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Wii U External USB Storage Devices

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Mop it up:
My HDD has a power cord so it just uses one USB, it still works fine though. The upside is that it's a 1TB drive, not that it really matters though since I think I only ever filled about one-tenth of it. Too bad HDDs don't work with the Switch...


--- Quote from: Khushrenada on March 16, 2022, 01:48:32 PM ---So, something I've realized since early last year when diving into XCX was that I could definitely use an external HDD for my Wii U.
--- End quote ---
Keep in mind if you're using the XCX faster-loading data packs, they work more efficiently from the internal storage than an HDD.

M.K.Ultra:
I dealt with this issue in 2020. My old 1TB drive was dying and I did not want another one that needed an AC power supply. I ended up buying this Maxone 320 GB external drive which is still about $25. I did need to use a y-cable and bought an INSTEN Dual USB 3.0 Type A to Micro-B USB Y Shape High Speed Cable for External Hard Drive/Seagate/Toshiba/WD/Wii-U/Note 3/Galaxy S5/HDD Enclosure. The exact cable is no longer available from the same listing but anything comparable should work fine. Since I did this, I have plenty of room and no problems loading software from the external drive.

stevey:

--- Quote from: Caterkiller on May 23, 2013, 10:57:24 AM ---I know its not the thread for it, but does anyone have a wired connection on their Wii U with an Ethernet to USB cable converter?

--- End quote ---

Anything that uses the ASIX AX88772 chip-set works on the Wii and Wii U (and the Switch). Nintendo's official one is $32, my Pluggable's adapter is $16 but the cable is shorter by half.


--- Quote from: Khushrenada on March 16, 2022, 01:48:32 PM ---What might be the cheapest and most cost-effective solution these days for some extra Wii U storage?

--- End quote ---

The cheapest option is definitely picking up any USB 3.x/2.0 to SATA adapter/enclosure for under $10/$20 and using any drive you have lying around from an old computer/laptop. Compatibility wise, I can't find anyone ever running into (non-powering) issues unlike the Wii where large SD cards are hit and miss.


--- Quote from: Order.RSS on March 16, 2022, 06:57:57 PM ---I feel like I remember Pokepal mentioning they used a lower power-drawing SSD in an enclosure with a single USB cable, but could be mistaken.

--- End quote ---

I have gotten away with an old 2.5" 1TB internal HDD (rated for 5V 700mA) that's attached to my Wii with an USB adapter that comes with an optional power adapter that didn't even need to be used. If it can handle spinning up, you should be fine as that's the point it draws the most power. To be safe, I would go to settings menu -> data management -> hold d-pad down for a second and press + & - to disable auto drive sleep just in case it fails to spin up mid game if anyone wants to try it.


--- Quote from: Order.RSS on March 16, 2022, 06:57:57 PM ---You could also go for a thumb drive or even an SD card in a USB hub, but back in the day people often said those aren't designed to constantly read/write data back and forth, so using them for gaming would kill them quite fast. Maybe by now those storage mediums have become more durable?

--- End quote ---

Name brand SD cards (C10/U1 and above) are fine as they are made for use in professional video/drone/peep/dash/security cameras that are being written and rewritten all the time.  Thumb drives on the other hand are made with the cheapest parts possible that die all the time. I've murder dozens of them just by testing the speed with a large file copy or CrystalDiskMark. Name brand ones manage to last a year or two but also die. Their design use case is infrequent transport of files or using it as a boot disk, not as daily drivers. There were and still are a ton of reports of people killing flash drives just by loading Wii games off them, and the Wii U is even worse.


--- Quote from: Mop it up on March 17, 2022, 05:11:02 PM ---
--- Quote from: Khushrenada on March 16, 2022, 01:48:32 PM ---So, something I've realized since early last year when diving into XCX was that I could definitely use an external HDD for my Wii U.
--- End quote ---
Keep in mind if you're using the XCX faster-loading data packs, they work more efficiently from the internal storage than an HDD.

--- End quote ---

I've heard the opposite. Comparison of the USB vs NAND loading often comes down to IOPs/latency where SSDs > NAND > 7200rpm HDDs > 5400rpm HDDs > BD drive. The data rate of everything on the Wii U is in the same ball park. The Wii U's hard drive is limited to USB2 speeds of 60MB/s (30-40MB/s after overhead), the onboard eMMC NAND is theoretically 52MB/s but the actual memory used is somewhere around 25-35MB/s mark. The SD card is capped at 25MB/s (same as the Wii) and even the Blu-ray disk drive is 22.5MB/s (way better than the Wii's 8MB/s).

Khushrenada:
Thanks for all the feedback. After reading that article I had linked, I was looking at external hard drives and saw the Maxone type that Bungle linked to since I knew that would be more than enough for me especially since most of my Wii U collection is still physical. Wasn't sure though how well that might perform but it seems like its been working out fine for him. Guess I'll do that same setup with a Y cable. I had been planning on keeping the Xenoblade packs on the Wii U itself. But maybe I'll do a test when I get my hard drive to see if there is a difference like stevey mentions.

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