FIRST OF ALL!: Please, if this tutorial has been written before, I request the thread to be deleted, thanks!
Also, I'm not responsible if your Wii U explodes with this, or something bad happens, this tutorial has been tested with CoD:Ghosts with its respective DLC and both were perfectly installed and working, I wouldn't be writing this if that weren't be the case... This guide also assumes that you know how to do the Brazilian method to install games and know how WUP Installer works, etc.

Hi to all! Well, I was lurking for some time in the forums, and I found the Brazilian method a long time ago to install the games here, it was great! But the problem was the need to use a SD Card to install them, the biggest SD Card I have is 16GB (14.6GB) so there are some games that would be imposible to install (Examples are Xenoblade Chronicles X or Call Of Duty Ghosts). And as you know CoD:Ghost doesn't has an eShop release, so AFAIK I can't use Wii U USB Helper Tranfer Tool (Not to mention the slower transfer rates using it)

Taking this in mind, let's start!:

Requirements

Well, I will tell you my setup.

• 500GB WD My Passport 0730 (FAT32 format, single partition of 465GB approximately, here we will store the game to install and the same files as the SD Card, I will explain this in detail later)
• 160GB Samsung HDD "HM161GI" (This will be the disk that is in Wii U format, is my main disk for the console)
• 16GB Kingston SDCard, you will need Homebrew Launcher Access and all the setup for apps done, in my case I used Haxchi.
• 32GB Wii U, this is necessary since the game before being transferred to the formatted HDD needs to be installed into NAND, a 8GB Wii U would not make sense for this trick.
• Keeping the last requirement in mind, you should try to have almost your internal memory empty, try to move things to your main formatted Wii U hard disk temporarily, Wii U games maximum size is 23.3GB according to WUDs, I don't think there is a Wii U game that exceeds that size.

Of course, you don't need to use exactly the same setup (except for the Wii U part), you can use a SD Card of whethever the capacity you want, the same applies for the HDDs as long as they have enough space, but I write this just in case.
Another thing, use only MBR partition table, GPT will NOT work (I tried with a GPT disk and I lost over 3 hours of my life trying to make it work).

Apps that will be used:
WUP Installer GX2
Homebrew Launcher (I use version 1.4, I know it is outdated, but it does the job)
Mocha CFW with FAT32 support

Preparing FAT32 HDD

You will need to format your HDD to FAT32, try to use a drive that is below 2TB, the Wii U might have problems with something bigger.
Also I'm not sure if doing a partition to a 2TB drive in order to reduce the volume space will work, it's not been tested but it COULD work.

Once you have your FAT32 HDD ready, you will need to download a modified version of Mocha CFW which enables FAT32 compatibility with Wii U, it is a bit unstable so it has been removed for now from the normal release in GitHub, but it will work fine for our needs.
You can download it here .
Extract that in USB:\wiiu\apps, do the same for the SD Card.
Also make sure to COPY ALL YOUR SD CARD DIRECTORIES TO THE HDD, the devices need to be IDENTICAL.
Here's my setup:
USB:\haxchi (Haxchi files)
USB:\install (Here you will put your encrypted game)
USB:\wiiu\apps (Here we will have all HBL apps)
USB:\wiiu\games (Used by loadiine when I was copying the directories from my SD Card, you don't need it)
USB:\wiiu\saves (Used by loadiine when I was copying the directories from my SD Card, you don't need it)
USB:\fw.img (CFW image, you don't need it for this tutorial)

If you have the HDD directories the same as your SD Card and you also have the modified Mocha in apps folder for both devices (including WUP Installer GX2 and Homebrew Launcher too), then the only last thing we need to do here is to put your encrypted game in install folder to use in Wup Installer! (Put the encrypted files in USB:\install).

Doing the magic!

Connect your FAT32 HDD to the Wii U, don't connect your Wii U formatted HDD yet.

Turn on your Wii U, of course ignore the pop up asking to format the disk, then open Haxchi and launch Mocha, run the CFW. After this you will see that the Wii U will not ask to format the disk, instead it will recognize it like a formatted drive. Your hard drive will start acting now as it were your SD Card, that's why I writed before about making the HDD folders to be exactly the same as the SD Card, is not really necessary, it should be enough just by having WUP Installer GX2, Homebrew Launcher and Mocha on the HDD in the wiiu\apps directory,and your game on install folder with haxchi files in USB:\haxchi, but this way will ensure to work exactly the same.

Open Haxchi again and launch WUP Installer GX2, select the "Install" folder, and when you get asked the directory to install select "NAND". I don't know if it will work using the USB option, but I don't think so, maybe it gets installed on your FAT32 drive, maybe it just crash... anyway, that part does not involve me. (And no, I also don't think it will work if you connect your Wii U formatted hard drive before launching WUP Installer GX2 in HBL, the console only Works using a HDD at the time, 2 HDDs will request you to go Data Managment and we don't want that.)

After finishing, you will see your game is perfectly installed into your NAND! CoD:Ghost for example is 16GB and it fitted well in my console. It would be impossible to do this with my SD Card, since it's real capacity is 14.6GB.

Now, turn off your Wii U, disconnect your FAT32 drive, and connect your main Wii U hard drive, boot the console up, go to data management and transfer the game to the HDD, and also transfer back the data you previously moved.

Aaaaaaaaaaaand... well, that's it.

Frequently Asked Questions

• Q:Why does your english sucks so bad?
• A:Because I don't really know how to speak it very well, yes. I studied english at school but well... I will be updating the tutorial if nobody understand how to do this, it is also my first one.
• Q:The tutorial looks... empty, you didn't post any video, not even a single image, what's this?
• A:That is because I'm a Little short of time and also I don't know if this tutorial has been posted before, maybe someone else has done this before me and I will be wasting time if I need to upload videos and images, because in that case this tutorial will be deleted.
• Q:Let's say it's the first tutorial and nobody has made this before, will you update it with images and a video?
• A:Yes, of course, I may post a video too!, the tutorial will be updated from time to time.
• Q:Why I need a 32GB Wii U?
• A:Because that way you can install a big game there, I managed to get about 25GB of free space on my console moving everything to my hard drive, WUDs are 23.3GB so that means the space in the internal memory is enough for holding at least one big game. I don't really think there is a game that is bigger than 23.3GB, that would take 2 Wii U Discs to fit... or a dual-layer one with aproximattely 46.6GB of space
• Q: OK, but I can't just move the game from my FAT32 HDD to a Wii U formatted one?
• A:No, the console will ask to go data management if you connect 2 drives, I don't think it will work if you connect the second one while you are in HBL.
• Q: Is it really necessary to make the USB structure the same as the SD Card?
• A: Well... not really, I said that to prevent problems, but Mocha will mount your FAT32 USB as a FAT32 SD Card, which means that as long you have WUP Installer GX2 and Homebrew Launcher on your USB it should work fine

Also the credits goes to everyone who developed on the Wii U! I didn't developed anything here except the tutorial, I found this method while I was messing around with my console.

I will be updating this according to the questions the users makes.

Feedback is really appreciated! , Hope this is useful.

 

[Flame_Pastel]

Right click the partition in the list of options it should say set active click that.

i dont see a set active

 

[Edwardrey88]

i dont see a set active

It should once you right click the thumb drive on the list.you will see a bunch of options one of them should be set active.

 

[Flame_Pastel]

It should once you right click the thumb drive on the list.you will see a bunch of options one of them should be set active.

its not there but it is on other drives?

 

[Edwardrey88]

its not there but it is on other drives?

You could click on my computer in windows ,manage,then disk management and right click your device and it will say set active.

 

[Flame_Pastel]

You could click on my computer in windows ,manage,then disk management and right click your device and it will say set active.

says request is not supported

 

[Edwardrey88]

says request is not supported

I follow tutorials myself so i'm out of ideas.I mean you could just try it the way you have it if you already installed botw dlc off it with no issues.I would reformat without setting to active if you can't and try reinstalling?Sorry i cant help more.I never tried with a thumb drive, just external hard drive and sd cards.

 

[George miller]

Hi, is there any newer tutorial for this? getting an error when trying to load WUP installer GX2. Just stops working and can´t get it to load so I can be able to install the games, any advice?

 

[Cyan]

I don't think you can set to primary and active in gui format.

Why everybody still persist to "set active" things without understanding what it means ?
a flash drive can't be active.

and active is a COMPUTER BIOS setting, it has ZERO effect on anything else. no device, no console, nothing will care about the "active flag for internal HDD" if it's not ... an internal HDD.
the "active" state (or flag) is a way to mark which partition a Mother board should use to boot Windows or Linux (usful when you have multiple partition and multiple OS at the same time on the same drive).

Other than that, ACTIVE is just ignored by everything. even more when it's an external thumb drive or an SD card.
The Wii and WiiU just don't care about that flag, it doesn't even try to look at it.

Please, everybody : stop suggesting people to set a partition as active, you don't even know why you suggest something you don't understand.



About MBR now :
you are right, a partition formatter can't "set MBR" (nor active state).
these are not a formatter option, but a partitioning tool option.

GPT is required for drives bigger than 2TB, I doubt his thumb drive is that big (8GB?), and therefore is already MBR.
it's possible to force GPT to any partition table type, but he would know he did it. partition manager don't just choose GPT for no reason. (I hope, right?)


If he has issue, it's just because it's a flash drive.
Flash drives must be banned from Wii and WiiU. Nobody should even use them. They are only there to bother you, and waste your time.
DO NOT USE FLASH DRIVE !
how many time would we have to write that on this forum ? make a search !!!! see how many threads you'll find


You want to know what you can do to make it work ? Use another one !
2 pages of thread just to wonder why it doesn't work and tell you "your SD is bad" (your USB is seen as SD card if you use Mocha0.2b), which means the solution is in the error message : your device is bad ! don't use it ! use another one. preferably, use a real HDD, not a flash drive.
you don't understand why it says the device is bad ? probably because it is, or it wouldn't tell you that.

 

[Flame_Pastel]

Why everybody still persist to "set active" things without understanding what it means ?
a flash drive can't be active.

and active is a COMPUTER BIOS setting, it has ZERO effect on anything else. no device, no console, nothing will care about the "active flag for internal HDD" if it's not ... an internal HDD.
the "active" state (or flag) is a way to mark which partition a Mother board should use to boot Windows or Linux (usful when you have multiple partition and multiple OS at the same time on the same drive).

Other than that, ACTIVE is just ignored by everything. even more when it's an external thumb drive or an SD card.
The Wii and WiiU just don't care about that flag, it doesn't even try to look at it.

Please, everybody : stop suggesting people to set a partition as active, you don't even know why you suggest something you don't understand.



About MBR now :
you are right, a partition formatter can't "set MBR" (nor active state).
these are not a formatter option, but a partitioning tool option.

GPT is required for drives bigger than 2TB, I doubt his thumb drive is that big (8GB?), and therefore is already MBR.
it's possible to force GPT to any partition table type, but he would know he did it. partition manager don't just choose GPT for no reason. (I hope, right?)


If he has issue, it's just because it's a flash drive.
Flash drives must be banned from Wii and WiiU. Nobody should even use them. They are only there to bother you, and waste your time.
DO NOT USE FLASH DRIVE !
how many time would we have to write that on this forum ? make a search !!!! see how many threads you'll find


You want to know what you can do to make it work ? Use another one !
2 pages of thread just to wonder why it doesn't work and tell you "your SD is bad" (your USB is seen as SD card if you use Mocha0.2b), which means the solution is in the error message : your device is bad ! don't use it ! use another one. preferably, use a real HDD, not a flash drive.
you don't understand why it says the device is bad ? probably because it is, or it wouldn't tell you that.

the game install files were just corrupted lol

 

[Edwardrey88]

Why everybody still persist to "set active" things without understanding what it means ?
a flash drive can't be active.

and active is a COMPUTER BIOS setting, it has ZERO effect on anything else. no device, no console, nothing will care about the "active flag for internal HDD" if it's not ... an internal HDD.
the "active" state (or flag) is a way to mark which partition a Mother board should use to boot Windows or Linux (usful when you have multiple partition and multiple OS at the same time on the same drive).

Other than that, ACTIVE is just ignored by everything. even more when it's an external thumb drive or an SD card.
The Wii and WiiU just don't care about that flag, it doesn't even try to look at it.

Please, everybody : stop suggesting people to set a partition as active, you don't even know why you suggest something you don't understand.



About MBR now :
you are right, a partition formatter can't "set MBR" (nor active state).
these are not a formatter option, but a partitioning tool option.

GPT is required for drives bigger than 2TB, I doubt his thumb drive is that big (8GB?), and therefore is already MBR.
it's possible to force GPT to any partition table type, but he would know he did it. partition manager don't just choose GPT for no reason. (I hope, right?)


If he has issue, it's just because it's a flash drive.
Flash drives must be banned from Wii and WiiU. Nobody should even use them. They are only there to bother you, and waste your time.
DO NOT USE FLASH DRIVE !
how many time would we have to write that on this forum ? make a search !!!! see how many threads you'll find


You want to know what you can do to make it work ? Use another one !
2 pages of thread just to wonder why it doesn't work and tell you "your SD is bad" (your USB is seen as SD card if you use Mocha0.2b), which means the solution is in the error message : your device is bad ! don't use it ! use another one. preferably, use a real HDD, not a flash drive.
you don't understand why it says the device is bad ? probably because it is, or it wouldn't tell you that.

Which is why i said i don't think you can.I never claimed to be a computer genius or guru i'm just following what i see posted by others on this and other sites that didn't get corrected which is why i assumed they knew what they were talking about.I honestly skimmed this post between trying to take care of two children i get easily side tracked.Without half the tutorials on this site i would be lost.I don't quite understand the hostility on this site but,ok,sorry?I thought i would try and help troubleshoot try to help in some way,just trying to be helpful since i have been visiting this site for years without contributing just lurking,getting all my info,tutorials from here.I thought he said he had already installed some dlc from his thumb drive and it stopped working.Everyone keeps saying whenever formatting anything they plan on using for homebrew for whatever system they are using homebrew on to set to active so i was parroting it back.I don't understand what is what from a technical stand point.I have been seeing set active on your storage in instructions as far back as the days wii homebrew was in it's infancy.I didn't know i was giving false info and for that i apologize.

 

[Edwardrey88]

I wasn't trying to irritate anyone.

 

[Cyan]

you are right, that's me. I'm irritated these past few weeks.
I might have helped too much, and feel annoyed when it's something I said hundreds time and people still ask the same question, or give the wrong advice to others.
I feel guides we have are not enough. I'm trying to write a new one, but still uncomplete, to fix all common issues. a guide for problems instead of a guide for softmod. I hope it'll help people to refer to it.

maybe I should stop trying to help and let people help each others for a while.

 

[Edwardrey88]

you are right, that's me. I'm irritated these past few weeks.
I might have helped too much, and feel annoyed when it's something I said hundreds time and people still ask the same question, or give the wrong advice to others.
I feel guides we have are not enough. I'm trying to write a new one, but still uncomplete, to fix all common issues. a guide for problems instead of a guide for softmod. I hope it'll help people to refer to it.

maybe I should stop trying to help and let people help each others for a while.

I figured i would try to see if i could help some kid play a game they have been wanting to play or something.I honestly rarely have time to read more than a few sentences with a newborn and my four year old non verbal autistic daughter needing 24/7 supervision.I felt bad that i had never attempted to help anyone here before and i never use any storage under 100 gigs so i had no idea you didn't need to set your storage to active.I didn't know what active is or what it does or why it is or isn't needed only that everyone keeps repeating it like it's a vital step for some reason so i tried to pass on the info.I thought he said he had already installed dlc from it so i didn't understand why he couldn't all of a sudden?I thought it had something to do with setting it active like people around here and other sites repeat constantly.I have no idea what makes a thumb drive different than an sd card,external hard drive ,just that it's external storage thought it should work similarly.That's probably the line of thinking for the average person with limited time to even read a sentence during the day without their kid having a complete mental melt down or newborn freaking out because they dared to take a 5 second break from holding them.It took me over two weeks to even have time to get online to see their was any activity or replies in this thread,again,no ill intentions on my end,just over worked,exhausted not claiming to know it all.This is probably the only time i have replied to anyone on any site on any topic i don't make it a habit of trying to help in case somebody does something to harm their pc,storage,or console etc and decides their error is my fault.

 

[Cyan]

it's one of the problem, everybody re-use what someone said, and nobody told them it's a wrong information.
you are right that a lot of people say to set the partition as active, and I understand that of course everyone else think it's a needed/useful setting, because it's on many forums and guides.
that's just too bad that nobody came to these guide or post the first time to explain what active is used for, to prevent spreading that information for years.

actually, it's not bad, sorry if I felt angry, it's not a big problem as it will just have no effect.
I might have overreacted because there's no harm editing that option.

I don't want you to stop helping other users because of what I said. that's always nice to have helpers.
I think it's still good idea to help when we tried something ourselves and know how it works, and which effect it has.

 

[George miller]

Hi everyone, seems like the only game you can´t do this is Xenoblade Chronicles X, since you can´t get all fit at the same time, game almost 20, dlc 10, and update around 100 mb. So can´t fit even on a black 32gb wii. Is there a way to do it without having a big SD or MICRO SD CARD, or just some other method, since I tried this, and let the dlc at the end but when I try to transfer it says it will overwrite my data. :__(

 

[SeifAB]

Still need help? You do realise you could do the game first to the USB, then the DLC and Update? That would work as you could fit everything into the USB. All it would take it another lap of the process
Also, there are ways to transfer save data to the USB, check the sticky thread for the WUP installer guide and go down till you see a link to transfer it over.

 

[KytuzuEX]

As of now, 2019... still this works?

I left my Wii U at 5.5.2 and always heard that it is required to run a game beforehand in order to work Mocha or anything else.

Never started to do it because of this, I used to play games via Web Browser SD card.

 

[SeifAB]

I don't have my Wii u on hand, and likely won't have it for a while, but I haven't heard of anything about needing to run a game before you get into CFW, but I'll say it anyway.

Running a game (sort of) is only really for users with standard Haxchi. All they have to do is these steps every reboot:
1. Boot up the 'Haxchi' app on the Wii U
2. You'll be in the HBL (I think?) and you should run the homebrew app 'fw.img' (I think?)
3. You should boot into the home screen, with complete Custom Firmware features, which allows for other region games and forwarder channels, etc..

I've honestly never heard about needing to run a game before (unless you wanna talk about the installation process of Haxchi, which does require a DS vc game.)

 

[SeifAB]

Quick Question. Doesn't FAT32 have max 4GB File Size? How do big games get installed onto the NAND? Is it through multiple files or am I just missing something?

Edit: I just had a moment where I realised that the USB is also fat32, I'm so dumb.

 

[Satur9]

Quick Question. Doesn't FAT32 have max 4GB File Size? How do big games get installed onto the NAND? Is it through multiple files or am I just missing something?

The game installs do all actually comprise of smaller files as well, regardless if from disk2app or USB Helper, the final install directory is just a bunch of files all under 4Gb.

 

[Dymblos]

just asking.. the games can be put/installed directly to the hard drive from a computer.. like the old wii with the WiiBackupmanager
or MUST be PC > SD > WiiU Hard drive (i have an external hard drive with the double usb cable)