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Wii U HDD Buying Options

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Seeing as I know sod all about this stuff I figured it would be good to have a topic where people can post what kind of HDD we should be looking for, who the best manufactures are, and most importantly, where is the cheapest place to buy one at.

 

I await your guidance, N-E. :bowdown:

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Seeing as I know sod all about this stuff I figured it would be good to have a topic where people can post what kind of HDD we should be looking for, who the best manufactures are, and most importantly, where is the cheapest place to buy one at.

 

I await your guidance, N-E. :bowdown:

 

Here

 

...what?

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Does anyone know the reliability of this manufacturer?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Buffalo-MiniStation-Slim-Portable-Drive/dp/B008A1C0CW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1352899168&sr=8-1

 

I think Retro Link posted this a while ago when it was on offer. Still seems like a decent price. An older listing of what appears to be the same model though has quite a few 1 star reviews describing how it failed within a month or two, but this one from July 2012 has no such negative reports.

 

USB powered is important to me to avoid the hassle of extra power leads.

 

The Seagate one that seems recommended is £10 more and USB 3.0 (not of course relevant for the WiiU):

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Seagate-STBU1000202-Backup-Portable-Drive/dp/B0084LZIA4/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1352899284&sr=8-4

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I've had 3 external HDD drives in my time, and the 2 best I've used come from 'Imation' (500 GB) and 'Buffalo' (1 TB). I'll be using my Imation 500 GB with my Wii U as it was supplied with a Y-USB cable, which basically allows data access and power consumption at the same time without sharing and lessening either one. Nintendo have recommended the use of such a cable and I strongly recommend it, too. Make sure you pick one up if not supplied with one, or without it's own external power supply.

 

Does anyone know the reliability of this manufacturer?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Buffalo-MiniStation-Slim-Portable-Drive/dp/B008A1C0CW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1352899168&sr=8-1

 

I think Retro Link posted this a while ago when it was on offer. Still seems like a decent price. An older listing of what appears to be the same model though has quite a few 1 star reviews describing how it failed within a month or two, but this one from July 2012 has no such negative reports.

 

USB powered is important to me to avoid the hassle of extra power leads.

 

That's nearly the exact Buffalo model I have, I have the USB 3.0 update. I've had it for 3 months and have had no problems with it whatsoever. It isn't supplied with a Y shaped USB cable though (at least mine wasn't), and so you'll need to pick one up separately.

Edited by londragon
Automerged Doublepost

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Quick search got me these for a reasonable price:

 

Western Digital Elements 1.5TB

Mains powered. USB 2.0. £50.91

 

Western Digital Elements 2 TB

Mains powered. USB 2.0. £69.99

 

Seagate STBV2000200 2TB

Mains powered. USB 3.0. £70.45 (it's dropped £5 since I added it to my basket, like 30 minutes ago).

 

As long as you go with a decent brand then reliability is about the same. Not had any problems with Western Digital myself. Mains powered drives apparently have longer lifespan so it might be worth considering.

 

Edit: Might be worth waiting a week and see what "Black Friday" deal show up.

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Ahh right, so that's what that bit in the vid was on about. So a Y-USB cable draws power from two ports at the same time and data can go through either one. Well you learn something new every day!

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Ahh right, so that's what that bit in the vid was on about. So a Y-USB cable draws power from two ports at the same time and data can go through either one. Well you learn something new every day!

 

Kind of, it draws power from 2 ports, but the data only passes through one of them, so it has a spare port for the power when in full data transfer, so not to 'turn off', or just be underpowered for the job at hand.

Edited by londragon
bad english

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a part of me wants to put my old 60gb ps3 hard drive in the enclosure i have and use the y cable just to be extra blasphemous in its use

 

I'll have to dig through what ones i have lying around, i know i have a 120gb HP one i've had for years that will tide me over until the january sales that i can use.

 

Never knew what the exact mechanics of the y cable were, its interesting to know

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Personally I've used a WD 150gb HDD for maybe 5 years now and never had any problems with it, so I'd probably look to buy another WD HDD when I get the Wii U.

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With the Wii U though, surely it's completely pointless paying a premium for a USB 3 HDD, considering that it has to be formatted by the Wii U before use? (Making it useless on a PC)

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With the Wii U though, surely it's completely pointless paying a premium for a USB 3 HDD, considering that it has to be formatted by the Wii U before use? (Making it useless on a PC)

 

That's the only thing spec wise that disappointed me with the WiiU, that all the USB ports are 2.0, had hoped they might have at least 1 USB3.0 port for future proofing.

 

But loving that the wireless card on it is compatible with 802.11n finally I'll be able to take full advantage of my router :D

 

 

WIth the USB HDD's though did I read right somewhere that Nintendo recommended a HDD with a double USB cable (1 for data, 1 for power) or one that has it's own AC plug? Would a HDD that pulls data and power off the same USB plug not work at all?

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Seagate. I have had several WD drives fail and break, but no Seagate ever failed me.

 

I recently bought a Seagate; it failed SeaTool's own tests on arrival. So did the two replacements(and also on the manufactuer's end when sent back). I switched to a WD instead. HDD info is always colloquial, we don't have enough to reliably depend on - Seagate have colloquially got a bad name these days though which I didn't buy into before, but now I do.

Edited by Rummy

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WIth the USB HDD's though did I read right somewhere that Nintendo recommended a HDD with a double USB cable (1 for data, 1 for power) or one that has it's own AC plug? Would a HDD that pulls data and power off the same USB plug not work at all?

 

Yeah, they will work. Nintendo are just being cautious. Wii could power a HDD fine. 3.5" and 7200rmp drives may need it more than 2.5" and 5200rpm drives though since they require a bit more power. If you don't feel like risking it use a Y cable or mains powered drive.

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Oh yeah silly me, forgot I use my Wii to play videos from my HDD *cough*throughHBCsorry*cough* and that runs teh data and power on the same cable just fine

 

Likely anyway I won't need to worry bout it for awhile, I prefer to buy retail games than download so I don't think I'll be using up my 32GB's too quickly.

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Yeah, they will work. Nintendo are just being cautious. Wii could power a HDD fine. 3.5" and 7200rmp drives may need it more than 2.5" and 5200rpm drives though since they require a bit more power. If you don't feel like risking it use a Y cable or mains powered drive.

 

Wouldn't USB 2 be slower than the maximum read speed of a 5200rpm drive? Or would there be an appreciatable difference with a 7200rpm one over USB 2?

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Not really, it's still limited by the USB 2.0 transfer rate. :( Still plenty fast enough. Don't think the Wii is USB 2.0 is it? Because games load fast enough on that.

Edited by Ike

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Not really, it's still limited by the USB 2.0 transfer rate. :( Still plenty fast enough. Don't think the Wii is USB 2.0 is it? Because games load fast enough on that.

 

Of course the Wii's ports are USB 2.0... what else did you think they were? 1.1?

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It's a shame they didn't put a 3.0 USB port on the back to use, but I guess it couldn't be helped when it comes to keeping the costs down. A good trade off for the openness of what you can use as a storage medium though.

 

Just go for your bog-standard (but reliable) HDD. Cheap as chips these days, you might as well go all out with a 2TB looking at the prices I'm seeing.

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The Seagate HDD I posted earlier will on be on sale in Amazon's Black Friday deals at 11:30am. Might be worth picking up if you can get one.

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The Seagate HDD I posted earlier will on be on sale in Amazon's Black Friday deals at 11:30am. Might be worth picking up if you can get one.

 

Was 2TB and was up for £59.99, shame I was at work when it was on...

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