Wii U and external HDD

[gtt]

Will external drives like that actually work?

I have one that I can use I guess the system will format the way it needs to be formatted?

yes it can.

[cortjezter]

Some of you think Seagate is a good way to go, but I've heard a lot of bad reviews .

just remember when it comes to product reviews, more people like to complain than rave about things.

also, merging this into the existing HDD thread.

[Popple]

Some of you think Seagate is a good way to go, but I've heard a lot of bad reviews .

just remember when it comes to product reviews, more people like to complain than rave about things.

also, merging this into the existing HDD thread.

Very good point. Most of the time people don't go out of their way to praise something (especially online) but if they don't like something, you'll be sure to hear about it!

As far as Seagate goes. I have nothing but great experience with them. I've been using a 500 GB external drive and a 1 TB drive from Seagate for my Mac(s) for some time now and they work great. I like Seagate enough that the external drive that I put on my Christmas list to use with my Wii U is a Seagate 2 TB. I don't necessarily have any bad feelings towards other manufacturers (except LaCie, which, ironically, is now owned by Seagate) but Seagate has always worked well for me so I've stuck with them.

[Elfteiroh]

Just a warning.
I just Bought a 2TB LaCie Minimus drive and the WiiU won't even recognize it. I have read elsewhere than other LaCie drives doesn't work either.
Be cautious. I just paid 150$ for nothing.

[Suke]

Personally, I feel its best to wait for third parties to built their own dedicated Wii U hard drives. Like PDP for example, their 320 GB usb hard drive will be release at your local GameStop on the 13th of December. Best to buy one that your certain to know its going to work because it was built exclusively for the Wii U. If possible, just try to hold out til more third party hard drives are release or try to go with a Toshiba brand. So far, I heard that and the WD brand work best on the Wii U.

[gtt]

Personally, I feel its best to wait for third parties to built their own dedicated Wii U hard drives. Like PDP for example, their 320 GB usb hard drive will be release at your local GameStop on the 13th of December. Best to buy one that your certain to know its going to work because it was built exclusively for the Wii U. If possible, just try to hold out til more third party hard drives are release or try to go with a Toshiba brand. So far, I heard that and the WD brand work best on the Wii U.

are you high? they won't be "built specifically for the wiiu" they'll be western digital or seagate drives in some plastic shell, marked up 200%.

[Suke]

Personally, I feel its best to wait for third parties to built their own dedicated Wii U hard drives. Like PDP for example, their 320 GB usb hard drive will be release at your local GameStop on the 13th of December. Best to buy one that your certain to know its going to work because it was built exclusively for the Wii U. If possible, just try to hold out til more third party hard drives are release or try to go with a Toshiba brand. So far, I heard that and the WD brand work best on the Wii U.

are you high? they won't be "built specifically for the wiiu" they'll be western digital or seagate drives in some plastic shell, marked up 200%.

.... http://www.gamestop.com/wii-u/accessori ... i-u/106904

I was talking about this, I would rather trust something like this than go guessing rather a hard drive will work or not. I just don't have the money or patient for it and no ac adapter will work but y cables work as well and I prefer the y cables.

[Autosaver]

Oh boy was I lucky.. again

When my Wii U was repaired, all my saves were erased. Absolutely NOTHING was saved onto the system. All those hours on NintendoLand, Sonic Racing, and NSMBU.. GONE! ..Oh, guess what?

MY WII SAVES FROM THE PAST 5 YEARS WERE ERASED!!!!!!!!!

I just wanted to warn you guys to back up all your saves/put them on an HDD if you can. I really didn't think they would be erased and now all my progress is gone. I will never be able to get it back.

Update: For more info on how bad this was

300+ hour Super Smash Bros Save
100+ Hour Monster Hunter Tri
200+ Hour Mario Kart Wii Save
100 Hour Goldeneye Wii
100+ Hour Wii Sports/Wii Sports Resort "Stats" Collection
100+ Hour Xenoblade Profile
30+ Hour NintendoLand
5+ Hour Super Mario Bros U (Should be easy to get back to... I didn't play it when I got it)
20+ Hour Sonic All Stars Racing Transformed (Had everything unlocked.. now have to start over!)
500+ Hours of all other Wii games combined

Over 1000 hours of progress lost!

MY INCOMPLETE SKYWARD SWORD SAVE (25+ hours?) GOT ERASED!

Very upset right now. I think I could deal with my older games being erased, but having my newer ones like Skyward Sword, Xenoblade, NintendoLand, and Sonic Racing Transformed really cut it. I spent a lot of time transferring my stuff over and this happens. It wasn't even my fault that I got a faulty Wii U.

..Nintendo, why couldn't you spend 5 minutes to make a consumer happy? You have the tools to magically transfer everything over from one Wii to another so why couldn't you? This makes absolutely no sense and you hurt one of your biggest fans.

I should have got an HDD for the Wii U. :/

[squeeb]

If this has already been covered, I apologize. Just wanted to share my experience on the subject. The official Nintendo page states that a powered USB device is recommended. I would say its required. I experienced corrupted downloads and crashing games when loading off the HD (which in turn would lock the system with an error requiring a power cycle). And this was with a 2.5 inch drive. Once I hooked it up with a splitter that utilized a second USB port for extra power, the issues disappeared.

[LSF22]

So I'm in Gamestop today buying some money cards so i can get ready for the release of Monster Hunter next week. First, the employee(who I've dealt with many times) tries to convince me to preorder MH:U from them so i can get the strategy guide. After telling him i don't need a strategy guide, he decides to tell me that I'm gonna run out of internal storage if i buy digital games. I finally ask him if they make money off the e-shop cards and he says yes, so i tell him you are at least getting something from me buying it so that should be good enough.

Now for the final thing. After the purchase he tells me that when i run out of storage I'm gonna be screwed which i replied ill just get an external HDD. He then said, "You wont be able to play full retail games from your hard drive, only arcade games. The full games make it spin too fast and the cable can't keep up because its only USB 2.0" . Of course i try to act i like don't know because I'm annoyed by this point.

So did i miss something, or this guy a total idiot? I'm pretty sure Nintendo tested games running through USB 2.0 and also, i think i would have seen an issue made about it online by now.

[KingBroly]

He's a complete moron. Go to Gamestop and slap the ever-living shovel out of him. You have my permission.

In more ways than one, since MH3U doesn't have a strategy guide releasing here.

[gtt]

So I'm in Gamestop today buying some money cards so i can get ready for the release of Monster Hunter next week. First, the employee(who I've dealt with many times) tries to convince me to preorder MH:U from them so i can get the strategy guide. After telling him i don't need a strategy guide, he decides to tell me that I'm gonna run out of internal storage if i buy digital games. I finally ask him if they make money off the e-shop cards and he says yes, so i tell him you are at least getting something from me buying it so that should be good enough.

Now for the final thing. After the purchase he tells me that when i run out of storage I'm gonna be screwed which i replied ill just get an external HDD. He then said, "You wont be able to play full retail games from your hard drive, only arcade games. The full games make it spin too fast and the cable can't keep up because its only USB 2.0" . Of course i try to act i like don't know because I'm annoyed by this point.

So did i miss something, or this guy a total idiot? I'm pretty sure Nintendo tested games running through USB 2.0 and also, i think i would have seen an issue made about it online by now.

that's beyond dumb. in so many ways. so. many.

[wiiarebrothers]

>_> "The full games make it spin too fast and the cable can't keep up because its only USB 2.0"
It doesn't make sense! People speak so much about technical stuff that they know nothing about! Consumer-electronics/Games stores are filled with these types of guys, who might as well sell bikes, curtains or pencil sharpeners. But it's particulary visible with videogames.

[LSF22]

Sometimes this guy can be cool, but for whatever reason, today he was annoying. I wish i would have remembered what someone posted before about how the 2.0 read speeds are faster than the disc drive speeds so there would never be an issue with 2.0.

A little research shows that the WiiU disc drive reads at 22 MB/s and USB 2.0 is around 35 MB/s. Someone talked about bottlenecking but i don't know what that means. I wish i knew more about the tech side of things, but you guys seem to know way more and i trust what you guys say. Thanks for the responses and i know i wont have to worry once i actually do buy a HDD.

[gtt]

Sometimes this guy can be cool, but for whatever reason, today he was annoying. I wish i would have remembered what someone posted before about how the 2.0 read speeds are faster than the disc drive speeds so there would never be an issue with 2.0.

A little research shows that the WiiU disc drive reads at 22 MB/s and USB 2.0 is around 35 MB/s. Someone talked about bottlenecking but i don't know what that means. I wish i knew more about the tech side of things, but you guys seem to know way more and i trust what you guys say. Thanks for the responses and i know i wont have to worry once i actually do buy a HDD.

I could help you understand it in 30 seconds better than your guy at gamestop apparently has in his entire life.

lets say game data, the nitty gritty 1s and 0s are rocks.

System memory (ram) is a truck.

and the loader at the quarry is the transfer medium(optical disc, hard drive, fucking carrier pigeon doesn't matter)

The truck isn't going anywhere until it is loaded. Doesn't matter how fast or slow this happens, it doesn't need to move one rock, drop it off, and get back before the next one is ready. He just sits there and waits (loading time) until he has what he came for, and then leaves.

So it doesn't matter how the game data gets into system memory, as long as it gets there.

You as the player only interact with data in memory, so the storage medium and its speed don't matter to you.

[LSF22]

Thats pretty easy to understand, I should print it out and take it to the store and give it to him.

Since you are explaining things, if you don't mind, does streaming also factor in the same way? I don't know how much streaming is done in games but i assume some games, like open-world ones, use it often. Will there be any issues with those types of games?

[gtt]

Thats pretty easy to understand, I should print it out and take it to the store and give it to him.

Since you are explaining things, if you don't mind, does streaming also factor in the same way? I don't know how much streaming is done in games but i assume some games, like open-world ones, use it often. Will there be any issues with those types of games?

are you talking, streaming as in background loading of data? if your method for transfer is too slow this doesn't work. the way that sort of data streaming works is basically the game will load data before you have a chance to see it, it will basically maintain a "loaded" area in a certain radius of you. that's very basic, it will take into account direction, speed, line of sight, etc.

but, as far as the wiiu is concerned, an external HDD will almost surely be faster than the optical disc anyway. in transfer rate, seek time, etc.

[LSF22]

Yeah, thats what i meant. I would imagine there is a lot of that going on in a game like Skyrim since you can just run forever without a load screen. If that game can run fine on the 360s 15MB/s disc drive, then I would think the transfer of data on WiiU would be much smoother.

I'm not worried about the WiiU having issues, you made it clear that it wont be a problem. Plus, it would be ridiculous for Nintendo to talk about the external hard drive feature and have it be unusable or broken.

[ddddd]

Isnt USB 2.0 already at minimum as fast as the disc drive anyway?

[bomblord]

USB 2.0 speeds are faster than the wiiU's disc read times.

When a game is read everything is loaded onto the ram, all that's happening is the game is moving from whatever storage medium you have to the ram and then the GPU/CPU processes the info from the ram and puts it back into it.

Basically

Code: Select all

   Storage medium
          |
          v
         RAM
     ^         ^ 
     |         |
     v         v
    CPU       GPU


Storing it on an external had drive will actually make games load FASTER than off a disc. WiiU's disc read time is 22MB/s and USB 2.0 supports 35MB/s

The wiiU's architecture also makes the transfer between CPU and GPU more effecient because they are on the same die.

edit, the analogy from gtt works too.

[gtt]

USB 2.0 speeds are faster than the wiiU's disc read times.

When a game is read everything is loaded onto the ram, all that's happening is the game is moving from whatever storage medium you have to the ram and then the GPU/CPU processes the info from the ram and puts it back into it.

Basically

Code: Select all

   Storage medium
          |
          v
         RAM
     ^         ^ 
     |         |
     v         v
    CPU       GPU


Storing it on an external had drive will actually make games load FASTER than off a disc. WiiU's disc read time is 22MB/s and USB 2.0 supports 35MB/s

The wiiU's architecture also makes the transfer between CPU and GPU more effecient because they are on the same die.

edit, the analogy from gtt works too.

probably won't make it noticeably faster, I suspect the weak cpu and jank OS are the cause of the wiiu's loading issues. I wouldn't put it past them to be trying to do too much openCL stuff off the gpu, that's really only good for easily parallelized tasks.

[KingBroly]

I'm surprised that developers don't put dummy data on the discs like they do with PS3 since it helps reduce load times.

[Asrialys]

Anyone try connecting their Wii U-formatted external hard drive to their computer and noticing that it won't show up as a drive?

I have a Western Digital 1 TB USB 3.0 Passport drive connected to my Wii U via y-cable. Today, I noticed that the little symbol for a connected external hard drive was not on my Home screen. I turned my system on and off a couple times and even looked in the Settings. Nothing, but the drive's light was on and I could feel the spinning. I then connected it to my computer and noticed that it wouldn't show up under Computer. However, the device drivers did download and it was showing up under Devices and Printers. I tried on two computers and it was the same. Even with the original cable. I then connected the drive back to the Wii U, which then read the drive once I started it up. I was once again able to view and transfer data between my Wii U and hard drive. However, it still won't show up as a drive on my computers.

So...anyone notice this? Is it the 3.0? Is it my drive? Is it Western Digital, which I have never had problems with?

It would suck if I could never reformat the drive for computer use...

[jlatimer11]

Anyone try connecting their Wii U-formatted external hard drive to their computer and noticing that it won't show up as a drive?

I have a Western Digital 1 TB USB 3.0 Passport drive connected to my Wii U via y-cable. Today, I noticed that the little symbol for a connected external hard drive was not on my Home screen. I turned my system on and off a couple times and even looked in the Settings. Nothing, but the drive's light was on and I could feel the spinning. I then connected it to my computer and noticed that it wouldn't show up under Computer. However, the device drivers did download and it was showing up under Devices and Printers. I tried on two computers and it was the same. Even with the original cable. I then connected the drive back to the Wii U, which then read the drive once I started it up. I was once again able to view and transfer data between my Wii U and hard drive. However, it still won't show up as a drive on my computers.

So...anyone notice this? Is it the 3.0? Is it my drive? Is it Western Digital, which I have never had problems with?

It would suck if I could never reformat the drive for computer use...

It's a completely different file system.

[gtt]

Anyone try connecting their Wii U-formatted external hard drive to their computer and noticing that it won't show up as a drive?

I have a Western Digital 1 TB USB 3.0 Passport drive connected to my Wii U via y-cable. Today, I noticed that the little symbol for a connected external hard drive was not on my Home screen. I turned my system on and off a couple times and even looked in the Settings. Nothing, but the drive's light was on and I could feel the spinning. I then connected it to my computer and noticed that it wouldn't show up under Computer. However, the device drivers did download and it was showing up under Devices and Printers. I tried on two computers and it was the same. Even with the original cable. I then connected the drive back to the Wii U, which then read the drive once I started it up. I was once again able to view and transfer data between my Wii U and hard drive. However, it still won't show up as a drive on my computers.

So...anyone notice this? Is it the 3.0? Is it my drive? Is it Western Digital, which I have never had problems with?

It would suck if I could never reformat the drive for computer use...

it is because of the formatting the wiiu applies. it makes it not recognizable as mass storage to windows. (this is 100% intentional). I imagine FDISK will still be able to see it and format it back to a regular format.