Trying to copy my HDD to a Flashdrive, more than twice the free space needed?

Cyber Akuma · Nov 24, 2021

I have a 1TB HDD on my WiiU, and HATE having to use it. It's MASSIVE over-kill because I don't have nearly enough WiiU games for that kind of space (it was the cheaper than 500GB drives at the time), it takes up two USB ports since I need a Y-cable to give it enough power, and I don't like having a large hunk of plastic and metal tethered to my WiiU. I always wanted to get one of those ultra-small USB drives that barely stick out of the ports, but they were never big enough or affordable. I calculated that my WiiU games were a little over 128GB, so I would need a 256GB drive.

Recently, I was able to get a slim 256GB drive cheap, so I got to got ready to copy all of my HDD over to the USB drive, but then I realized that I had mis-counted. According to my WiiU, my games all took up 267GB, and the WiiU reported the 256GB drive I just plugged in had 238GB free.

It gave me an error that I did not have enough free space... I was expecting there to have been a gig or two overhead... but it said that I needed to free up an additional 300GB or so!

What is going on here? It wants me to "free up" more space than the game data itself takes up? Why does it need around 550GB to copy over 238GB of game and save data?

V10lator · Nov 30, 2021

Cyber Akuma said:
I have a 1TB HDD on my WiiU, and HATE having to use it. It's MASSIVE over-kill because I don't have nearly enough WiiU games for that kind of space (it was the cheaper than 500GB drives at the time), it takes up two USB ports since I need a Y-cable to give it enough power, and I don't like having a large hunk of plastic and metal tethered to my WiiU. I always wanted to get one of those ultra-small USB drives that barely stick out of the ports, but they were never big enough or affordable. I calculated that my WiiU games were a little over 128GB, so I would need a 256GB drive.

Recently, I was able to get a slim 256GB drive cheap, so I got to got ready to copy all of my HDD over to the USB drive, but then I realized that I had mis-counted. According to my WiiU, my games all took up 267GB, and the WiiU reported the 256GB drive I just plugged in had 238GB free.

It gave me an error that I did not have enough free space... I was expecting there to have been a gig or two overhead... but it said that I needed to free up an additional 300GB or so!

What is going on here? It wants me to "free up" more space than the game data itself takes up? Why does it need around 550GB to copy over 238GB of game and save data?

Sounds like your stick was too cheap. Check for fake: https://3ds.hacks.guide/h2testw-(windows).html (ignore that this is from a 3ds hacking guide and also ignore it's for SD cards. Should be fine to check your stick, too).

Cyber Akuma · Nov 30, 2021

I am quite familiar with that tool. However, this is definitely not a case of the drive being fake. If it was, the WiiU would have just written to it anyway and failed on verification. Despite identifying it as a 256GB drive, before it even STARTED copying, it said I needed more than an additional 300GB free. This is something else entirely.

V10lator · Dec 2, 2021

If you're really sure the stick is good and you're not missreading MB as GB or something like that I would think there's something wrong with the Wii Us algorithms or a corrupted file or something and try to not copy everything at once but in small chunks. That way you're hopefully able to isolate the Game/DLC/savegame causing the bug and am able to copy everything except that. If copying in small chunks sounds too time consuming try to think programmatically. For example one algorythm to copy everything except the causing thing without wasting too much time would be to:
1) Copy 50% of the data.
2) If that fails cause of not enough free space copy the other 50%.
3) Ignore the already copied data and go back to step 1 with the rest.

mive · Dec 2, 2021

As I did something similar without issues, this is confusing me:
afaik if you connect your second hdd/ssd/whatever to your wiiu, it will show available storage.
then if you select the games to copy it also shows the size of the selected games.
So if the wiiu reports 238gb free space and you select data with 268gb why do you even try to copy?

just try with source data < free space

Cyber Akuma · Dec 2, 2021

mive said:
afaik if you connect your second hdd/ssd/whatever to your wiiu, it will show available storage.

Correct

mive said:
then if you select the games to copy it also shows the size of the selected games.

Also Correct

mive said:
So if the wiiu reports 238gb free space and you select data with 268gb why do you even try to copy?

I didn't. I selected just enough to be under 238GB of space, but when I tried to copy those all in one shot, it claimed I needed an additional 300GB of free space.

mive · Dec 3, 2021

maybe try to leave a few more gb empty.

I switched form a 250gb hdd to a 200gb ssd (becuase of the noise) and had about 170-180gb to copy.
for me this worked without issues

Cyber Akuma · Dec 3, 2021

I tried copying a few at a time, it works, but it seems to take up more space than expected. And it seemed to require about twice as much free space as the item takes to copy it, even individually, even though it doesn't take that much space once copied.

jellybeangreen2 · Dec 3, 2021

Cyber Akuma said:
I tried copying a few at a time, it works, but it seems to take up more space than expected. And it seemed to require about twice as much free space as the item takes to copy it, even individually, even though it doesn't take that much space once copied.

What is the USB, make model size. Any pictures etc

mrgone · Dec 3, 2021

Storage manufacturers always state the size of the product in GB (which has a multiplier of 1000 ) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byte#Multiple-byte_units

256GB = 256000000000 B

divide trice by 1024 => 238,4185791015625 GiB (GibiByte)

Cyber Akuma · Dec 3, 2021

jellybeangreen2 said:
What is the USB, make model size. Any pictures etc

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07D7Q41PM/

I bought two of these, the other I am using in my PS4, and it's working perfectly. I really do not think it's a case of the USB drive being dodgy, if it was then the WiiU would have just copied the data and then it would have been corrupted, not think I need twice as much free space.

jellybeangreen2 · Dec 3, 2021

Cyber Akuma said:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07D7Q41PM/

I bought two of these, the other I am using in my PS4, and it's working perfectly. I really do not think it's a case of the USB drive being dodgy, if it was then the WiiU would have just copied the data and then it would have been corrupted, not think I need twice as much free space.

What are the file systems on each drive, & the allocation units?
did you format the USB through the WiiU? - Also bare in mind file size and file on disk can be different EG. 3.5GB file could be 4GB on disk. You can view this in properties on the file.

but this mainly happens when the allocation units are set incorrectly. Might be best to remove all partitions & reformat the USB

CrisMod · Dec 3, 2021

Cyber Akuma said:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07D7Q41PM/

I bought two of these, the other I am using in my PS4, and it's working perfectly. I really do not think it's a case of the USB drive being dodgy, if it was then the WiiU would have just copied the data and then it would have been corrupted, not think I need twice as much free space.

Man, I bought 3 of that for my 3 WIi U and this USB it's the best in terms of compatibility with USB 2.0 and performance......

I think I met this situation of the space problem but I really don't remember how I solved...... Just come in my mind, if my memory doesn't recall this situation bad; the problem it's that when you see the Giga of space the counting of the Giga, it's related to the game it self and not the DLC and save datas... So, to count the real space of each game , you have to press the square icon and after that watch the sub icons related to the DLC and save data's space, how much more Giga there are into it.

Otherwise, was the problems with the Title keys of the games and Apps that I created the installer at the beginning.... when you are using the copy transfer to an external device the Wii U system will duplicate the Game data but will display one Icon with the same Giga as the original (but in back ground the system copies double times some game or mix with the App, but you will not see, and the problems are related how you made the game or app installer with the keys) in fact, once copied the games or the Apps (you can find apps of few Giga once copied to the external drive, because of the title keys) some app or game results corrupted....

If it's this the case, to save your situation, I suggest you, to check first which is the group of Apps and Games that gives you this problem (you will notice that will use more space than what the Game display) and in extreme way you can backup your save data's and reinstall one by one all the App and Games that you want on the external USB Pen and then restore the save data's.....

I hope I explained well, if not I will try better....

Cyber Akuma · Dec 3, 2021

jellybeangreen2 said:
did you format the USB through the WiiU?

Yes, the WiiU makes you format it in it's own filesystem, you have no control over it's settings when it does that.

CrisMod said:
Otherwise, was the problems with the Title keys of the games and Apps that I created the installer at the beginning.... when you are using the copy transfer to an external device the Wii U system will duplicate the Game data but will display one Icon with the same Giga as the original (but in back ground the system copies double times some game or mix with the App, but you will not see, and the problems are related how you made the game or app installer with the keys) in fact, once copied the games or the Apps (you can find apps of few Giga once copied to the external drive, because of the title keys) some app or game results corrupted....

I'm.... kinda confused what you're saying to be honest.

CrisMod · Dec 3, 2021

In practice , any Wii U games or apps has a range of ID , those ID that the Wii U system use to place and transfer the data's into your external driver, if not prepared well the initial installer with the right ID/Keys, those IDs overlap to each other once you try to transfer them into a new external HDD/SSD/Pendrive, and maybe the ID of the APP with one ID of the Game the mix to each other on the coping stage and you can find the Icon of the App with the same Giga of the Game that was with the Same ID, but the Icon show that maybe it's YouTube....

Another test that you can do , it's not to copy but to transfer directly, but as I said make the saves backup first and then you check with the ideas that I gave you , where is the real problem..... I transferred to you my experience now you have to check where the problem

jellybeangreen2 · Dec 3, 2021

Cyber Akuma said:
Yes, the WiiU makes you format it in it's own filesystem, you have no control over it's settings when it does that.

I'm.... kinda confused what you're saying to be honest.

When you say it takes up more space than expected. Can you give examples

jellybeangreen2 · Dec 3, 2021

also, show me the total size / files and folders on the 1TB

Ustrel · Dec 30, 2021

Its true, i have the same issue, i tried to transfer 280gb of games to my 320gb hdd which has 297gb of usable space but when i try to copy/move, it says you need at least 377gb of free space to transfer 280gb of files. Like, what is the point?

Sypherone · Dec 30, 2021

If copying the Games on the WiiU from one drive to another dont work, try it on Pc with some tool. Maybe the Wiibackupmanager can solve it. http://www.wiibackupmanager.co.uk/

Trying to copy my HDD to a Flashdrive, more than twice the free space needed?

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