Hacking Wii U Game icons won’t stay in folders (powered USB hub)

[TheRealOC]

Context:

Apologies for the long post; this may be a strange setup for a Wii U but I wanted to have two separate hard drives connected to the console for Wii U backups. I also wanted to be able to have the front cover closed and also keep one of the rear USB ports free.

The solution I ended up trying was an externally powered USB 3.0 hub with 7 USB ports that has individual on/off switches beside each port, so I could seamlessly switch between hard drives.

Power Issues:

Turned out not to be so simple. About half the time I booted up one of the drives, i got an Error Code 1602713 on the game pad screen (“The USB storage device has been disconnected. Press and hold the POWER button..... etc etc... if the problem persists, the USB storage device may not be receiving enough power.”)

Thought it was weird that the drive wasn’t getting enough power since each drive only requires 0.9A, and each port on the USB is capable of providing 1.5A.... but then I swapped out the stock USB cables for both external hard drives, and replaced them with USB Y cables.

So now I have two hard drives taking up 4 ports on a powered USB hub and that **seems** to have solved the problem. I switch on USB port 1&2 and hard drive A boots up, then I switch on the Wii U. If I want to switch drives, I power off the console, turn off ports 1&2, turn on ports 3&4 and power the console back on. And I haven’t gotten the power-related error messages since.

Problem:

However for some reason, each time I switch hard drives, all my game icons jump out of the folders I’ve placed them in, and move to the root Wii U menu.

For example, I have all my games on Drive 1 sorted into folders by letter. (A folder called ‘A’ for all games beginning with ‘A’ and so on). But if I switch to Drive 2, then switch back to Drive 1, suddenly all my Drive 1 folders are empty and all the icons are scattered around the root Wii U menu.

Has anyone else encountered this, and is it related to the use of the powered hub? Many thanks

 

[godreborn]

That is normal.

 

[TheRealOC]

That is normal.

Which part? Is it normal for games not to stay in their folders when a hard drive is powered off and back on again...?

Is there anyway to stop it from happening? Thanks

 

[Atherworld]

I have the same problem. using a Two USB port HDD (Toshiba brand0, and when i switched it with another harddrive where my Wii games were installed, and switched back, all my games jumped out. Very disconcerting because they randomly show up.
Seems switch HDDs cause sit to view each reattached HDD as a new install of game,s and propregates them on the root menu. Which is annoying. I'd much rather keep them neat and organized and findable within seconds.

 

[MikaDubbz]

Hmm, I use a USB hub, and the titles I put in folders stay in their folders. My understanding was your games will only move around if you connect a second Wii U hard drive with games of it's own. And then when you connect the original drive, everything you had sorted is no longer in order. My second drive is only for the vWii, so I've never experienced the issue personally.

 

[godreborn]

Hmm, I use a USB hub, and the titles I put in folders stay in their folders. My understanding was your games will only move around if you connect a second Wii U hard drive with games of it's own. And then when you connect the original drive, everything you had sorted is no longer in order. My second drive is only for the vWii, so I've never experienced the issue personally.

you are correct. unplugging the wii u drive won't mess up the order. however, plugging a second drive in for the wii u will.

 

[Lostbhoy]

I discovered this also. I use a uGreen sata adapter and when my hdd is disconnected from the adapter, the icons fall out of their folders. Disconnecting the USB cable from the back of the console is fine tho.

 

[Atherworld]

Near as I can tell, it seems to only save the placement state of one drive at a time (Even though it can support two). When you change drives, it views the saved state, and then sees new games. So it treats them as fresh installed games and sends them to the root directory (AKA the console interface). When it happens for me, I'm using both the back ports for one HDD (There's no AC Adapter). I'm wondering if I keep one in back, and one in front if this will solve the problem.

Also, I'm set to sleep mode enabled

 

[godreborn]

I think it's the barista file that is involved. it redoes the sorting whenever it detects a new hdd just like the ps vita. it's an indexer basically. that's the reason you have to install things to begin with. compare that with the 3t60 in general where you can drag and drop without install. it reads over the entire hdd. it would take a long time to boot the system up if it did that.

 

[pollop1997]

Ok i dont know the reason but i fould a solution. I just change a user and i make the new user the default one. Then i built again the folders and now my hdd is working perfect. Hope it work for you too. I had the same problem with you every time i visited settings. Then my hdd was disconected every time and the icons jumped out of th efolders. Now it perfect.

 

[pollop1997]

I also discovered that you have to enable hdd sleep mode and then disable it again. this is also a hint. Try some of these

 

[pollop1997]

i guess that when you save the hdd sleep mode disabled on a user, wii u save it for the specific hdd. If you change an hdd then this sleep mode is disabled but for the previus hdd, so you have to enable and disable again when you plug in the new hdd. This is all i managed to discover and it worked for 2 consoles of mine.

 

[godreborn]

I don't remember the button combo but there's a secret menu to turn sleep mode on and off. what is the button combo, since I can't remember it?

 

[pollop1997]

I don't remember the button combo but there's a secret menu to turn sleep mode on and off. what is the button combo, since I can't remember it?

you go to settings, then second tab i think is data managment and then you press the down arrow and + and - together continiously.

 

[godreborn]

you may be spot on as why the op's hdd disconnected. the 360 rgh/jtag have a plugin called hddalive that writes a small file to the hdd like every few seconds to keep it awake. I wonder if the wii u does the same thing?

 

[godreborn]

I've never had an hdd go to sleep on my consoles though. I always buy the same make hdds and usually the same model. I usually buy WD, and the model I'm using for my wii u, and most other 2TB drives is WD Elements. I have the slim version for the wii u. it requires a y-cable, which is okay considering the wii u has four usb ports.

 

[pollop1997]

man your words sounds to me very specialised. i dont have knowlegde about this stuff. I just sell hacked consoles and i was trying a lot to find something that will work. i did it by accident because i was trying everything but it really worked for me right now on 2 consoles

 

[pollop1997]

i always work with the same hdds too. i use some WD 500gb 2.5 for wii u consoles with usb 2 y calbles adapter