A tool called Wafel checks whether your Wii U storage is failing

The Wii U’s weak spot is its internal storage, and a tool called Wafel Installer can now test it from the console’s own web browser. Hackaday’s Maya Posch writes that the eMMC chip holding the console’s firmware and user data “likes to keel over,” with the SK Hynix version “reportedly developing faulty cells much sooner than the Samsung and Toshiba chips.”

Running the check takes no modding. On any unmodified Wii U, you go to wafel.xyz in the console’s browser to launch the installer, Hackaday reports, or start it from an SD card on a homebrew console, then pick the NAND test from its menu. The project’s GitHub release notes added “NAND Check” in version 1.4. Unless the chip is already badly failing, the test takes a minute or two (Hackaday).

The same installer does a lot more than test. Its GitHub page says it installs Stroopwafel custom firmware, ISFShax and the Aroma homebrew environment, and prepares SD cards and USB drives, so read the menu before you press anything. If you only came to check your storage, the NAND test is the one option you want.

You can watch it before you run it. Hackaday points to a video by FunkyScott47 that walks through the tests on his own Wii U, and his Samsung chip came back fine. And yes, the names are all waffles and stroopwafels; Hackaday says it can’t be held responsible if you get the munchies.

If there’s a Wii U in a closet at your house, plug it in, open its browser and run the NAND test this week. It takes a couple of minutes, and you’ll know whether the chip inside is holding up.

A two-minute test is a small price for knowing which kind of Wii U you own.