Just wondering if anyone out there has hooked up a harddrive to their WiiU yet.  Particularly I'm wondering if you can upload physical copies of games you own to the harddrive, then play them without the disk in the system.  And if so, do you notice a difference when it comes to load times, framerate, etc.  Thanks.

Just bought one to do that today... a warning to all do not buy a Lacie 2TB mimimus for this, it will not be recognized by the WiiU... after I return it and try another one I will tell you.

I don't think you can OP.....you either get a physical version or a digital version, you don't get both.

1) I have not read anywhere that you can install the full disc game. Its digital or disc only. No cross over yet.
2) There are plenty of people with HDDs and thus digital full games tho. Might get a quicker answer to the performance of said games on MiiVerse tho.

I'd wager it would be heavily dependent on the HDD and if its technically faster than the disc drive in the WiiU.

When i get my wiiu.i wil be getting a usb harddrive.on the Nintendo zite there is a list od drives that work with the wiiu

I have a spare 500GB WD harddrive hooked up to my Wii U, and use it for all of my save files plus Mario U and Nintendo Land (so far). I have not tried to install my disk games on the HDD, because I don't remember reading anywhere that it was possible to do so. At the very least, there is no obvious message that pops up asking if you would like to install a disk game.

This particular HDD powers on and off with the Wii U. (It has an external power supply, and I leave the HDD power switch set to ON.) It also appears to go into a "sleep mode" if it hasn't been accessed for awhile. Then, when I do start up Mario U (for example), it takes a few moments for the HDD to spin up and access the disk, so there is a bit of a delay, but only a few seconds.

I don't have Mario U on disk to compare any of the differences you asked about, but once the HDD is accessed and the start screen comes up, the game runs flawlessly.

Buffalo

1 TB: HD-LB1.0TU3-US

2 TB: HD-LB2.0TU3-US

http://www.buffalotech.com/products/desktop-hard-drives/drivestation/drivestation-axis-2

Seagate

Backup Plus Desktop Drive

1TB : STCA1000100 (US)

2TB : STCA2000100 (US)

http://www.seagate.com/external-hard-drives/desktop-hard-drives/backup-plus-desk/

Expansion Desktop

1TB : STBV1000100 (US)

2TB : STBV2000100 (US)

http://www.seagate.com/external-hard-drives/desktop-hard-drives/expansion-hard-drive/

Toshiba

1 TB: HDWC110XK3J1

2 TB: HDWC120XK3J1

http://us.toshiba.com/computers/storage/desktop/canvio-desk

 

 

http://www.nintendo.com/consumer/systems/wiiu/en_na/system_external_storage.jsp?menu=general_info&submenu=wup-external-usb-devices

Thanks, everyone, for the help. I'm seriously bummed that I can't put my disks on the harddrive. It makes me want to go digital...but then I won't be able to loan games to friends or take the game to their houses. I think I sense Nintendo's evil scheming at work here.

I think that's due to a file protection program that Lacie's use, I'm not sure if you can even turn it off. I bought a LAN HDD from Lacie eight years ago, and was also surprised with the user prompt that comes up when you connected it via usb.

I had to use an old 250 GB drive I had lying around... I have tried AC3 and ZombiU from the drive, no problems, no slowdowns. Downloads are 10% cheaper for early deluxe version purchasers so I have been buying everything digital (BLOPS2 is not available for download... so I have not yet bought it... your loss treyarch). So far outside of an incompatibility issue with a new drive I bought, I am happy.