Hardware My Wii U HDD Expiriance

[2DSGamerdude]

hi, all i recenlty got my Y cbale for wii u HDD that i was going to use for more space,
i decided to use the following:

- 256gb SSD
- USB enclousre 3.0 2.5 inch.
- Y cable usb 3.0 (with micro b fitting)

all in all, my HDD with the y cable works like a charm and is super fast on installing games from sd card, and
it does big files like sonic lost world (6gb) or star fox zero (5gb) or wii games (2-3gb) in like a couple of mintues

it might be because ofr the combo of the Y cable being usb 3.0 and the hard drive case being usb 3.0 and the SSD also?
and games also load up super fast from SSD and have no lag

all in all th experiance of playing games from hdd is great .

 

[MrCokeacola]

USB 3.0 and a SSD are overkill for a Wii U. My old seagate freeagent 500GB external that's over 10 years old loads games super fast and with no lag too.

 

[k7ra]

USB 3.0 and a SSD are overkill for a Wii U. My old seagate freeagent 500GB external that's over 10 years old loads games super fast and with no lag too.

WiiU can't use usb3 speed, so it's use usb2.
WiiU can't use ssd speed, so it's use hdd.

If you try usb2 hdd, it would be same.... So, not worth it

 

[Edgarska]

WiiU can't use usb3 speed, so it's use usb2.
WiiU can't use ssd speed, so it's use hdd.

If you try usb2 hdd, it would be same.... So, not worth it

To add to this, the Wii U can't even fully use the USB 2.0 maximum speed (effective, not theoretical). I'm not sure if it's an I/O problem but it never gets even close to the expected 35-40MB/s, it seems to hover around 24.

 

[2DSGamerdude]

USB 3.0 and a SSD are overkill for a Wii U. My old seagate freeagent 500GB external that's over 10 years old loads games super fast and with no lag too.

yeah, well not sure why but even if the wii u cannot use usb 3.0 or the SSD's speeds, it still works great for me,
it's super fast on installing games from SD card to the drive, and big files GB size in a couple of mintues (lol).
seeing it happening amazed me.
and the games from the ssd play at good speeds with no lag or such, if i had used a flash drive, it would burn out pretty quickly.
also, the fact that im using a Y-cable helps as it can power the ssd with power to work properly, as a single micro-b cable i tried wasn't enogh for it to even work properly and it lost conncetion to the wii u, plus when i tried to install star fox zero to it using this single cable,
Wup installer GX app froze on 0%.
wereas for the Y-cable it worked suer fast .

also can the usb 3.0 & ssd kill the wii u or damage it?
well it can't use those, so it uses usb 2.0 & hdd speeds instaed? right

To add to this, the Wii U can't even fully use the USB 2.0 maximum speed (effective, not theoretical). I'm not sure if it's an I/O problem but it never gets even close to the expected 35-40MB/s, it seems to hover around 24.

well the speeds i got were okay for me. install speeds and game loading speeds. no lag whatsoever.

 

[MrCokeacola]

also can the usb 3.0 & ssd kill the wii u or damage it?
well it can't use those, so it uses usb 2.0 & hdd speeds instaed? right

Well the Wii U can kill USB sticks so it would probably kill a SSD that was dram-less.

 

[Edgarska]

Well the Wii U can kill USB sticks so it would probably kill a SSD that was dram-less.

What does it do differently that it kills USB sticks?

 

[V10lator]

What does it do differently that it kills USB sticks?

It writes to the same blocks over and over again. This is a problem with cheap FTL (Flash Translation Layer) designs like you find on USB sticks and cheap (none-enterprise) SSDs. Nintendo itself advises to not use flash media:

• https://en-americas-support.nintendo.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/1474/#s1q8
• https://en-americas-support.nintendo.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/1474/#s1q10
• https://en-americas-support.nintendo.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/1474/#s1q11

if i had used a flash drive, it would burn out pretty quickly

Don't want to be the one bringing the bad news but a SSD is a flash drive: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solid-state_drive#Flash-based_SSDs

 

[raging_chaos]

With an SSD you don't need a Y cable, the 500mah of power the Wii provides is enough. You only need a Y cable to power a mechanical spinning drive. The only benefit you are seeing from using an SSD over a mechanical HDD (besides lower power draw and heat) is the reduced seek times, data transfer speeds stay the same since your are still limited by the Wii's USB 2.0 ports.

 

[godreborn]

I'm using a 2TB wd elements drive (2.5"). it's in its original enclosure and using a y cable. I actually have it connected to an extension cable iirc, so it loops around my entertainment center. I play the wii u almost every day, and it still works very well. I recently updated breath of the wild, and I had forgotten how somewhat slow it is to install games, but I've had no real problems with it.

 

[Edgarska]

It writes to the same blocks over and over again. This is a problem with cheap FTL (Flash Translation Layer) designs like you find on USB sticks and cheap (none-enterprise) SSDs. Nintendo itself advises to not use flash media:

• https://en-americas-support.nintendo.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/1474/#s1q8
• https://en-americas-support.nintendo.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/1474/#s1q10
• https://en-americas-support.nintendo.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/1474/#s1q11

Don't want to be the one bringing the bad news but a SSD is a flash drive: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solid-state_drive#Flash-based_SSDs

Yes, that's my point, it's not a Wii U specific problem, it's a problem with cheap flash memory.