Topic: Wii U external harddrive problem

This has happened to me with two of my self-powered external hard drives. The problem was that the A/C adapters used to power these hard drives had run out of power (similarly to how a battery deteriorates over time). I tried using the A/C adapter from one of my newer hard drives and they worked like a charm.

Assuming that you are using a slim hard drive with a Y-cable, I would recommend trying to split the connection one step further with a second Y-cable (I don't know how you will manage this but it's the only solution I can think of) and transfer all of your data to a new self-powered hard drive as soon as possible.

"however, it is not recommended as the lifespan of smaller hard drives are considerably lower than that of traditional hard drives"

I didn't know that.

"I would recommend trying to split the connection one step further with a second Y-cable"

Sounds like a hassle, and I believe I did read somewhere that's not advisable. However, when the power was off I moved my Wii u and harddrive a bit. My harddrive was partly resting on the "Wii stand", thus it wasn't 100% flat. That may have been the problem, because when I powered the Wii u on the sound seems to have gone. Hopefully it stays away, otherwise I have to transfer my downloads to a other harddrive. Or I choose the easy way and just go for a usb-stick. I hate it when stuff dies this soon.

The main sound you need to watch for is a grinding sound which is a sign of bearing failure - if the bearing are going on the drive it could fail irrevocably at any time so that's when you want to do a backup ASAP and stop using it. This will also be accompanied by longer read-write times. When the drive was going on my titanium PowerBook it would take ages to do things like load a web page (which is cashed on the drive), on the Wii U I expect you'd start to see more failure messages.

Also worth noting that an alternative to swapping your portable drive is to ditch your y-cable and use a powered USB hub - the added benefit is more ports and the greater flexibility the single cable will have over a y-cable. If I was going with a replacement for my desktop drive I would likely choose this option.

Try a Y cable it should resolve your issues did with my drive.

It was a clicking/ticking sound, and it did sound like a heartbeat (or metronome). When I listened later, the sound was much softer. And even later I didn't hear anything at all. The Teslagrad update took ages though, but downloading almost never goes quick on my Wii u. I think I wait for a bit untill I take some action. For me, the way things are now (small harddrive, y-cable) are the best options. I have lots of memory for downloads and updates, and yet it doesn't take up much visable space in my cabinet. I don't have space for lots of cables, AC adapters, usb-hubs, etc. It would become a mess.