How to install big WiiU games using a FAT32 USB Drive.

FIRST OF ALL!: Please, if this tutorial has been written before, I request the thread to be deleted, thanks!
Also, I'm not responsible if your Wii U explodes with this, or something bad happens, this tutorial has been tested with CoD:Ghosts with its respective DLC and both were perfectly installed and working, I wouldn't be writing this if that weren't be the case... This guide also assumes that you know how to do the Brazilian method to install games and know how WUP Installer works, etc.

Hi to all! Well, I was lurking for some time in the forums, and I found the Brazilian method a long time ago to install the games here, it was great! But the problem was the need to use a SD Card to install them, the biggest SD Card I have is 16GB (14.6GB) so there are some games that would be imposible to install (Examples are Xenoblade Chronicles X or Call Of Duty Ghosts). And as you know CoD:Ghost doesn't has an eShop release, so AFAIK I can't use Wii U USB Helper Tranfer Tool (Not to mention the slower transfer rates using it)

Taking this in mind, let's start!:

Requirements


Well, I will tell you my setup.

  • 500GB WD My Passport 0730 (FAT32 format, single partition of 465GB approximately, here we will store the game to install and the same files as the SD Card, I will explain this in detail later)
  • 160GB Samsung HDD "HM161GI" (This will be the disk that is in Wii U format, is my main disk for the console)
  • 16GB Kingston SDCard, you will need Homebrew Launcher Access and all the setup for apps done, in my case I used Haxchi.
  • 32GB Wii U, this is necessary since the game before being transferred to the formatted HDD needs to be installed into NAND, a 8GB Wii U would not make sense for this trick.
  • Keeping the last requirement in mind, you should try to have almost your internal memory empty, try to move things to your main formatted Wii U hard disk temporarily, Wii U games maximum size is 23.3GB according to WUDs, I don't think there is a Wii U game that exceeds that size.
Of course, you don't need to use exactly the same setup (except for the Wii U part), you can use a SD Card of whethever the capacity you want, the same applies for the HDDs as long as they have enough space, but I write this just in case.
Another thing, use only MBR partition table, GPT will NOT work (I tried with a GPT disk and I lost over 3 hours of my life trying to make it work).

Apps that will be used:
WUP Installer GX2
Homebrew Launcher (I use version 1.4, I know it is outdated, but it does the job)
Mocha CFW with FAT32 support

Preparing FAT32 HDD

You will need to format your HDD to FAT32, try to use a drive that is below 2TB, the Wii U might have problems with something bigger.
Also I'm not sure if doing a partition to a 2TB drive in order to reduce the volume space will work, it's not been tested but it COULD work.

Once you have your FAT32 HDD ready, you will need to download a modified version of Mocha CFW which enables FAT32 compatibility with Wii U, it is a bit unstable so it has been removed for now from the normal release in GitHub, but it will work fine for our needs.
You can download it here .
Extract that in USB:\wiiu\apps, do the same for the SD Card.
Also make sure to COPY ALL YOUR SD CARD DIRECTORIES TO THE HDD, the devices need to be IDENTICAL.
Here's my setup:
USB:\haxchi (Haxchi files)
USB:\install (Here you will put your encrypted game)
USB:\wiiu\apps (Here we will have all HBL apps)
USB:\wiiu\games (Used by loadiine when I was copying the directories from my SD Card, you don't need it)
USB:\wiiu\saves (Used by loadiine when I was copying the directories from my SD Card, you don't need it)
USB:\fw.img (CFW image, you don't need it for this tutorial)

If you have the HDD directories the same as your SD Card and you also have the modified Mocha in apps folder for both devices (including WUP Installer GX2 and Homebrew Launcher too), then the only last thing we need to do here is to put your encrypted game in install folder to use in Wup Installer! (Put the encrypted files in USB:\install).

Doing the magic!


Connect your FAT32 HDD to the Wii U, don't connect your Wii U formatted HDD yet.

Turn on your Wii U, of course ignore the pop up asking to format the disk, then open Haxchi and launch Mocha, run the CFW. After this you will see that the Wii U will not ask to format the disk, instead it will recognize it like a formatted drive. Your hard drive will start acting now as it were your SD Card, that's why I writed before about making the HDD folders to be exactly the same as the SD Card, is not really necessary, it should be enough just by having WUP Installer GX2, Homebrew Launcher and Mocha on the HDD in the wiiu\apps directory,and your game on install folder with haxchi files in USB:\haxchi, but this way will ensure to work exactly the same.

Open Haxchi again and launch WUP Installer GX2, select the "Install" folder, and when you get asked the directory to install select "NAND". I don't know if it will work using the USB option, but I don't think so, maybe it gets installed on your FAT32 drive, maybe it just crash... anyway, that part does not involve me. (And no, I also don't think it will work if you connect your Wii U formatted hard drive before launching WUP Installer GX2 in HBL, the console only Works using a HDD at the time, 2 HDDs will request you to go Data Managment and we don't want that.)

After finishing, you will see your game is perfectly installed into your NAND! CoD:Ghost for example is 16GB and it fitted well in my console. It would be impossible to do this with my SD Card, since it's real capacity is 14.6GB.

Now, turn off your Wii U, disconnect your FAT32 drive, and connect your main Wii U hard drive, boot the console up, go to data management and transfer the game to the HDD, and also transfer back the data you previously moved.

Aaaaaaaaaaaand... well, that's it.

Frequently Asked Questions


  • Q:Why does your english sucks so bad?
  • A:Because I don't really know how to speak it very well, yes. I studied english at school but well... I will be updating the tutorial if nobody understand how to do this, it is also my first one.
  • Q:The tutorial looks... empty, you didn't post any video, not even a single image, what's this?
  • A:That is because I'm a Little short of time and also I don't know if this tutorial has been posted before, maybe someone else has done this before me and I will be wasting time if I need to upload videos and images, because in that case this tutorial will be deleted.
  • Q:Let's say it's the first tutorial and nobody has made this before, will you update it with images and a video?
  • A:Yes, of course, I may post a video too!, the tutorial will be updated from time to time.
  • Q:Why I need a 32GB Wii U?
  • A:Because that way you can install a big game there, I managed to get about 25GB of free space on my console moving everything to my hard drive, WUDs are 23.3GB so that means the space in the internal memory is enough for holding at least one big game. I don't really think there is a game that is bigger than 23.3GB, that would take 2 Wii U Discs to fit... or a dual-layer one with aproximattely 46.6GB of space
  • Q: OK, but I can't just move the game from my FAT32 HDD to a Wii U formatted one?
  • A:No, the console will ask to go data management if you connect 2 drives, I don't think it will work if you connect the second one while you are in HBL.
  • Q: Is it really necessary to make the USB structure the same as the SD Card?
  • A: Well... not really, I said that to prevent problems, but Mocha will mount your FAT32 USB as a FAT32 SD Card, which means that as long you have WUP Installer GX2 and Homebrew Launcher on your USB it should work fine

Also the credits goes to everyone who developed on the Wii U! I didn't developed anything here except the tutorial, I found this method while I was messing around with my console.

I will be updating this according to the questions the users makes.

Feedback is really appreciated! :), Hope this is useful.
 

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Goku Junior

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It really works, but honestly is going through 3 file copies for each game (PC>USB2>NAND>USB1) worth not buying a 64GB SD for 21 €? :)
That depends... in this case he wanted to install one game using his method because cod was 16GB according to him, and he have a SD card that doesn't meet the requirement just by 1.4GB... if you are going to install only one big game, and also your SD Card doesn't meet the space requirement just by less than 9%... well trust me, it is not worth it at all.
 
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petspeed

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That depends... in this case he wanted to install one game using his method because cod was 16GB according to him, and he have a SD card that doesn't meet the requirement just by 1.4GB... if you are going to install only one big game, and also your SD Card doesn't meet the space requirement just by less than 9%... well trust me, it is not worth it at all.
Trust me it IS worth it getting a 64gb SD card so you can backup your WiiU and unbrick it if needed. And then you can install every game from that SD card...​
 

ShadowOne333

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This is really cool.
I couldn't get myself to install Black Ops 2 due to the issue of the NAND space, but with this, a whole new world opened up :)
Hopefully this will help to backup my entire Wii U library as well. :D
Thanks!

One thing though, would you recommend waiting for a more stable version of Mocha?
 
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Goku Junior

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Trust me it IS worth it getting a 64gb SD card so you can backup your WiiU and unbrick it if needed. And then you can install every game from that SD card...​
Again, you are skipping the part that you can't install a single game by less than 9% the space required of the card, it is not worth paying money just for that.
Not even to mention that Bayonetta 2 is 14.6GB on the eShop according to news, so you wouldn't be able to install that game just by less than 1% of the space.
Also, in my country it would be a gift 21 euros... because a normal one is about 650 pesos, which is 37 Euros.

And this is not the Wii, you can't just go, brick your console and restoring using BootMii, you need to solder on the motherboard, use a microSD to SD adapter, electronic wires... and you need your PC to restore the dump, also you need to be really careful because you can screw everything up if you don't really know what are you doing. This may be outdated, but I don't remember the Wii U having a NAND Restorer or Brick protection like BootMii or Priiloader. It's not really worth it.
 
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petspeed

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Again, you are skipping the part that you can't install a single game by less than 9% the space required of the card, it is not worth paying money just for that.
Not even to mention that Bayonetta 2 is 14.6GB on the eShop according to news, so you wouldn't be able to install that game just by less than 1% of the space.
Also, in my country it would be a gift 21 euros... because a normal one is about 650 pesos, which is 37 Euros.

And this is not the Wii, you can't just go, brick your console and restoring using BootMii, you need to solder on the motherboard, use a microSD to SD adapter, electronic wires... and you need your PC to restore the dump, also you need to be really careful because you can screw everything up if you don't really know what are you doing. This may be outdated, but I don't remember the Wii U having a NAND Restorer or Brick protection like BootMii or Priiloader. It's not really worth it.
You're right a hard mod is needed to restore the backup. However I still strongly believe it is a good idea to have a backup so you have the possibility to restore or have someone else help you do that. And when you buy a 64gb card for that then you have what you need to install the big games. That my point...
 

sp3off

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The fact that i'm using CBHC doesn't work for my Wii U. + Mocha CFW says 199-9999 everytime I launch WUP Installer/HomeBrew Launcher.
 

CrazySquid

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This is really cool.
I couldn't get myself to install Black Ops 2 due to the issue of the NAND space, but with this, a whole new world opened up :)
Hopefully this will help to backup my entire Wii U library as well. :D
Thanks!

One thing though, would you recommend waiting for a more stable version of Mocha?

I'm glad you liked it :), Nah, don't worry about Mocha instability, I can guarantee that it will not affect you if you have the same setup as me (I mean, Haxchi without coldboot for example.)

The fact that i'm using CBHC doesn't work for my Wii U. + Mocha CFW says 199-9999 everytime I launch WUP Installer/HomeBrew Launcher.

Hm... weird error code :/, well... as I stated, Mocha FAT32 is not really stable, that's why it has been removed from the official latest release.
It works perfectly fine on a clean Wii U console (That doesn't have coldboot), I don't really know how CBHC works because I didn't installed it on my console, I have normal booting with just Haxchi installed.
If I'm not wrong, CBHC does full signature patching and region free patching, that may conflict with Mocha FAT32 (maybe it's already running a CFW?).

Is possible for you to try using a clean boot?
 

sp3off

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The thing is CBHC comes with his own CFW. I cannot use it Mocha_FAT32 to launch that. Or i need to precise to CBHC that I want to launch Mocha. It's possible on the menu. You want me to try that ?
 
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CrazySquid

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The thing is CBHC comes with his own CFW. I cannot use it Mocha_FAT32 to launch that. Or i need to precise to CBHC that I want to launch Mocha. It's possible on the menu. You want me to try that ?
That would replace the CBHC CFW with Mocha_FAT32, right?, if it does it, then yes, please do that and post the results.
 
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sp3off

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That would replace the CBHC CFW with Mocha_FAT32, right?, if it does it, then yes, please do that and post the results.

It was actually only a problem with the WUP channel, the Homebrew one works. I can install some things.

I've had a problem with the shipment of m'y HDD, so there's gonna be some time before I can talk about results.
 
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weatMod

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your english is just fine , but it would just be worth it to spend the $10 on a 32gb SD card
really wish there was a way to get it to read fat 32 and wiiu partition on one drive though
 

baselhamad

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can i just move all my 3DS SD Card Files (hacked with arm9loaderhax and luma 3ds and other shits) to my PC and format the 3DS SD card then return the files back? i just want to install a game safely with Wup Installer Y Mod
 

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It works for me. Thanks !

+ warning : If you see a DLC in your NAND and you don't know if it is on USB, DO NOT REPLACE IT ! It basically destroys all your game and force you to re-download it. I've got the experience for Mario Kart 8. Luckily, i have a Black Wii U Premium Edition.... With MK8 installed. So i only need to re-download it from the eShop.
 

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What would be REALLY useful is to have a Mocha CFW with both WiiU and FAT32 support, so that we can install to our WiiU formatted device easier.
 

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I may have one little workaround.

- Download a little thing (DLC/Update), so that can be recognized by the Wii U.
- Install it on USB.
- IF YOU HAVEN'T DID IT ALREADY, Convert your game to Loadiine version using Wii U USB Helper
- Now, you only need to FTP the rest of the content with FTPiiU Everywhere (go to storage_usb/title/0005000 for games) and then you put the last numbers and characters (easily found in the /code folder on the converted game, don't ask me, even titleID's (may have hinted you) are copyrighted content)
- Profit !

Try on your side, i'm doing it on my side xD.
 

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