USB Y-Cable + USB Hub + USB Peripherals?

[zebragreen]

Hello, I am running a Toshiba "Canvio Ready" 1TB hard drive.

It seems to have decent power consumption, it's not as bad as other drives I've tried. However, it can't get by on it's own.

Therefore I have a Y-Cable plugged into both ports of the Wii.

The problem is, I now want to plug in a Tony Hawk Skateboard receiver, and I'm having some trouble.

I tried putting a USB hub into the second USB port, then put the hard drive data cable in the first.

Then I put the power part of the Y-Cable into the USB hub.

On the first USB hub I tried, this didn't work at all and the Hard Drive couldn't power on. On the second USB hub, it worked fine. Then about 2 hours later the Wii crashed and wiped the drive (I had a backup).

What's the best way to do this?

I'm having a really hard time finding a power source to power the power end of the Y-Cable, so that the second port is free. I fried one hard drive by plugging it into a phone charger in an outlet and the hard drive smelled like burning and didn't work. I had a similar experience with a powered USB hub. I've even tried powering on a laptop just to plug the power end of the Y-Cable into a USB on that laptop and that didn't give enough power to power up the drive.

I don't want to depend on a second wall outlet to run the Wii if possible, I don't want an externally powered hard drive.

 

[Vulpes-Vulpeos]

You need to make cable with external power injection and use 5v power supply to power hard drive.
Or you can try to find usb hub or hdd case with external power.

 

[zebragreen]

You need to make cable with external power injection and use 5v power supply to power hard drive.
Or you can try to find usb hub or hdd case with external power.

My cable looks like this (the HDD connector is integrated into the cable):

 

[morning_glory]

Just some things to consider :

Ext USB HDD's draw the most power on power-up. Most of the time, the HDD's go into a sleep-mode, & thus the wii call power/wake-up can take a little longer to initiate it. Patience is paramount.

The shorter the USB cables, the better. Same for Y cables. Usually not worth mentioning, but could be related.

Have a think about cracking your HDD case open & using a discrete HDD adapter to USB output. They can come with external power (ebay/amazon).

 

[Vulpes-Vulpeos]

My cable looks like this (the HDD connector is integrated into the cable):

Your cable is standard Y-cable where power from 2 usb port of one device is combined.
You need Y-cable with external power separated from device connected to hdd.

 

[zebragreen]

Your cable is standard Y-cable where power from 2 usb port of one device is combined.
You need Y-cable with external power separated from device connected to hdd.

Are you saying a HDD-integrated Y-Cable will only function if both plugs are connected into something which is a combined piece of machinery?

I don't think I can get any other cables, it took me a great deal of time to even secure this Y-Cable at the advice of this forum. I got the shortest one possible.

Above, I said my HDD got wiped, but that's only half the story. Here is the setup I've been using for over a year with no problems:

To gain access to another USB port to supply the Tony Hawk Skateboard receiver, I plugged it in as follows:

It worked great, the drive functioned at full speed (it doesn't work without a Y-Cable) and overall worked no differently than normal. Then after about 2 hours, I got a sudden crash dump.

When I checked the drive, the entire contents was perfectly empty (even the label text had been wiped), after running a ChkDsk, I found the entire space of the drive placed inside Found.000.

I analyzed the defrag and found 0% fragmentation, then checked CrystalDiskInfo which showed this:

I did a quick format with GuiFormat at 32kb clusters, then placed my backup onto the drive.

Plugging it back into the Wii like this:

When I ran the Wii, it was running at about one quarter the usual speed, basically unusuably slow.

Next, I tried a full format, not quick, with GuiFormat. I thought this would fix it but no change.

I then did a test on CrystalDiskMark:

I know very little about any of this and need expert advice.

Should I assume this harddrive is now also unusable and throw this one out as well?

On this website https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=274219 someone says HDDs can fall back into a slower speed when they detect low power. Is there any truth to this and can it be configured the same way sleep settings can be configured, to get my HDD out of some low power mode?

I assume the Tony Hawk Skateboard is out of the question.

If I were to get a new HDD, this was my previous configuration:

Should I instead get one of these:

And attempt this?

My USB hub looks like this:

I really hope that works as I really can't depend on a second outlet to power the Wii, in the case that I do, would it look like this:

Or this:

Is there any way I can get this to work with a Y-Cable and powered USB hub?

 

[Vulpes-Vulpeos]

If you want to use hub, then it should look like this:

Spoiler

I really can't depend on a second outlet to power the Wii

You know that such thing exists?

Spoiler

 

[zebragreen]

You know that such thing exists?

Spoiler

View attachment 385176

I can't use this because my Wii is very difficult to physically access- I depend on using the Wiimote's wireless power button to turn it on.

Any way to make it so the USB hub only starts drawing power when the Wii is turned on?