Topic: External Hard Drive?

I'm currently trying to get external space for my Wii U... I bought a 500GB Toshiba but it has been on "Checking USB storage device..." for a while now. I don't get why as I thought Toshiba is one of the three recommended hard drives from Nintendo... Could I be doing something wrong? Is there something else that I need to make it work? Any help appreciated!

Does it have its own power source? Or it one of the portable ones with just the USB hookup?

@CaviarMeths: It's a portable one with usb hookup. Could that be the problem?

Yeah, that'd be it. The Wii U doesn't pump enough juice through a single USB slot to power a portable drive. Simple fix though. A cheap Y-cable that you can find at almost any electronics store will do the trick. Just need to split that USB hookup into two to plug into both of the slots on the Wii U.

@CaviarMeths: Oh alright, thank you very much! Now I know what to do.

I have tried a Y-cable and a USB powerd hub for my USB powered 80GB hard drive and it still acts wonky so your milage may vary.

It works but randomly errors our even when not playing a USB game which locks up the console.

Externally powered drive is the safest bet.

i had this problem with a newer usb powered hard drive. i happened to have a y-cable, but with the older usb mini style connector, but i managed to use a usb hub connected with the y adapter, and then plugged the hard drive into that. seemed to work good so far.

I've got a 320 GB pdp hard drive in my Wii U. It's got the Y-cable and it works fine.

First one I bought clicked a bunch and didn't work, though.

Some hard drives are better than others. I personally wouldn't spend the money on an externally-powered one again now that I have a powered hub.