You can get a Power Outlet to USB charge port adapter thing or even power boards with USB points on them. They're fairly cheap and are quite common these days given that pretty much every modern phone has USB for charging and data. Clearly the better option would be to plug the power part of the USB Y-Plug into one of them and the other end into the Wii U.

...... but as I was going to say earlier, at that point you've lost the main benefit of a portable drive anyways.

Well, I tried using a usb powered portable drive that only uses usb 2.0 tech, but it just kept ticking and couldn't be recognized by the Wii U. It just says "checking drive". I worry that if I leave it to format it might ruin the mechanism. I just can't understand why a small drive that consumes so little power can't be used.

but you dont need the hard drive to be portable.. once you put that drive on the wiiu it can only be used on that wiiu.. and for piracy reasons i doubt that you would simply be able to connect it to another wiiu without it wanting to format it...

you should understand even sony uses its own proprietary format on the hard drives you put into it... making it unusable on other devices even another ps3...(unless you format it), so really the need of portability is already thrown out the door

@teus
I didn't say the main benefit was that it was portable I was talking about how I wanted to plug it just into one USB port. If I need to use an adapter to plug it into the wall I lose yet another power outlet on my power board and if I plug in two USB ports I lose the ability to use the LAN adapter without doing a ghetto wiring job. Thus I lose the main benefit of using a portable drive.

Still, by using the y-usb cable to power a harddrive you may be putting extra strain on the wiiu when it isnt necessary and it could effect the overall performance.. hence why nintendo recremmends you use a ac powered hard drive.. not that there is anyhthing wrong with these type of drives, and these type of drives makes more sense to use on portable devices like a laptop. but your using the drive on a device that is not meant to be portable... so really the fact of what is more portable shouldnt be the top concern for when you choose what hard drive you use... and personnaly id rather choose a hard drive that wouldnt put any uneccessary strain on the wiiu..

I don't think the statement about the y-cable has to do with "strain" on the Wii U (it's just providing power and presumably has plenty via that massive brick) as much as being more reliable than powering it via USB alone. I'm sure any company would say that about an external drive you planned to run in desktop mode just to cover themselves.

Personally I'd feel better about using a wall socket than USB for a hard disk myself, so when I bought an external 2.5" enclosure for an old laptop hard disk I made sure to buy one with an optional DC input socket.

@teus
As I said, I didn't want to run out of power sockets behind my TV. I just plugged my 2.5" drive into the wall socket for the extra storage but now I have no more wall sockets for my GamePad charger. This is why I wanted to be able to use a portable drive. Again, and this is the third time I've said this, not because it's more portable but because I don't want to use up all my USB ports and power sockets. I don't even have it in a proper case it's just the USB adapter from a gutted and dead old external and a spare laptop HDD.

As it is I have a TV, the Wii U, a BluRay player, a four point ethernet over power thing and the HDD. No more power points to use. So I'll either have to get a bigger power board or just live with it. This is clearly not the ideal. I mean how crazy is it that to use a fully featured Wii U you have to have THREE spare power outlets. Insane right? I'm surprised they let you charge the Pro Controller via USB given how many AC adapters you need for everything else.

tyhe question i would ask is is there any other wall socket in the room of which you can plug the gamepad charger in?

Actually the Wii U can be used as a semi-portable device, no? If one wanted to take the tablet gamepad from say, the upstairs to the basement, or to the back yard, they would also have to take the entire console & plug it in somewhere closer.

You don't get it. If it had worked as a USB powered drive it would have taken up just one USB port and no extra wall sockets. That would have been better than having to give the drive extra power.

Being able to charge the GamePad somewhere else, which I did already, is not the point. The point is it would have been more convenient if it had been USB powered. I frequently plug in a laptop into that spare power socket next to the TV and it wouldn't be crazy for me to get a surround sound setup going. The back of the TV always seems to be needing more power points as it is.... then the Wii U comes along and half demands to be able to use three?

It's annoying, it would have been better if it had allowed USB powered drives. They could have done that, they didn't. Therefore now if I want to use an external drive even a portable one I have to give it extra power from a wall socket or via a second USB port. This means, as I said right from the start, I lose one of the main benefits using a portable drive on the Wii U would have given me.

Does anyone know of a list of HDD's to avoid? This would be more usefull. My friend has a PS3 with a WD HDD and it has the SPIN DOWN problem where if the game didnt read from the HDD for 10 minutes, it spins down. No problem untill it does try to check and then we have to wait for about 10 seconds for it to start to read again.

I dont want a spin down HDD, how do I avoid it?

I just got myself a CnMemory 3,5" ext. HDD USB 2.0 / 3.0 2TB "Airy" with external power supply and...it does NOT work.
The HDD isnt recognized at all. After connecting it via a USB 2.0 HUB it was recognized and also formated. The catch is:
It shows up on the "chanel" page as ready (HDD sign, bottom left corner) when the system boots up, but after launching an aplication, say, settings / Data management, the drive vanishes. After that, it doesnt even show up at the chanel screen anymore until i reboot the system.
Already tried the following:
Not detected at all:
-connecting it directly via this special USB 3.0 cable (looks like a standart square USB head with a mini USB head on top)
-connecting it directly via standart USB 2.0 cable
Detected at startup, but vanishes when launching an application:
-connecting it via USB 2.0 HUB with USB 3.0 cable
-connecting it via USB 2.0 HUB with standart USB 2.0 cable

Im kinda out of ideas now. I hope i get a refund and that my 85€ didnt go down the gutter

Just got a Wii U email and they had a link for compatible external USB hard drive's.
http://www.nintendo.com/consumer/systems/wiiu/en_na/system_ex...

The number 2 Toshiba listed in the first post works good. That one goes on sale to $100 now and then, with 2TB worth of ext. powered HDD space. I was thinking of buying the Nintendo licensed one by PD whatever from Gamestop, but $10 more for 6 times more space seemed like the better way to go. It's black, and even has a matching blue light.

I have a 2TB drive (Seagate brand) and it works wonderfully. Got it on sale for $100 too. <3

I'm using 320GB Toshiba 2.5" Sata 7200rpm hard drive and the USB external case. It works very well.

You can always buy a wall outlet at walmart that has 1 regular outlet plus 2 USB inputs. I was surprised they even made those. Maybe you can connect to a conputer wired to that outlet anywhere in the house? Haha.

Name: Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex 750GB USB 2.0
Power: usb
works: NO
works with y-cable: Not tested
Actual drive: seagate momentus 750GB (st9750422as)
Startup power: 1.0A

does anybody know if there are any external hard drives that can be used on the wiiu that do NOT require an external power supply.. I want one where you can just plug it directly in to the wiiu and play WITH OUT having to use a y cable.

thanks

I have a 500 gb portable Buffalo Ministation Stealth harddrive that I got brand new for $50, works like a charm!