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Forums - Nintendo - Are all these External Drive good for the WiiU or not?

attaboy on 05 November 2013

I have an external SD Card reader. I'm gonna give this a shot later on today when I'm really bored. Resident Evil Revelations killed my 32GB Wii U. I only have like two GB left! If it works, it will be a great cheap alternative for the time being.

What sucks is that I have a Seagate 500GB HDD that doesn't have its own power source. I was able to use it for my PC, 360, and PS3 without an issue. It just allocated a certain amount for just the 360 (16GB, I think. Haven't used it in forever for anything except movies). I was able to download DLC, games, etc. to the thing and it worked without a hitch. I wish the Wii U would allow it to work. Heck, maybe it would but the fact that the HDD needs to be formatted before I can even test it out sucks.



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hentai_11 on 05 November 2013
TheDarkBender said:
You can use USB 3.0 devices/sticks, although when using a usb hard drive (not a stick) you need to have an AC adapter or a second usb cable to power the device, because the Wii U won't let you use a HDD that uses one usb cable for power and data.

That's not true. I use a 2,5'' USB 3.0 drive with just one normal cable (no Y-cable) and it works fine. The problem is that some USB-HDD-Makers use more power than allowed by the USB-Specification (energy efficient components are expensive ...). This is usually no problem, because the PC (which should be the main use for USB-HDDs) has no problem with giving more power. However the Wii U only gives you power according to the USB-Specification. One of the reasons for this is to prevent overheating.

So if you get a good HDD you won't need an external power supply or a Y-cable.



attaboy on 05 November 2013
hentai_11 said:
TheDarkBender said:
You can use USB 3.0 devices/sticks, although when using a usb hard drive (not a stick) you need to have an AC adapter or a second usb cable to power the device, because the Wii U won't let you use a HDD that uses one usb cable for power and data.

That's not true. I use a 2,5'' USB 3.0 drive with just one normal cable (no Y-cable) and it works fine. The problem is that some USB-HDD-Makers use more power than allowed by the USB-Specification (energy efficient components are expensive ...). This is usually no problem, because the PC (which should be the main use for USB-HDDs) has no problem with giving more power. However the Wii U only gives you power according to the USB-Specification. One of the reasons for this is to prevent overheating.

So if you get a good HDD you won't need an external power supply or a Y-cable.

Good info.  I think some HDD's will work but Nintendo said to use ones with their own power supply just to avoid any potential problems.