Wii external HDD recommendations

[Jackhammer]

I've been out of the loop regarding external HDDs for the Wii. I've soft modded my daughter's new model (black version) Wii, tried an old 3.5" 500gb HDD, everything worked as expected.

I'm now using that HDD for storing films, so I need another. I'm looking for a compatible 2.5" HDD, 250-500gb with no spin down (sleep mode) and is powered by the Wii console. Sprung mentioned one a while back, I can't find the post though...I've looked at the Wii USB Devices Compatibility List, but would prefer someone with recent experience to recommend something. I've also thought about a flash drive, maybe 16gb since they are cheap.

[Zorlon]

External HDD's can be formatted as FAT32 with 32KB clusters so it can store both PC and Wii files the only real drawback is not for Wii games because they get split when in wbfs format but it will have a file size limit that Fat32 has it should be big enough for encoded films though

I use a fat 2TB drive that need external power it was cheaper than an any slim model drive so I can't realy help you with a new drive

EDIT I think you can store up to 4GB files on Fat32 not sure if the 32KB cluster size has any effect to that (you can get movie players for the Wii as well though I admit not sure how well they work as I don't use em)

I know it's not what you asked but hell if you like that idea then why not otherwise I hope someone else can help you on what slim drive to get

[Sprung]

I use a WD MyPassport 300GB USB 3.0. It works perfectly on the Wii right out of the box

[Jackhammer]

Thanks Zorlon.

I use a WD MyPassport 300GB USB 3.0. It works perfectly on the Wii right out of the box

Is this the same one?

[Sprung]

Thanks Zorlon.




Is this the same one?

Yeah, that's the same, although mine doesn't have the fancy case...it's just black.

[Jackhammer]

Yeah, that's the same, although mine doesn't have the fancy case...it's just black.

Thank you.

[Zorlon]

I use http://www.amazon.co.uk/Elements-Ext...dp/B003IPC21Y/

for the price for 2TB it is great USB2 only but the Wii only uses USB2 anyway so it's full speed, it's not a slim and you do need to wall socket the thing but apx £70 for 2TB is great

if storage space doesn't matter and you really want the advantages of no socket power (I presume you just use USB for the slim one) and smaller slim drive (USB3 will only play a bonus for adding and removing software via a PC) then most WD drives will work great, stuck with WD drives for a long time now they are mostly reliable though not too long back I lost 2 WD drives a 300GB and a 1TB drive, one had a board failure (none fixable), the other ended up beyond repair but I did drop the thing and wouldn't format again no matter what I used, instead I now own 4x2TB drives (wall sockets are annoying though when you have so many used)

[Jackhammer]

If it was for me, a 3.5" HDD with power supply wouldn't matter, since it's for my daughter, I'm trying to keep the amount of plugs to a minimum.

[Sprung]

Thank you.

You're welcome. Good luck

[Zorlon]

If it was for me, a 3.5" HDD with power supply wouldn't matter, since it's for my daughter, I'm trying to keep the amount of plugs to a minimum.

I can totally understand that then, just trying to give you as much info as possible on what you can get and give you a good deal

You can't go wrong with the little WD passport drives though

[Bruno]

I know ppl usually hate flashdrives but I use one and I recently fixed all my little problems (at least for now)

I use this one: SanDisk Cruzer Blade 16GB

If you are wondering what were my problems I will make it simple: just a little lag on some opening videos. Your daughter should not care about this stuff! and if she does you just need to install this: d2x-v10-beta53-alt

[Topken]

No need to format the HDDs Fat32 to have them work Mine is formated NTFS and I hold more then my wii games on it without problems. Just need to use a recent version of GX Loader to read from NTFS formatted drives and you can use something like Wii backup manager to copy files to the drive in a way that the usb loader can use. I keep my games in wbfs format and its possible to get them there using wii backup manager. I use a My Book Essential Edition 2.0 640gb version with my wii but I would assume most any recent external drivers would work with the wii. that includes those small external drivers that have a 2 and a half inch HDD in them.

[Zorlon]

No need to format the HDDs Fat32 to have them work Mine is formated NTFS and I hold more then my wii games on it without problems. Just need to use a recent version of GX Loader to read from NTFS formatted drives and you can use something like Wii backup manager to copy files to the drive in a way that the usb loader can use. I keep my games in wbfs format and its possible to get them there using wii backup manager. I use a My Book Essential Edition 2.0 640gb version with my wii but I would assume most any recent external drivers would work with the wii. that includes those small external drivers that have a 2 and a half inch HDD in them.

GameCube games will fail with NTFS that's one of the reasons why Fat32 is recommended over NTFS.

Can't think of any other off the top of my head though well not without knowing for a fact, the above is fact though

[ndsplayer19576]

just a little lag on some opening videos

Yeah that happens with a lot of USB flash drives (my 8gb one does as well; don't know where it came from since it was given to me)

GameCube games will fail with NTFS that's one of the reasons why Fat32 is recommended over NTFS.

Can't think of any other off the top of my head though well not without knowing for a fact, the above is fact though

Don't forget the outdated WBFS does the same thing with GCN games!

Although there was something I noticed: sometimes the loading speeds decrease on fat32 over wbfs (tested on Sonic Colours [PAL] and loading time increased from 2-4 secs to 4-6 secs roughly)

[Jackhammer]

Decided to go for a cheaper drive with more space.


Seagate Expansion Portable (500GB)

gbatemp wiki list confirms it as working.

Works right out the box, pre formatted to NTFS, powers up & down with the wii, Can be used as single partition, No spindown or lag even after being left for over an hour. Perfect solution----

✔ CFG USB Loader

✔ Coverfloader

✔ USBLoader GX 3.0

Thanks for all suggestions.