Hacking cloning wii U USB HDD?

[Sumea]

So, if I want to help my friend I can move my games from my HDD to his HDD and then installing all the games again in my HDD right?

I think, not, I think the data is console specific and it would not show anything in your friend's console...

 

[stooged]

maybe try parted magic https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parted_Magic

works on other gaming console hdds

 

[msaraiva]

not sure that evven using the same drive will even work because from what i remember the wiiu saves the UUID of the hard drive along with serial number and some other stuff as well as pair it with your NNID. the UUID of every hard drive is different upon format so im doubtful...

UUID is linked to the filesystem, not the drive.

To OP: Use dd or any other cloning tool that does RAW copy. Acronis used to have this, not sure about the latest version.

Forgot to add that you need a drive with equal size. Bigger also works, but since the partition can't be resized, you won't be able to use the additional space.

 

[the_randomizer]

Would it even detect the weird filesystem it uses?

 

[Garro]

I have used Image Writer several times to backup and restore a small flashdrive I was using on my WiiU that got corrupted two years ago (every game was there, but loading a few ones would throw a "There's a problem with the USB drive" error, same happened if I tried to go to data management so I couldn't delete the games either), I made an image of that flashdrive and used it for whatever else (I tested back then if the image would work, and it did), and now since a few days ago CFW Booter was released along with the tools to mount system and usb partitions, I restored my image to the flashdrive and the flash drive was working just like when I made the image (with the same corruption issues of course). I used the WUP server and managed to retrieve a few save files that weren't corrupted and injected them to my actual hard drive.

 

[plyscho]

I've just tried to clone a 128 GB USB stick to a 1 TB harddisk, via raw copy.

Result: the target disk was not recognized by the Wii U. I expected to see either a 128 GB partition or maybe 1 TB, depending on how the Wii U handles the partition size. Maybe it does somehow store to which physical medium the partition belongs.

Anyhow, I'm gonna move 120 GB now, using the Wii U storage settings menu. :/

 

[apachehavok]

This WILL NOT WORK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I threw up a PSA about this last week. The WiiU locks the Drive AND the controller. The ONLY way to clone a drive and still have a it work on the same WiiU is to use the built in wii software

- Shut down WiiU
- plug in new HDD and format it
- THEN plug in original drive
- WiiU will kick you to the drive storage menu
- Copy ALL from the source to the new drive.

900GB took about 2.5 days. Leave it on for a weekend. Go outside

 

[plyscho]

This WILL NOT WORK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I threw up a PSA about this last week. The WiiU locks the Drive AND the controller. The ONLY way to clone a drive and still have a it work on the same WiiU is to use the built in wii software

- Shut down WiiU
- plug in new HDD and format it
- THEN plug in original drive
- WiiU will kick you to the drive storage menu
- Copy ALL from the source to the new drive.

900GB took about 2.5 days. Leave it on for a weekend. Go outside

The drive/controller thing explains a lot. Do you know where the info is stored, on the NAND or on the USB file system?

Thanks for the explanation, that's actually what I ended up doing. Not unexpected, but I had to try the cloning idea before. (Moving 120GB actually took a little more than 3 hours.)

 

[Ape8000]

Personally I would just back everything up in WUP format. Keep a couple of fast SD cards around. When you need to restore. Fill up the first SD card, start installing on the Wii U, as that installs, start filling the second SD.

Way faster then a Wii U copy. And more future proof. Maybe a future CFW will work on FAT32.

This also allows you to have backups if the Wii U catches fire and dies.

 

[naddel81]

can someone please explain in simple language why the cloning won't work here?
and by the way: what is a "PSA"?

best wishes

 

[driverdis]

can someone please explain in simple language why the cloning won't work here?
and by the way: what is a "PSA"?

best wishes

"PSA" Public Service Announcement

 

[naddel81]

thanks. now I just need to know why cloning won't work here. cloning never failed me regardless of the filesystem or the OS I was using. but here it just did not work. why?

 

[driverdis]

thanks. now I just need to know why cloning won't work here. cloning never failed me regardless of the filesystem or the OS I was using. but here it just did not work. why?

The Wii U stores extra details about the drive that it formatted somewhere, and can detect that the actual drive is different from the one it originally formatted. If you have 2 exact model drives, cloning would most likely work.

 

[naddel81]

ok, so for example: it reads the drives serial number and can tell that there is a different drive (even with same content) and refuse to load it up?

 

[apachehavok]

ok, so for example: it reads the drives serial number and can tell that there is a different drive (even with same content) and refuse to load it up?

AND the USB controller info. You can take a hard drive and have it work in the WiiU. Then take this EXACT same drive and put it in a different enclosure and the WiiU WILL NOT READ THE DRIVE.

You can clone a drive all you want but the WiiU uses a proprietary eCON encryption on the drive. It takes the drives firmware, serial, partition data AND usb interface into account. It is very similar to how feature film studios lock their USB drives. Even if you take the drive out of the enclosure, it will NOT be read in anything other then that specific USB enclosure AND the original mobo of the PC it was locked too.

Same thing for the WiiU. I personally have it backed up to a spindle of blu ray disks and a few working SD cards on stand by for if the HDD ever dies. That's your best bet.

 

[driverdis]

ok, so for example: it reads the drives serial number and can tell that there is a different drive (even with same content) and refuse to load it up?

It could be using any combination of things from the serial number to the exact sector size of the drive used. using the serial number would break cloning all together.

 

[naddel81]

AND the USB controller info. You can take a hard drive and have it work in the WiiU. Then take this EXACT same drive and put it in a different enclosure and the WiiU WILL NOT READ THE DRIVE.

You can clone a drive all you want but the WiiU uses a proprietary eCON encryption on the drive. It takes the drives firmware, serial, partition data AND usb interface into account. It is very similar to how feature film studios lock their USB drives. Even if you take the drive out of the enclosure, it will NOT be read in anything other then that specific USB enclosure AND the original mobo of the PC it was locked too.

Same thing for the WiiU. I personally have it backed up to a spindle of blu ray disks and a few working SD cards on stand by for if the HDD ever dies. That's your best bet.

Thanks for letting us know. I copied all the data via Wii u data management to a different spare HDD that I can use just in case the original HDD dies. but when the Wii U dies, I am screwed! (OK, have my install files on a separate drive aswell). man, so many backups...

 

[Don Jon]

this method assumes the wii u can read usb files when the usb is formatted for wii u
1. compile wup installer to work from usb instead of sd access using rednand(dev would need to do this)
2. run wup installer from new wii u to install from 1 hdd with encripted games to install to other hdd

 

[JimmyZ]

I just back up saves using saviine.

 

[ratmandom]

I just back up saves using saviine.

is saviine easy to use ?

it makes me wonder what is going on in the wii u box like how hard would it be to make a nand flasher and stuff like that. people say it is dead. the wii had more going on with it from what I see in that scene.