Hardware need advice on external HDD

[LordSolgath]

so, I've recently been playing breath of the wild on a USB flash drive, and have noticed it will crash fairly often, I've since read that this is because the USB can't handle constant read and write required for games, and have since decided on getting an external HDD for it so i can run games from that, now given i live in Australia the choice of hard drives and the way i can get them is limited and i have considered 2 options to do this, getting a drive and Y cable, or getting a drive with external power supply, I've looked at these 2 options for my Wii U and could use some advice on if either of these options are viable and which of the 2 would be the better option, planing on making the purchase of one of the 2 this Friday, so any insight would be helpful, here are the 2 drives:

Seagate 3TB Expansion Desktop Hard Drive, Product Code: SGHDD3TB (this one has its own external power supply)

Seagate 1TB Expansion Portable Hard Drive, Product Code: SGEX1000PT (this one requires the Y-cable)

any insight would be appreciated.

 

[godreborn]

I don't think the wii u can read a 3TB drive. besides, it would be overkill. the system has to format the whole drive rather being able to partition it.

 

[Sonic Angel Knight]

Seagate 1TB Expansion Portable Hard Drive, Product Code: SGEX1000PT (this one requires the Y-cable)

Use this option, WII U cannot use anything bigger than 2TB. The Y cable is a must use since it helps for the required power source that one usb port lacks. Honestly you don't need any that big, 500GB should be okay since there not many wii u games and the file size for many isn't as big as PS4 games running blu-ray with like up to 50GB a disc. Wii u disc is about 25GB max I think and most don't even go past 15GB.

 

[LordSolgath]

if i could find a 500gb i would but the smallest i could find that i could afford is the 1TB, i wasn't entirely sure on if a Y-cable would be the right choice or not, so even if i got the 3TB i wouldn't be able to use it or would i be missing out on space? unfortunately i would have to get the Y-cable from ebay because i can't locate one anywhere so getting the 1TB would mean a slight wait time before i could actually make use of it...

 

[godreborn]

u wouldn't be able to use the 3TB at all.

 

[LordSolgath]

ah i see, well that sorts that out then, thanks for the input, i was reading some comments on a reddit post hinting that using a y-cable can lead to problems, but figured it would be easier to ask than just take it at face value.

 

[godreborn]

never had problems with mine. I'm using a 2TB WD elements drive with a y cable connected to two extension cables since the hdd is on the side of my entertainment center. I've had no freezes or crashes, and I play the wii u daily.

 

[LordSolgath]

excellent, just a shame the smallest power external is 3TB, but at least i can get this, wait a few days, then be able to play breath of the wild again, the crashing was getting annoying because i had no way of knowing when it would happen >.>

hmm, according to the info i found on a reddit thread the Wii U can recognize a storage device in any size, but 2TB is the maximum amount of storage capacity the Wii U can use. Any extra capacity beyond 2TB will not be accessible by the Wii U. so the 3TB would work, i would just be losing out on the extra 1TB over 2TB...

 

[Trylk248]

I am using a 2 terabytes usb 3.0 hard drive and it works like a charm, the only thing that slows me like crazy are downloads, even tho i have 150mb/s bandwith here. (no ethernet adapter)