Topic: Wii U external harddrive problem

I just bought an external harddrive, a "Toshiba stor.e slim" (1 TB), for my Wii U, hoping to get more space for some new games. Sadly my Wii U doesn't seem to notice that it's plugged in. I read that some text is supposed to appear once you plug in a product like this but nothing happens. I also tried "format a USB device" in data management but all I get is a text saying "checking USB storage device" and a loadingsymbol that never ends. And last but (maybe) not least the external harddrive gives away a clicking sound, kind of like a watch but louder. I am truly grateful for any tip you might have!

Did you checked if it even actually works on PC?

But my guess is, you plugged it in with the USB cable that comes with the HDD and hooked it up to one usb slot, but it needs 2 to work, because there is not enough power coming from WiiU. Buy Y-cable and it should work

I second the Y-cable recommendation. That's what I had to do with mine.

I tried it on my IMac and it worked. I will probably buy a Y-cable then. Strange, I tried another external harddrive that I have for my mac and the Wii U reacted directly with a question about formating it and that device only has one cable as well and no additional cable to plug into the wall either. Anyway, many thanks for the tip!

@Linkus
It's because of USB 3.0. The Wii U doesn't read USB 3.0 drives, without the required power of the USB 3.0 spec. PC/Mac can usually run a USB 3.0 drive, via USB 2.0, because they have drivers to recognize that the drive is USB 2.0 backwards compatible.

In otherwords, if your ext. HDD is USB 3.0(powered), that's the reason why it won't run on Wii U w/o a y-cable.

USB 3 doesn't have a higher power requirement in its spec. It's still 0.9A @ 5V for the general spec with a higher 5A spec for charging devices. Same on both just with a slightly tighter tolerance on the voltage for USB3. Portable USB drives tend to flirt with that upper spec (just looking at one drive in particular it's rated at 0.85A) but on most PCs that's ok because they allow a higher draw from each port. Which is why you can charge a phone from a computer's USB port but not some other USB ports. Also why you can run things like portable drives without supplemental power.

The Wii U obviously sticks to the USB spec more than the average laptop does. It has nothing to do with USB3. It has everything to do with the fact that some drives are more efficient than others.

@skywake
If the power draw is the same, then why would it need 2 USB ports? We're talking USB 3.0 drives that are BC with USB 2.0, but still require a y-cable.

Is it possible that data could be going through both USB 2.0 ports? Otherwise, I see no reason why it would need 2 ports to work.

Also, I did see faster results from a y-cable powered USB 3.0 drive, compared to an AC powered drive, but I'm not sure if it was the drive I was using, so it's somewhat anecdotal.

Because mechanical drives draw a fair amount of power and obviously it's more than what the Wii U delivers per-port. Plus it's the same power draw spec in both USB 2 and USB 3. It's not just USB 3 drives that need two ports to supply the required power. The Wii U obviously doesn't supply enough power per port to run some/most/all portable drives.

The second cable is purely for power. I wouldn't be surprised if in some Y-Cables they only have the power parts of the cable in that half. They need two cables because the drives can draw more power than some USB ports provide. So they need to spread the power draw across two ports so they can guarantee enough power. Why do you think these Y cables exist in the first place?

It was the drive you were using. I was actually using a fairly large desktop drive until recently but noticed that the Wii U would take a bit longer to get to the main screen. Then I noticed that sometimes it crashed when returning to the Wii U menu. Swapped the drive, all of a sudden it was running perfectly again.

All of these drives will be running at most at USB 2.0 speeds regardless of the actual drive/adapter/enclosure. However most drives won't even get that fast most of the time. Because mechanical drives are slow.... slower than USB 2.0 most of the time.

FWIW, here's an article about HDDs for the Wii U that I found useful when I purchased my external HDD:
http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/04/11/the-best-hard-drives-f...

The first time I plugged in my external USB 3.0 drive the Wii U appeared to see it and format it, but that wasn't really the case and I had to get a y-cable to give it the power it expects. I know nothing about the spec (other than having different cables is really really lame and it will be nice when the new spec releases and has reversible cables like Apple's own interconnects), but clearly the Wii U doesn't output sufficient power to reliably run the average laptop drive with only one cable - hence why I use a desktop drive.

Just going to toss this in — I use a 32GB USB flash drive on my WiiU currently. It originally had a short 1ft USB extension adapter, but it constantly gave errors. When I removed that and hooked it directly into the WiiU, it works flawless for months. I have a 2TB external, which I am going to eventually use... but the flash drive works perfect for now. It's almost full though!

@skywake
You're partially right, from what I can gather. I've read that some USB 2.0 drives worked w/o a y-cable. It can depend on the drive, but under the impression that they never go over that power draw, there shouldn't be a problem.

Regardless, if an ext. HDD doesn't work while connected to Wii U, and you know nothing's wrong with it, a y-cable will make it work.

I tried connecting my USB 3.0 ext. HDD with a single cable, and it made that clicking noise, as well. I just did it to see what it would do, because the y-cable came in the mail the next day.

EDIT: I'm not saying you're wrong either. There's just too many instances that could be different, but have similar results. My ext. HDD loads the a few seconds faster than this video shows: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WnLglOz7IwU
The AC powered one I had prior, would have been like twice as long, and it was the same brand. It was probably screwy.

I have a USB 2.0 to SATA adapter that gives me three ways to connect it to a machine. It has a standard mini-USB socket and it has a DC in socket for supplemental power. If I plug it into my PC I can run it with just a single USB cable plugged into the mini-USB socket. That's basically the only way I had ever used it since I got it/ripped it out of an external enclosure that had a broken 2.5" drive.

On the Wii U that doesn't work, it keeps trying to but fails to spin up properly and so it makes that "clicking" noise. With a Y cable or supplemental power delivered via that DC-in socket it works fine. Right now I have the front flap of my Wii U open so I can run power to it easily while still having my LAN adapter running. It sucks but it works (and black cables with a black Wii U in a cabinet recess, can't really see it)

BTW I am entirely right.

As I also pointed out, there's a reason why these cables exist. It's ok to concede that you are wrong sometimes

@skywake
It just doesn't make sense that both types of drives use the same power, and some USB 2.0 drives work w/o a y-cable. I'm totally agreeing that y-cables are required for most drives. Maybe a company will be able to make a more efficient USB 3.0 drive, so that people don't need a y-cable.

I guess I didn't realize that these ext. HDDs have more variances thanI thought.

I had the same issue when I first purchased. Bottom line is that you need a drive with a separate power source. It is in all the Nintendo Help literature.

I bought a y-cable and now it works perfectly! Thanks for all the help!!!

It's because there aren't "two types of drives" and it really doesn't make sense to divide them into USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 for their power consumption. The USB 3.0 spec is literally just about allowing a higher speed when you're using a compatible host. The Wii U isn't even a compatible host, USB 3.0 devices on the Wii U will become USB 2.0 devices. Period. End of discussion.

In terms of actual different types of drives there are a huge number. You won't even know what type of drive you have inside your enclosure when you buy it unless you jimmy open the enclosure in the shop. There are 5400RPM and 7200RPM drives. There are Hybrid drives, drives built to be slimmer, drives built to be more reliable, drives built to be power efficient. There are some drives that are built specifically to be as cheap to make as possible.

You can even buy two seemingly identical external enclosures from different stores and they'll have different drives in them. For all you know the WD 1TB USB 3.0 portable drive might have more in common with the WD 1TB USB 2.0 drive than it does with the other WD 1TB USB 3.0 drive on the shelf next to it.

@skywake
I wasn't even discussing USB 3.0 working on Wii U. I was under the impression that USB 3.0 required more power, for said speed, but I understand now.

I have a 5400RPM 2.5" drive, because I knew 5400RPM was the max that Wii U was compatible with(I read this a while ago, but now I can't find where...).

Oh no, my Verbatim 3.0 500gb harddrive also started clicking! By the way, I use a y-cable. Is there a way to stop this clicking, because I heard after a while the harddrive stops working. I am worried now, I only have this harddrive 1 or 2 years!

It sounds like a heartbeat. Is this the click of death, or is this the sound a harddrive usualy makes? Could this be caused by the shaking of the floor? My harddrive is in a cabinet, but close to the floor. When I walk around, the floor trembles (I am a dinosaur lol)!

Nintendo recommends using self-powered hard drives, that is, hard drives with their own power supply, as opposed to those powered only via USB. The Wii U doesn't generate enough power to run most "slim" USB drives. The use of a Y-cable will help in most circumstances for those who choose to use portable hard drives, however, it is not recommended as the lifespan of smaller hard drives are considerably lower than that of traditional hard drives.