I'm looking between two external hard drives now, they are both from Western Digital and they are both AC powered, not USB, so I don't really know the difference. But I'm hoping someone here can help me decide.

Western Digital MyBook Essential 2 TB:
http://www.amazon.com/Western-Digital-Essential-External-WDBA...

OR

Western Digital WD Elements 2 TB:
http://www.amazon.com/Western-Digital-Elements-Desktop-Extern...

OR in edition to helping me make a decision, tell me what hard drive you would get, whether it be a different brand or whatever, I don't mind.

Not sure why they have two SKU's of AC powered desktop hard drives but they must have differences.

I think 2 TB is a bit too big. I have yet to fill up the space on my 250 GB hardrive on my 360, and I use it for pretty much everything. Even if you download all of your games, I think 2 TB is pushing it a little bit.

As for the quality of the hardrives, I have no idea.

My brother filled up our 250 Xbox 360 hard drive, don't ask me how, I never play it, he does. I play the Wii and PC mostly. And maybe you're right but it's like only $20 dollars more to get this than the 1 TB version which seems justifiable. And I could probably partition it and use some of it for my laptop. Oh and on my gaming PC with Steam on, I have a 1 TB hard drive and it's almost filled up... well I have like 200 GB's left but that goes fast from not many games.

i myself already have an eye on a 2tb external drive, yea i knnow thats a bit much but. id rather have the piece of mind that it will be there when i need it

@teus, can you show me what one you're thinking of getting?

After looking at a few reviews, the WD Elements seems to be the better one. Faster overall performance in general. The mybook seems to be good for backing stuff up, which is nice if you get a lot of stuff and want to protect it.

As for me, I've got hardrives just lying around, so I'll just use one of those. Probably a 120 or 250 GB. I doubt I'll need it all, since I won't be installing games from the disc or using it to store media outside of games, since the WiiU doesn't seem to be much about that.

Really? I seen another place that said Elements goes at like 13 MB/s while the MyBook does 64 MB/s

I guess there's always conflicting reviews. Are you able to find any professional ones? I can't. .
Both seem pretty solid, though.

My suggestion? Wait until Black Friday and see what kinda deals on are out there for 1 TB HDD's.

Doesn't the Wii U only support USB external HDDs?

I would wait till the system actually comes out and we start hearing reports from people about what's working and what's not.

@GameLord08, those are both external. And @iphys, sounds like a good idea.

@Treverend: USB external HDDs. You mentioned those were AC-powered, and I'm not sure if the Wii U supports those.

Satoru Iwata did outline that the best option is a hard drive with its own power source (ie a plug of its own); hard drives with two USB cables, or flash USB drives, come with warnings that they won't necessarily be the ideal solution, even if they'll technically work.

http://www.nintendolife.com/news/2012/11/wii_u_external_hard_...

http://www.futureshop.ca/en-CA/product/wd-wd-my-book-essentia...

@GL — You might be thinking that the Wii U will only support external hard drives that use a USB connection (as opposed to some variant of SATA or SAS), which would be correct iirc. There's no reason why any electronic product wouldn't support an external with its own AC power source; it just wouldn't be able to detect it if the power was off.

it is said that is preferable for the hard drive to be powered by ac... however they said drives that can be powered by usb will work too but its not preferable

You should definitely get a drive that has its own AC adapter. Hard drives without that draw a lot of power from your USB port and can shorten the life of your Wii U.

IGN says that drives that use 2 usb ports for power would work too (and probably be better than a drive with one usb), but one with an AC cord would be safest.

Seagate and Western Digital are two big-named hard drive brands, and are pretty great quality. I also think 2TB is too much, 1 tb would be enough for most unless you make EVERY game you buy digital.

@TBD: Ah, gotcha. Thanks.

Nobody mind me any longer.