Hacking Mounting and using a WiiU-formatted external USB drive on computer

[doxnal]

Hi all,

I'm using Linux. I have an external hard drive that is used with the Wii U. I want to mount this drive on my computer and poke around in the filesystem, ideally identifying some save files and making copies of them. Is there any way to do this now?

Here's what I've found so far in my research. Getting a copy of the save is hypothetically possible through Saveiine, but I'm on 5.5.0 and I'm not really interested in installing exploits on the Wii U itself. I just want to get the data off the drive.

What's the status on cold reading external Wii U formatted drives? I understand that the disk is encrypted and the system probably unlocks the encrypted partition at boot time, so it's possible the data has to be read out of a live system (the way Saveiine does it). Is there a way to dump the system's storage keys yet? Has anyone reversed-engineered the unusual, partition tableless disk format that the Wii U uses?

I see there is a FUSE-based filesystem driver for the Wii and GameCube called wfuse. It doesn't seem to mention any support for the Wii U and hasn't been updated for almost a year now. Have sufficient discoveries been made to know if it's feasible to add Wii U support? It'd be a project I'd like to play with if the encryption is no longer a barrier (keys can be obtained) and some basic information about the disk format is available.

Thanks for help all. Apologies for asking any ignorant questions. I reviewed the threads I could find that seemed relevant.

 

[hashcheck1]

I too would like info on this.. also can we just use dd the drive to make a raw backup also? Worried drive will fail at some stage and I'll have to download all games again

 

[doxnal]

I too would like info on this.. also can we just use dd the drive to make a raw backup also? Worried drive will fail at some stage and I'll have to download all games again

When I used a small USB stick as my USB device, I was able to take a raw block copy and restore it with dd. I did this routinely. dd works just as it'd be expected to, given that it takes a raw bit-for-bit copy of the block device. I think you'd need special hardware (or at least special firmware on the disk device itself) to effectively block a dd copy, not something you can do at the partition or filesystem level.

 

[Daimakaimura]

sorry to revive this dead thread.

I have a problem with my not recognisable drive. (it's a 256 gig flashstick)
the wiiu Stopped recognizing it after some time, i think after i filled it up to much with data.

Can i rawcopy it on PC then format the Usb flashdrive and restore this data?
since i copied all my safefiles on this flashdrive and actually lost all of it at this moment.

How can i solve this?

Cheers
R

 

[KevinLSX]

sorry to revive this dead thread.

I have a problem with my not recognisable drive. (it's a 256 gig flashstick)
the wiiu Stopped recognizing it after some time, i think after i filled it up to much with data.

Can i rawcopy it on PC then format the Usb flashdrive and restore this data?
since i copied all my safefiles on this flashdrive and actually lost all of it at this moment.

How can i solve this?

Cheers
R

drive corrupted. never use a flashdrive for the wiiu. You need a hdd.

 

[Daimakaimura]

i know.
and also used a Y-cable to see if that is possible.
When i plug it in the Pc it want to format it.

What could i do to fix it?
to get my data back

 

[Cyan]

you can try to mount your hdd/flash drive on computer using this :
https://gbatemp.net/threads/wfsdump-pc-util-for-dumping-wfs-devices-wiiu-file-system.478480/

it also answers the first post's request, even if old, it's now available as WFS fuse.