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Wii U external HDD thread
- Thread starter Christberg
- Start date
For a way that may be kosher: have you tried connecting a secondary external drive to the Wii U? I think two can be connected now so maybe you can copy the entire contents that way. I'm at a loss otherwise, would be nice to at least have save files automatically kept on both system and HDD just in case.
Does it show up if you use boot using Seagate tools? Anyway it should at least show up in the Disk manager.
Since I haven't really been following this entire topic but I'm now looking for a Wii U hard drive is a Seagate STBX1000101 with a Y cable a decent drive for the Wii U. That's this one here
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822178245
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822178245
Seth Enosh
Member
should work as long as it has a Y cable.
Just a note but I'd recommend getting one that has an AC adapter instead of a y cable if you think you might want to use Ethernet in the future. I have one with a y cable and wish I had gotten a single cable drive so I could use my Ethernet adapter.
WiiRevolution1
Member
Oh hey, wanted to find this thread and it was bumped!
Hey guys, I need you to tell me how much of a bad idea this is.
I wanted to download the Wii Fit U trial before it expired, but of course basic WiiU so I only have 3GBs. So I tried something...it was a hard drive that I figured wouldn't work, and it did...
It was a iPod nano 16GB.
So far it has worked flawlessly. I can't download while the system is in standby, and the screen stays on after I turn off the WiiU until the batttery dies, but it has worked flawlessly.
Should I keep using it? It just seems like such a bad idea to me lol.
Hey guys, I need you to tell me how much of a bad idea this is.
I wanted to download the Wii Fit U trial before it expired, but of course basic WiiU so I only have 3GBs. So I tried something...it was a hard drive that I figured wouldn't work, and it did...
It was a iPod nano 16GB.
So far it has worked flawlessly. I can't download while the system is in standby, and the screen stays on after I turn off the WiiU until the batttery dies, but it has worked flawlessly.
Should I keep using it? It just seems like such a bad idea to me lol.
Does anybody have the 750GB or 1TB version of this working using a USB y-cable?I tempted to get the drive but it costs almost nothing to upgrade to the larger drive but I'm wondering if it's going to cause power issues if I do that?
iamaustrian
Member
I don't know how many eshop games you will download in the future but 16GB is very very small.
hell, I guess there are already some games that are even bigger than 16GB.
get a "real" HDD with some capacity. I have an old as fuck 250GB platinum HDD hooked up to my WiiU and it works GREAT.
Bjoern the Smexy
Member
A Y-cord or external power supply is necessary because the HDD wouldn't get enough power otherwise to maintain a steady power cycle.
If Nintendo would create their own branded HDD that wouldn't change anything about the necessity or a Y-cord or external power supply. They would have to develop a completely new kind of HDD for that to work and that would just cost unneccesary amounts of money.
Nostremitus
Member
To run on that little power, and still be functional, it would need to be SSD. Have fun paying top dollar for a fraction of the storage space.
You could just buy an SSD with a lower power requirement now, if you wanted to. No need for Nintendo branding.
I switched over to a high capacity thumb drive I had lying around and have had no problems. Games seem to boot faster and run smoother than they did when I used my Iomega 500GB HHD with Y cable.
They should release a USB HDD that comes with a Y cord.
I tried buying a new HDD for the Wii U yesterday and annoyingly, no electronics store in the area offered USB Y cords at all. Now I've got a new HDD, but had to order a USB Y cord at Amazon, so that I can actually use it. Would have liked to use it this weekend, but now I've got to wait until Tuesday. :|
It was annoying for me too, my HDD has an input that is not common for most HDDs, so aside buying a Y cord I had to buy a USB to mini USB adapter =/
It's pretty un-friendly solution using a Y cord, Joe average wouldn't even know why his HDD didn't work on Wii U.
Wow you gave me a nice idea, I have a WD MYBOOK SATA 500GB drive sitting here that I used to have attached to my HD DVR box. I also have a SATA-USB switch and I hooked it up to my Wii U and it recognized it as a USB drive and formatted it and now I have 465 GB free instead of the 20 I have left in the main system
Got this and it works perfectly with a Y cable, thanks for the advice!
I suppose I may add NES & SNES emulators at some point down the line.
Thanks.
Does anybody know if it's possible on the Wii U to use the hdd for Wii U titles AND if I was to rip my Wii disc games via the Homebrew channel? Will I need to have two separate drives for that? I pretty much only buy Nintendo's first party games so 500Gb would likely be plenty for both systems if it was possible. I've only got the Super Mario, Zelda, Donkey Kong games and that sort of thing on the Wii so I don't really need 500GB for each system if I can avoid it.
I suppose I may add NES & SNES emulators at some point down the line.
Thanks.
Heavy's Sandvich
Member
Appreciate the fact this question has been answered already, but for the sake of humouring me, what is the best HDD you could recommend for the console?
I'd have a budge of around £50-60.
I'd have a budge of around £50-60.
dragonfart28
Banned
Weird request but is it possible to get a usb power adapter to connect to my y cable so that one usb is connected to the power source and the other is still in the Wii U?
Would that work?
Would that work?
Acupunctur3
Member
I have a Toshiba 1TB portable HDD and have had nothing but problems with it. I'm assuming that is because it is not a powered HDD.
Jaded Alyx
Member
Did anyone try partitioning a HDD? Leaving half of the drive with personal data to use with a PC, and the other half without format to be formatted later by the Wii U? I'm considering to buy one, but if I can use the one I have for PC with the console at the same time, much better.
Probably is not possible at all, but just to know. Thanks for your replies guys!
Probably is not possible at all, but just to know. Thanks for your replies guys!
Jaded Alyx
Member
It's not possible as far as I know.
Acupunctur3
Member
Jaded, I am not using a Y-Cable. Would my HDD work if I used a Y and connected it to both of my USB ports?
How are you with storage and speed? I know the max is 5400 RPM, do you feel like the games load any faster? Or would that be more based on the RAM than the hard drive.
Jaded Alyx
Member
Yes (I just responded to your other post in the other thread). The problem is with the single connection, it won't receive enough power from the port. The Y-Cable allows you to connect to both and gives it sufficient power.
Jaded Alyx
Member
I have over 300GB left last I checked. Storage won't be an issue for a long time, if ever.
I can't compare speeds myself, but from following such threads here, it seems the faster loading in certain games that have been tested isn't that significant.
Thanks. Unfortunately I will have to buy a new HDD then
I don't understand why is Nintendo made this unable. Didn't they even consider many people (perhaps just a few of us) would have preferred to use the same hard drive for both PC and console?
HUELEN10
Member
Okay, so I thought this might be a good thread to post the question in. Is there a powered USB 3.0 or 2.0 hub that has an AC adapter with full power to all ports AND shuts off power to connected device when it detects when the destination device is off? This would allow me to hook up USB peripheral games and a bus-powered disk without the hassle of manually unplugging the hub when the Wii U is off to prevent the peripherals from staying on, or the external disk from spinning 24/7 for no reason.
Sorry if this was answered already but I was looking at a WD My Book that uses Ethernet. Would it work with the Wii U?
This one:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00429N16A/?tag=neogaf0e-20
This one:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00429N16A/?tag=neogaf0e-20
LOL it was like the second mentioned in WiiU's site .. that was lucky xD
A USB cable that supply both data and power. It basically looks like a Y at one end and a standard USB HDD connector at the other
I was thinking of getting this one:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005J7YCHG/?tag=neogaf0e-20
Would this Y cable work?
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005M0ICG2/?tag=neogaf0e-20
n64coder
Member
Yes, that should be fine.
Thanks!
marimorimo
Member
Has anybody tried using any old FLASH DRIVE? Are they feasible?
I have a spare portable, un-powered HDD lying around but I don't feel like connecting a 250 GB drive when I'll probably use only 20 GB or so (at most). I also don't like the fact that I have to buy a Y-cable (more expensive than I thought) and having a big ugly ass thingy hanging from the back of my Wii U.
My Wii U and its periphery is already cluttered as it is from a bazillion accessories.
I have a spare portable, un-powered HDD lying around but I don't feel like connecting a 250 GB drive when I'll probably use only 20 GB or so (at most). I also don't like the fact that I have to buy a Y-cable (more expensive than I thought) and having a big ugly ass thingy hanging from the back of my Wii U.
My Wii U and its periphery is already cluttered as it is from a bazillion accessories.
woo and indeed hoo
Banned
Nintendo recommend that users do not use a flash drive as they have a limited read/write capacity and so usage in this way will prematurely age the drive.
However, someone else asked this just question the other day in another thread and several GAFers said that they had been using a flash drive with their Wii U for some time without any issues.
Also, I'm pretty sure I've seen some posters say that the managed to get their drive to work via USB connection to the Wii U without using a Y-cable. Worth a try?
It really depends on how much power your drive needs, I recommend you use a Y-Cable so that it doesn't crap out mid game and corrupt since the USB ports are low power.
As for Flash Drives, as long as the game doesn't have continual read/write cycles like auto-saving there shouldn't be a problem.
Just be wary of what kind of USB you use. I recommend using one with larger storage, 64+GB so that you have extra space in case your flash drive deteriorates.
So I hooked up a 3TB Seagate external hard drive (USB 3.0, powered). I was using this before as a media drive. It was three-quarters full, but I moved all the files to a new 4TB WD external drive last night. I'm using the 3TB for Mario Kart and the free game download (Wii U internal is out of space).
-First attempt at formatting: Checking for external hard drive. Stays stuck there. Restart Wii U.
-Second attempt: Finds the drive, press Format button, but now stuck at formatting screen. It's been hours.
I'm at work now, but my GF is checking periodically from home. No progress, button presses do nothing. Should I do a hard reset/powe-down and try again?
-First attempt at formatting: Checking for external hard drive. Stays stuck there. Restart Wii U.
-Second attempt: Finds the drive, press Format button, but now stuck at formatting screen. It's been hours.
I'm at work now, but my GF is checking periodically from home. No progress, button presses do nothing. Should I do a hard reset/powe-down and try again?
Anyone using a USB thumb drive AND have Mario Kart 8 digital??
I'm using a 64GB high speed thumb drive and I have been using this thumb drive ever since I got my Wii U Basic at launch in December 2012. It's been absolutely fine, VC Games, Demos, Trine 2, Wind Waker HD.
Then a couple of months ago I thought I'd try Wii U Sports. The game wouldn't load, the Wii U would lock up and the message was that the HDD had been unplugged. So I copied Wii U Sports over to the internal Wii U memory and it works fine.
Now I've got Mario Kart 8 digital and the game locks freezes and locks up the Wii U every 2 hours or so. No errors come up on screen. Is anyone else experiencing lock ups on MK 8 or could it be my thumb drive?
I'm using a 64GB high speed thumb drive and I have been using this thumb drive ever since I got my Wii U Basic at launch in December 2012. It's been absolutely fine, VC Games, Demos, Trine 2, Wind Waker HD.
Then a couple of months ago I thought I'd try Wii U Sports. The game wouldn't load, the Wii U would lock up and the message was that the HDD had been unplugged. So I copied Wii U Sports over to the internal Wii U memory and it works fine.
Now I've got Mario Kart 8 digital and the game locks freezes and locks up the Wii U every 2 hours or so. No errors come up on screen. Is anyone else experiencing lock ups on MK 8 or could it be my thumb drive?
marimorimo
Member
So a thumb drive is technically possible but not recommended. Figures. Thanks for the replies.
What bothers me though is the Wii U's internal drive. It uses flash too, doesn't it? So what makes the wear from it different from that of a regular USB drive?
What bothers me though is the Wii U's internal drive. It uses flash too, doesn't it? So what makes the wear from it different from that of a regular USB drive?
See my post. Everything for me has been perfect for me using a thumb drive for almost 18 months. It's just Wii U Sports that had an issue with it. And I'm experiencing lock ups on Mario Kart 8 but haven't determined if that's the thumb drive.
WiCkEd_Co
Member
That's exactly what I was thinking. I'm using a 64gb flash drive now.
Definitely try moving it to internal to see if you get the same issue.
Redownloading might not be a bad idea.
I'm using a Cruzer Fit flash drive and it's fine.
I back up my saves too just in case, but I'd do the same with an HDD.
Redownloading might not be a bad idea.
I'm using a Cruzer Fit flash drive and it's fine.
I back up my saves too just in case, but I'd do the same with an HDD.