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Topic: Thoughts on External Hard drive for Wii U

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skywake

Edwin wrote:

I'm specifically interested in if this choice will make a difference for Mario Kart 8's online gameplay. I think it's safe to say that this game will be the Wii U's most ambitious online game so far so I just hope that all storage methods can handle the workload equally.

The difference will mostly be in load times. The games are optimised for loading off a disk so the random-read benefit of flash probably won't help it much. So flash probably won't be as fast as HDD performance overall. But the optical disk? Both flash and external HDD will win hands down.

But it won't impact the gameplay that much, it'll just mean that the game runs quieter and you'll spend less time waiting for stuff to load.

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"Don't stir the pot" is a nice way of saying "they're too dumb to reason with"

Crimzonlogic

Is there a decent external hard drive available for around $50 bucks or less perhaps? I don't think I even need 100gb, I buy physical discs whenever possible. I basically just want to buy Child of light and maybe two other eshop titles. Every hard drive I look at costs $100 or more and is 1 tb or larger. I do not need all of that and I certainly can't afford it AND games.

Edited on by Crimzonlogic

Currently playing: Smash Bros. 3DS, Xenoblade Chronicles, Alpha Sapphire.
Attempting to guide nephew through Skyward Sword. He keeps getting stuck.

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Crimzonlogic

SCAR392 wrote:

@Crimzonlogic
Here's a filtered page from Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=sr_nr_p_36_3?keywords=external+ha...
There's a few 500GB for around $50, but you'll need this, too:
http://www.amazon.com/eForCity-dual-Micro-B-Cable-Black/dp/B0...

Those are all portable, aren't we not supposed to use portable ones? This is confusing. What is the difference between portable and whatever it is that is recommended other than portable hard drives for Wii U? (I am assuming the non-portable ones have their own power cord?) Ugh, I don't even know what questions to ask about this. I've never used an external hard drive before and don't know up from left in the matter. Question: When I get one of these, will it be as simple as plugging it into the Wii U and saving downloads to a file or something, or will it be a jumbled complicated mess of data that I have to spend hours learning and manually set up? (I'm sorry for being so un-savvy with electronic stuff. )

Currently playing: Smash Bros. 3DS, Xenoblade Chronicles, Alpha Sapphire.
Attempting to guide nephew through Skyward Sword. He keeps getting stuck.

Select one:
-Give me snacks.
-High-five me.
-Check out my Deviantart for dumb art: http://crimzonlogic.deviantart.c...

jariw

Crimzonlogic wrote:

SCAR392 wrote:

@Crimzonlogic
Here's a filtered page from Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=sr_nr_p_36_3?keywords=external+ha...
There's a few 500GB for around $50, but you'll need this, too:
http://www.amazon.com/eForCity-dual-Micro-B-Cable-Black/dp/B0...

Those are all portable, aren't we not supposed to use portable ones? This is confusing. What is the difference between portable and whatever it is that is recommended other than portable hard drives for Wii U? (I am assuming the non-portable ones have their own power cord?) Ugh, I don't even know what questions to ask about this. I've never used an external hard drive before and don't know up from left in the matter. Question: When I get one of these, will it be as simple as plugging it into the Wii U and saving downloads to a file or something, or will it be a jumbled complicated mess of data that I have to spend hours learning and manually set up? (I'm sorry for being so un-savvy with electronic stuff. )

It seems like some USB-powered HDDs might need an Y cable (using 2 USB ports from the Wii U) to get sufficient power to the HDD. HDDs with their own power chord would not have that issue. For me, setting up a new drive for the Wii U was just to plug it in, a process of a couple of seconds.

jariw

SCRAPPER392

Crimzonlogic wrote:

SCAR392 wrote:

@Crimzonlogic
Here's a filtered page from Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=sr_nr_p_36_3?keywords=external+ha...
There's a few 500GB for around $50, but you'll need this, too:
http://www.amazon.com/eForCity-dual-Micro-B-Cable-Black/dp/B0...

Those are all portable, aren't we not supposed to use portable ones? This is confusing. What is the difference between portable and whatever it is that is recommended other than portable hard drives for Wii U? (I am assuming the non-portable ones have their own power cord?) Ugh, I don't even know what questions to ask about this. I've never used an external hard drive before and don't know up from left in the matter. Question: When I get one of these, will it be as simple as plugging it into the Wii U and saving downloads to a file or something, or will it be a jumbled complicated mess of data that I have to spend hours learning and manually set up? (I'm sorry for being so un-savvy with electronic stuff. )

You can use portable drives, as long as you have the y-cable that I linked. Otherwise, you would obviously just plug in the AC power with a desktop drive.

I recommend buying one that has a shock sensor, so it's alot more durable, which also happens to be the portable drives. They expect you to carry it around, and more accidents happen that way.

Edited on by SCRAPPER392

Qwest

3DS Friend Code: 4253-3737-8064 | Nintendo Network ID: Children

DefHalan

Figured I would post my question here instead of making a new post. I finally got a external Hard Drive (just in time for Mario Kart 8) and am transferring everything from the Wii U internal to my external, I have a lot that is transferring but I need to go do something, the screen says auto-shut off has been disabled. Will auto-shut off be re-enabled after everything transfers, even if I am not here?

People keep saying the Xbox One doesn't have Backwards Compatibility.
I don't think they know what Backwards Compatibility means...

3DS Friend Code: 2621-2786-9784 | Nintendo Network ID: DefHalan

SCRAPPER392

@DefHalen
I think it only temporarily disables auto-shut off for the transfer process, then it goes back to whatever you had it set to. It's automatic, but I'm guessing you already figured this out.

Edited on by SCRAPPER392

Qwest

3DS Friend Code: 4253-3737-8064 | Nintendo Network ID: Children

jariw

DefHalan wrote:

I have a lot that is transferring but I need to go do something, the screen says auto-shut off has been disabled. Will auto-shut off be re-enabled after everything transfers, even if I am not here?

The auto-shut off feature is automatically turned back on again when the transfer is completed.

jariw

Crimzonlogic

So, I found these at a nearby store for about the same price as listed on amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Seagate-500GB-Portable-Drive-STCD500100...
Are these compatible? I need a y-cable for these, right? The guy at the store said it doesn't, but it's a portable one, so doesn't it? I'm afraid to buy it without knowing it'll work, because $60 is kinda a lot of money for me to spend on non-essentials. No video games for a month or two if I buy this.

Currently playing: Smash Bros. 3DS, Xenoblade Chronicles, Alpha Sapphire.
Attempting to guide nephew through Skyward Sword. He keeps getting stuck.

Select one:
-Give me snacks.
-High-five me.
-Check out my Deviantart for dumb art: http://crimzonlogic.deviantart.c...

open

I need to get a hard drive, but investigation leads me to notice that Wii U games are averagely 5GB in size. (WWHD is 2.5, MK8 4.9, MH3U is 7.2).
This means I could buy Mario Kart 8 200 times and still have space on a 2TB Hard Drive.

I think I will get a 250GB hard drive. I really am not planning on buying that much content. I wont even get close to filling that up.

NNID: openrob

SCRAPPER392

Crimzonlogic wrote:

So, I found these at a nearby store for about the same price as listed on amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Seagate-500GB-Portable-Drive-STCD500100...
Are these compatible? I need a y-cable for these, right? The guy at the store said it doesn't, but it's a portable one, so doesn't it? I'm afraid to buy it without knowing it'll work, because $60 is kinda a lot of money for me to spend on non-essentials. No video games for a month or two if I buy this.

Any portable HDD should work, as long as you have the y-cable.

Qwest

3DS Friend Code: 4253-3737-8064 | Nintendo Network ID: Children

JaxonH

Crimzonlogic wrote:

Is there a decent external hard drive available for around $50 bucks or less perhaps?

Ok, so here's the deal:

Both external hard drives and USB thumb drives will work (even SD cards put into a USB adapter will work), however, you only want to use external hard drives, because the flash-based USB drives have limited write cycles. Nintendo advises against using them for this very reason. So only consider normal, external hard drives. You don't want to choose one that's more than 500GB in size, preferably even smaller. Reason being, the larger the HDD, the higher the fail rate (more size means more blocks of space which means more chances for failure). I'd recommend a 250-320GB hard drive, although a 500GB should do just fine (and they're common to find).

In my experience, Western Digital is the only brand I trust. I've had bad experiences with other brands, particularly Seagate. DEFINITELY stay away from Seagate. I got my WD My Passport Ultra with USB 3.0 for only $49.99 on Newegg, though bear in mind the Wii U uses USB 2.0, so the 3.0 won't do you any good. Won't HURT anything, but it won't be utilized.

You DO NOT NEED an external hard drive that uses an external power source (hard drives that must plug into a power outlet to work). The only reason they recommend these is because the Wii U uses low power output USB, and the hard drive will not pull enough juice from the USB slot it plugs into on the Wii U. To remedy this, all you need is a Y-cable. You can buy them on Amazon for pretty cheap- all they do is split the USB plug into 2 of them, so you can draw juice from both the USB slots on the back of your Wii U. One end plugs into your hard drive (the microUSB end), and the other end with 2 USB plugs will plug into the two USB ports on the back of your Wii U. This will allow for enough juice to power the hard drive without needing an external power source.

Here's an example of my hard drive and Y-cable

Y-Cable
http://www.amazon.com/eForCity-dual-Micro-B-Cable-Black/dp/B0...

External HDD
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00EAS8AA0/ref=twister_B00EHFJGW2

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afro_insomniac

Thanks JaxonH, I think I'm gonna get that Y cable you posted for my HD.

I'm currently using a different USB hard drive (FreeAgent Go 250GB) but this cable will allow me to use my Western Digital (3.0) 1 TB drive.

I'm curious, you think I'm better off sticking with the FreeAgent drive given that it is naturally USB 2.0 and only 250GB? (safer for hard drive fails)

If Nintendo ever allowed games to be downloaded off the disc for faster load times (like Xbox 360 games) I'd probably be able to use the extra room from the 1TB Western Digital drive, but as it is I don't think I will ever come close to filling up even 250GB with just digital downloads.

Hmm... the WD drive does look nicer and matches my Wii U though.

Edited on by afro_insomniac

afro_insomniac

Crimzonlogic

@JaxonH
Thanks for explaining.
I think I'll buy that y cable and a wd my passport, since those are available at nearby stores and look relatively cheap.

Currently playing: Smash Bros. 3DS, Xenoblade Chronicles, Alpha Sapphire.
Attempting to guide nephew through Skyward Sword. He keeps getting stuck.

Select one:
-Give me snacks.
-High-five me.
-Check out my Deviantart for dumb art: http://crimzonlogic.deviantart.c...

skywake

@JaxonH
Good explanation but I have to correct you on one point. The capacity of a drive doesn't really impact on the failure rate. When a bad sector is found the drive usually just partitions it off and doesn't use it. That sort of failure is more a problem with flash than it is with HDDs though. With a HDD the most catastrophic failure is a HDD crash in the most literal sense. When the read/write head literally hits the platter. That can happen with any capacity drive and at similar sort of rates.

Also I would add just generally about taking people's anecdotal evidence on this for recommendations. It's an incredibly small sample and there are a lot of variables involved. Someone who says they only use WD because they've never had a problem with them might have just lucked out on WD drives. I could also do something like this and say of the drives I have:

  • 60% of my WD drives are working well, of the ones I tested 0% liked the Wii U
  • 0% of my Seagate drives are decent
  • 100% of my Samsung drives are good
  • 100% of my Fujitsu drives are good and 100% of them worked on the Wii U

and that'd be the truth.... but it'd be very misleading

Some playlists: Top All Time Songs, Top Last Year
"Don't stir the pot" is a nice way of saying "they're too dumb to reason with"

Crimzonlogic

@skywake

Would you recommend against the wd and seagate then? Those are the only affordable ones I've found in stores. I might have to risk buying online then. I hate buying electronics online. I wish Nintendo would just make their own hard drive that is guaranteed to work. It would give peace of mind that I'm not wasting money.

Edited on by Crimzonlogic

Currently playing: Smash Bros. 3DS, Xenoblade Chronicles, Alpha Sapphire.
Attempting to guide nephew through Skyward Sword. He keeps getting stuck.

Select one:
-Give me snacks.
-High-five me.
-Check out my Deviantart for dumb art: http://crimzonlogic.deviantart.c...

Th3PlaidHatter

I am using an sd card in a usb sad reader instead of a drive. I don't know, having a hard drive just seems wrong for some reason. Maybe it is just the added noise that seems unpleasant- I know it isn't a lot for a 2.5 inch drive, but it still exists. I have a ps4 to make enough console noise.

Th3PlaidHatter

skywake

Crimzonlogic wrote:

@skywake

Would you recommend against the wd and seagate then? Those are the only affordable ones I've found in stores. I might have to risk buying online then. I hate buying electronics online. I wish Nintendo would just make their own hard drive that is guaranteed to work. It would give peace of mind that I'm not wasting money.

No, because as I pointed out anecdotal evidence is BS with such a small sample and no controlled variables. The Seagate drive I have is from the early '00s and it's useless mostly because it's ancient. It might still work but I'd have no idea because it's PATA not SATA. The Samsung drives I have mostly had fairly light use and two of the five or so were laptop drives that were replaced with SSDs before they were even near end of life. The Fujitsu is the only Fujitsu drive I have and it happens to work.

The WD drives I tend to favour lately, one is ten years old and doesn't seem to want to work anymore. One was a WD Essentials drive which I threw in a NAS and hammered until it was almost dead. One is a WD My Passport which is chugging along nicely. The last two are WD Reds which are in the NAS now, the most heavy use drives I have, which are the best drives I've ever owned.

So would I recommend WD? Damn right I would, the only reason the WD drives I own have a "higher fail rate" is because I buy WD drives and actually use them.

Some playlists: Top All Time Songs, Top Last Year
"Don't stir the pot" is a nice way of saying "they're too dumb to reason with"

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