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

[raflos]

I'm having strange problems with this tool.
It worked fine before with my 128gb Sandisk flash drive, but now it always behaves as if it's "Normal". But if I close the tool and re-open it, it remembers the status of the flash drive.
I tested it with a generic 1gb flash drive and it worked fine. But then I tested it with a 68gb Sandisk flash drive and it didn't work with the same problem as before.
The program has admin privileges.
Not sure what to try now. Maybe there's something I forgot? It's been a while since I've used this tool.

Ok I found out what the problem was. USB drive allocation size must be 64k. Maybe 32k will work too. Anything smaller doesn't work.

 

[XC-3730C]

I ran version R8 of UStealth on my 500GB FAT32 HDD, and while it gets rid of that nagging screen about formatting my Wii drive, it works fine with USB Loader GX for Wii and GC games, but launching WiiWare games results in it booting back to USB Loader GX (All but 1 of my WiiWare games are installed to emuNAND). Is there something I can do to fix this?

 

[Cyan]

emuNAND support needs an update of the cIOS to work with Ustealth Drives.
Look at the first post, there's a link to updated d2x cIOS v10, you'll have to replace the file on your SD card and reinstall d2x r52.

 

[ChrisEvans1212]

I know I'm probably too late, but out of desperation I'm going to ask anyway.

I look after a gentleman with learning difficulties. He loves his WiiU wants to play everything through it, from retro games to movies. I've setup wiiflow for him and he loves it (having a visual representation for everything is ideal because he can't read).

However, I just can't seem to load movies from wiiflow on a USB drive that has Ustealth applied.

So I'm using WiiMC, I can find and play the movies from the hidden USB drive fine when manually selecting from the WiiMC menu/file explorer.

I have a WiiMC plugin that autoloads the movies great from wiiflow. However, when Ustealth is applied the plugin stops autoloading the videos and instead loads WiiMC to the menu (defeating the point of wiiflow).

I'm pretty sure the problem is related to the arguments field in the plugin .ini which reads:

arguments={device}1:/{path}/{name}

I'm pretty sure that somehow, whatever wiiflow is passing into {device} doesn't find the hidden drive. Would there be a way of hard coding a refrence to the hidden drive? or maybe another work around?

 

[vagus02]

Hi. Guys, pls help me. I'm connecting my hd with wiuu games on pc today after a long time without use it, open the UStealth, it recongize my hd, but can't bring back to normal, when i double click on it, its say that i cannot make changes to a unknown boot sector type. Any way i solve this without format it? I use the R8 version of the app.

 

[DarkDesertFox]

Alright, last place I'm trying before throwing in the towel. I have tried everything to get this to work. I'm using a SanDisk - Cruzer Glide 128GB USB 2.0 Flash Drive. Every time I double click the drive to hide it the status always just appears as "Normal". I've tried changing the format to NTFS. Didn't work. I tried changing the allocation unit size to 32 KB and 64 KB. Didn't work either. I tried using both versions R7 and R8 for each of these attempts... didn't work. I'm pretty much out of patience spending anymore time trying to figure this out so does anyone know what the problem is? I sure don't.

 

[EmulateLife]

Stop using a flash drive and get a real hard drive.

None of this: the vWii, uStealth is meant for a flash drive. So when you problems you only have yourself to blame.

 

[DarkDesertFox]

Stop using a flash drive and get a real hard drive.

None of this: the vWii, uStealth is meant for a flash drive. So when you problems you only have yourself to blame.

Flash drives are more price efficient. I don't love my Wii U that much to buy a whole new hard drive for it. Literally this message is the only thing that pops up. The Gamecube games run fine on it and everything, it's just the message is a nuisance I wanted to get rid of. No need to get all up in my face about it. I just wanted some assistance.

 

[EmulateLife]

Nobody got in your face it's just a fact flash drives aren't meant to last. It might work for 6-12 months then die. It's your problem if you don't like the facts and being sensitive about your flash drive. Any problems with the flash drive is because it's not MEANT for a flash drive.

 

[DarkDesertFox]

Nobody got in your face it's just a fact flash drives aren't meant to last. It might work for 6-12 months then die. It's your problem if you don't like the facts and being sensitive about your flash drive. Any problems with the flash drive is because it's not MEANT for a flash drive.

I honestly had no idea they died out. I would have gone for a hard drive if I had known that. I apologize for my negligence. What would you recommend for brand and size of external hard drives if you're still willing to help me out?

 

[EmulateLife]

All of mine are either Seagate or WD, both good brands. The size depends on how many games you want. I usually buy mine used on Ebay and I've never had one die. They're not as expensive as you might think, a 500 gb is usually around $30. That would give you a lot of games.

One thing though on Wii U it doesn't supply enough power for a single cord usb drive so you either have to buy one with external supply (that plugs into a wall) or buy a y cable that allows it to hook into two ports. It's why the Wii U has two ports in the front and two in the back for that exact reason.

 

[DarkDesertFox]

All of mine are either Seagate or WD, both good brands. The size depends on how many games you want. I usually buy mine used on Ebay and I've never had one die. They're not as expensive as you might think, a 500 gb is usually around $30. That would give you a lot of games.

One thing though on Wii U it doesn't supply enough power for a single cord usb drive so you either have to buy one with external supply (that plugs into a wall) or buy a y cable that allows it to hook into two ports. It's why the Wii U has two ports in the front and two in the back for that exact reason.

I appreciate the help! I'll scrape together some money soon enough to get one. I'd rather invest in a permanent fix like this than keep using my current USB if it's just going to die out. Thanks for the advice!

 

[Cyan]

Hi. Guys, pls help me. I'm connecting my hd with wiuu games on pc today after a long time without use it, open the UStealth, it recongize my hd, but can't bring back to normal, when i double click on it, its say that i cannot make changes to a unknown boot sector type. Any way i solve this without format it? I use the R8 version of the app.

if Windows doesn't let you alter the MBR (probably your antivirus protecting it), you can do it directly on the console.
there's a Wii homebrew which can toggle that hidden state : USB Toggle.


DarkDesertFox : even nintendo said it's not recommended to use flash drives on WiiU.
there are lot of access, and the flash is not supporting it for long and repetitive access on the same sectors.
that's for the life time part.

additionally to that life time part, USBLoaders and cIOS are not compatible with flash drives in general. either it works in read mode only (no write mode), either it's not even detected.
you are lucky if you find a read mode only device. most users have issues trying to use flashdrives and get themselves blocked into a headache of different things to try to fix something unfixable, while the solution is very simple (HDD), but a lot of users refuse to get an HDD and still persist in trying to use flash drives and are not happy with the result.

HDD are not only for WiiU. you don't like your WiiU that much, it's a thing. But your HDD is not dedicated to WiiU, it's a FAT32 or NTFS which can be used for anything else too. you can store your computer's files on it. it'll always be useful even after you stop using your console.


Any HDD brand should be fine, but if you get one bigger than 2TB I suggest getting a Western Digital drive. it has additional tools which are required for some homebrew. some HDD won't let you format the drive bigger that 2TB using MBR, while it's possible with WD drives.
if you get another drive bigger than 2TB, you'll be stuck with GPT format only, or MBR but limited to 2TB (waste of space).

 

[vagus02]

if Windows doesn't let you alter the MBR (probably your antivirus protecting it), you can do it directly on the console.
there's a Wii homebrew which can toggle that hidden state : USB Toggle.


DarkDesertFox : even nintendo said it's not recommended to use flash drives on WiiU.
there are lot of access, and the flash is not supporting it for long and repetitive access on the same sectors.
that's for the life time part.

additionally to that life time part, USBLoaders and cIOS are not compatible with flash drives in general. either it works in read mode only (no write mode), either it's not even detected.
you are lucky if you find a read mode only device. most users have issues trying to use flashdrives and get themselves blocked into a headache of different things to try to fix something unfixable, while the solution is very simple (HDD), but a lot of users refuse to get an HDD and still persist in trying to use flash drives and are not happy with the result.

HDD are not only for WiiU. you don't like your WiiU that much, it's a thing. But your HDD is not dedicated to WiiU, it's a FAT32 or NTFS which can be used for anything else too. you can store your computer's files on it. it'll always be useful even after you stop using your console.


Any HDD brand should be fine, but if you get one bigger than 2TB I suggest getting a Western Digital drive. it has additional tools which are required for some homebrew. some HDD won't let you format the drive bigger that 2TB using MBR, while it's possible with WD drives.
if you get another drive bigger than 2TB, you'll be stuck with GPT format only, or MBR but limited to 2TB (waste of space).

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

Hey Cyan, long time no see, you help me one time here years ago . So, thanks again for you help man, i'm gonna try that app and then i tell if works or not. BTW, i use a external HDD with 320 GB from a notebook, not a flash device, don't know why windows won't let me change with UStealth...

 

[jossieflossie]

Please help,
After using drive hidden with U-stealth, the drive now is marked as unknown. Can't make it normal again.
Is there a way to make it normal again for making new backup?
[No problem with WiiU, works fine]

Thanks in advance!

 

[DarkDesertFox]

Just an update I did order and receive a 500 GB WD external hard drive as well as a Y-Cable. The program had no issues hiding it this time and runs great on the Wii U! Thank you both JustinCredible and Cyan for the advice! I was hesitant to spend the money at first, but it was totally worth it in the end. I'll just use that USB for other things. Thanks again!

 

[Cyan]

Please help,
After using drive hidden with U-stealth, the drive now is marked as unknown. Can't make it normal again.
Is there a way to make it normal again for making new backup?

use Ustealth program again to swap/toggle the hidden state.
if you want, like I said one&two post above yours, you can use a homebrew directly on vWii to toggle the hidden state.

Just an update I did order and receive a 500 GB WD external hard drive as well as a Y-Cable. The program had no issues hiding it this time and runs great on the Wii U! Thank you both JustinCredible and Cyan for the advice! I was hesitant to spend the money at first, but it was totally worth it in the end. I'll just use that USB for other things. Thanks again!

I'm glad everything is finally working. it might be scary to do the jump, but you finally see that it was worth it. no more issues, and headache

 

[DarkDesertFox]

Just one last question I had regarding this. I was interested in injecting games on the Wii U menu and was wondering if it still works while this tool is active? It's not a big deal if it doesn't. I don't mind using Nintendont for it.

 

[Cyan]

injecting games on WiiU menu does not use vWii mode nor vWii HDD at all. injected channels are installed on WiiU HDD, the one which is not hidden to wiiU.
that's all the purpose of this tool : to be able to plug both HDD at the same time.
- WiiU HDD seen by WiiU mode only (vWii hdd being hidden)
- vWii HDD seen by vWii compatible homebrew (WiiU hdd being incompatible is ignored by most homebrew)

 

[snoofly]

I know this is moot now but out of interest did you try R7 Ustealth?
I found R8 wouldn’t toggle for me in some cases but R7 worked fine.