Source
r/wiiu•
cwidlund

Wii U External USB Storage Question

Hey guys, I have a question. Has anyone used a flash drive for external storage on their Wii U? I have 12GB left on my Wii U and smash bros wii u is 15GB. I ordered a 32GB flash drive as extra storage. I talked to a NoA rep and looked on their support site and they said they "support it but don't recommend it", and they also gave some BS on how "flash drives can only write for a small period of time" or whatever.

Has anyone used a flash drive for external storage? Does it work well?

Posted Nov 19, 2014, 8:39 PM UTC

011
cwidlundOP•

Well then what would be my cheapest option? I don't want to dish out $100 for a fancy 1TB drive when I'll only be using it for maybe 20GB in games.

2
ohfashozland•

also wondering this...asking for a friend

1
nnid•

I've been using a flash drive since launch, no problems yet. they can fail, but so can hard drives. don't put anything you can't afford to lose on it, and you won't be sad if it fails.

2
background_spider•

My ssd that I use for my wii u will outlast me.

-2
radiance89•

Are you like 90?

2
background_spider•

In dog years yes

2
BCProgramming•

and they also gave some BS on how "flash drives can only write for a small period of time" or whatever.

They were correct. Flash Drives have a limited number of write cycles, which basically means the number of times a given cell can be rewritten is limited- eventually, the cell basically "dies" and stops responding to attempts to change it's contents. That is when the unit starts to fail. How many write cycles and how long it takes in concrete time terms depends on the quality of the flash memory and of course how often it is being written. It also depends on the flash controller since a good quality controller will include balancing to keep everything as even as possible.

Rather than actual Externals I tend to just get Enclosures and then I can choose pretty much any drive I have. For example I have some older 160GB hard drives that, with enclosures, I could attach to my Wii U if I felt so inclined (after making sure and copying off anything important). Of course, I already have a crapton of hard drives when I got my Wii U, so that would have been the most reasonable option (I also already had the enclosures, too). But enclosure+cheap tiny HDD will usually end up cheaper than a package external drive.

1
t_durdy•

If I were you, I'd check my local electronics store for old hard drives. My local Frys was selling 80GB SATA drives for $10. Enclosure for $5, all my wii u games on it.

1
ohfashozland•

Does it necessarily need to have an external power source?

1
I_Saved_WiiUNNID [Region]•

I got a 64 GB Sandisk Cruzer Fit, because it is compact as hell and got me 200% more space. I keep smaller games that i know I will not revisit in some time. That way if it fails I can just re-download it. Will keep Smash on the system memory tho.

1
background_spider•

It will fail much before a regular hard drive will, why not just spend the extra money the first time and do it right? A flash drive is not meant to be constantly used like a normal drive would. It's not BS you just are not informed.

-1