Hacking WUPInstallerGX2 External Hard Drive Brick

[bluedart]

So until recently I really loved WUPInstallerGX2 and WiiU USB Helper. I bought a 1TB external hard drive, use a y-cable that takes up two usb slots, run haxchii to get to the homebrew channel. run mocha, then haxchii again and WUPInstallerGX2 to install whatever digital game I want to the USB. (Never to system memory.) Yet, when I downloaded the minecraft update (of all things, I don't really play MC on consoles) It got to 46% and stuck there for 30 minutes. It was making no progress clearly, so I had no choice but to shut down the Wii U. Unfortunately the WiiU no longer boots up, as in displays anything when the USB drive is plugged in. It only boots up when there is no USB drive plugged in. I tried plugging it back in, and it won't boot. So then, my question is what exactly do I do? I would rather not reformat this on windows, then plug it back in and reformat it on the WiiU (which would probably work?) since I would be losing a lot of save data and it would take about a month on my internet access to download all that stuff again. Any help or ideas are appreciated.

Also I'm on WiiU System version 5.5.1. (I never updated to 5.5.2 and use a proxy to block updates, which seems to be working properly.)

 

[bostonBC]

So until recently I really loved WUPInstallerGX2 and WiiU USB Helper. I bought a 1TB external hard drive, use a y-cable that takes up two usb slots, run haxchii to get to the homebrew channel. run mocha, then haxchii again and WUPInstallerGX2 to install whatever digital game I want to the USB. (Never to system memory.) Yet, when I downloaded the minecraft update (of all things, I don't really play MC on consoles) It got to 46% and stuck there for 30 minutes. It was making no progress clearly, so I had no choice but to shut down the Wii U. Unfortunately the WiiU no longer boots up, as in displays anything when the USB drive is plugged in. It only boots up when there is no USB drive plugged in. I tried plugging it back in, and it won't boot. So then, my question is what exactly do I do? I would rather not reformat this on windows, then plug it back in and reformat it on the WiiU (which would probably work?) since I would be losing a lot of save data and it would take about a month on my internet access to download all that stuff again. Any help or ideas are appreciated.

Also I'm on WiiU System version 5.5.1. (I never updated to 5.5.2 and use a proxy to block updates, which seems to be working properly.)

Have you checked to see if the drive died? I had one that gave up the ghost last month. You can plug it into your PC and use a tool like CrystalDiskInfo to see if it has any bad or reallocated blocks.

If so get a replacement and never use that one again.

 

[bluedart]

Have you checked to see if the drive died? I had one that gave up the ghost last month. You can plug it into your PC and use a tool like CrystalDiskInfo to see if it has any bad or reallocated blocks.

If so get a replacement and never use that one again.

Good call! So I downloaded Crystal Disk check, plugged in my USB drive, windows found drivers for it quickly, and it didn't show up in My Compter. Crystal Disk Check showed my drive, even though it lacked a letter, and said it was in good condition.

So now that we know the drive itself is still in tact, any way of salvaging the data?

 

[bluedart]

What's worse is I don't have an SD reader on my main PC anymore, so I have to use an old laptop with one that I've been trying to get ubuntu on lately to no avail. (Man, you wouldn't believe how hard it is to get that thing's wireless working, and NVIDIA drivers make it unbootble no matter how they're installed!) So is there some sort or PC tool to simply uninstall the offending program? (Minecraft since it froze while installing the update.)

 

[godreborn]

I don't have an sd card reader either. what u need is an sd2usb reader. that's what I use. it works with full sd cards and micro sd as well.

 

[The Real Jdbye]

What's worse is I don't have an SD reader on my main PC anymore, so I have to use an old laptop with one that I've been trying to get ubuntu on lately to no avail. (Man, you wouldn't believe how hard it is to get that thing's wireless working, and NVIDIA drivers make it unbootble no matter how they're installed!) So is there some sort or PC tool to simply uninstall the offending program? (Minecraft since it froze while installing the update.)

There isn't. There are tools to extract the contents, as well as inject Haxchi (or technically replace any file), but the tools aren't advanced enough yet to be able to modify any arbitrary part of the file system.
What happens when you insert the HDD after the Wii U is booted? Are you able to have it recognized in Data Management if you do that?

 

[bluedart]

I don't have an sd card reader either. what u need is an sd2usb reader. that's what I use. it works with full sd cards and micro sd as well.

I had one of these. It worked for a year or so then stopped working completely. Can't get a new one right now.

There isn't. There are tools to extract the contents, as well as inject Haxchi (or technically replace any file), but the tools aren't advanced enough yet to be able to modify any arbitrary part of the file system.
What happens when you insert the HDD after the Wii U is booted? Are you able to have it recognized in Data Management if you do that?

Yeah, already tried that, it freezes the system when the message telling me not to insert or remove drives while the system is on comes up. Can't start the system up and insert the drive.

 

[bluedart]

So my best option is to use some utility on windows that can see the drive to format it, and then format it again on wii u then redownload and reinstall all the titles I care about? Something that will take me, on my internet if I install only titles I will use, about a week and just forefeit save files like FE crossover and Xenobalde X? Yipes, tell me there's a better option! Also the fact that WUPInstaller GX2 can just brick your hard drive is a scary thought!

 

[bostonBC]

So my best option is to use some utility on windows that can see the drive to format it, and then format it again on wii u then redownload and reinstall all the titles I care about? Something that will take me, on my internet if I install only titles I will use, about a week and just forefeit save files like FE crossover and Xenobalde X? Yipes, tell me there's a better option! Also the fact that WUPInstaller GX2 can just brick your hard drive is a scary thought!

I don't think anyone else has reported wupinstaller 'bricking' their hard drives and I've used it on hundreds of titles on my family and friends Wii U's with zero problems.

My guess is you have a flaky cable or hard disk. I would recommend getting a new drive and using it.

 

[bluedart]

I don't think anyone else has reported wupinstaller 'bricking' their hard drives and I've used it on hundreds of titles on my family and friends Wii U's with zero problems.

My guess is you have a flaky cable or hard disk. I would recommend getting a new drive and using it.

I doubt very much this is the issue. More likely the SD card would be the issue than the hard drive that's pretty new, recommended when I bought it, and never given me any reason to suspect it. (It also was given the green light by CyrstalDisk, so I have no reason to suspect the drive or cable.) The SD card is much older, and I had to use ubuntu to move files onto it, not Windows. Point is, after installing with at least 30 minutes of no indication of progress at a frozen 46%, and with a hard powercycle of the console, that program did indeed brick my external hard drive. You are not safe with WUPInstallerGX2, the proof is in the pudding. However, the program has only failed once, and after reformatting the drive two times, I'll be using it again after I get only what I know I will use to install. Since I have not even a single more cent I can spend on this to buy new hardware, it seems my only option. God I hope my seriously important saves like Hyrule Warriors are also on my WiiU still, let me check.

It's a shame there's not at least some sort of utility out there that can extract my save files from that drive. I'll have lost several hundred hours of progress. I'll keep this thread appraised as to new developments.

 

[bostonBC]

I doubt very much this is the issue. More likely the SD card would be the issue than the hard drive that's pretty new, recommended when I bought it, and never given me any reason to suspect it. (It also was given the green light by CyrstalDisk, so I have no reason to suspect the drive or cable.) The SD card is much older, and I had to use ubuntu to move files onto it, not Windows. Point is, after installing with at least 30 minutes of no indication of progress at a frozen 46%, and with a hard powercycle of the console, that program did indeed brick my external hard drive. You are not safe with WUPInstallerGX2, the proof is in the pudding. However, the program has only failed once, and after reformatting the drive two times, I'll be using it again after I get only what I know I will use to install. Since I have not even a single more cent I can spend on this to buy new hardware, it seems my only option. God I hope my seriously important saves like Hyrule Warriors are also on my WiiU still, let me check.

It's a shame there's not at least some sort of utility out there that can extract my save files from that drive. I'll have lost several hundred hours of progress. I'll keep this thread appraised as to new developments.

So if your hard disk is good have you run a scan on the SD card?

It is pretty silly to blame the software if you have a hardware problem/bad/fake SD card and YOU pulled the plug on the system in the middle of a write operation. That can ruin any hard drive.

 

[Engezerstorung]

you should be able to extract your saves with some tool somewhere arround here (like that i think https://gbatemp.net/threads/wfsdump-pc-util-for-dumping-wfs-devices-wiiu-file-system.478480/ )

 

[bluedart]

So if your hard disk is good have you run a scan on the SD card?

It is pretty silly to blame the software if you have a hardware problem/bad/fake SD card and YOU pulled the plug on the system in the middle of a write operation. That can ruin any hard drive.

Lol, well it would be pretty silly to have randomly pulled an SD out of my Wii U to run diagnostics on when i don't even have a way to read it on my main computer and I don't use it that much. Not to mention I've not the capital necessary to replace it anyway. Either way, I'm quite patient, but WUPInstallerGX stuck at installing around 46%, making no indication of progress whatsoever for over 30 minutes. It was clearly glitched. With no fail-safe that could simply stop the installation due to whatever failing that did, this program is certainly capable of bricking a hard drive, as it did because I had no recourse.

you should be able to extract your saves with some tool somewhere arround here (like that i think https://gbatemp.net/threads/wfsdump-pc-util-for-dumping-wfs-devices-wiiu-file-system.478480/ )

What a novel idea! I'm looking in to how to backup my save data now! Hopefully that program can be used for that, because I don't have enough space on any drive to buffer the whole terabyte. Thanks for the lead!

 

[bluedart]

Well, in theory I could find the drive (easier said than done) and then use a command on that program to extract the saves and inject them into a fresh installation. That would work, but no amount of google FU has me coming up with, as page 2 of that thread so nonchalantly says "I used powershell and discovered that my USB drive is \\.\PHYSICALDRIVE2." Uh, what? I've tried various commands in PowerShell (by googling the right heck out of it) and it will only ever show system drives with a letter that windows shows. (Not the unnamed nonsense that CrystalDiskInfo shows.) So close, yet so far. Help?

 

[DaTank45]

could the Y cable be bad? Maybe it's shorting out?

 

[bostonBC]

Lol, well it would be pretty silly to have randomly pulled an SD out of my Wii U to run diagnostics on when i don't even have a way to read it on my main computer and I don't use it that much. Not to mention I've not the capital necessary to replace it anyway. Either way, I'm quite patient, but WUPInstallerGX stuck at installing around 46%, making no indication of progress whatsoever for over 30 minutes. It was clearly glitched. With no fail-safe that could simply stop the installation due to whatever failing that did, this program is certainly capable of bricking a hard drive, as it did because I had no recourse.


What a novel idea! I'm looking in to how to backup my save data now! Hopefully that program can be used for that, because I don't have enough space on any drive to buffer the whole terabyte. Thanks for the lead!

You clearly have no idea about how software works.

You had a hardware failure - either in your SD card which you can't won't test or your hard disk or cabling. And then YOU pulled the plug on the system.

Don't blame the software since I have seen ZERO other people have a bricked hard disk when using WUPInstaller.

Best of luck buddy.

 

[bluedart]

Rant:

Spoiler

You clearly have no idea about how software works.

You had a hardware failure - either in your SD card which you can't won't test or your hard disk or cabling. And then YOU pulled the plug on the system.

Don't blame the software since I have seen ZERO other people have a bricked hard disk when using WUPInstaller.

Best of luck buddy.

Okay, calm down, no need to flame and break the TOS. (by replying to this with some vitriol, not because of what has already been posted.)
Disclaimer: I am a programmer of around 10 years, but I am also not omniscient. Which means of course that I could be in error. However, simply because a piece of software has NOT failed previously does not exclude the possibility that on a subsequent iteration it may fail. Now, since each usage is using possibly different hardware and data it may only be a matter of time before an iteration that causes a worthwhile exception occurs, but it may occur nonetheless. You are, in fact, operating under a fallacy. Simply because a piece of software has worked properly thousands of times does not mean that it is infallible. There could be any number of oversights that could have caused this. I've seen some shit. It may also be hardware failure, time will tell. I did ask for a recommendation for SD card testing tools though, which as of yet, no-one has fulfilled. I implore you to be helpful and constructive in your criticism. I am not your therapist. You do not get to 'work out' things on me. Remember this.

I'm working on getting a reliable, quick SD reader in the form of putting Windows back on my laptop, so if anyone knows of good SD checking utilities for Windows, I'd love to know of them.

If anyone has any actual help they would like to provide I would be more than grateful. I still can't seem to use that tool linked because I have trouble finding a specific parameter on the argument I must pass to the program.

wfs-extract --input \\.\PHYSICALDRIVE2 --otp otp.bin --seeprom seeprom.bin --output dump

PHYSICALDRIVE2 appears to be incorrect, and any iteration from 1-6 has proven useless as well. Of course, there's no use trying a Drive letter, since the drive in question does not licit a letter, nor would it ever on a windows machine, so that's not the answer.

 

[Engezerstorung]

when a hard drive dont have letter it just mean that you cant access it into windows explorer the usual way, but it have a "device" name (\\.\PHYSICALDRIVE2 thingy is an exemple, this may not be exactly yours), you need to find a way to identify your external hard drive
and have you dumped the otp.bin and seeprom.bin of your wiiU? (im asking just in case) because if you didnt its not gonna work anyway

ps: to see if your drive is detected by your computer, if you are under w10 right click on the start menu icon and select "disk manager", once plugged if the drive work it should show up, if not it mean that there is a physical problem at some level, but if crystal disk info could see it, no reason disk manager could not

ps2: in my case my wiiU hard drive show as "disk 1" in disk manager and crystal disk info so it hsould be \\.\PHYSICALDRIVE1 for me

ps:3 DONT DO ANYTHING INTO DISK MANAGER, dont initialize, dont format, dont click on a single thing, just use it to read the info on the main list, if you do something you are going to fuck up your data

 

[bluedart]

I just installed windows 10 on my laptop, which means I now have a reliable way to put stuff on the SD card. (And just in case, I'm going to keep the installation files for my games on there.) I ran h2testw and it filled around 90% of the free space of the card without any issue whatsoever. (that space is where the games go anyway)
So I'm not going to worry about the SD card anymore, honestly I think it's more likely that ubuntu on my laptop screwed up somehow while copying files. I couldn't even get that thing running with nvidia, and you should have seen the lengths I went to just to enable wireless. Eesh!

when a hard drive dont have letter it just mean that you cant access it into windows explorer the usual way, but it have a "device" name (\\.\PHYSICALDRIVE2 thingy is an exemple, this may not be exactly yours), you need to find a way to identify your external hard drive
and have you dumped the otp.bin and seeprom.bin of your wiiU? (im asking just in case) because if you didnt its not gonna work anyway

ps: to see if your drive is detected by your computer, if you are under w10 right click on the start menu icon and select "disk manager", once plugged if the drive work it should show up, if not it mean that there is a physical problem at some level, but if crystal disk info could see it, no reason disk manager could not

ps2: in my case my wiiU hard drive show as "disk 1" in disk manager and crystal disk info so it hsould be \\.\PHYSICALDRIVE1 for me

ps:3 DONT DO ANYTHING INTO DISK MANAGER, dont initialize, dont format, dont click on a single thing, just use it to read the info on the main list, if you do something you are going to fuck up your data

Hey, thanks bro! I can definitely use that! Anyway, I'm on Windows 7, but I googled how to get to Disk Manager and figured it out. Now Disk Manager definitely sees the drive when plugged in, because it says that it needs to be formatted to a format that it can use first. So we're all good there! Which means that either half of the y-cable is kaput or, more likely, it was the weird ubuntu setup I was using for file transfer. Anyway, it's calling it "Disk 3" either way so I guess PHYSICALDRIVE3 is what I want, I just need to dump some files to get it to work first. I suppose I'll google that in the meantime, but I've made significant progress here. Thank you!

 

[bluedart]

Okay, it looks like that worked, it's dumping. However, I think it's finished with all the save files, and now it appears to be doing games. Yeah, the desktop doesn't have space for that, so I may have to stop it then. Since I got the saves it should be fine since I can inject them with saviine, right?