Hacking HDD file corruption-how to prevent from happening?

[bluedollarz]

So I was getting wiiflow (abz pack) but somehow in the process my HDD got corrupted forcing me to use minitool recovery and copy files over again. This happened again today. Now I know you're thinking that it has to do with my HDD (it's a 5400rpm 186gb HDD from 7 years ago in an enclosure) but could it be that I'm not ejecting my HDD properly? Should I turn off my Wii or switch off my HDD first? Or is this not normal and I should get a new HDD. Would putting all files on one USB drive help? Sorry if this is stupid post, I waited a long time to get an HDD and I want to pend $50+ on an HDD that I'll only use a quarter of space.

 

[flamepanther]

It would help to know what you were doing before you lost your data. AFAIK, there's no process to "eject" the disk, as nothing should be reading from it or writing to it if you aren't in the middle of an app or a game. Obviously, you shouldn't be just unplugging things in the middle of using the console. But you're not doing that... right?

 

[Lacius]

So I was getting wiiflow (abz pack) but somehow in the process my HDD got corrupted forcing me to use minitool recovery and copy files over again. This happened again today. Now I know you're thinking that it has to do with my HDD (it's a 5400rpm 186gb HDD from 7 years ago in an enclosure)

The average lifespan of an HDD is around 5 years. Based on what you've described, your hard drive is probably beginning to die. If I were you, I'd back up anything important immediately. Unless you're doing something else to your hard drive when it's not connected to the Wii, I doubt it's something else.
http://www.extremetech.com/computing/170748-how-long-do-hard-drives-actually-live-for

but could it be that I'm not ejecting my HDD properly? Should I turn off my Wii or switch off my HDD first?

Turning off your Wii should in no way corrupt your HDD, unless you're actively writing files to your HDD when you turn off your Wii. If you're talking about whether or not you should turn off your Wii while playing a game, watching a movie, etc., you have nothing to worry about.

 

[lwiz]

WBFS partition? If so convert it to FAT32 or NTFS. WBFS tends to corrupt over time and thus other file system is preferred.

 

[flamepanther]

WBFS partition? If so convert it to FAT32 or NTFS. WBFS tends to corrupt over time and thus other file system is preferred.

QFT. Good point.

 

[bluedollarz]

WBFS partition? If so convert it to FAT32 or NTFS. WBFS tends to corrupt over time and thus other file system is preferred.

Nope, it is FAT32. Is NTFS any more stable?

 

[bluedollarz]

The average lifespan of an HDD is around 5 years. Based on what you've described, your hard drive is probably beginning to die. If I were you, I'd back up anything important immediately. Unless you're doing something else to your hard drive when it's not connected to the Wii, I doubt it's something else.
http://www.extremetech.com/computing/170748-how-long-do-hard-drives-actually-live-for


Turning off your Wii should in no way corrupt your HDD, unless you're actively writing files to your HDD when you turn off your Wii. If you're talking about whether or not you should turn off your Wii while playing a game, watching a movie, etc., you have nothing to worry about.

Hmm, OK. Here is how the files looked on the HDD the second time it became corrupted (if it helps any):

It would help to know what you were doing before you lost your data. AFAIK, there's no process to "eject" the disk, as nothing should be reading from it or writing to it if you aren't in the middle of an app or a game. Obviously, you shouldn't be just unplugging things in the middle of using the console. But you're not doing that... right?

 

[TerryG]

I had a similar problem after using Snes9x once. Don't really know if it was a recurring issue because it was a wii I modded for a friend.

 

[lwiz]

Nope, it is FAT32. Is NTFS any more stable?

NTFS is more stable on Windows, but FAT32 is the best bet for modded wii I'd say.

Drives should only get corrupted on writes, so unless you save stuff on USB HD, there should be no need for extra safety on HD removal. On the other hand if you are saving states/saves... on HD you should always allow some time after saving before powering the wii down. Wii emus/loaders might save directly, but drives might have some internal caching before data is actually saved on disk.

There is a possibility drive has reached the end of it's lifespan, but your symptoms look more like regular drive corruption. Some stuff to do try:

• - smartmontools or another s.m.a.r.t. toolkit on computer, it shows if the drive is starting to have issues (it might not work over USB though, so have to connect the drive directly to SATA/PATA on computer on that case)
• - CHKDSK and repair on computer if losing data won't matter anymore

 

[bluedollarz]

NTFS is more stable on Windows, but FAT32 is the best bet for modded wii I'd say.

Drives should only get corrupted on writes, so unless you save stuff on USB HD, there should be no need for extra safety on HD removal. On the other hand if you are saving states/saves... on HD you should always allow some time after saving before powering the wii down. Wii emus/loaders might save directly, but drives might have some internal caching before data is actually saved on disk.

There is a possibility drive has reached the end of it's lifespan, but your symptoms look more like regular drive corruption. Some stuff to do try:

• - smartmontools or another s.m.a.r.t. toolkit on computer, it shows if the drive is starting to have issues (it might not work over USB though, so have to connect the drive directly to SATA/PATA on computer on that case)
• - CHKDSK and repair on computer if losing data won't matter anymore

I just recently got it loading again. I've been only turning my wii off my when I'm on the system menu just to be safe, is this good enough? Im only using a USB drive, no SD, and have my all my save files/states except for my Wii games.

 

[stomp_442]

Drives should only get corrupted on writes,

Just out of being curious, what if a drive only corrupts when it's not being written to, say when you first plug it in or when it first powers up? I wonder because I had a usb thumb drive that would get corrupted at random, but not when it was being written to. I had more than one of these thumb drive and they all did it.