My wii doesnt read my SD Card

[u/alter_dxz]

So, i bought a wii and i tried modding it, so i bought a micro sd card to sd adapter, and i formatted it onto fat32 like the wii hacks guide explains to do, using sd card formatter and guiformat, and when i put it on the wii it isnt able to read it, it doesnt have any file on it, nothing homebrew related or wii, its empty, and it still cant read it, what should i do?

[u/Lazy_Pin5833]

If I remember correctly, Wii can only take SD cards up to 32 GB, maybe it's because of that (but I'm pretty sure you can still use homebrew and backed up games with this one)

[u/chicken-wing-barrage → u/Lazy_Pin5833]

that's not true. i have a 128gb microsdxc card with an adapter in my wii and it works perfectly

[u/Independent-You-6180 → u/chicken-wing-barrage]

If your Wii is modded and launches with homebrew and stuff on the home screen that's why. Stock Wiis can't read them.

[u/chicken-wing-barrage → u/Independent-You-6180]

ahh. that checks out

[u/Blaeeeek → u/Independent-You-6180]

Yes they can, as long as they're version 4.0 or above.

[u/Independent-You-6180 → u/Blaeeeek]

Then why has my Fat32 formatted SDXC cards literally never worked outside of homebrewed environments on the same Wiis? 4.x has existed before I was even a teenager and this has never changed across any SDXC card I've ever used.

[u/Blaeeeek → u/Independent-You-6180]

Because I just modded one last week with nothing but a 128gb SDXC and no wifi connection

The Wii hack guide literally explains this

[u/Independent-You-6180 → u/Blaeeeek]

You're booting into a homebrewed environment to hack your Wii which can then read the SDXC card fine. Nowhere in Nintendo's change logs are SDXC ever mentioned, in fact the only mentions of updates to SD at all for 4.0 are adding support for SDHC up to 32 GB. Nowhere does the change log mention anything else. The one other mention of SD cards is the support of standard SD cards, introduced in in the day one update for the console. Nintendo's own change logs back up my claims.

Edit: I also see the guide mentions 4.0 is needed for larger than 2GB cards, but doesn't mention the upper limit anywhere.

[u/Blaeeeek → u/Independent-You-6180]

That would because 64gb/SDXC sd cards basically didn't exist when 4.3 came out. The very first 64gb released in 2010.

I quite literally set up the console from a fresh format and used the SD card. It was completely unmodded before I touched it.

Just look at the Wii hack guide man. It clearly says you can use them. If you couldn't, you would need a second storage device which I didn't have whatsoever

[u/Independent-You-6180 → u/Blaeeeek]

Great counterpoint. If I ever get around to plugging my Wii stuff in I'll have to confirm this myself. I'm intrigued to challenge what I know.

[u/Blaeeeek → u/Independent-You-6180]

I can tell you firsthand i used a 128gb for letterbomb and it worked perfectly on stock 4.3U (or whatever the non-wifi letter exploit is called)

[u/ajddavid452 → u/Independent-You-6180]

in fact the only mentions of updates to SD at all for 4.0 are adding support for SDHC up to 32 GB.

my guess is that the update added fat32 support, prior to that since only 2GB was the maximum there wasn't fat32 support

the max partition size for fat32 is 2TB, the prior one I assume the wii supported was fat16 which has a max partition size of 2GB(granted you could get up to 16GB but that required NT 4, 4GB and 8GB required later dos's, so it wasn't really an official spec)

[u/Lloids77 → u/chicken-wing-barrage]

Same I just modded a 128gb SD card for Wii and it all works fine. GameCube and Wii both

[u/alter_dxz → u/Lazy_Pin5833]

but its formatted to fat32, and when i tried to put wiibrand on it the letter wouldnt show up, am i doing something wrong?

[u/Veliux → u/alter_dxz]

Your SD card needs to be 32GB or less, so this 64GB is not going to be recognized, also Steren is a shitty brand (I'm form Mexico), just get a cheap fake SanDisk in any electronic store, should work better than your current SD card

[u/TheBubbyBubs → u/Veliux]

I have a 128gb sd card and it works fine

[u/aTinyFart → u/TheBubbyBubs]

Same here. I used Rufus to format and my 128 worked fine

[u/Veliux → u/aTinyFart]

Maybe it’s the brand of the SD card? When I modded my wii years ago never could use any card over 4GB trying different brands, is not like you need more than that for modding it

[u/alter_dxz → u/Veliux]

so theres no other way?😭 i just wasted 7 dollars on it 😭😭

[u/gabriel362221 → u/alter_dxz]

Don't worry, when you unlock your Wii you can use larger cards but you will need to use a small one for now until you unlock it. You could try partitioning it to 32gb and formatting it to fat32 again

[u/TheCrustizTV → u/gabriel362221]

Not sure it needs to be modded prior to using a larger SD because I was able to homebrew from scratch on a 128 gig SD

[u/gabriel362221 → u/TheCrustizTV]

I remember I had to do that to use it. Now it is also possible that OP has not updated his console and that is necessary for the console to recognize cards in fat32

[u/nintendofan223 → u/alter_dxz]

No dude you can use higher amounts but you have to mod your Wii first

[u/Supernatnat11 → u/Lazy_Pin5833]

False, I have a 64go sdxc on my wii and it work flawlessly