External drive for Wii U

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Wii U and External Drive
I have one	3 (75%)
I might consider getting one	0 (0%)
I do not want one	1 (25%)
Total Votes: 4

External drive for Wii U; Buyer's Guide
Tweet Topic Started: May 10 2016, 12:02 PM (285 Views)
bluedogrulez	May 10 2016, 12:02 PM Post #1
Racing for Fulcon Capital Posts: 9,323 Group: Admin Member #281 Joined: March 8, 2010	I've had my Wii U for several years now, and it's 32 GB are just about filled. Save files for about 40 retail titles, a couple of retail downloads, 2 humble bundles, and about a dozen more eShop games have maxed it out. I just added an external hard drive and now have another 74GB at my disposal. Games stores in the external drive appear on the main menu of the Wii U, you don't need to switch back and forth between drives, which is cool. However, it was a bit of a struggle to understand what I needed to get. Amazon, for instance, has a dizzying array of options. I eventually settled on an 80 GB Bipra 3.0 USB Fat 32 and y-cable (purchased separately), which cost about $30. That name alone ought to tell you how confusing this purchase can be. The point of this post is not to praise the drive I bought (hey, only time will tell), but to explain things you will need to consider/know in buying an expansion drive for your Wii U. External Drive .vs Flash Drive. You need an external hard drive. Small portable ones are fine. Flash Drives work, but I've read a ton of warnings against using them due to bit rot. Power Source. Nintendo recommends that your external drive have a separate power source. If your game room looks like mine, outlets are at a premium. The Wii U can power your drive, but you'll need 2 open USB slots to do it, as explained further below. Size of Drive. Nintendo says anything more than 1TB will not work and recommends a few 1TB and 500 GB drives. Frankly, this seems like overkill as my Wii U's 32GB drive stores a ton of games and save files, and the Wii U library is just not that big. I opted for an 80GB and after formatting, had 74GB to use. That's a 200% increase in storage from what my Wii U came with out of the box. FAT 32 vs. NTFS. This has to due with the format of the hard drive, but it is irrelevant. Your Wii U will re-format the drive and it will then only be usable with your Wii U. According to what I've read, after formatting, you cannot use your external drive with any other device, including another Wii U (to ward off against copies of games being made). USB 2.0 vs. USB 3.0. They look and physically are the same. USB 3.0, however, are faster and can use one cable to carry power and data. No brainer to go for a USB 3.0 drive, right? Not really. A 3.0 will work just as well as a 2.0 with a Wii U. USB 3.0 is state of the art, but your Wii U supports USB 2.0. Nintendo appears to have dropped the ball here. So the perceived advantage of speed and single cable that USB 3.0 generally offers are not going to show up with Wii U use (but a 3.0 will still work). Whether your drive is 2.0 or 3.0, if you want it powered by your Wii U, you will need a y cable so that the data transfers and the drive is sufficiently powered. Each USB slot has a power capacity of 500ma, but a 3.0 drive needs 900ma, hence why even a USB 3.0 drive requires 2 slots to drawn enough power from your Wii U. Although a USB 2.0 drive should power on 500ma, will also need 2 slots on your Wii U because one USB 2.0 cord cannot transmit data and power. Y-Cable. Remember, if your selected drive does not come with a separate power source or a Y-cable, then buy a Y-cable separately. They are not expensive, and will get your drive the power it needs. I opted for a USB 2.0 1 female to 2 male so I did not have to figure out the proper size of the tiny USB port of my drive. I use the original drive cable, plug it into my Y-cable, and both Y-cable ends go into the back of my Wii U. And it works. Well, there you have it. Good luck!
	Switch Friend Code: SW-0786-9287-1202 (bluedogBDR) MK8Deluxe Tourney: N64Forever.com 2332-7277-8283 Nintendo Network ID: BDR2010 / Twitter: @bluedogrulez


sublime1996525	May 10 2016, 10:08 PM Post #2
That dude Posts: 720 Group: Senior Members Member #2,945 Joined: December 26, 2015	Nice write up! I picked up a 3TB external HD for my Xbox One. I was out of room on my 500GB. One thing about the new XBO is every game has to be stored on the HD AND you still need the disc. Ridiculousness.



buddy1983	May 13 2016, 12:09 PM Post #3
Veteran Posts: 2,457 Group: Admin Member #861 Joined: June 20, 2012	I got a 500 GB one with a Y cable for mine, did the research before buying with all the warnings of using powered ones but I havent had any trouble and like you power outlets are hard to come by in my room. It still seems like a strange discussion from Nintendo to not include a bigger HDD, 32GB is never enough.
	Youtube Wii U user name: Read1ngFC (thats a one and not a i) Switch friend code SW-4595-4819-7191 UK resident I'm currently playiing triangle in a reggae band. I just stand in the back and Ting


Matt	May 13 2016, 02:57 PM Post #4
Kick, Punch, It's all in the mind Posts: 2,532 Group: Legendary Member #55 Joined: January 3, 2007	Tried using a external in the past but my Wii U kept freezing while formatting and I was trying a 2TB drive, I don't have any smaller drives lying about sadly and I don't have a Y-Cable, although its nice to know how to solve my problem.

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