UStealth - Wii U 'Format Disk' Nag workaround :)

USBloaderGX wont find the usb stick if I hid it with version r8. is there a fix for that?

 

it's recommended that if r8 doesn't work, you should try r7 (last time I checked).

 

I know I've seen a few posts regarding this issue but no solid answer..

I used UStealth a few years back and my drive still works with Wii and WII U however it's time to backup this drive before it dies.. The issue is that 1) UStealth v7 or v8 both see the drive status as 'Unknown' and don't touch it AND 2) USBToggle see's my device but says its not supported and makes no change

I haven't tried TestDisk because I haven't seen a success post about it and I don't want to lose my data trying to figure this out - has anyone confirmed TestDek works or found another solution/workaround for this?

 

you can unhide/hide manually.

unhide:
change last two bytes from 55AB to 55AA (respectively the last one from AB to AA)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Master_boot_record#Sector_layout (1FE & 1FF)

you can e.g. do with dd (on windows, linux or mac):

• copy first 512 bytes to hdd
• change with hex editor
• copy back

just ensure you use the correct drive (else you may "corrupt" your pc hd)

also ensure if you use dd that you dont truncate when writing back to the device
(dd for windows: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/USB_flash_installation_medium#dd_for_Windows)

hide:
vice versa

edit:
spelling errors

 

I wrote a CLI version of this for Linux users who aren't familiar with dd. I tested it with USB Loader GX and Nintendont, it seems to work fine. As with using dd, be careful not to give the program the wrong drive, it won't stop you from stealthing your primary drive. I'd also recommend making sure the drive isn't mounted, as I'm not sure how the kernel would react to that.

Example usage: List devices with lsblk, then give your usb to uustealth. In my case, my usb is /dev/sde, so I'd run "uustealth /dev/sde".

I'll attach a binary and the source code for those interested. Hope this helps someone

 

if someone prefers just the terminal, this line unhides:
printf "\xaa" | sudo dd of=block_device(*) seek=511 bs=1 conv=notrunc

this one hides:
printf "\xab" | sudo dd of=block_device(*) seek=511 bs=1 conv=notrunc

(*)e.g. /dev/sdc, whole device not partition like e.g. /dev/sdc1 !