Wanted to post this in case anyone else starts to have my recent experience. I was using an external powered Maxtor HDD and for the past six months started having small glitches. At first it would be a game would randomly freeze or lock-up, requiring a reboot. They eventually got worse and the last week or so, a couple of games on the drive would just completely bring the system down with an error code. If you notice this and do not want to lose everything on the drive. Here is how I managed to salvage all the important stuff from the drive, and only lost save data on a single game.
Most importanly, don't panic and make sure you have some time on your hands. This process took me about 90 minutes to complete and then I had to redownload some stuff from the eShop.
First, go into the settings, data management, copy/move/files and select the external drive.
Second, go into each game on the drive and delete everything except for saved game data. (The Game itself if downloaded, all update data, and anything else that can be redownloaded). Once that is done, there will be just save data that is a few KB or MB in size.
Third, move that to the internal storage
Fourth, repeat steps two and three for everything. Remember the player save data is what cannot be replaced.
I ended up with this method because at first I attempted to move everything and quickly found the drive crashing while trying to migrate entire games. This might not save everything (I lost Advance Wars data), but it should net everything recoverable. Unfortunately, Nintendo did not give you the ability to move individual parts of a game and that is why you have to delete the replaceable data first.
Anyways, I hope this helps if you find yourself in the same situation. Hopefully no one else will be stuck doing this.
That works until you get stuck with a part of a game that cannot be moved or deleted. (It happened to me - fortunately before that I copied all my save games to a usb pendrive).
“30fps Is Not a Good Artistic Decision, It's a Failure”
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What I do is use Ubuntu Linux to simply mirror the drive entirely. You end up with a complete clone, no need to redownload anything. The cloned drive will only work on your Wii U though... Because, you know, Nintendo.
Also, this is best done by opening up your PC case and connecting both drives internally. SATA is OK, but if you have faster connections/cables it's better. USB is waaaaaaay too slow.
That's a nice thing to note. I do a periodic backup to a second external drive that I keep in a fire safe, but it's good to know if the drive is dying you can still try to salvage save data.
That's a nice thing to note. I do a periodic backup to a second external drive that I keep in a fire safe, but it's good to know if the drive is dying you can still try to salvage save data.
I'm sorry, but I find that amusing. I can totally imagine a thief breaking in and cracking open the safe to find a HDD. "wtf is this" takes it home, attempts to break the encryption or figure out the File System being used, takes it to his buddy who spends time and money to crack it open only to find out.........Wii U save game data.
"When expecting booby traps, always send the boob in first." -Megatron-
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Topic: External HDD Death
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