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Wii U owners - what USB storage are you using?

D

DownGrader

Member
After nearly two years of using my Wii U, I downloaded so many games and updates on in that I really need a USB storage if I want to play new DLC for Mario Kart 8. For a few days, I used a 16 Gb SD card via USB card reader, but, being worried about files damage (Nintendo strongly advises to not use flash media), I bought a case for 2,5" HDD with Y-cable.

It worked for half an our. Then it crashed and all my Virtual Console games were lost (and, in case of Brain Training, lost forever - that game was free for a limited time in Europe and is no longer available even for redownload).

I have not so much money and not so much time to buy something way more reliable, so I decided to ask GAF - what are you using with your Wii U's? The longer and the more active, the better.
 
T

The Red Wizard

Member
For the past year, I've used a 2.5" drive that I bought in 2008. It's connected with a Y-USB cable and *touch wood* it hasn't failed me yet.
 
B

Barristan Selmy

Member
I cracked open an oooold laptop and bought a casing for it. It's only 100gb but I don't game much on my Wii U( my children's console so far) and most of the stuff is physical. I've only download MK8.

Edit: I've been using since about MK8 launch and while it does disconnect sometimes for no reason it could be the casing or the kids touching and moving it around a bunch. Other than that, I've have no problems.
 
D

DownGrader

Member
Barristan Selmy said:
I cracked open an oooold laptop and bought a casing for it. It's only 100gb but I don't game much on my Wii U( my children's console so far) and most of the stuff is physical. I've only download MK8.
Click to expand...

That's what I did, but it seems either HDD was too old or the casing was the shit.
 
R

Rootbeer

Banned
i have an old 80gb 2.5" drive i slapped into a $3.50 enclosure and hooked a y-cable to it

small but wii u stuff doesn't need much space
 
P

Peltz

Member
I'm still not using external storage as I buy all first party Nintendo games physically when given the option. But I have a feeling that something is going to have to give when XCX is released and I want to install all of those loading patches.
 
V

VeryGooster

Banned
Old 250 GB Western Digital Passport with a Y cable. Does the trick. Kind of obnoxious I can't allocate space if I wanted to use something else because most drives are like 500 GB at minimum now and I sure as heck am not using all that on Wii U.
 
SerTapTap

SerTapTap

Member
Y cable 2.5" HDD. My old PS3 one actually, I think it's 500GB? Should be plenty for the gen considering how rarely I buy digital/anything on the Wii U. Just got a couple dozen downloadable/VC games, maybe 4? retail digital games from assorted promos and deals. Still way too much for the stock 32GB of course.

Terrified about the drive dying though. Anyone do a RAID or anything on theirs? No cloudsaves has me antsy.
 
B

Barristan Selmy

Member
DownGrader said:
That's what I did, but it seems either HDD was too old or the casing was the shit.
Click to expand...

As I said in my edit, I do get some disconnects but that could be the casing(connectors or something) or kids fiddling with it.

Maybe your drive was already on it's last legs. The drive I tried to hook up to the Wii U before that wasn't working so I concluded that it was dead. It was an older laptop's drive.
 
S

Seik

Banned
I buy physical only, except if the game digital only, so a 32Gb stick on the back of my 8Gb Wii U does a perfect job.
 
P

Phinor

Member
Just bought a 1 TB Seagate Expansion Portable the other week. Finding the right USB Y-cable to connect a hard drive without a power supply to Wii U might actually be a problem. Availability isn't great if you don't live in North America/other places with gigantic online stores so that's worth keeping in mind.
 
D

DownGrader

Member
Sir TapTap said:
Y cable 2.5" HDD. My old PS3 one actually, I think it's 500GB? Should be plenty for the gen considering how rarely I buy digital/anything on the Wii U. Just got a couple dozen downloadable/VC games, maybe 4? retail digital games from assorted promos and deals. Still way too much for the stock 32GB of course.
Click to expand...

I have a screen of VC's, a screen of indies/downloadables and two downloadable retail games (Nintendo Land and Mario Party 10) - but, on the other hand, I have a lot of retail games with huge updates and DLCs (MK8, SSB, Hyrule Warriors...)
 
tkscz

tkscz

Member
An old 500GB WD HDD with a powered encasement, so no need for Y cable. Thinking of doing it with a SDD as the HDD I'm using is definitely dying.
 
J

jgwhiteus

Member
I have an old 500GB 3.5" hard drive from like two computers ago, which I just reformatted. I also had a external hard drive case powered by an AC adapter, with an on/off switch. It's a little annoying to remember to turn it on when I want to play whatever's on there vs. the WiiU's internal memory, but beyond that never had issues with it.
 
S

spindashing

Banned
Zulithe said:
i have an old 80gb 2.5" drive i slapped into a $3.50 enclosure and hooked a y-cable to it

small but wii u stuff doesn't need much space
Click to expand...

Yeah, same deal for me. My old PS3 started acting up so I stole the HDD I bought for it and bought an enclosure that ended up coming with a y-cable of it's own.

Slapped the old 20gb HDD that I saved back onto the PS3 so it's essentially my PS2 for now.

SoraanTribal said:
That's what I figured. Hmm.. I feel like I don't need *that* much space that a hard drive provides on the Wii U. A USB drive would be better lol
Click to expand...
After hearing horror stories of what happened to people after using USB thumb drives, I wouldn't go that route...
 
D

DownGrader

Member
Koren said:
What?

That's insanely stupid... Why don't they allow to redownload it?
Click to expand...

Well, it seems like they completely delisted it - even the game icon was missing. Nintendo, hovewer, re-opened Miiverse community after the launch of DS titles in Virtual Console, and Japanese Nintendo web site promised to add Virtual Console menu to the game with an update, so I hope it will we available again in the future.
 
E

Eldainorn

Member
I am using USB stick. :D It has worked like a charm for the past year.

AFAIK all save games are on the internal memory of WiiU so I do not care if it fails one day. I also do not have many purchased software from the eShop. I can re-download it at any time anyways. :)
 
D

DownGrader

Member
Eldainorn said:
I am using USB stick. :D It has worked like a charm for the past year.

AFAIK all save games are on the internal memory of WiiU so I do not care if it fails one day. I also do not have many purchased software from the eShop. I can re-download it at any time anyways. :)
Click to expand...

All save games are in the same place as the game itself.
 
A

AntiFacebook

Member
I don't. I only buy physical games, and the 32GB flash memory is somehow enough for WWHD(which i got from the wiiu bundle), the 3 wii games released so far and a bunch of SNES\GBA games I have on the VC.
 
A

Anbec7

Member
I think I'm using one of the recommended drives that Nintendo put on their webpage 2 years ago.

1 TB Toshiba drive with the separate power brick and all
 
S

stan423321

Member
I used a USB3 1TB ADATA drive I got a few years ago that seemed to get bad, and outfitted it with a Y-cable. It appears to be working better than it did on PC, so...
 
G

GustyGardens

Banned
2TB USB 3.0 Toshiba with external power supply.

I wanted to go mostly digital with Nintendo this time around, so it seemed like fate when I found this guy for a cheap price. I've had it for a year or so now and I've yet to run into any problems; games load quickly and I've got plenty of storage. The only thing missing is a better account system and I'll be all set.
 
B

Bulzeeb

Member
is it viable to use an enclosure for an old desktop HDD and connect that to the wii U? I am asking because I have and old desktop that nobody uses and it might be nice to get some of its old parts working on something before disposing of the rest
 
Dr. Zoidberg

Dr. Zoidberg

Member
I'm using an old WD 160GB 3.5" external drive that has it's own power supply. I couldn't use a 2.5 drive since none of mine have external power, and I can't use a Y cable because I need one of those ports for my wired Internet connection.
 
Dsyndrome

Dsyndrome

Member
Got a 2TB Western Digital with an external power supply for my birthday specifically for Wii U. Way more storage than I'll ever use, but looking at other viable options, they either cost more or had reliability issues at some point (looking at the other thread for hard drives).
 
RPGCrazied

RPGCrazied

Member
Just a standard 500gb usb drive. Seems fine for demos and things, really don't use it. Xenoblade X is going to be the first game that will really use it with those data packs.
 
N

Nosgoroth

Member
2.5'' 500GB Western Digital external drive connected via Y USB cable. Loooots of room, no need to carry around another power brick when moving it.

Bulzeeb said:
is it viable to use an enclosure for an old desktop HDD and connect that to the wii U? I am asking because I have and old desktop that nobody uses and it might be nice to get some of its old parts working on something before disposing of the rest
Click to expand...

Yes, absolutely, go for it.
 
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