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Wii U external HDD thread

M

MCD

Junior Member
Any 2.5 1TB that looks stylish?

I need one that matches the look of the Wii U Deluxe. Glossy and all.
 
R

Rich!

Member
Hm. I've got a Samsung 750gb 2.5" usb hard drive. Single mini usb connection, works flawlessly with the Wii.

Anyone tried it yet? No real issue if I have to buy a Y cable...they're only £3.50 on amazon.
 
H

herod

Member
richisawesome said:
Hm. I've got a Samsung 750gb 2.5" usb hard drive. Single mini usb connection, works flawlessly with the Wii.

Anyone tried it yet? No real issue if I have to buy a Y cable...they're only £3.50 on amazon.
Click to expand...

The issue with bus-powered usb isn't specific to Wii U, the reason y-cables exist is because a single port can't guarantee to supply quite enough current all the time. Bus-powered drives have a tendency to die prematurely because of this.
 
H

hodgy100

Member
chandoog said:
The DF article said the WiiU couldn't power the external portable HDD

what gives ?
Click to expand...

I believe it can if you use a Y-cable so the drive gets its power from 2 usb hubs.

this is what im going to be doing with my 120gb portable hdd that i made from a £3 caddy and a drive from an old laptop!
 
PAULINK

PAULINK

I microwave steaks.
Using a generic enclosure with 100 gig hdd and a y cable. Seems good so far (doubt I will ever need this space though.
 
ThankeeSai

ThankeeSai

Member
(probably) stupid question time, but anyway....

This Y cable...Is it just compatible with all external HDD's as standard, or does my HDD need to be some sort of specific type?
 
S

Shin Johnpv

Member
I have a Seagate 1tb, in fact this drive here I use it with a Y cable and my Wii U had no problem detecting it, and installing/running Trine 2 off it.


aeolist said:
USB3 has more pins.

You're not going to find a Y cable for that because part of the point of USB3 is that it can provide more power and you shouldn't need one.
Click to expand...

Actually you're wrong. There are plenty of USB 3.0 Y cables out there. This is the one I bought. Plus there are others out there, amazon has a cheaper one but the seller only offered super slow shipping.
 
O

ozfunghi

Member
Jaymo said:
(probably) stupid question time, but anyway....

This Y cable...Is it just compatible with all external HDD's as standard, or does my HDD need to be some sort of specific type?
Click to expand...

It is standard within the USB family. With that i mean that there are different forms of USB connectors. For 2.5" HDD, usually that means mini-USB. So you would just need one end mini USB to two regular USB ends. All male. Check if you have USB2 or USB3 (see post below).

Basically, just check whatever goes into your HDD. Look for a cable with the same connection that leads to two regular USB males.
 
S

Shin Johnpv

Member
The Wii U will work with USB 3.0 usb powered drives. You just need a Y cable for it to receive enough juice.

USB 3.0 Y Cables

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812705029

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005M0ICG2/?tag=neogaf0e-20

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0052OJ97O/?tag=neogaf0e-20

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B006C0S2JS/?tag=neogaf0e-20

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0090129NQ/?tag=neogaf0e-20

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812411003


Any one of those cables will make your USB 3.0 usb powered external drive work with the Wii U.

It should also be noted that the Wii U seems to prefer it, if you have the system turned off before plugging the drive in.
 
C

ChryZ

Member
DMPrince said:
I'll pick up a 2GB for the Wii u during black Friday. Need a marching glossy black one
Click to expand...
1zJVD.jpg


?
 
M

mrklaw

MrArseFace
although I've never had an issue with a 2.5" drive working on a PC with just one USB port, is it worth using two just in case?
 
L

Like the hat?

Banned
so if I decide to upgrade to a larger hard drive in the future (currently at 250gb) I will have to redownload everything? or transfer them one at a time to the system memory?
 
T

tsab

Member
Like the hat? said:
so if I decide to upgrade to a larger hard drive in the future (currently at 250gb) I will have to redownload everything? or transfer them one at a time to the system memory?
Click to expand...

After a future firmware update you will be allowed to connect 2 usb hdd simultaneous and transfer your content from one hdd to another
 
R

radioheadrule83

Banned
big_z said:
anyone know what format wii U is changing the dive to? Can you browse the drive using WBFS Manager?
Click to expand...

Can someone confident enough take a look at a freshly formatted Wii-U drive in a program called WinHex? Or the mac / linux equivalent?

The first 512 bytes are probably of interest. A custom record in this area might rule out partitioning, but I hope not.
 
J

Jarnet87

Member
1TB seems way overkill for someone like me. I've never come close to filling the 80gb HDD on my PS3, or the 120gb on my 360. I'll probably just buy one of the official listed ones by Nintendo and look for a good deal.
 
S

Shin Johnpv

Member
skinnyrattler said:
Nvm, read the thread.
Click to expand...

I bought the ones in the first NewEgg link. Though only because some of the other ones from Amazon were saying they wouldn't be delivered till some time in December. I managed to order the ones from NewEgg early enough (basically the day Nintendo said you'd need Y Cables) that they arrived last Friday/Saturday so I was good to go on Sunday.


*edit*

No Problem, hopefully that will help people. Maybe the OP can update his post with more drives that work (like my seagate) and that USB3.0 drives will work as long as you have a USB3.0 Y Cable.
 
R

richiek

steals Justin Bieber DVDs
I have a 150 GB internal HD I salvaged from my previous computer and put in an external enclosure. I hooked it up to my Wii U via USB and it works like a charm!
 
E

Effect

Member
Anyone have any luck finding anything on Amazon.com? I keep finding USB powered drives but I thought Nintendo said it was better to find one not powered that way. 500GB or 750GB would work best I think. I don't plan on getting a lot of digital copies of games but would like enough of space just in case I do in addition to eShop downloads.
 
J

Jarnet87

Member
Do I need to buy an enclosure for an external HDD or can I just lay it flat on a shelf in a cabinet? Was gonna put it next to my Wii U, but if I have to buy an enclosure it likely wont fit.
 
V

vdlow

Member
I have a lost SATA HD here, I'll try to buy a case that converts it into a USB self-powered HD and see if it works. Anyway, I'll be watching this thread to prepare a plan B.
 
E

EvilMario

Will QA for food.
It'll be good to hear what works (and what doesn't), because I hope to find something between 320 and 500gb for really cheap on Cyber Monday. Finding non-USB powered drives is becoming a challenge though.
 
S

Shin Johnpv

Member
Effect said:
Anyone have any luck finding anything on Amazon.com? I keep finding USB powered drives but I thought Nintendo said it was better to find one not powered that way. 500GB or 750GB would work best I think. I don't plan on getting a lot of digital copies of games but would like enough of space just in case I do in addition to eShop downloads.
Click to expand...

Externally powered external drives are far less common than USB powered ones. You can totally go USB powered, just get a Y Cable for it, and you'll be good to go, and have to use one less power outlet.
 
cyberheater

cyberheater

PS4 PS4 PS4 PS4 PS4 PS4 PS4 PS4 PS4 PS4 PS4 PS4 PS4 PS4 PS4 PS4 PS4 Xbone PS4 PS4
Shin Johnpv said:
Downloadable games yes. Infact if you have an external drive plugged in, it'll automatically download and install the game to that drive. Retail disc games I've seen no install option for them.
Click to expand...

Thanks. Hopefully that option will come in a software update.

I like the idea that the digital editions automatically download to the external hdd.

It does raise a couple of questions.

1. If you took your external hdd with digital downloads to a friends WiiU. Would you still be able to play those games.
2. What format are the hdd? Is it a proprietary format developed by Nintendo?
 
T

tsab

Member
cyberheater said:
Thanks. Hopefully that option will come in a software update.

I like the idea that the digital editions automatically download to the external hdd.

It does raise a couple of questions.

1. If you took your external hdd with digital downloads to a friends WiiU. Would you still be able to play those games.
2. What format are the hdd? Is it a proprietary format developed by Nintendo?
Click to expand...

1. No. It was stated officially
2. Is not accessable from PC so I would assume is encrypted. And probably with the console's private key. Also that would be make it inaccessable from other WiiUs
 
A

animagnum

Neo Member
I tried a relatively new 500GB Seagate drive that I had in my old PS3 with a Y-connector and it failed.

I then tried an Iomega 80GB drive from 2005/2006 using the same Y-connector and it worked with no problems. Weird.
 
T

tenchir

Member
smr00 said:
Although i REALLY appreciate the support for external drives.. It just blows my mind we only got up to 32GB. Should of come like 128gb/250gb or something but it's nintendo.. Maybe next-gen we will get proper HDD space.
Click to expand...

128/256GB of...... flash memory? You know how much it's going to cost going from 32GB to 128GB at least? Or what are you saying exactly?
 
T

tenchir

Member
Luigison said:
I have this: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0058GH6SK/?tag=neogaf0e-20

41AGoFYjN2L._SY300_.jpg


Any reason it won't work. I know Nintendo recommended powered or two USB powered drives, but what about sticks?
Click to expand...

It will work, but Nintendo won't recommend them because of Read/Write speeds(most of these have read/write speeds of 20/10 MB/s) and write cycles(3k-10k). That drive have decent read speeds(near USB 2.0 max), but have really awful write speeds in the neighborhood of around 6 MB/S.

If you want to use USB Sticks, then speed a bit more and get these. http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0068ZX2CY/?tag=neogaf0e-20

35 MB/s read, 20 MB/s write in USB2.0.
 
D

DDayton

(more a nerd than a geek)
PetrCobra said:
It has to do with the fact that manufacturers measure their drive sizes in terabytes but most systems, like Windows and apparently also Wii U, are actually using tebibytes.
Click to expand...

You know, it's kind of silly to create a prefix that no one in the computer industry uses. I know that "kilobye" and "megabyte" are technically inaccurate when compared to the accepted usage of the prefixes, but the only folks who are going with the "proper names" is the storage industry.
 
M

Mudkips

Banned
DavidDayton said:
You know, it's kind of silly to create a prefix that no one in the computer industry uses. I know that "kilobye" and "megabyte" are technically inaccurate when compared to the accepted usage of the prefixes, but the only folks who are going with the "proper names" is the storage industry.
Click to expand...

Yeah, that kibi shit can go fuck itself.

1 KB = 1024 bytes.
Always has and always will. K is not special and does not always mean 1000 despite what some people want you to believe. Even if it did, we're talking about KB (or Kb or kb), not K.
 
E

Emitan

Member
Joeshabadoo said:
So are 109 GB of that already occupied by other files or is that the true capacity (did it wipe clean before recognizing in the system)? Also is it plugged into a wall or USB-powered?

I'm curious to see if people can devise ways to format it before hand to be partitioned for Wii U and non-Wii U stuff
Click to expand...

Was formatted before being plugged in and is plugged into a wall.
 
J

jambo

Member
Joeshabadoo said:
So are 109 GB of that already occupied by other files or is that the true capacity (did it wipe clean before recognizing in the system)? Also is it plugged into a wall or USB-powered?

I'm curious to see if people can devise ways to format it before hand to be partitioned for Wii U and non-Wii U stuff
Click to expand...

This has to do with bites and bytes.

Advertisers use base 10, whereas HDDs use base 2.

Take off about 7% and you have your actual HDD capacity. I have a 500GB drive plugged in at the moment, and it's total size is 465GB.
 
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