Bigger NAND via SD vs external USB storage

[WiLL]

Hello everyone,
I just got my hands on a Japanese Wii U and unfortunately it has a Hynix NAND and a manufacturing date at November 2012.
I backed up my NAND, got "retry 5" in Nand Dumper
Tested the binary file and got 1 error

Error: Failed to read /"sys\\title\\00050030\\10010009\\meta\\bootTvTex.tga"

(that is in the HOME Menu (OSv9) title)
So, it feels like my NAND already started to decay.
Not sure what to do.

• Use it as is, as everything looks just fine for now?
• Replace the MLC by a SD card with an interposer like NAND-aid or MLC2SD?
• Use RedNAND?

If I was to replace the MLC by a SD card, then I could make it 64GB by rebuilding the NAND. Cool.
But then, why stop there?
If I need more space than 64GB, then why not going for 256GB or 512GB directly instead of relying on an external USB additional storage?
Are there any downside I don't see?

• Pro:
  • Cheaper to go for 1 large SD than 1 small SD + 1 large USB key/HDD
  • No visible external storage
• Cons:
  • Are there any?

Thank you

 

[SDIO]

64GB are natively supported and will work without any mods (you can remove ISFShax after the rebuilt). If you want more than 64GB, you need the unlimit plugin, and that means you need to keep ISFShax. If you uninstall ISFShax for whatever reason the console would be bricked. That limit is also explained in the rebuild tutorial.
If you don't have a problem with keeping ISFShax, you can go bigger than 64GB. But still would recommend using a endurance SD card, the biggest I saw so far from Sandisk was 256GB. But any SD should work, the question is just how long i would last.
Since the unlimit disables SCFM, it's even more important that the SD card can take some writes.

Post automatically merged: Apr 10, 2024

That one error could also just be that this file was still in SCFM, but since that is a old system title that is really unlikely.
No other files seem to be affected by the corruption. But the retry 5 indicates there is a prolem with the mlc. Could be that you stay lucky and it continues to work as long you use it, but there is also the chance that a partial write to a at the moment unused bad block happens. In that case your console would full brick with not even UDPIH working. Also if the console goes unused for a wihile (and maybe even if it is used) it is probably that it decays further and you get corruption on used blocks.

If you decide to get an MLC2SD, you can ask @V10lator for one.

EDIT: also since redNAD needs ISFShax anyway, the limit is removed there by default, there you can make the MLC partition any size (but the SD need to be 2TB at max)

 

[WiLL]

Wow, thank you @SDIO for such amazing and detailed answer.
I guess I will play safe then and go for a full rebuild of the MLC on a high endurance 64GB SD with a MLC2SD or NAND-aid.
The goal is not only make it work now but also to keep it in my pseudo collection, so I don't want to just forget to NEVER remove ISFShax even in 5 or 10 years from now.

 

[ChibiMofo]

Note also that if you are going to go the SD card route, you certainly want one of those slightly more expensive high endurance cards from a quality manufacturer (like SanDisk, Crucial or Samsung) because of the number of writes/rewrites that will take place over the years to come. Otherwise you'll just be inviting another Hynix-style issue.

I wish it was as easy on Wii U as it is on Wii to just use an EmuNAND.