Hacking Can Wii damage our hard disk drives ?!

[unicode2CP]

I noticed that my hard disk drive makes one short and not too loud buzzy sound after turning my Wii off. On PC that sound doesn't appears when using "safely remove hardware" option in Windows or after turning my PC off with connected HDD.

I think that Wii when turning off makes the same thing such as unplugging HDD's cable from USB port on PC without "safely remove hardware" option (which is considered as dangerous for disk).

I want to mention that I don't have any problems with functionality of my HDD on PC or Wii, it also works perfect with USB Loader, but I'm a lil' bit concerned because of that buzzy sound that only happens when turning Wii off.


Does anybody else have the same or similar case?

What are you think about my thoughts?

 

[WiiMonkey]

I wouldnt think so because in windows it is setup for quick removal so you can just whip it out without using safely remove hardware

 

[Golfman560]

Better drives that take power from something other than the USB drive don't have problems with this, however you can set an removable USB device to be able to be pulled out without doing the safely remove hardware thing, and it sticks if you move to other computers, so it would stick if you move to a Wii. I forget how to do it however since I don't have my USB drive around.

I wouldnt think so because in windows it is setup for quick removal so you can just whip it out without using safely remove hardware

Bah beat me to it.

 

[Davedom]

Nope no such problem for me..... unless you unplug the drive while it is actually being used their should be no problem and i've even had that happen where the power cable unpluged and everything is fine

i wouldn't worry about it

 

[Deleted User]

Did you return to the Wii Menu before switching it off? Mine makes that noise (if it's what I think it is) when turning the Wii off while being in a game.

 

[Cyman]

I guess then hard drives would be damaged in huge quantities if you think about a blackout or short circuit. I think this happens very often, every day and yet I never heard about hard drives not working anymore after a blackout. Or how about your PC freezing and having to be rebooted by pushing the power button/resetting. I never heard that this caused a hard drive to not work afterwards (unless the hard drive was the actual source of the problem).

 

[unicode2CP]

@ Takeshi

Yes, I always return to the Wii Menu before switching Wii off.

 

[spotanjo3]

No problem for me. I always return to the Wii Menu Screen before switching Wii power off.. I don't mean stand by as yellow blinking. I mean red. No problem for me.

 

[FenrirWolf]

The "safely remove" feature is a Windows thing and has to do with what's called write caching (which can be disabled so you don't need to safely remove in Windows). Since the Wii probably doesn't have write caching there's no need for a safely remove feature. Just return to the Wii Menu before shutting off and you should be fine.

 

[Jdbye]

I sometimes safely remove my HDD, sometimes not. It always fails to safely remove anyway, and it's not like I'm gonna wait for it to work. I don't have time for that.

Nothing bad has happened, and the worst thing which could happen anyway is that the filesystem gets corrupted and you have to put the ISOs on again. Even that will definitely not happen on the Wii since it doesn't write anything to the HDD.

 

[ringorinfret]

The "safely remove" feature is a Windows thing and has to do with what's called write caching (which can be disabled so you don't need to safely remove in Windows). Since the Wii probably doesn't have write caching there's no need for a safely remove feature. Just return to the Wii Menu before shutting off and you should be fine.

you are right...and as far as i know, unless you are dumping a wii game from your wii to the hdd, nothing else is being written on the hdd as the hdd replaces the DVD...the wii doesnt write on the DVD so it shouldnt write to the HDD, just my thoughts

thanks

 

[EGOvoruhk]

The Wii isn't writing to the HDD when playing a game, so it doesn't matter. Just don't unplug it when install a game

 

[Digital1980]

Of course not silly head.

 

[unicode2CP]

Ok, but what about that buzzy sound that happens only when turning Wii off, it doesn't happens on PC?

 

[FenrirWolf]

That's the drive spinning to a stop. It does that when you unplug it from a computer as well.

 

[Cypherdias]

The drive can't be damaged by plugging in and out of an USB port. What MAY happen if you don't safe-remove it is, that the file system gets corrupted and you're loosing some recently changed or even all files on it (happened to me once with an USB flash drive). Since this only happens when using write-cache or currently writing in general, and the Wii doesn't use the write cache as far as I know, it's always save to remove the drive while you're not dumping a game on it in the same moment.

In other situations, like playing games on it, there is nothing written to the drive, so no danger to damage the file system at all.

The same with connecting the drive to a PC: Just make sure all copying ON the drive is completed before removing, and everything is fine. I generally think the wbfs file system to be so simple, you don't have to fear the drive-disconnection at all. It's rather hard to damage something on it. I wouldn't disconnect while dumping something on it though.

 

[jalaneme]

i don't even use that feature in windows and my hard drives are fine, i just take out the usb and switch the hard drive off when i am done, i don't think you will get any damage from turning off the hard drive on the wii, the sound you are hearing is the hard drive parts moving, nothing out of the ordinary.

 

[unicode2CP]

That's the drive spinning to a stop. It does that when you unplug it from a computer as well.

Nope, it doesn't make that sound on PC, even if I pull the usb cable out of port without "safely remove hardware" option. I also think that this sound probably makes disk spinning stop, but I don't understand why this happens only on Wii?

 

[unicode2CP]

Nope, it doesn't make that sound on PC, even if I pull the usb cable out of port without "safely remove hardware" option. I also think that this sound probably makes disk spinning stop, but I don't understand why this happens only on Wii?

Sorry guys, I was wrong. It is possible to reproduce that buzzy sound on PC also if I unplug the usb cable from port without "Safely remove hardware" option. First time when I was do that somehow I didn't noticed that sound and I was think that it doesn't happens on PC, but today I repeat the same thing and buzzy sound happens every time.

So it's obviously that disk spinning stop produces that sound. But also "safely remove hardware" function in Windows probably sends some special command to hard disk drive for slow disk spinning stop. It would be nice that something like this is possible to realize on Wii too.

 

[Shindig]

I actually think this is a valid point.
When using my USB HD on my PC if I safely remove the device the HD will spindown and stop, where as if you just pull the USB cable out its abruptly stops it.

Whether you have such code available for the Wii is beyond me.