Hacking Ruined USB drive with CBHC 1.6

turnandpull

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Hello all.

Have a soft-modded WiiU that boots with ColdBoot HaxChi v1.6 using DS Title 101C3400, Super Mario 64 DS. That DS title lived on the external USB drive that I just screwed up by allowing Windows Disk Manager to write a GPT to it like a dolt. Now connecting the drive to the WiiU only results in the option to format it.

Question is: what's the best way to get back to modded operational from here? Should I let the WiiU format the drive clean; download all of my eshop purchases; and run the softmod process again? Or is there a better way?

Thanks
 

The Real Jdbye

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Hello all.

Have a soft-modded WiiU that boots with ColdBoot HaxChi v1.6 using DS Title 101C3400, Super Mario 64 DS. That DS title lived on the external USB drive that I just screwed up by allowing Windows Disk Manager to write a GPT to it like a dolt. Now connecting the drive to the WiiU only results in the option to format it.

Question is: what's the best way to get back to modded operational from here? Should I let the WiiU format the drive clean; download all of my eshop purchases; and run the softmod process again? Or is there a better way?

Thanks
Didn't you read all the warnings saying to never ever put the CBHC title on USB?
How are you still able to boot the Wii U? You should be bricked right now.
Anyway, you can't get the data on the drive back, it's not in a format any data recovery software can recognize, so your only option is to format it on the Wii U and reinstall your games.
 
Last edited by The Real Jdbye,

godreborn

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your cbhc game was probably on the nand. anyway, there may be a way to fix it, but it involves cloning the drive and rewriting the first sector. that's only if you initialized the disk. this method works with the ps3. if you reformatted it, I think everything has been lost including saves. iirc, saves are in the usr folder on usb if the game is on usb. your only option might be to have the wii u format the drive. I accidentally did this once. I got all my saves back except mario 64. I got all 120 stars too, and it was brutally difficult. what I did was just injected a 120 star save, so I wouldn't have to do it again. all other games and saves were redone.
 

Lacius

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Hello all.

Have a soft-modded WiiU that boots with ColdBoot HaxChi v1.6 using DS Title 101C3400, Super Mario 64 DS. That DS title lived on the external USB drive that I just screwed up by allowing Windows Disk Manager to write a GPT to it like a dolt. Now connecting the drive to the WiiU only results in the option to format it.

Question is: what's the best way to get back to modded operational from here? Should I let the WiiU format the drive clean; download all of my eshop purchases; and run the softmod process again? Or is there a better way?

Thanks
If you're still able to boot the system with CBHC installed, then the DS game is still somewhere on the NAND, which is where it should be.
 
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turnandpull

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I figured out what I was misinterpreting... the DS title was renamed to "DONT TOUCH ME" and IS still on the NAND! (It's been a long time since I did the modding!)

So I think I had it set up to autoboot to Mocha CFW; and when I started the system without my fubar-d USB drive I no longer saw the titles I downloaded to the SD card and assumed that the HaxChi was messed up; but I guess it just doesn't autoboot to the Mocha CFW anymore and when I try to launch it from the homebrew channel it just fades back to the HBC.

So I guess screwing up the USB drive means I only need to reformat it to re-download my eshop purchases and I just need to figure out why the Mocha CFW stopped working; maybe by redownloading it from the Homebrew Appstore?
 

The Real Jdbye

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I figured out what I was misinterpreting... the DS title was renamed to "DONT TOUCH ME" and IS still on the NAND! (It's been a long time since I did the modding!)

So I think I had it set up to autoboot to Mocha CFW; and when I started the system without my fubar-d USB drive I no longer saw the titles I downloaded to the SD card and assumed that the HaxChi was messed up; but I guess it just doesn't autoboot to the Mocha CFW anymore and when I try to launch it from the homebrew channel it just fades back to the HBC.

So I guess screwing up the USB drive means I only need to reformat it to re-download my eshop purchases and I just need to figure out why the Mocha CFW stopped working; maybe by redownloading it from the Homebrew Appstore?
You don't need Mocha CFW, you can use Haxchi's built in CFW which works just the same, boots faster, and has some added protection against messing up the DS title and bricking your console.
 

turnandpull

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your cbhc game was probably on the nand. anyway, there may be a way to fix it, but it involves cloning the drive and rewriting the first sector. that's only if you initialized the disk. this method works with the ps3. if you reformatted it, I think everything has been lost including saves. iirc, saves are in the usr folder on usb if the game is on usb. your only option might be to have the wii u format the drive. I accidentally did this once. I got all my saves back except mario 64. I got all 120 stars too, and it was brutally difficult. what I did was just injected a 120 star save, so I wouldn't have to do it again. all other games and saves were redone.

I'm curious to try this process... I haven't re-formated the drive yet. The drive was working perfect with the WiiU and when I turned it on the first time in ages and didn't see my SD card applications I immediately assumed there was something wrong with the Disk drive. (Now I understand that everything was fine... I just needed to troubleshoot whay it wasn't auto booting to the Mocha CFW and not pull the drive like a jackass!) I plugged it into a Windows 10 machine and loaded the Disk management app, and it said to read the disk it required a MBR or GPT; in a moment of madness that I immediately regretted I selected the GPT option and the WiiU never could see it after. So is that what you mean by "just initializing" the disk? In that case I think I'm good.

Do you have a recommendation for software and procedure for "cloning and rewriting the first sector?"
 

godreborn

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you can initialize the drive without formatting. if you formatted, the data is probably gone. the reason mocha wasn't loading up is probably because you removed the sd card. mocha is on there, not usb unless it's a forwarder.
 

turnandpull

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You don't need Mocha CFW, you can use Haxchi's built in CFW which works just the same, boots faster, and has some added protection against messing up the DS title and bricking your console.

Ok, so when I turn on the WiiU, I get the CBHC v1.6 by FIX94 (DS Title 101C3400) Autobooting... Then when the system menu loads I have only the NAND official Nintendo purchases that I made on the homescreen, and empty spaces where I had icons for the items on the SD card. It functions as a virginal unmodded system except for the "Dont Touch Me" icon that was Mario 64 DS.

Am I missing a step where I have to load the Haxchi built in CFW to see the SD titles (which are correctly loaded and inserted into the machine)? Or does this sound like and SD card problem?
 

The Real Jdbye

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Ok, so when I turn on the WiiU, I get the CBHC v1.6 by FIX94 (DS Title 101C3400) Autobooting... Then when the system menu loads I have only the NAND official Nintendo purchases that I made on the homescreen, and empty spaces where I had icons for the items on the SD card. It functions as a virginal unmodded system except for the "Dont Touch Me" icon that was Mario 64 DS.

Am I missing a step where I have to load the Haxchi built in CFW to see the SD titles (which are correctly loaded and inserted into the machine)? Or does this sound like and SD card problem?
You can hold the Home button when that screen appears to change what autoboots.
 
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godreborn

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games are not stored on the sd card unless using loadiine. the problem is you formatted the external hdd. games would've been on there. unlike the 3ds, games appear even without tickets, but they won't appear if the drive is unplugged or formatted. it uses the meta folder as part of the indexing procedure, so it won't scan it if it's nonexistent. that's why you can freely change game names, icons, backgrounds, boot sounds, etc. without reinstalling the content or loading it like the ps3, which updates in either case. it may be due to the fact that you can't just rebuild the indexing database like the ps3. you've gotta be extra careful with the wii u.
 

turnandpull

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games are not stored on the sd card unless using loadiine. the problem is you formatted the external hdd. games would've been on there. unlike the 3ds, games appear even without tickets, but they won't appear if the drive is unplugged or formatted. it uses the meta folder as part of the indexing procedure, so it won't scan it if it's nonexistent. that's why you can freely change game names, icons, backgrounds, boot sounds, etc. without reinstalling the content or loading it like the ps3, which updates in either case. it may be due to the fact that you can't just rebuild the indexing database like the ps3. you've gotta be extra careful with the wii u.

Ok, I'm catching on. So I didn't format the drive; it shows in Disk Management in Windows 10 as "Unallocated". Is there a way to rewrite the first sector to make the WiiU see it again? Or maybe deleting the GPT I created? Just want to make sure I'm humped before allowing the WiiU to reformat and start from scratch.
 

godreborn

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I think there's a way, but it's kinda complicated. I don't know the specifics as I've only seen it on the ps3 (3141card knows how to do it (at least with early slims and phats or systems that can use cfw)). I don't know if it works on the wii u, but essentially you clone the drive, then replace the first sector with one from the wii u.
 

The Real Jdbye

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Ok, I'm catching on. So I didn't format the drive; it shows in Disk Management in Windows 10 as "Unallocated". Is there a way to rewrite the first sector to make the WiiU see it again? Or maybe deleting the GPT I created? Just want to make sure I'm humped before allowing the WiiU to reformat and start from scratch.
You could try cloning the first sector of an identically sized (Wii U formatted) drive.
I'm not sure if the encryption is tied to the drive though, but some earlier posts said that simply cloning drive A to drive B didn't work, so it seems like it might be. If that's the case, you'll have to image the drive, reformat it on the Wii U, backup the first sector, restore your image and then restore the backed up sector.
I don't think the encryption changes when it's reformatted, at least, but I'm not 100% sure.
 
Last edited by The Real Jdbye,

godreborn

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unallocated is a good sign. that means that the system hasn't been formatted yet. however, the fact that it shows up probably means it's been initialized. the first sector replacement may be your only option (if it even works). I think you have to clone the drive as well, which is what you have to do with the ps3.

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

I found a post where someone successfully fixed an initialized ps3 hdd:

https://www.psx-place.com/threads/solved-ps3-hdd-accidentally-converted-to-gpt-disk.22983/

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

you may need otp.bin and seeprom, but I'm not sure.
 

The Real Jdbye

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unallocated is a good sign. that means that the system hasn't been formatted yet. however, the fact that it shows up probably means it's been initialized. the first sector replacement may be your only option (if it even works). I think you have to clone the drive as well, which is what you have to do with the ps3.

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

I found a post where someone successfully fixed an initialized ps3 hdd:

https://www.psx-place.com/threads/solved-ps3-hdd-accidentally-converted-to-gpt-disk.22983/

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

you may need otp.bin and seeprom, but I'm not sure.
He shouldn't, since he won't be touching the files, so no decryption is necessary.
 
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turnandpull

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...you'll have to image the drive, reformat it on the Wii U, backup the first sector, restore your image and then restore the backed up sector.
I don't think the encryption changes when it's reformatted, at least, but I'm not 100% sure.

This is a great start. I'll start reading up on it in the AM along with u/Godreborn 's link above and come back to report my success or failure.

Thanks for all the knowledge. I always try to learn what I'm doing in modding before pulling the trigger... but then years go by and the device is like an alien to me now and I have no clue what I did in the past!
 
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