Wii U HDD Buying Options

[Ike]

Is it mains powered or are you using a Y cable?

[Agent Gibbs]

Mains powered....... i specifically bought a mains powered one because it was recomended.

I thought maybe some power saving funtion or something, but it wouldn't power down mid transfer though would it?

[Ike]

Yeah. I was just checking in case it wasn't getting enough power.

 

Not really sure why unfortunately, might be due to the age of the drive or just not compatible for some reason. It shouldn't be powering down during a transfer, no.

 

You can check Seagates (https://apps1.seagate.com/downloads/request.html) site and see if they have any software/firmware you can use.

 

The drive I'm using is actually a Seagate 3.5" drive but that one was one of the drives recommended by Nintendo.

[Agent Gibbs]

Yeah. I was just checking in case it wasn't getting enough power.

 

Not really sure why unfortunately, might be due to the age of the drive or just not compatible for some reason. It shouldn't be powering down during a transfer, no.

 

You can check Seagates (https://apps1.seagate.com/downloads/request.html) site and see if they have any software/firmware you can use.

 

The drive I'm using is actually a Seagate 3.5" drive but that one was one of the drives recommended by Nintendo.

 

Well i tried updating the firmware/software as you suggested, i even tried a 320gb Western Digital drive and both had issues with transfer of over 1.5GB

 

So i got out my old 160gb HP Pocket Drive and switched my back up pictures/music etc from it to the power drive in the enclosure, so i can use that as my back up drive

The pocket drive is now connected to my WiiU via a Y cable and works perfectly

 

no idea what the problem was, i think when i fill the pocket drive i'll buy one of the drives Nintendo recomends

[Ike]

no idea what the problem was, i think when i fill the pocket drive i'll buy one of the drives Nintendo recomends

 

The Wii U seems a bit iffy when it comes to HDDs. I used a Western Digital drive with a Y cable which seemed fine at first, but then Monster Hunter kept crashing. Might have even had trouble transferring large files like yours. I assumed it wasn't getting enough power with the Y cable so got the Nintendo recommended powered drive and not had any problems.

 

Ah well, at least you found a solution for now.

[Josh64]

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/s/21405964/product_confirmation.html

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/USB-Y-Dual-Power-Cable-For-External-Portable-Hard-Drive-/230609183964?pt=UK_Computing_USB_Cables&hash=item35b160e4dc

 

I'm no good with these kinds of things, but I've had a look through the thread and come to this conclusion! D'ya reckon it should work?

 

I NEED TO GET MY PANORAMA VIEWS BACK.

[Londragon]

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/s/21405964/product_confirmation.html

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/USB-Y-Dual-Power-Cable-For-External-Portable-Hard-Drive-/230609183964?pt=UK_Computing_USB_Cables&hash=item35b160e4dc

 

I'm no good with these kinds of things, but I've had a look through the thread and come to this conclusion! D'ya reckon it should work?

 

I NEED TO GET MY PANORAMA VIEWS BACK.

 

You should be fine, I've used a Y cable since the beginning and no problems whatsoever.

[Serebii]

Since Ubisoft's endless patches and Nintendo's insistence on making me download Wii Sports has started making me approach finally getting a HDD (and if third party supports dies and I never use it for the Wii U, I can just use it to backup my site). Gone for this one

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0084LZI5Y

 

Seems it's the most recommended around

[D_prOdigy]

Got a (portable) 1TB Seagate Expansion bought for me, but it's not a self-powered one - just comes with a standard USB lead. Am I correct in thinking that it's definitely gonna need a y-cable? Any recommendation on where to get one? I've casually looked in brick and mortar for one before but never had much luck...

Edited December 27, 2013 by D_prOdigy

[Londragon]

Got a (portable) 1TB Seagate Expansion bought for me, but it's not a self-powered one - just comes with a standard USB lead. Am I correct in thinking that it's definitely gonna need a y-cable? Any recommendation on where to get one? I've casually looked in brick and mortar for one before but never had much luck...

 

It would be a much better experience with one, and safer. Take a gander at Amazon, here; http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=usb+y+cable

[Pestneb]

I've been looking for HDD. 500Gb should be plenty, I don't want to spend HUGE amounts of money, about the cost of a single game (counting that as my "free" MK8 game cost).

My main reservation is that it appear to be powered by USB. Any opinions? Should this be ok? : / (Really don't see why Nintendo couldn't stick a reasonable amount of storage on the Wii U itself!)

 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Toshiba-HDTB105EK3AA-Stor-E-Basics-External/dp/B005X7AXW0/ref=sr_1_3?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1401748001&sr=1-3&keywords=hdd+external+2.5

[Sheikah]

I've been looking for HDD. 500Gb should be plenty, I don't want to spend HUGE amounts of money, about the cost of a single game (counting that as my "free" MK8 game cost).

My main reservation is that it appear to be powered by USB. Any opinions? Should this be ok? : / (Really don't see why Nintendo couldn't stick a reasonable amount of storage on the Wii U itself!)

 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Toshiba-HDTB105EK3AA-Stor-E-Basics-External/dp/B005X7AXW0/ref=sr_1_3?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1401748001&sr=1-3&keywords=hdd+external+2.5

 

That looks pretty much the cheapest 500GB around to me. Should be fine, although if you ever plan to use the drive for anything else you might want to front just another £12 for a 1TB.

[Pestneb]

A quick question for those using a HDD... is it possible to partition the HDD, having a Wii U partition whilst retaining another partition for regular PC use, or does the Wii U not allow for such a set up?

[Rummy]

A quick question for those using a HDD... is it possible to partition the HDD, having a Wii U partition whilst retaining another partition for regular PC use, or does the Wii U not allow for such a set up?

 

Hahaha, I thought the exact same thing just about 10 minutes ago when I saw Shiekah's post, and contemplated asking the exact same question.

 

 

However I googled it instead - the answer seems to be a fairly certain no without silly trickery. The drive can't even be used between different Wii Us apparently without formatting.

[Pestneb]

Hahaha, I thought the exact same thing just about 10 minutes ago when I saw Shiekah's post, and contemplated asking the exact same question.

 

 

However I googled it instead - the answer seems to be a fairly certain no without silly trickery. The drive can't even be used between different Wii Us apparently without formatting.

 

Hmm. That's a bit crappy. Although you mention silly trickery?

 

Looking at the HDD, I'm a little wary of the HDD I found, lots of mentions of data being lost and a sleep mode kicking in very quickly, neither of which sound too promising. I think I'll have another look!

[Pestneb]

Is there any way of managing what is installed on the HDD and what remains locally on the Wii U? I'd be fine with losing the game programs themselves, as they can be downloaded again at some point, but losing save files I'd be a lot less fine about.

Nintendo really need to make some kind of cloud backup system, so that save files are automatically safeguarded periodically!

[Pestneb]

Unfortunately, the save data is grouped with the game download file and update data, and there's no way to separate the them. It's really annoying, as I assumed I could make copies of all my save data files onto my Wii U SSD storage, so if my HDD broke I could simply re-download the games and copy over my old save data from the Wi U SSD. This is not possible – you have to copy the game data as well as the save data. Such a massive oversight.

 

That's not encouraging. I'd hate to be near completion of a game then lose all the save data : / and then there's unlockables, if you've unlocked everything and then the save file get's corrupted

Having the game data and update data makes sense, I would prefer for the save files themselves to have a backup somewhere though. Kinda hesitant now.

In the manage data bit, you can at least choose if files are saved on the HDD or internal storage though, right?

[david.dakota]

That's not encouraging. I'd hate to be near completion of a game then lose all the save data : / and then there's unlockables, if you've unlocked everything and then the save file get's corrupted

Having the game data and update data makes sense, I would prefer for the save files themselves to have a backup somewhere though. Kinda hesitant now.

In the manage data bit, you can at least choose if files are saved on the HDD or internal storage though, right?

 

The 3DS implementation is a joke. Having a back up on the same media as the original is mental. There was talk of cloud saves at some point... wonder if this is still coming?

[Pestneb]

This is the exact same hard drive I'm using with my Wii U at present. Seems to be working fine for me (I've had it for about a week) and I've purchased all my Wii U games digitally. Can't say I've encountered any sort of 2min sleep mode that one review talks about, perhaps they weren't using a Y-cable, which you'll definitely need if you do buy this drive: like this

 

Unfortunately you can't use partitioned drives with the Wii U

 

Is it still going strong for you? I ordered mine Tuesday.. still not dispatched :/

 

The 3DS implementation is a joke. Having a back up on the same media as the original is mental. There was talk of cloud saves at some point... wonder if this is still coming?

 

You never know, maybe Nintendo will cloud saves and TVii functionality in Europe

[Ike]

There was talk of cloud saves at some point... wonder if this is still coming?

 

You never know, maybe Nintendo will cloud saves and TVii functionality in Europe

 

I think it basically became the Street Pass relays. I don't recall Nintendo themselves saying they were looking at clouds saves specifically.