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External hard drives and the Wii U
- Thread starter oconnomiyaki
- Start date
I would say you should wait for cyber monday/black friday deals, there are always some USB drives. This is how I got mine last year.
Like the hat?
Banned
That's the kind I have, works great.
Yup, that's definitely one feature they should add in the next Wii U update (along with folders, daaaaaaaaaammmmmmmn iiiiiiiiit
).About HDD, one piece of advice : use a brand new drive, not a used one, if possible of course.
Ah, cool. What brand or model do you have, if you don't mind me asking?
Jaded Alyx
Member
I got a western digital 2.5 elements usb3 1 tb hdd.
I use it only with its own cable the power is enough.
I have two of these that I use 24/7 with my Mac mini for storage and backup. I heartily recommend them. They are quiet, cool, and small. They don't require external power. If they work with the Wii U without a Y cable, then I believe there is no reason for anyone to look any further.
blu
Wants the largest console games publisher to avoid Nintendo's platforms.
They do, naturally. You just have to be careful with the brand/model, as some of the latest large-volume flash drivers are dog slow. I'm using this one (erm, the 64GB version of it), and it's doing great (and barely sticking out of the console's back - it's really tiny).
n00b question here, does the Wii U work with self-powered usb HDDs (2,5"/laptop)?. I ask this because the main problem I have with the console is the optical drive, it's noisy as fuck, and well, I have a 2TB 3,5" usb HDD, but it has fans, and that's defeats the purpose. I want something as noiseless as possible.
Otherwise, I think I'll get a big usb flash drive.
Otherwise, I think I'll get a big usb flash drive.
Jaded Alyx
Member
Yes, you just need to make sure it has a Y-cable to connect to two USB ports. Then it will work fine.
Flash drives are not recommended by Nintendo.
Dog Problems
Banned
Thanks for the replies on USB flash drives. That's probably what I'll go with when I need some addition space. I've got a spare 3TB drive I could use but I'd prefer a flash drive since it's smaller.
ElectricKaibutsu
Member
I had a portable Logitech 350gb connected with a Y cable but Lego City kept crashing. Now I'm using one of the self powered 1tb drives recommended by Nintendo but it feels like overkill since I'll never fill it.
I don't know if it's true but Reggie said flash drives weren't made to be read from as frequently as they need to be for games and that ends up killing the drives.
I actually took my original PS3 Phat 60gb HD after the system died and an X-Dock hot swapped dock and hooked it up the Wii U, it runs games great. Happy so far. I have a couple other faster/better drives, but right now all I need is the 60Gb. If you want to get around something D/l direct to the drive just unhook it or, I am lucky, the dock has its own power button so I just leave it off.
Dog Problems
Banned
It's true, but depending on the quality of the flash drive it can take a very long time for that to happen. There aren't many games on the system I want to play and I typically just play through games once and delete them so I'll probably be fine.
Waylon Drums
Member
I've been using an old, self-powered 1TB drive that I thought had shat the bed at one point...turned out it was the power cord that had shat so the drive worked.
No problems at all for me so far. I'm fully digital and loving it. Load times seem good, but I can't really compare them to what they would have been if I had been using physical games. I do wonder, though, if perhaps a 7200 rpm drive would be faster...or even an SSD. Has anyone tried either of those?
P.S. I thought that the problem with flash drives was also that they had a limited number of "writes" in their lifetime. Although, I could have just made that up.
No problems at all for me so far. I'm fully digital and loving it. Load times seem good, but I can't really compare them to what they would have been if I had been using physical games. I do wonder, though, if perhaps a 7200 rpm drive would be faster...or even an SSD. Has anyone tried either of those?
P.S. I thought that the problem with flash drives was also that they had a limited number of "writes" in their lifetime. Although, I could have just made that up.
It isn't reading, it's writing. The "problem" is the writing of the save game data frequently. Flash memory has internal methods of dealing with "worn out" blocks due to writes, but eventually the spare blocks are used and writing is no longer safe. Sandisk flash actually goes into read only mode when this happens, so you don't lose any data, you just have to buy a new memory stick.
Although, I have never heard of anyone actually wearing out a USB drive.
You must not have owned a Wii. Now that was loud. Actually, I'd say that the Wii spin sound was more quiet, but the head movement and reading was much louder. With the U, I don't hear any movement, even with Wii games, but the overall spin sound is a bit louder.
RpgN
Junior Member
I got a western digital 2.5 elements usb3 1 tb hdd.
I use it only with its own cable the power is enough.
Mine looks the same, it's WD elements 320gb and uses USB 2.0, can it be used without Y cable and without any problems too?
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