Hacking replacing hdd for flash drive

Gh0sti

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Was wondering if a 256gb flash drive can replace my external hdd and work the same as a backuploader if i partition the flash drive similar to the hdd I have. My HDD is probably going to go bad and I just wanted to back it up and replace it with something new.

What do you guys think?
 

GreyWolf

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Flash drives are not meant to be constantly written/read from.

This a reason for them dying. Running an OS from a flash drive for very long will kill it, too.

I'm not completely sure why they don't work before they wear out. There's probably something missing in the IOS USB stack.

IOS 59 apparently works with flash drives because the one game that uses it (Dragon Quest X) came with one. However, since it was originally only available on the game disc and not NUS nobody ever explored using it for backups much.
 

YOUCANTSTOPME

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What's this nonsense about flash drives not working with the Wii? If you have a good quality flash drive, you're fine (tested it, many times). Flash drives (media in general) degrades if you write to it constantly. But reading backups should be fine. We're not running an OS off of it - the OS is installed inside the Wii on (you guessed it!) flash memory.

Have you done any testing on your HD? What leads you to believe it's going? Use a program such as HD Tune and do a Full Error Scan, check to see if there's any red blocks.

Edit: sidenote, Do NOT buy any flash drives off eBay for dirt cheap. Unfortunately, they are low quality and often fake.
 
Last edited by YOUCANTSTOPME,

GreyWolf

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What's this nonsense about flash drives not working with the Wii? If you have a good quality flash drive, you're fine (tested it, many times). Flash drives (media in general) degrades if you write to it constantly. But reading backups should be fine. We're not running an OS off of it - the OS is installed inside the Wii on (you guessed it!) flash memory.

Try looking at the last month alone's newbie posts and tell me they work fine. Anecdotes about finding one that does work aren't helpful.
 

YOUCANTSTOPME

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Try looking at the last month alone's newbie posts and tell me they work fine. Anecdotes about finding one that does work aren't helpful.

I mean if that's what we're going by, I'm sure I could find many posts with people with issues with their hard drives too. Should we just say that hard drives aren't good with the Wii as well? I could consider those forums posts you mention to be anecdotes as well. I'm just saying.
 

GreyWolf

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I mean if that's what we're going by, I'm sure I could find many posts with people with issues with their hard drives too. Should we just say that hard drives aren't good with the Wii as well? I could consider those forums posts you mention to be anecdotes as well. I'm just saying.

Hypotheticals don't help with his question, either.

He asked if he should use a flash drive instead of a HDD. The answer is no, it's not worth the trouble of finding one that may work only to fail randomly in a few days.
 

YOUCANTSTOPME

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Hypotheticals don't help with his question, either.

He asked if he should use a flash drive instead of a HDD. The answer is no, it's not worth the trouble of finding one that may work only to fail randomly in a few days.

If you use GOOD QUALITY media, you're fine. Flash memory is designed to be used. It's not meant to be a paperweight.

If you use bad flash media from eBay, you're not fine.

The problem is with the media. Not the Wii "killing" it.

Edit:

This is how I envision it goes:

Timmy goes on eBay, sees a 256gb USB for $20 shipped, when they sell in-store for something like $80 + tax.

"Oh wow, what a deal! Let's order this!"

A couple weeks later the USB arrives. He's like a kid on Christmas when it comes, he just can't believe the deal he got! It was a steal!!

He sets up all of his pirated ISOs and games on the USB. Connects it to the Wii. What a dream!

Then, days later, it fails. He goes on the forums to ask "what happened to my brand new USB? It was working and I used it on my Wii and now it's dead!"

The conclusion: "Wiis are killing flash drives!! They are clearly incompatible! I mean, just look at what happened to this guy's USB drive! It was working fine, and now it's not!!"

Reality: the USB drive was a piece of junk destined to fail.

Moral of the story: buy good quality memory from the store.
 
Last edited by YOUCANTSTOPME,

GreyWolf

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I can't stop you from giving bad advice. I hope the OP doesn't follow it and waste his money. I think we're done.
 

Cyan

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it isn't a bad advice if shops are advertising their product as bad, or else how would the buyer know which one is good or bad?
"if you want a good flash, buy a good one !" yeahh, best advice ever.


Your answer is half good and biased. Of course working flash will work fine, and non compatible one will not work fine. The problem is not telling him that working flash will work, but telling him WHICH flash he should use, and of course based on the last month amount of users with a problem you can feel that majority of devices are bad. It would be HARD to buy a good quality on first try.


The first answer he got was the best he could get : Flash drives generally work poorly if at all
 
Last edited by Cyan,

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