Topic: Hard drive question.

First of all, I can't remember what it's actually called or if I'm calling it right. I have an external hard drive being used just for the Wii U. Long story short, am I able to "partition" or whatever so half of it is being used for the Wii U so I can use the other half for other things?

Just curious, not doing this anytime soon but would like to know.

I remember reading somewhere years ago where the Wii U wouldn't recognize a partitioned drive.

@Joeynator3000 Nope; unfortunately not. The HDD currently attached to the Wii U has been formatted to only work with that console. If you tried to partition the drive on a PC it would be reformatted and not recognised by the Wii U. When reattached to the Wii U, the HDD would be reformatted again, removing the partitions (and PC compatibility).

Source

Figures...Guess that means it can't share with the Switch either. >.<

@Joeynator3000

Is it even possible to use an external drive with the switch?

@Andrzej777 IIRC Nintendo said not initially, maybe they will later

@FGPackers

OK

I am basically into physical games - digital only when its an eshop only release, and only if its a good bargain.

In regard to the switch physical games should be the way to go.

External drives can't be used with the Switch because the entirety of the console is located in the Switch itself (the dock has no functionality on its own), unlike the Wii U, which was its own console that streamed data to the Gamepad and the TV, while the Switch only displays one image at a time (either on its own screen, or the TV, depending on whether it is undocked or docked). In order for an external hard drive to be able to work with the Switch, the Switch will need to be docked at all times.

Nintendo opted for micro SD cards as the primary means of external storage as additional storage needs to be contained within the Switch itself. There simply isn't any other way that it would work.

I kinda figured it would work if it had USBs, I don't plan on taking it everywhere.