Ustealth does not recognize Wiiu disk

[filipe_m]

I have an external drive with Wiiu games hidden by ustealth. It worked fine for years. Now on Wiiu I don't see any games. When I connect the disk to the PC it is not recognized, which is normal as it is hidden. The problem is that when I run ustealth, the disk appears as "unknow" and says that it cannot un-hide it.

I found here some posts about this subject but I couldn't solve it. When I use Diskpart, diskmanager or similar the disk is not presented to me...

I tried using Disk editor (as explained in https://gbatemp.net/threads/drive-status-says-unknown-in-ustealth.622531/post-10013030) but after:
"Open the tool -> open the CORRECT disk -> Right Klick -> Allow edit content -> mark the value with mouse -> right klick -> Fill block -> Enter HEX value 55 AA or 55 AB and hit OK -> Save, it will write the changes to the drive "
Says it can't finish it


From what I've read, the content of external drive will be lost but is there any way to save the drive?

Thanks!!

 

[V10lator]

is there any way to save the drive?

Depends on what's wrong with it and so far we have no clue. So a first step would be to find out. Have a look at its S.M.A.R.T. ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-Monitoring,_Analysis_and_Reporting_Technology ) values with something like CrystalDiskInfo.

//EDIT: Also what kind of drive is it? A HDD, SDD, USB Stick, SD in adapter, ... ?

 

[veraci_00]

try that hide disk app by @Xpl0itU . however, I think the drive is failing. changing the last byte of sector 0 shouldn't destroy your data. that's how the device is hidden. 55 ab is hidden; 55 aa is not.

 

[filipe_m]

Depends on what's wrong with it and so far we have no clue. So a first step would be to find out. Have a look at its S.M.A.R.T. ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-Monitoring,_Analysis_and_Reporting_Technology ) values with something like CrystalDiskInfo.

//EDIT: Also what kind of drive is it? A HDD, SDD, USB Stick, SD in adapter, ... ?

Thanks for your help...
It's a HDD...
I will take a look at what your suggest!

try that hide disk app by @Xpl0itU . however, I think the drive is failing. changing the last byte of sector 0 shouldn't destroy your data. that's how the device is hidden. 55 ab is hidden; 55 aa is not.

Thanks for your answer!
How can I change the last byte of sector 0?

Post automatically merged: Jun 15, 2023

Thanks for your help...
It's a HDD...
I will take a look at what your suggest!

Thanks for your answer!
How can I change the last byte of sector 0?

Usb hide by XploitU did not work...

There is any tutorial for a newbie about change last byte of sector 0?

Post automatically merged: Jun 16, 2023

DiskEditor ended up showing the drive.

But when I choose "Open in Disk Editor" the only thing that appears to me is what is in the image:

Any tips?

 

[Sypherone]

I have an external drive with Wiiu games hidden by ustealth. It worked fine for years. Now on Wiiu I don't see any games. When I connect the disk to the PC it is not recognized, which is normal as it is hidden

First of all, are we talking about a HDD for storing and playing WiiU games from it? This drive is encrypted and uses a filesystem (wfs) that is not nativ supported by any Operating system (Windows/Linux) and therefore will not be recognized and readable by a PC at all.

Ustealth is not intended and makes no sense for using it on a drive thats formated by a WiiU for storing WiiU games on it. Its to hide a drive thats used for the vWii, with GC and Wii games on it. So the drive will not recognized in WiiU mode, to stop the format nag. Alternative exists USBHide on Wiiu wich is more uptodate.

Changing the MBR Signature by Ustealth or other programms doesnt destroy your data on the drive. It simply changes a value that it will not recognizeable as drive that uses a MBR with its information about partition tables on it.

If the drive uses GPT partition table, the MBR might be empty. (MBR is located in sector 0, GPT in sector 1) .

The MBR or GPT can be restored normaly without any problems by some partition programms or recommended TestDisk. There exist some called superblocks with backed up MBR information on different places on the drive (only known by programms). Also GPT has a backup which is stored in the last sector of the drive. The WiiU drive is encrypted, so iam not sure if restoring the boot sector will work properly, all data may get lost.

In last case use a partition programm or Device management in Windows, it should show the drive even if Windows doesnt detect it directly and possible to reformat it completly (all data will be lost).

And like already mentioned, use S.M.A.R.T to check the condition of the drive.

 

[filipe_m]

First of all, are we talking about a HDD for storing and playing WiiU games from it? This drive is encrypted and uses a filesystem (wfs) that is not nativ supported by any Operating system (Windows/Linux) and therefore will not be recognized and readable by a PC at all.

Thanks for your time!

After read your post i understand I made a big mess because I was confusing the wii with the wiiu... was a long time ago i mod my system and i forgot a lot of things... my apologies to everyone!

Reframing my current problem:

- I have a Hdd with WiiU games, it works ok for years....
- Now, no game is shown when I access the WiiU
- When i go to WiiU settings - Data management (I think that's the designation) i only find the internal memory and no usb Hdd is shown...

All programs i that I tried in windows does not find the drive. So:
- How can i understand what happened to my games?
- Iif it is not possible to recover the games, how can I recover the hdd to restore what was there?

Thank you for the patience!

 

[V10lator]

- How can i understand what happened to my games?

Have a look at its S.M.A.R.T. ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-Monitoring,_Analysis_and_Reporting_Technology ) values with something like CrystalDiskInfo.

how can I recover the hdd to restore what was there?

This hardly depends on what the issue is. So far it seems the drive is dead but I also can't be sure about that without more data.
In case the drive is dead there are computer shops who offer extended recovery services. This means they send the HDD to a labor where the magnetic discs get extracted and readed out... This is damn expensive and no guarantee that it will work. In case it's just some weird software issue we might be able to fix it through.

 

[Sypherone]

Drives dont live for ever, some die earlyer, some later. There are lot of possibiltys what can corrupt a drive, e.g. internal damage or wear out of components.

//Edited: If the drive is fully dead and cant be recovered, the only chance is to extract the raw data by experts which move it to a drive with identical size. If the drive isnt fully damaged, a raw copy of the data can be done.
To recover the data at least the drive must be functional a last time, so it would be possible to clone the drive on the WiiU by linux dd command or USB Guru Cloning Application. Discused here in cloning WiiU USB HDD.

In the other hand exist the WFS tools to backup the data from the WiiU drive to PC and inject to a another one, but the tool is still experimentel. The chance of recovering data from a corrupted drive was already discused in the thread recover data by WFS tools.

Simle way is if the WiiU game save data is stored on the Nand, in this case you only will need a new drive and writing the games again on it.

In last case if the drive is still funcional but dont show up on Windows. Go to device Management or use a Partition Manager where it should show up, able to format it and run a check on it.

 

[V10lator]

It cant be simple extracted and writwn to another drive, its a anti pirate protection.

Yes it can. These labors will make a 1:1 raw copy to another drive with the exact same dimensions as the old one. Every bit will be identical. The anti-piracy protection by using the drives serial ID and stuff like that is nothing than a myth and has been proven wrong a lot of times.

 

[Sypherone]

I used thumb stick as source and target. Did a raw copy with linux dd first from a 32gb Sandisk Ultra 3.0 to 64gb Kingston Datatraveler, wich didnt work as its not recognized on the WiiU.

But i can verify that cloning a WiiU drive works. Did a raw copy to a identical thumb stick with the same S/N of the 32gb Sandisk and worked flawless. It is recognized and the games show up on WiiU.

 

[filipe_m]

Thanks all for your help....

I assumed my Hdd was dead and started again with a new one... unfortunately for my kids all games data are lost and they have to start again.

My question is:
Is possible save the data from games progress in WiiU memory instead the Hdd?
I only find a way to move the data along with the games, and the games are too big...

 

[Ettino]

My question is:
Is possible save the data from games progress in WiiU memory instead the Hdd?

No, the save data will be store wherever the game data is.

 

[V10lator]

unfortunately for my kids all games data are lost and they have to start again.

That's why you should take backups of important savegames regulary.

 

[filipe_m]

That's why you should take backups of important savegames regulary.

How can I do that?

Any app?

 

[V10lator]

Any app?

https://github.com/Xpl0itU/savemii