Ah, found out why I am having hard drive issues:

"Some bus-powered hard disc drives draw more current than the USB 2.0 specification and might not run stably, so we cannot guarantee that such devices will run properly on Wii U without the use of a supplemental power cable called a y-cable that draws power from two USB ports. For best results, we recommend using a hard drive with its own power supply that connects to the Wii U system via the USB port on the console."

As I have a USB 3.0 bus powered drive, looks like i need to get a Y cable

In process of doing the Wii to Wii U data transfer. Took me about 10-20 mins to get everything set up for it because I wanted to move as many VC titles (I ignored the WiiWare titles due to size) to my Wii System memory before the transfer. I ended up with 29 titles (VC+WW) that I couldn't put on the Wii system memory. I can re download them in the Wii Shop though on the Wii U (through the Wii menu). Semi pain in the ass but not too bad. I probably won't buy anymore VC titles till they release them on the Wii U shop. It would be nice if they eventually make our old VC titles upgradable to the Wii U VC titles that will support Wii U gamepad play.  Glad to see all the Miis I downloaded on the Wii U transferred over since I had a ton of celebrity Miis.  Pikmen transfer screen is cute. Transfer takes a lot more time going into the Wii U than going out of the Wii to SD card.  A lot longer actually....  I'm at 30% going into Wii U with about 10 mins into.  It only took like 5 mins to transfer Wii system memory to SD card. (Update - now at 60% when I turned my TV back on and it was on disconnect from server screen, clicked retry and started back up seems like it is going faster now).  I figured it might take the average person about 45mins - 1 hour to complete the transfer from setting it all up to transferring everything.

Going to re setup my old Wii with Netflix and Hulu+ and give it to my roommate.  Right now she uses a Roku box for Netflix but I figured perhaps she might like to have the Wii since we used to play Wii Sports Bowling a decent amount.  She isn't too good at video games and I usually become frustrated (I know I shouldn't but usually most girls I've played with get game concepts a lot faster) so we haven't played that many video games together lately.

Has anyone else done the Wii to Wii U transfer?

not yet, kind of dreading it

I just popped in the SD card that I used with my Wii that had the games that didn't fit on the Wii System Memory to be transferred to the Wii U and they are all there (but I tried to launch one of the games and it said it can't be launched on this Wii system). So I will have to re download them to the Wii U (Wii Shop from Wii menu on Wii U) to be able to play them. They should have expanded the Wii System memory space on the Wii U Wii Menu but you can still use the SD card channel once you re download them all. So basically the SD card slot is mainly used for people that had a lot of d/l games on the Wii. I see why they make you use a external USB drive for anything Wii U related since the SD slot seems to be just for the Wii menu in the Wii U.

I got one, though I haven't had a lot of a chance to play with it due to the 2 hour update.

I've really only ran through the menu's and what-not and the only thing I've come away with is that the main plaza and some of the menu's take 20-30 seconds to load, which is pretty insane. I hope they release an update to fix that.

if u go to support.nintendo.com u will see they only have 4 hdd's that are supported for the wii u, as of right now.

good impressions kanaged,glad to hear about the games

sounds like people will need external hard drives with their own power supply for sure then if i understand it correctly and you are playing games form a downloaded game on the hardrive

I'm probably one of the lucky bunch, my Wii U is working really well, the load time is definitely there if you swap a lot but I haven't had problems with Miiverse, no issues with eshop, no real updating problems or anything, I was messing around on the game pad after I woke up without the TV even being on to test features. Pretty smooth fror me personally.

I'm probably more impressed with it than I thought I was going to be. It takes a little bit of getting used to the ins and outs but once you wrap you're mind around everything it's a pretty great system and I'm sure it will do well.

My favorite feature so far has to be the ability to use the system without even turning the TV on. I can really see this replacing my iphone as my go do gadget when Im sitting on the coach. The social network is fun and growing and the web browser works great. Having a 6.2 inch 720p screen makes it greatly preferable to my iphone for browsing the web, going to facebook, even watching streaming videos off gametrailers.com, narutoget.com, even ign video reviews work great.  Really impressed with the browser. Plus i can launch into a game of mario or Call of duty online at any time even if my roomate is using the tv.

One thing that was falsly reported about the system was the the wiiu gamepad's mic would not be used for voice chat in games. That was a false report i was very pleasantly surprised to discover that it works without any hassle in cod lobby's and in the game itself. Very sexy that i don't need to spend extra on a proprietery headset.

I spent a lot of time with the system yesterday and can't wait for the work day to end to get back into it.

Btw.. add my if you want.. My id is "bowserthedog"...  the best way to add is to go into miiverse and client on user info and then search for my name. Once you reach my profile follow me and send a request.  This way i don't need to manually add your name as well.   The system has two different way to add friends. The other way is the same as 3ds where you go to your friends list and then provisionally add the friends name but they have to do the same on their system. I believe they have two different way to protect kids so that parents can turn off the miiverse way.