What can I do to future-proof my WiiU?

[solid278]

My WiiU works. I haven't used it in ages and it's running Haxchi. I believe it is not a coldboot as I need to start Haxchi from the system menu upon boot. I went into Homebrew Launcher and I found an app to backup all my save data (sorry I don't have the name--it's backing up right now!). Next I'll backup the NAND (I'm fairly certain I have a backup already... somewhere...). What's the best way to back that up after I already installed Haxchi? I also own a NAND-AID.

Ssssso what I'd like to do is future-proof as much as possible so I don't have to worry about the NAND dying. I don't care about upgrading to Tiramisu or Aroma (unless there's a compelling reason to! I haven't done much as far as hacking my WiiU though). Should I go through the process of installing the Nand-Aid? Should I just have my NAND backed up and keep the NAND-AID around in case of a future brick one day (though I'd be concerned about losing any save data for in-progress games that hadn't been backed up).

I think what I would like to do is to backup the NAND exactly as-is, and then copy it onto an SD card with NAND-AID, save files and home menu etc intact. Is that how NAND-AID works? What would be a good way to go about that, or am I misunderstanding something?

 

[Blythe93]

Next I'll backup the NAND (I'm fairly certain I have a backup already... somewhere...). What's the best way to back that up after I already installed Haxchi?

You can follow this guide in order to install Tiramisu/Aroma environments which are more recent and have more options available, especially Aroma which is the future of Wii U CFW. During that guide, you'll eventually make a backup of your NAND as described here.

Since you have Haxchi (and not CBHC), you can keep it around if you want - just don't use it anymore (move it into a folder or something, to the last page so that you don't accidentally run it), especially after you autoboot into Tiramisu/Aroma as they'll cause conflicts with each other and Wii U will eventually crash. If you want to be on a safe side, remove it prior to installing Tiramisu/Aroma (based on the guide linked above, all it takes is to uninstall the Haxchi app from Data Management in the System Settings app.

I don't care about upgrading to Tiramisu or Aroma (unless there's a compelling reason to! I haven't done much as far as hacking my WiiU though).

You can see what Aroma is about here. tl;dr: Aroma has all those nice plugins that expand the functionality of your Wii U which Haxchi and Tiramisu don't have. It's still a work in progress and some of the older homebrew apps won't work, namely Retroarch so you'll still need Tiramisu in order to use it. Switching between Aroma and Tiramisu is easy, so it's not much of a problem.

I think what I would like to do is to backup the NAND exactly as-is, and then copy it onto an SD card with NAND-AID, save files and home menu etc intact. Is that how NAND-AID works? What would be a good way to go about that, or am I misunderstanding something?

Installing NAND-AID isn't really easy, especially if you don't have any prior soldering skills. With WiiUIndent, you can check who made the MLC chip in your console. If it's a hynix unit, then it might become a problem sometime later if not already. If it's Samsung or Toshiba (especially Toshiba), you're good.

Should I go through the process of installing the Nand-Aid? Should I just have my NAND backed up and keep the NAND-AID around in case of a future brick one day (though I'd be concerned about losing any save data for in-progress games that hadn't been backed up).

If you really need to and have soldering skills to do so, go ahead. Here's the guide.
I ordered a few NAND-AIDs myself, just in case something goes wrong in the future and I have made my consoles' backups, so I hope that should be enough.

Now what you can do to future-proof your Wii U... I can't really tell much other than usual: Follow the official up-to-date guides for installing CFW on your console and anti-brick protection, as well as making backups of your consoles.

Other than that, make sure that your console isn't overheating, isn't covered in dust, clean it whenever needed. I'd suggest to at least keep it plugged in all the time so that your MLC doesn't go bad over time due to not being used, play some games as well if possible i.e. don't let it collect dust.

Gamepad battery drain is another issue, which apparently is fixable nowadays, based on this post.

 

[Ettino]

what I'd like to do is future-proof. I don't care about upgrading to Tiramisu or Aroma

Stay with Haxchi is the complete opposite of future proof. If all you care about is NAND dying, then just run everything from the external HDD or SDD.

 

[Blythe93]

If all you care about is NAND dying, then just run everything from the external HDD or SDD.

True, I totally forgot about that. Keep your internal memory as free as possible. I think I only have Homebrew Launcher on it installed other than what system usually occupies (or hacks).

 

[SDIO]

First of all, if you don't have a Hynix, then don't worry about the NAND. Even if you have a Hynix and it still didn't show any problems, you are probably fine. I have the feeling there is a little fear mongering going on, perhaps to sell something...
The console has so many other parts that can fail, that are much harder to replace, so if you are really concerend, just buy a second console, they are really cheap right now.
I wouldn't leave it connected all the time, if you don't use it, as that wears out other components like capacitors and the standby buck converter. Also just having it connected doesn't help the NAND in any way, since the NAND doesn't get power if the Wii U is off. It would only gets power if you turn on standby services, but then you would wear out even more components like the DRAM. And that is hard to source and hard to replace. Also after a power loss, you would first have to boot the console again, that the standby stuff can activate again. And even if it's getting power no one knows if it is doing background checks of the data, if it isn't doing that, than applying power would do absolutely nothing.
If you do a NAND backup from time to time on the other hand, it will force the eMMC to read every thing, which would trigger error correction, if any correctable errors occurred.
Also even with a completely empty NAND it can be fixed with the help of defuse. But that requires a little soldering. If you are really concerend and want to avoid soldering, you could install ISFShax. If at least boot1 and one of the superblocks isfshax is installed to, you can recovery the console from there. But then you have to remember in 10 or 20 or whatever years what the hell isfshax is.

Also even if you have a NAND backup and the eMMC fails, you can't just write the old mlc backup to a SD card and put it in the NAND-AID because it wouldn't match the SCFM on the slc.

Just putting everything on USB storage also won't help with the data retention problem of the Hynix or flash in general. The system files will still degrade if you just wait long enough, For a bad hany that might be a year, for a Toshiba that might be 20 years. The only thing using USB storage does is reducing the wear through writes on the flash. But I have yet to see a Wii U where either NAND chip was worn out. The slc should be able to sustain writes in the order of 50TB

What you should also consider is your games. Make sure to dump all your discs, they will probably fail first.
For your eShop purchases: dump all the tickets from your console and download the Install files from the NUS using JNUS, in case Nintendo shuts down the NUS in the future.
The saves I would also backup using save mii.
And if you put all this just on one HDD, it might also fail untill you need it. So you need to have multiple copies and read them from time to tome to make sure they still work... Preserving Data is and active reccurent task and not just some one time thing...

 

[Blythe93]

Thank you for a very elaborate reply.

 

[solid278]

Thanks for all the advice! Lots to think about. I've got a sturdy Samsung SD card coming tomorrow--I'll update to Aroma and run WiiUIdent. If it's not Hynix I just... won't worry about it for now (besides creating a backup). Good to know about *not* keeping the console plugged in. I think mine's been plugged in almost 24/7 since launch :/ I'm pretty sure it's not on standby though. I'll check.

 

[solid278]

I have a Hynix chip D:

So I mean, it clearly still works. NAND backed up just fine. But... still feel like I should install the NAND-AID, just to be safe.

Buying a 32 GB console seemed like such a good idea at launch...

Edit: Though now that I think about it, since I have a NAND and save data backup, I'm only really concerned about losing save data for any games I'm currently playing. And if I'm playing a game regularly (IE booting the WiiU relatively often to play it) then the NAND shouldn't fail, right? So, as long as I backup my save files before planning to shelve the WiiU for a bit, then at worst I might have to fix the NAND or install NAND-AID later to get it to work again, but my saves should all be ok and my WiiU generally recoverable (or... I just buy a new console online and put my saves on that...). Right?

 

[Sonom]

I have multiple backups. I don't rely on a single copy.