I had a StarTech USB 2.0 hard dock that I mount a Seagate 500G drive in. I have been using for years to run Uloader on my Wii with no problems. It recently died so I bough a new one but it will not work. with the Wii
USB3.0 should be backwards compatible with 2.0 things. Might be slower than theoretically possible if it was on a USB3.0 connection but should not be any issue on working. I am guessing here something in the dock/caddy and the Wii (which is rather picky as these things go, not as bad as some devices but enough we did used to have working or not lists for things) do not get along.Since the Wii only has USB 2.0, you should use that connection type for HDD docks.
Thanks. I think the power switch failed on the first one so I will try to fix it.USB3.0 should be backwards compatible with 2.0 things. Might be slower than theoretically possible if it was on a USB3.0 connection but should not be any issue on working. I am guessing here something in the dock/caddy and the Wii (which is rather picky as these things go, not as bad as some devices but enough we did used to have working or not lists for things) do not get along.
Sometimes these devices do have options you can fiddle with that get them working, though usually that is reserved for the truly fancy drives that do RAID and whatnot. Here it is probably going to be a matter of get another caddy/dock. You can try another but if you want to find working or not lists, or take it in and test in the shop then that would not be the worst plan.
As far as dead docks. Do you know what died in it? Often it is just a power supply which can be more readily fixed.