Hacking Is there a way to play Wii U games without having to put them on a SD card ?

Gammazeth

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Hey, I would like to know if there's a way to install Wii U games without having to put them into a SD card ? Mine has only 2 GB of storage and I would like to know if you can put the games directly on the HDD and install them to the console internal storage or just launch them. I ask for something similar to the process used to play Wii games (you don't need to put them on your sd card).
 

Shadow#1

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Hey, I would like to know if there's a way to install Wii U games without having to put them into a SD card ? Mine has only 2 GB of storage and I would like to know if you can put the games directly on the HDD and install them to the console internal storage or just launch them. I ask for something similar to the process used to play Wii games (you don't need to put them on your sd card).
Over WiFi just remember it will be slow af
 

Wuigi

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@Gammazeth It is possible to copy the extracted install files to an HDD using wfs-file-injector, but some files will be missing like tickets and the internal structure is tricky so I don't think this would work and trying to get it working might lead to a brick.
I once bricked my 3DS when the ticketdb was deleted by the untested function of Roxas95 in his CFW to replace ticketdb files when the names didn't match but it still removed it first before looking for the file existing.
So it is really dangerous to mess with installed tickets without a tool that has the security checks to prevent bricks.
SD cards are really cheap, so it is easier to just spend 10$ once.
 
Last edited by Wuigi,

HRudyPlayZ

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Hey, I would like to know if there's a way to install Wii U games without having to put them into a SD card ? Mine has only 2 GB of storage and I would like to know if you can put the games directly on the HDD and install them to the console internal storage or just launch them. I ask for something similar to the process used to play Wii games (you don't need to put them on your sd card).

You can install games on your HDD, keep in mind it will be formatted in a WiiU specific format and you won't be able to use it for anything else (not even Wii games as those use a Fat32 drive, you can use UStealth to be able to use 2 drives on your WiiU, one for WiiU and one for vWii).

You can install games on the SDCard with Loadiine (WiiU) or WiiFlow (vWii).

If you talk about transfering your games to your HDD without using your SDCard, you can't, but you can FTP to your SDCard (pretty slow as said above). Keep in mind that SDCard's prices are very low now (you can find 128GB sdcards for around 20€), so i would recommend you to get a bigger one.

EDIT: It is technically possible to use Mocha-Fat32Support to use a secondary HDD as a temporary SDCard... I haven't tried it and i wouldn't still recommend it as sdcards are cheap now.
 
Last edited by HRudyPlayZ,

Gammazeth

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Over WiFi just remember it will be slow af
can you please tell me how to do so ?

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

@Gammazeth It is possible to copy the extracted install files to an HDD using wfs-file-injector, but some files will be missing like tickets and the internal structure is tricky so I don't think this would work and trying to get it working might lead to a brick.
I once bricked my 3DS when the ticketdb was deleted by the untested function of Roxas95 in his CFW to replace ticketdb files when the names didn't match but it still removed it first before looking for the file existing.
So it is really dangerous to mess with installed ticket without a tool that has the security checks to prevent bricks.
SD cards are really cheap, so it is easier to just spend 10$ once.
Is there still a chance to make this work ?
 

Gammazeth

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You can install games on your HDD, keep in mind it will be formatted in a WiiU specific format and you won't be able to use it for anything else (not even Wii games as those use a Fat32 drive, you can use UStealth to be able to use 2 drives on your WiiU, one for WiiU and one for vWii).

You can install games on the SDCard with Loadiine (WiiU) or WiiFlow (vWii).

If you talk about transfering your games to your HDD without using your SDCard, you can't, but you can FTP to your SDCard (pretty slow as said above). Keep in mind that SDCard's prices are very low now (you can find 128GB sdcards for around 20€), so i would recommend you to get a bigger one.
Yes I was talking about transferring the files without having to use the SD since mine is only 2 GB. I can't buy one now because I already plan to buy one for my switch so I guess I'll have to wait with the Wii games :/

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

WiiU USB Helper transfers file to your SDCard via FTP. So it's not the possible unless you do what i made in the edit on my reply...
have you tried that method ?
 

Wuigi

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@Gammazeth The post I linked has some details of the ticket structure of the wiiu, but wiiubrew probably has more info on it.
You should format your switch SD to FAT32 to prevent file corruption.
As this is also the format needed by the wii sd installer, you could use it for installing the files to the HDD and remove the files afterwards.
 

HRudyPlayZ

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Yes I was talking about transferring the files without having to use the SD since mine is only 2 GB. I can't buy one now because I already plan to buy one for my switch so I guess I'll have to wait with the Wii games :/

You can't tell me you don't have a spare 10€/$ to spend... even if you buy one for the Switch... (Makes me think i should buy a lot of 200GB microsdcards)

You can try using Mocha-FAT32 but you will need 2 hdd's and you would be the first to try that.

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

have you tried that method ?
It will still temporarily stock files on your SDCard to install them to your HDD so your problem isn't solved.
 
Last edited by HRudyPlayZ,

Gammazeth

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Ok, I'll consider buying one SD card, tho can I just buy one with 16 GB, install the games on the HDD and then remove the files from the SD card so I can install game by game without having to buy one crazy 256 GB only for the Wii U?
 

HRudyPlayZ

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Basically,
if you still want to try the Mocha-FAT32 method, you just have to try that:
  • Download Mocha-FAT32 and set it up properly (maybe using CFW Booter, Haxchi or CBHC [DO NOT CHANGE THE DEFAULT, Just use the menu when you press HOME])
  • Have your 1st HDD formatted as the WiiU format (it will belongs to the WiiU, you can't use it with anything else) and a 2nd HDD formatted as Fat32.
  • Transfer your games to the 2nd drive and install them to your 1st drive using WUP Installer GX2.
  • Reboot to your original CFW.

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

Ok, I'll consider buying one SD card, tho can I just buy one with 16 GB, install the games on the HDD and then remove the files from the SD card so I can install game by game without having to buy one crazy 256 GB only for the Wii U?
Yes, you can remove the install files afterwards as they are unnecessary to keep on the SDCard. I wouldn't recommend a 16GB though as some WiiU games can be around 20-32GBs, i would recommend a 64GB for around 10€.
 

Gammazeth

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Basically,
if you still want to try the Mocha-FAT32 method, you just have to try that:
  • Download Mocha-FAT32 and set it up properly (maybe using CFW Booter, Haxchi or CBHC [DO NOT CHANGE THE DEFAULT, Just use the menu when you press HOME])
  • Have your 1st HDD formatted as the WiiU format (it will belongs to the WiiU, you can't use it with anything else) and a 2nd HDD formatted as Fat32.
  • Transfer your games to the 2nd drive and install them to your 1st drive using WUP Installer GX2.
  • Reboot to your original CFW.

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------


Yes, you can remove the install files afterwards as they are unnecessary to keep on the SDCard. I wouldn't recommend a 16GB though as some WiiU games can be around 20-32GBs, i would recommend a 64GB for around 10€.
I haven't paid for a DS game so I don't know if this is possible
 

HRudyPlayZ

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I haven't paid for a DS game so I don't know if this is possible
Use CFWBooter and boot Mocha32 as you would with the normal MochaCFW. I would recommend to get Haxchi though (i can understand if you don't enable CBHC if you're scared to mess it up) as it is only 5€ for Dr Kawashima Brain Training.

If you're using Loadiine to access your Wii U games and you don't have a CFW availlable, you can't use an HDD.
 

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