The Wii U is only USB 2.0 so it doesn't really matter if you're only gonna use it on your Wii U.
Dunno if somebody already mentioned it (searched through the posts though), the highest capacity of a HDD is limited to 2TB. There is also a capacity of installed titles up to 300. Anything installed after this will not be shown in the menu, even if there's plenty space left on the HDD.
There's no minimum requirement, everything else is been told in this thread already.
But if you ask me, 250GB isn't that big enough for mainstream games. There are many good ones which are over 15GB size (like Batman, Bayonetta, Call of Duty, Mass Effect, Watch_Dogs etc.) and you'd like to have 'em all on the HDD instead of freeing up space to install them everytime. It's up to you my friend. I'd suggest you to go for at least a 1TB HDD.
I did that myself, by adding a 128GB USB thumb drive first. Later I went for a 500GB HDD, this was then afterwards exchanged with a 1TB HDD and finally with a 2TB HDD.
Last edited by CaptainHIT,
[QUOTE="CaptainHIT, post: 9259104, member:
But if you ask me, 250GB isn't that big enough for mainstream games. There are many good ones which are over 15GB size (like Batman, Bayonetta, Call of Duty, Mass Effect, Watch_Dogs etc.) and you'd like to have 'em all on the HDD instead of freeing up space to install them everytime. It's up to you my friend. I'd suggest you to go for at least a 1TB HDD.
I did that myself, by adding a 128GB USB thumb drive first. Later I went for a 500GB HDD, this was then afterwards exchanged with a 1TB HDD and finally with a 2TB HDD.[/QUOTE]
I will probably end up going the same route. Have to try with the cheapest first to see if it actually solves my problem.
But if you ask me, 250GB isn't that big enough for mainstream games. There are many good ones which are over 15GB size (like Batman, Bayonetta, Call of Duty, Mass Effect, Watch_Dogs etc.) and you'd like to have 'em all on the HDD instead of freeing up space to install them everytime. It's up to you my friend. I'd suggest you to go for at least a 1TB HDD.
I did that myself, by adding a 128GB USB thumb drive first. Later I went for a 500GB HDD, this was then afterwards exchanged with a 1TB HDD and finally with a 2TB HDD.
[/QUOTE]I will probably end up going the same route. Have to try with the cheapest first to see if it actually solves my problem.
I use an external 1TB HDD and it has allowed me to backup my whole wii u and cube collection to it. Though if I wanted to go overboard, I might wanna switch with a bigger HDD at some point. Just to be sure.
F.Y.I. Just make sure you connect your HDD with a Y power cable or even better, use an external enclosure with its own PSU.
F.Y.I. Just make sure you connect your HDD with a Y power cable or even better, use an external enclosure with its own PSU.
Last edited by Mamothstard,
technically, I'd say a y cable is probably better. there have been known issues with a powered drive if it's still powered on when the wii u is off. people have reported that their drives have failed as a result. that's why I toggle mine off.
It's more of a me problem. I don't think other people have had this issue here but I did.
I've had issues with a y-cable on Wii U twice. The total usb power output was not enough to sustain during a long write operation and I ended up losing my data. Can't really say why.
I've lost to many hours in Tokyo Mirage and BOTW at this point. So I just switched to a 1TB in an external enclosure with its own psu. Just to be extra sure.
Oh god, please don't tell me that.
Well, I'll just have to be extra EXTRA careful.
But I really don't like having my 2 usb slots on the back used. That means having to hook up the front ports of the console if I want to use the ethernet adapter or the Gamecube adapter. And that's just messy.
Last edited by Mamothstard,
I'm not sure exactly, but it's been suggested in a few other threads to unplug the drive, because the system has been known to destroy external hdds.
Tbf I usually disconnect power to the Wii U so that might be why. I've had a Wii kill a USB stick or maybe it was my pc when transfering games to it.
By standby do you mean when it's lit red or yellow? Not sure if there's a difference.
if you mean which is standby, either can be. I think it's yellow if you have quick menu enabled or it's downloading updates, but it's typically red. I've had an hdd die from leaving it on. I don't know for sure that the wii u did it, but after reading of others who've experienced the same thing, I kinda wonder.
Well, USB sticks and single USB HDD with no external PSU are a no go for sure. Because the Wii U tends to crash your drive randomly EVEN if you set auto power-down and standby functions off (which should always be turned down because it's known to crash drives and kill your data. Trust me, I had to restart my BOTW playthrough 5 times because of this).
I guess y-cables should be fine, in theory because it delivers 2 * 0,5amp at 5V and could avoid your drive crashing when sustaining high power draining operations. But I am not at ease with the Wii U being the sole arbiter of what power gets delivered to my HDD.
Furthermore, Nintendo state themselves that a HDD with a dedicated PSU is recommended.
But since @godreborn said that some problems still had issues with that too. IDK what to believe anymore.
So from now on I'll just switch off the power of my HDD manually when the Wii U is unpowered.
I guess y-cables should be fine, in theory because it delivers 2 * 0,5amp at 5V and could avoid your drive crashing when sustaining high power draining operations. But I am not at ease with the Wii U being the sole arbiter of what power gets delivered to my HDD.
Furthermore, Nintendo state themselves that a HDD with a dedicated PSU is recommended.
But since @godreborn said that some problems still had issues with that too. IDK what to believe anymore.
So from now on I'll just switch off the power of my HDD manually when the Wii U is unpowered.
So I’ve received my new HDD. Ordered the wrong Y Cable
Ordered another USB A to A, Y cable.
While I wait for the cable, will a single, non Y cable be ok to use and have the Wii U format the drive so I can start transferring games to the HDD from my computer?
Or should I never risk connecting the HDD without a Y cable in case the Wii U kills it?
Ordered another USB A to A, Y cable.
While I wait for the cable, will a single, non Y cable be ok to use and have the Wii U format the drive so I can start transferring games to the HDD from my computer?
Or should I never risk connecting the HDD without a Y cable in case the Wii U kills it?
unfortunately, no. you have to install games via the sd card to a wii u formatted drive. the games have to be indexed (speeds up loading content). most, if not all, new systems do this. compare that to the 360 (which doesn't) -- if you have a jtag/rgh, it can take minutes to read internal storage from system settings. with that system, it's just drag and drop mostly, no installs. however, the fake dash indexes games.
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