• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Wii U external HDD thread

F

FunkyDealer

Banned
Pokemaniac said:
An Ethernet "splitter" is not going to work terribly well, since there's nothing to prevent collisions. What you actually want to use is in that case would be an unmanaged network switch.
Click to expand...

Yeah, but I was hoping to pull it off on the cheap. Doesn't matter anymore though, as I've moved to an apartment where I can't use wired internet anyway.

But yeah, you could definitely try using a USB powered hub and see how that works out for you. Like I said, it seemed to work for me. But it'll depend on how much power your harddrive and adapter happen to drain, and how good the hub is at sharing power. The Wii U has less than standard USB 2.0 power output, I believe...

The safe bet is a powered hub.
 
V

Vilix

Unconfirmed Member
Pokemaniac said:
An Ethernet "splitter" is not going to work terribly well, since there's nothing to prevent collisions. What you actually want to use is in that case would be an unmanaged network switch.
Click to expand...

Is there such a thing as a Ethernet switch? I've heard the term before. Would that work?
 
Pokemaniac

Pokemaniac

Member
Vilix said:
Is there such a thing as a Ethernet switch? I've heard the term before. Would that work?
Click to expand...

An Ethernet switch would work perfectly fine. The thing with Ethernet is that you need an active box managing things in order to make sure the various devices aren't stepping on each other's toes.

Personally, I use this one to share a connection between my laptop and Wii U. Just search for unmanaged network switches (Managed, in this case, would be one which has it's own IP address and has it's own settings. That is generally overkill if you just want something to act as a hub.) on your favorite shopping site, and you should be able to find one to meet your needs.
 
T

TheGamingBox

Banned
Pokemaniac said:
An Ethernet switch would work perfectly fine. The thing with Ethernet is that you need an active box managing things in order to make sure the various devices aren't stepping on each other's toes.

Personally, I use this one to share a connection between my laptop and Wii U. Just search for unmanaged network switches (Managed, in this case, would be one which has it's own IP address and has it's own settings. That is generally overkill if you just want something to act as a hub.) on your favorite shopping site, and you should be able to find one to meet your needs.
Click to expand...

to go with that, what is a good ethernet adaptor for the wiiu
 
H

Hero of Legend

Member
What is the best HDD for Wii U? My Seagate one has been disconnecting at random points, yet it's one Nintendo themselves have tested and approved.

Hero of Legend said:
Just had my external HDD disconnect a second time over the past while on my Wii U.

I have a Seagate 2TB external powered USB HDD, I checked Google and a popular cause could be it's idle mode or something, so hopefully it's not that it's dying.

Model number:

Seagate Expansion 2TB External Desktop Hard Drive (STBV2000100) (This was in Nintendo's list of tested HDDs)

I read one use that trick of disabling the disk spinning or whatever via the Wii U menu settings. Is that the cure? Any ideas guys?
Click to expand...
 
C

Chase17

Member
So I'm looking to get a hard drive finally for Xenoblade and a few other games. I have no idea. I'm trying to avoid a hard drive that needs an external power source. I was wondering if the toshiba canvio basic would work.

I think I would need a Y cable with this. Are all Y cables the same?
 
alf717

alf717

Member
Chase17 said:
So I'm looking to get a hard drive finally for Xenoblade and a few other games. I have no idea. I'm trying to avoid a hard drive that needs an external power source. I was wondering if the toshiba canvio basic would work.

I think I would need a Y cable with this. Are all Y cables the same?
Click to expand...

I just added a drive to my Wii U for Xenoblade and Fatal Frame. I needed a Y cable for my Seagate adapter but it is a little older so this might be why I needed one. Some have gotten away with just one cable so I think it is dependent on the drive that is used.

Hero of Legend said:
What is the best HDD for Wii U? My Seagate one has been disconnecting at random points, yet it's one Nintendo themselves have tested and approved.
Click to expand...

Have you tried disabling the drive sleep function through the Wii U? https://youtu.be/T4EZfdyMngA?t=14s
 
C

Chase17

Member
TheNintendoBox said:
you probably need a y cable, you could also use a powered usb hub
Click to expand...

alf717 said:
I just added a drive to my Wii U for Xenoblade and Fatal Frame. I needed a Y cable for my Seagate adapter but it is a little older so this might be why I needed one. Some have gotten away with just one cable so I think it is dependent on the drive that is used.

https://youtu.be/T4EZfdyMngA?t=14s
Click to expand...

Thanks for the replies! I'll make sure to grab a Y able with it.
 
S

spyroflame0487

Member
In preparation for Xenoblade (and also to consolidate some of my stuff together onto an external HDD for wii U) I ended up purchasing this guy from walmart.

I-i'm afraid I don't really know what im supposed to be looking for, but i ended up swapping it out for one thing I had already, a Hitachi Life Studio. Now the one from walmart appeared to be working a bit, but it didn't look like it was getting enough power or something, and i'm not sure a Y cable would have helped it...but maybe there's a certain one i have to look for? (the cord for it has a special end for the hdd, and then a usb at the other one)

I've had the Hitachi for a while, and decided to just swap all my stuff; i put it all onto the new one I got so I can use Hitachi for the Wii U. After getting everything off, I hooked it up to the Wii U....and it's showing as there only being 382MB of free space...which is obviously incorrect.

I came across this reddit thread on the subject and ended up trying both completely formatting it on the computer (and the wii u does it too) and also deleting the volume so the whole thing is unallocated.

I was wondering if there was anything else I can do to make this work...or should I get something for the toshiba one I bought from walmart? Or should I take it back and get something else?

I'm looking for something that i could take right out of the box with everything I need and it'll work lol

I'm really not familiar with this stuff at all so I have no idea whats going on.
 
P

pinkurocket

Member
spyroflame0487 said:
In preparation for Xenoblade (and also to consolidate some of my stuff together onto an external HDD for wii U) I ended up purchasing this guy from walmart.

I-i'm afraid I don't really know what im supposed to be looking for, but i ended up swapping it out for one thing I had already, a Hitachi Life Studio. Now the one from walmart appeared to be working a bit, but it didn't look like it was getting enough power or something, and i'm not sure a Y cable would have helped it...but maybe there's a certain one i have to look for? (the cord for it has a special end for the hdd, and then a usb at the other one)

I've had the Hitachi for a while, and decided to just swap all my stuff; i put it all onto the new one I got so I can use Hitachi for the Wii U. After getting everything off, I hooked it up to the Wii U....and it's showing as there only being 382MB of free space...which is obviously incorrect.

I came across this reddit thread on the subject and ended up trying both completely formatting it on the computer (and the wii u does it too) and also deleting the volume so the whole thing is unallocated.

I was wondering if there was anything else I can do to make this work...or should I get something for the toshiba one I bought from walmart? Or should I take it back and get something else?

I'm looking for something that i could take right out of the box with everything I need and it'll work lol

I'm really not familiar with this stuff at all so I have no idea whats going on.
Click to expand...

If you want an HDD that will work out of the box without a y-cable, you need one that has it's own power supply. So, one with it's own cable that plugs into the wall. The one quoted below for example has that ('Power adapter' included).


Skelter said:
Would this harddrive work with a WIi U?

Going with Best Buy because of all my gift certificates.
Click to expand...

Yes that'll work.
 
S

spyroflame0487

Member
pinkurocket said:
If you want an HDD that will work out of the box without a y-cable, you need one that has it's own power supply. So, one with it's own cable that plugs into the wall. The one quoted below for example has that ('Power adapter' included).
Click to expand...

Gotcha.
So the Hitachi does have a cord to plug into a wall for power. It's still showing up as only having a tiny amount of MB on it, even though there's nothing at all on it (and it's showing up with its full 1 TB empty on my computer). Is there any way to fix that? I keep trying different reformatting things and then checking on the wii u and nothing appears to be working.
 
Mithos

Mithos

Gold Member
spyroflame0487 said:
Gotcha.
So the Hitachi does have a cord to plug into a wall for power. It's still showing up as only having a tiny amount of MB on it, even though there's nothing at all on it (and it's showing up with its full 1 TB empty on my computer). Is there any way to fix that? I keep trying different reformatting things and then checking on the wii u and nothing appears to be working.
Click to expand...

Is the HDD showing up as 1 hdd on the PC, or does it have one of those VCD partitions with drivers/software on it?

Some Western Digital seems to have that partition also. http://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/passport-vcd.html
 
S

spyroflame0487

Member
Mithos said:
Is the HDD showing up as 1 hdd on the PC, or does it have one of those VCD partitions with drivers/software on it?

Some Western Digital seems to have that partition also. http://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/passport-vcd.html
Click to expand...

I wasn't exactly sure but I followed along with a video linked in the reddit thread and was blocked off something from the CD drive (which I guess was probably the extra stuff)

Tried some other reformatting, doesn't seem to be doing anything. ;-;
 
P

pinkurocket

Member
spyroflame0487 said:
Gotcha.
So the Hitachi does have a cord to plug into a wall for power. It's still showing up as only having a tiny amount of MB on it, even though there's nothing at all on it (and it's showing up with its full 1 TB empty on my computer). Is there any way to fix that? I keep trying different reformatting things and then checking on the wii u and nothing appears to be working.
Click to expand...

Oh that's really strange... Normally the Wii U itself should completely format it before it can be used. If that doesn't make it work then I don't know the problem. :I
 
D

Deleted member 284

Unconfirmed Member
When formatting the drive make sure it's FAT32
 
R

Rootbeer

Banned
foltzie1 said:
My new External Drive: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00YFI1EBC/?tag=neogaf0e-20 Go it during the sale yesterday for $30.

I've used the Sandisk 32GB and 64GB Ultra Fits on my Wii U with no issues thus far, They are almost tiny enough to close the gate on the front of the Wii U and hide completely.
Click to expand...

I'm very tempted to grab a 128GB version because I buy only physical copies except in the few instances were it's digital only (or dlc, updates, etc.) so I think it's plenty of space.

I really only have one question: would the loading speed off of this be any different than a hard drive with a y-cable? Something like this WD drive.

I know that while both are USB 3.0 that the Wii U only supports 2.0 speeds. But still aren't modern flash drives faster at transferring data than hard drives? They don't have to spin up, things like that. Anyone know if there are any benchmarks like that for the Wii U?

I am going to be playing A LOT of xenoblade X in December and I want to make sure I set myself up to have the fastest experience that the Wii U will allow. So I want to store the downloadable data packs on the fastest medium I can.
 
B

BassForever

Member
If I buy a 1tb hard drive will I be able to make it work for my laptop, ps3, and wiiu or should I buy cheaper separate ones for all 3? Never had an external hd
 
P

protomouse

Member
BassForever said:
If I buy a 1tb hard drive will I be able to make it work for my laptop, ps3, and wiiu or should I buy cheaper separate ones for all 3? Never had an external hd
Click to expand...

Yes. The Wii U is really specific about the layout of the drive, and it uses a proprietary file system to boot.

Can you even install games to an external HDD on a PS3?
 
F

fernoca

Member
BassForever said:
If I buy a 1tb hard drive will I be able to make it work for my laptop, ps3, and wiiu or should I buy cheaper separate ones for all 3? Never had an external hd
Click to expand...
Well...
-Wii U will format everything, so it can only be used on it.
-PS3 won't accept external storage for installations and gaming, just backups and media.
-Laptop use will depend on if you use it on Wii U (which would be no), or to have backups of PS3 stuff (would be a yes).

So, you'll probably be better using the 1TB on either laptop or Wii U, or buy an additional external storage and use that for Wii U and the 1TB for laptop and PS3 saves/backups.
 
N

NateDog

Member
Well I bought a Y cable with the wrong end so I'm stuck for longer now. Bloody difficult to find one in Ireland too, can't find a single retail store's website listing one, and the online stores I can find with them don't have the right end or have it for about €20+. Find it on eBay from the UK for €4 and estimated arrival date is between December 1 and 8 (and bad enough as that already is, I almost always get stuff later than I should with eBay.

I'm tempted to switch around the 250GB HD I use for laptop backup and PS3 save backup but I have tons of shit on it, could take forever. What do you think guys? The cable I have works for that and like above the 1TB would be suitable for my laptop stuff more realistically.
 
T

TheGamingBox

Banned
NateDog said:
Well I bought a Y cable with the wrong end so I'm stuck for longer now. Bloody difficult to find one in Ireland too, can't find a single retail store's website listing one, and the online stores I can find with them don't have the right end or have it for about €20+. Find it on eBay from the UK for €4 and estimated arrival date is between December 1 and 8 (and bad enough as that already is, I almost always get stuff later than I should with eBay.

I'm tempted to switch around the 250GB HD I use for laptop backup and PS3 save backup but I have tons of shit on it, could take forever. What do you think guys? The cable I have works for that and like above the 1TB would be suitable for my laptop stuff more realistically.
Click to expand...

you could get a powered usb hub,
 
F

foltzie1

Member
foltzie1 said:
My new External Drive: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00YFI1EBC/?tag=neogaf0e-20 Go it during the sale yesterday for $30.

I've used the Sandisk 32GB and 64GB Ultra Fits on my Wii U with no issues thus far, They are almost tiny enough to close the gate on the front of the Wii U and hide completely.
Click to expand...

The drive I use is down to $28 today. About $0.21 a GB, not the best deal, but again I don't have to have a Y-Cable or an external power supply.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00YFI1EBC/?tag=neogaf0e-20

Note, this is not a Nintendo recommended setup, but I've had no issues with any of the Sandisk Fit flash drives in my Wii U.
 
Pokemaniac

Pokemaniac

Member
foltzie1 said:
The drive I use is down to $28 today. About $0.21 a GB, not the best deal, but again I don't have to have a Y-Cable or an external power supply.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00YFI1EBC/?tag=neogaf0e-20

Note, this is not a Nintendo recommended setup, but I've had no issues with any of the Sandisk Fit flash drives in my Wii U.
Click to expand...

The main issue with Flash drives is that a lot of cheap ones are pretty crappy. Many of them wear out relatively quickly and/or aren't actually fast enough to keep up with the Wii U's demands. If the Flash drive is good enough, then it should theoretically be fine, but it's not always clear where to draw the line.
 
F

foltzie1

Member
Pokemaniac said:
The main issue with Flash drives is that a lot of cheap ones are pretty crappy. Many of them wear out relatively quickly and/or aren't actually fast enough to keep up with the Wii U's demands. If the Flash drive is good enough, then it should theoretically be fine, but it's not always clear where to draw the line.
Click to expand...

Agreed, and in my opinion, Sandisk is fine in terms of quality. Still, caveat emptor.
 
X

xXBetter Off DadXx

Member
spindashing said:
As an update: This worked for my case of wanting to use a PS3's HDD as an external, now I don't have to worry about the Metroid Prime Trilogy using up all of my space anymore! It definitely came with its own Y-cable so that's good.
Click to expand...

I was already looking at this same enclosure, and also to use with an old PS3 harddrive, AND was also looking to get a y-cable, so you just helped me out a ton with this post, thanks!
 
P

Pancakes R Us

Member
Can anyone explain what the deal is with DLC? I finally got around to buying the Mario Kart 8 DLC this evening. This is my current setup:

Wii U 32GB console - nearly full
64GB USB stick attached as external drive

Mario Kart is installed on internal console memory. It wouldn't let me download the DLC because there wasn't enough space in the console memory even though there is on my external drive. Does it only install DLC on the same drive as the game, or can DLC only be downloaded to internal memory?

I've since moved a bunch of games, including the mega 10GB DKCR:TF to my external drive and left MK8 on the internal memory. Currently downloading the DLC.

Thanks.

EDIT: Damn at that 128GB SanDisk Ultra Fit drive's price. It's definitely come down from what it was a few months ago. I am using the 64GB version on my Wii U following someone's recommendation in this thread. No problems so far. Here's to hoping a 256GB one hits next year.
 
T

TheGamingBox

Banned
Pancakes R Us said:
Can anyone explain what the deal is with DLC? I finally got around to buying the Mario Kart 8 DLC this evening. This is my current setup:

Wii U 32GB console - nearly full
64GB USB stick attached as external drive

Mario Kart is installed on internal console memory. It wouldn't let me download the DLC because there wasn't enough space in the console memory even though there is on my external drive. Does it only install DLC on the same drive as the game, or can DLC only be downloaded to internal memory?

I've since moved a bunch of games, including the mega 10GB DKCR:TF to my external drive and left MK8 on the internal memory. Currently downloading the DLC.

Thanks.
Click to expand...
can only be installed to the same drive that has mario kart 8
 
T

TheGreatMightyPoo

Banned
I know shit about this stuff but how much memory should your harddrive have for you to be "set for life"???

I download my fair share of digital games(usually not big retail sized ones though) and am getting the Xenoblade data packs:p
 
alf717

alf717

Member
TheGreatMightyPoo said:
I know shit about this stuff but how much memory should your harddrive have for you to be "set for life"???

I download my fair share of digital games(usually not big retail sized ones though) and am getting the Xenoblade data packs:p
Click to expand...

This could be a little tough to judge but if you are going all digital a larger hard drive like 500+GB should be good enough. 500GB is a pretty standard size these days for external drives. If you have an older drive lying around like a 60GB ,80GB or 120GB drive that could be just enough for what you need. Just grab an external enclosure that is either powered with a Y cable or external AC adapter and work with that space.
 
W

wild wild rice

Member
I'm having a tough time finding an external HDD recommended by Nintendo for less than around $100. Anyone have a link/recommendation or a black friday sale or anything?

Necrobumping this thread may also help the new folks picking up the black friday bundle.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Seagate Partnering With PlayStation to Release Official External Hard Drives
Business Hardware 2
53
4K
tommib replied
PS5 Expanded SSD and external Hdd at the same time
24
6K
Hyperborean replied
NUCXI5/I7 Thin gaming PCsole releasing end of Sept 2022 (Starting at $859, RTX 3060 & 3070 options, 16GB or 32GB RAM choice, 512/1TB SSD)
44
3K
coffinbirth replied
MSI Launches console-PC, 'Creator P50 12th' in US ($1,719, RTX 3050, i7 12-core, 8GB GDDR6, Dual channel DDR4, 1TB SSD)
2
60
4K
//DEVIL// replied
A Primer on the Simple and Custom Storage Options Available for Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S at Launch | Xbox Expansion Card Info | Xbox Wire
Platform
34
5K
Bernkastel replied
Top Bottom