#+title:wiiunhide

this is yet another application allows you to get rid of the annoying =Format
Disk= nag when using a FAT32 USB harddrive on the wiiu. this is achieved by
modifying a byte in the drive's MBR so that it appears to be hidden. because
modifying a drive's MBR is a potentially risky operation, *THIS APPLICATION IS
USED AT YOUR OWN RISK.* make sure you have a full backup of your drive before
use.

this application was tested on Debian unstable and no others. in theory it
should work on any unix-like where rust is supported. i doubt it will work on
windows.

* INSTALLATION
** FROM CARGO
with a proper Rust installation, the application can easily be installed with
cargo:

#+begin_src shell
  cargo install wiiunhide
#+end_src
** FROM BINARY
a binary has been provided for Linux x86_64 in the Releases tab. place this in
your =$PATH= and you're good to go.
* USAGE
execute the application with the block device of your harddrive (=/dev/sde=, NOT
=/dev/sde1=) to toggle the status:

#+begin_src shell
$ wiiunhide /dev/sde
#+end_src

be sure you have proper read/write access to this device before running. this
can be achieved with =sudo= or setting up a udev rule for the device.

** CHECK
running the application with the =-c= or =--check= flag will simply print the
current status of the device without making any modifications:

#+begin_src shell
$ wiiunhide --check /dev/sde
wiiunhide 0.1
/dev/sde is currently VISIBLE
#+end_src

** BACKUP AND RESTORE
a backup of the drive's MBR (the first 512 bytes) is automatically created
before any modifications are made. by default, it is saved as =mbr.bin= but can
be customized with the =--backup-file [filename]= option.

the =--restore [filename]= command attempts to restore the drive's MBR from a
=wiiunhide= backup file. this is a risky operation and should only be used as a
last resort. again, *USE AT YOUR OWN RISK.*

* REFERENCES
- [[https://gbatemp.net/threads/wii-u-format-disk-message-workaround-linux-edition.374398/][wudh]] - a shell script to interactively hide/unhide a disk. =wiiunhide= was
  built by readings its source.
- [[https://code.google.com/archive/p/u-stealth/][u-stealth]] - the originator of this method.