LONG BLOG
Wii U Storage Solutions
Hey there, champ, hows it going? Are you enjoying that fresh Wii U? Have it all loaded up with games and their save files, got your free promotional game from Club Nintendo annual rewards and from the Mario Kart promotion? You aren't, you say? Because you purchased the basic Wii U mode?
CUE HORRIBLE DEMEANING LAUGHTER
Its alright - we all make mistakes. But I’m here to tell you that it is more than possible to fix those mistakes, without paying out the nose for it!
...Love you Sony!
It is a well known fact that Nintendo has no idea what it is doing with technology beyond making games, and this applies to how they decided to do storage for the Wii U. Remember how the Wii has an SD slot? Same as your 3ds? Ok, so see that SD slot on the front of your Wii U? Worthless. You can use it for Wii stuff...not Wii U. Yeah. No, you have to get an external hard drive in order to store extra data on your Wii U. And not just any external hard drive, you need a powered hard drive.
Not a problem! Thats totally a product that exists. So you check out Best Buy to find out that they only exist in denominations of Terabytes, also known as literally 100 times more than you will ever need, at a low low cost of at least 100 dollars. So you check out Target to see if they have a better deal, realize they have 3 hard drives, and drive back to Best Buy and really, really, make sure that they don’t have anything smaller. Nope. 1TB or bust. Now if you have a computer, you could use that drive to back up files on it, so maybe it isn't that bad! Except you have to format it for the Wii U to use it, so you can either use it for your computer or for your Wii U, and if your Steam library is anything like mine, that choice is made.
Every "x" is a game defeated
Instead, you can solve the problem much cheaper, with greater versatility. You just need an HDD Docking station and a SATA HDD (hard disc drive...not High Definition squared). Obviously, those two links are suggestions, but for the love of all things techy, do not gloss over what kind of dock you buy and what kind of hard drive you buy. Notice how I said SATA above? Yeah, first time around, I bought one that used a Molex connection, or something equally as stupid. This is pretty easy, because you just have to make sure both say SATA somewhere. Waiting on a good deal, getting a refurb, you should be able to get at least 160 GB of storage for about 40 dollars, give or take shipping and handling. Plus, you can now dick around with your new docking bay! Yay!
From here, the battle is almost won! You just have to plug in the drive to the bay, and the bay to the console, then format it. So on the front of the Wii U, there is a handy dandy access port flap. Behind that flap are two USB plugs and an SD card slot, so it seems pretty logical to plug in your data next to the data slot, yeah? Nah, you can’t use those USB ports. Won’t recognize it, because Nintendo. Instead, plug that sucker in the backside. Then, fire up the Wii U, and go to the settings. Under data management is an option to move data or format a drive. Format the drive, and you are good to go! Finally you can enjoy your Wii U!
Or, if you were around in the days of the Basic Model, you could have just need been a cheap ass and gotten more memory that way. But where’s the fun in that?
taterchimp 
M Randy 1
Dreamweaver 1
Nic Rowen 1
CUE HORRIBLE DEMEANING LAUGHTER
Its alright - we all make mistakes. But I’m here to tell you that it is more than possible to fix those mistakes, without paying out the nose for it!
...Love you Sony!
It is a well known fact that Nintendo has no idea what it is doing with technology beyond making games, and this applies to how they decided to do storage for the Wii U. Remember how the Wii has an SD slot? Same as your 3ds? Ok, so see that SD slot on the front of your Wii U? Worthless. You can use it for Wii stuff...not Wii U. Yeah. No, you have to get an external hard drive in order to store extra data on your Wii U. And not just any external hard drive, you need a powered hard drive.
Not a problem! Thats totally a product that exists. So you check out Best Buy to find out that they only exist in denominations of Terabytes, also known as literally 100 times more than you will ever need, at a low low cost of at least 100 dollars. So you check out Target to see if they have a better deal, realize they have 3 hard drives, and drive back to Best Buy and really, really, make sure that they don’t have anything smaller. Nope. 1TB or bust. Now if you have a computer, you could use that drive to back up files on it, so maybe it isn't that bad! Except you have to format it for the Wii U to use it, so you can either use it for your computer or for your Wii U, and if your Steam library is anything like mine, that choice is made.
Every "x" is a game defeated
Instead, you can solve the problem much cheaper, with greater versatility. You just need an HDD Docking station and a SATA HDD (hard disc drive...not High Definition squared). Obviously, those two links are suggestions, but for the love of all things techy, do not gloss over what kind of dock you buy and what kind of hard drive you buy. Notice how I said SATA above? Yeah, first time around, I bought one that used a Molex connection, or something equally as stupid. This is pretty easy, because you just have to make sure both say SATA somewhere. Waiting on a good deal, getting a refurb, you should be able to get at least 160 GB of storage for about 40 dollars, give or take shipping and handling. Plus, you can now dick around with your new docking bay! Yay!
From here, the battle is almost won! You just have to plug in the drive to the bay, and the bay to the console, then format it. So on the front of the Wii U, there is a handy dandy access port flap. Behind that flap are two USB plugs and an SD card slot, so it seems pretty logical to plug in your data next to the data slot, yeah? Nah, you can’t use those USB ports. Won’t recognize it, because Nintendo. Instead, plug that sucker in the backside. Then, fire up the Wii U, and go to the settings. Under data management is an option to move data or format a drive. Format the drive, and you are good to go! Finally you can enjoy your Wii U!
Or, if you were around in the days of the Basic Model, you could have just need been a cheap ass and gotten more memory that way. But where’s the fun in that?
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About taterchimpone of us since 6:01 PM on 06.06.2008
My Belmont Run for Dark Souls can be seen
HERE
HERE
HERE
HERE
AND HERE
I also did a blind run of the DLC, which you can view
Here
Here
And here
I also covered the progress of building my own gaming PC. I had no experience, and overall, it wasn't all bad! If you are on the fence about it, I suggest you read about my efforts
Here
And here
The series never had a part 3, because I was having waaaaay too much fun playing it. Suffice to say that it does alright these days.
Thanks for stopping by my blawg!
HERE
HERE
HERE
HERE
AND HERE
I also did a blind run of the DLC, which you can view
Here
Here
And here
I also covered the progress of building my own gaming PC. I had no experience, and overall, it wasn't all bad! If you are on the fence about it, I suggest you read about my efforts
Here
And here
The series never had a part 3, because I was having waaaaay too much fun playing it. Suffice to say that it does alright these days.
Thanks for stopping by my blawg!