot. So I just ordered a cheap one that will arrive next week. It's kind of annoying because then I have a set-up where the HDD has an external power source & a Y-Cable. I hope putting both of the USBs into will stop it from shutting off. In the worst case, I might even have to connect the power-dedicated USB from the Y-Cable to an external power source (meaning I would have two for a single drive

).

But to get back to my initial question: does anyone know if changing the enclosure of the HDD will stop the drive from automatically powering down when disconnected (during the reboot) from the USB as it's presented in this manual (page 8)?

godreborn · Feb 26, 2020

hmm...I'm using a wd elements drive for the wii u and a wd blue (I think), since I put it in a sabrent enclosure, for the vwii. that one is 1TB; wd elements is 2TB.

Meckload · Feb 26, 2020

The drive I'm using is called "Samsung Story". It's build for back-ups. I'm just wondering if the aspect of the Drive that makes it shut down is encoded into the Enclosure and its electronics or the HDD.

ChiefReginod · Feb 27, 2020

Meckload said:
The drive I'm using is called "Samsung Story". It's build for back-ups. I'm just wondering if the aspect of the Drive that makes it shut down is encoded into the Enclosure and its electronics or the HDD.

I can't say for sure that it's absolutely never down to the drive itself, but at least 9 out of 10 times it's down to the enclosure. In general, the newer enclosures seem to have more trouble than the older ones. I don't know if anyone's ever sorted out exactly why this is, but as a general rule it seems to hold true.

Meckload · Mar 28, 2020

Hey everyone! Just as an update in case anyone ever runs into the same issue as mine and would happen to stumble across this post.

I got a Y-Cable in the hope of circumventing my external HDDs "feature" of powering down whenever it does not receive any power anymore. However, that did not resolve the problem.

Nevertheless, I ended up purchasing a new enclosure for my HDD. I switched the new enclosure for the old one and now it works like a charm

Hardware Could changing the enclosure of my external HDD make it (more) Wii U compatible?

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