Hacking USB Loader GX - Most times sticks at "Initialize USB device"

[SireSalty]

Hello, I've been having trouble with my new hard drive working with the WiiU vWii for USB Loader GX. I will most times have the problem where it freezes at "Initialize USB device" (about 9/10 times it crashes). Seems like its more likely to work if the HDD is connected and the WiiU is on for 5-10 minutes before attempting.

Wii U hacked via wiiu. hacks. guide

HDD: WD 1TB Blue My Passport Portable External Hard Drive - USB 3.0 - WDBYNN0010BBL-WESN

HDD spin down disabled via WD utilities

Connected via a Y cable (the recommended Insten Dual USB 3.0 Type A to Micro-B USB Y) And confirming its connected with the 2nd plug (power only) being on the bottom USB port, and the top USB port on the back connected to the main/data USB connector.

I've tried:
1) Formatting the drive in Fat32 as mentioned in the vWii Hacking guide
2) Formatting the drive NTFS (which also randomly works).
3) Installing the following versions of USB Loader GX Clean (and launching from HBC).: r1265, r1271, r1256-r1257, and a few versions I saw created by Cyan with a delay to HDD detection(?)
4) Connecting and disconnecting the HDD that hosts the Wii U games

Sysinfo:

vIOS9 (rev 1290): No Patches
vIOS12 (rev 782): No Patches
vIOS13 (rev 1288): No Patches
vIOS14 (rev 1288): No Patches
vIOS15 (rev 1288): No Patches
vIOS17 (rev 1288): No Patches
vIOS21 (rev 1295): No Patches
vIOS22 (rev 1550): No Patches
vIOS28 (rev 2063): No Patches
vIOS31 (rev 3864): No Patches
vIOS33 (rev 3864): No Patches
vIOS34 (rev 3864): No Patches
vIOS35 (rev 3864): No Patches
vIOS36 (rev 3864): No Patches
vIOS37 (rev 5919): No Patches
vIOS38 (rev 4380): No Patches
vIOS41 (rev 3863): No Patches
vIOS43 (rev 3863): No Patches
vIOS45 (rev 3863): No Patches
vIOS46 (rev 3863): No Patches
vIOS48 (rev 4380): No Patches
vIOS53 (rev 5919): No Patches
vIOS55 (rev 5919): No Patches
vIOS56 (rev 5918): No Patches
vIOS57 (rev 6175): No Patches
vIOS58 (rev 6432): USB 2.0
vIOS59 (rev 9249): No Patches
vIOS62 (rev 6942): No Patches
vIOS80 (rev 7200): No Patches
vIOS236 (rev 65535): Trucha Bug ES Identify NAND Access
vIOS249[56] (rev 21010 Info: d2x-v10beta52-vWii): Trucha Bug NAND Access
vIOS250[57] (rev 21010 Info: d2x-v10beta52-vWii): Trucha Bug NAND Access
vIOS251[58] (rev 21010 Info: d2x-v10beta52-vWii): Trucha Bug NAND Access
vIOS512 (rev 7): No Patches
vIOS513 (rev 1): No Patches


Thank you all, I'm getting a little desperate to get this working.

 

[xs4all]

From MY personal experience and also information floating around the web, the vWii is picky as to what usb controller is used in the usb hdd.

Most will work while others have issues, there is no extensive list around as to what usb hdd works and what doesn't, you can spend all you want messing around with cIOS, etc... this will most likely not fix your issue.
You don't have this issue on a real Wii, in the past I have tested a fair amount of usb HDD, ranging form USB2 and USB3, this includes those portable usb hdd caddies where you use your own hard drives and half of the drives I've tested was a hit and miss, some doesn't work, while others, either leave the WiiU on for a few minutes, or either connecting the usb hard drive right before I launch USB loader GX or during the boot process where it is waiting for hard drive to be connected.
I then managed to find a hard drive that works regardless the scenario and stuck to it, then at the end I just went back to using my original Wii to play Wii games, doesn't matter what usb hdd I throw at it, it just works.

 

[SireSalty]

So It's very likely if I were to use this drive on a wii, and not a wii U it would work?

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

I ask because this is to replace my original HDD I used on the Wii, that did work on teh Wii U so I can have the Wii working for a friend, if so I'll need to steal back the original wii to test it out

 

[xs4all]

Only way to find out is to try, but I'm confident this drive your having issues with on the WiiU will work fine on the Wii, as this was the case for me.

If needed, grab your old Wii back, test the drive your having issues with on the WiiU and see if it works on the Wii, if it does, then just swap the hdd over and use your old hdd for the Wii on your WiiU since you said it works fine on your WiiU. If that make sense.

 

[SireSalty]

So before I go claim back my Wii HDD, I'm trying to switch to an older 1TB WD elements portable (WDBUZG0010BBK) that sounds like other have had good results with. (It's currently connected to my PS4, so I can just switch the passport for the elements). *Crossing fingers*

 

[SireSalty]

Same issue with the WDBUZG0010BBK, it will randomly work but most time (especially from a cold startup), it will crash at initialize USB, even with CiOS 58 set. Works fine with the old USB drive, so looks like I will be switching the drives, hope it works on the normal Wii.

 

[SireSalty]

:-( So the old WD passport works instantly, but the newer WD passport and WD elements refuse to work with all the crashing issues at initalize HDD. I wish I could use the newer HDD (since its larger capacity), but unless I am wrong I am stuck.

 

[xs4all]

This is a last resort and NOT recommended, you could try removing the hard drive from the newer WD passport/elements drive and replace the old WD password hard drive with the bigger capacity one
Just google search the drives and make sure the usb controller board is not one of those proprietary ones where it's directly connected to the hdd which can't be removed.

Looks like the usb controller board on the newer drive is playing funny buggers in vWii mode.

 

[SireSalty]

None of the 1 TB USB 3.0 drives are working on the vWii with a Y-Cable....

WDBYNN0010BBL WD 1TB Blue My Passport Portable
WDBYNN0010BBK WD 1TB Black My Passport Portable
WDBEPK0010BB WD 1 TB Elements SE Portable
WDBUZG0010BBK Western Digital 1TB Elements Portable

Looks like I am out of luck outside of the old Wii Drive.

 

[SireSalty]

I was able to get WDBUZG0010BBK working.

1) Used GUIformat vs the other tool mentioned in the vWii tutorial for the HDD formatting.
2) Fat32 4096 blocks
3) Y cable per the guide
4) KEY: using Homebrew loader and not the channel.
5) Using USB Loader GX v1265
6) cIOS 58 required

Here is the weird part, launch the program without the HDD attached, once it's loaded fully, launch the attach the drive. Go to hard drive settings, and click on NONE for (Game/Install partition), and after a few seconds, it should find your HDD.

Alternative: You can go into HBC, have it look within the USB device (which will force it to initialize), then launch the tool. This worked as well for me.

Multiple Partitions: Off
USB Port 0
Mount USB at launch ON


After the drive was detected in this fashion, the loader worked without issue. Going with a clean USB Loader GX failed until I followed these steps again, now it auto detects. It's very weird.

The only thing I can imagine is the following:

1) At first launch this first time "Initialize USB device" Does not just send the data signal to the drive, it tries to detect it at the same time, vs the "reinitializing device", which allows more time for the drive to spin and load before re-detecting.
2) When the device is not accessed initially by the Wii the drive is in low power state and does not spin at all.

 

[SireSalty]

I tried ustealth which worked, but the moment I connected the WiiU hard drive, it started the crashing behavior again. I'm just going to use the old Wii HDD instead.