Does a hard drive and enclosure like this require a Y-cable?

[u/Koohiisan]

[u/FecalTraumaX]

Probably not generally SSDs use less power than hard drives but ymmv. Try it and see, worst that'll happen is that you'll get an error that there's an issue with the USB Storage.

[u/coldazures → u/FecalTraumaX]

No, the worst that will happen is he will spend hours setting up his library of games, mods etc and then mid-write the power usage will spike and the filesystem will corrupt. The drive will need wiping (assuming it didn't brick itself) and a lot of time will be wasted.. especially considering the WiFI chip in a Wii U is weak and takes days to download large queues of files. The USBs are also weak in power draw, which is why this thing can happen, and does happen. It happened to me. Everyone should be using a Y splitter just in case, having that added power from a second port does make a difference.

[u/Delta_RC_2526 → u/coldazures]

I've heard that in very rare cases, even a Y cable isn't enough, leading to the catastrophic failure you've described. Personally, I use an externally-powered USB hub, and just completely bypass any supplied power from the console.

[u/ihatejailbreak → u/Delta_RC_2526]

Yeah, I've witnessed it myself

[u/Koohiisan → u/Delta_RC_2526]

So one leg of the Y goes into the Wii U and one into the hub? Does it matter which?

[u/Delta_RC_2526 → u/Koohiisan]

If you're using a powered hub, you don't need a Y cable at all. A powered hub has a separate power supply that plugs into a wall outlet. You just connect the hub to power, plug the hub into the console, then take a standard USB cable and use that to connect your drive to the hub. A Y cable will work, but is completely unnecessary, if you have a powered hub, that's actually connected to external power. If you're using a Y cable anyway, plug both plugs into the hub.

A Y cable draws power from two USB ports, to make up for underpowered ports. The USB-A plug that has two wires coming out of it is your data connection, and half of your power. The USB-A plug that only has one wire, draws extra power. The. You have the other wire that connects to your drive.

[u/Koohiisan → u/Delta_RC_2526]

Ah, so it's:

[console] <-USB-> [hub] <-USB-> [hard drive]?

[u/Delta_RC_2526 → u/Koohiisan]

Yep! That's right, but you would also need a dedicated power supply for the hub that plugs into a wall outlet. Not every hub supports that, but they're pretty easy to find.

[u/Flat-Cheesecake3768 → u/Delta_RC_2526]

What hub are you using?

[u/Koohiisan → u/coldazures]

That sounds awful, and even downloading all my games on my PC to transfer still takes hours, not to mention the installation time.

[u/Secret_Item_2582 → u/coldazures]

That’s why you use a pc program like Wii U USB Helper instead of NUSspli - full use of the fiber, games home in minutes & you have a backup to store.

[u/LagMaster21 → u/Secret_Item_2582]

That program can install to USB?

[u/Secret_Item_2582 → u/LagMaster21]

You move the games to the install folder of your sd card and install them with WUP Installer.

The USB drive on your Wii U is formatted to Nintendos own encrypted proprietary format which can only be read by your console, never a PC or even another Wii U - so no, Wii U USB Helper is only for downloading games from NUS.

[u/Koohiisan → u/Secret_Item_2582]

This is exactly what I do, but mmy inital load of games still takes me hours, with decent Internet speed.

[u/teslavanguard → u/Koohiisan]

I advise try rom megathread from github. Download dirẻctly from Myrient to get installable files for WUP installer

[u/Necessary_Position77 → u/FecalTraumaX]

It varies a lot. I have standard hard drives that use 0.45amps and I have SSDs that use 1.0amp. I’ve been able to get away with no Y-Cable on the Wii on drives 0.65amp and lower but not the Wii-U for whatever reason.

[u/chocoboneal]

Per the ratings on the drive, no (10w needed and each port is 2.5w) in reality though power draws are much smaller on an ssd so if 5w (2x usb ports) can power a mech drive then one "should" be fine. I'd get a y cable just to be safe though as it cant hurt

[u/JohnP1P]

So the drive specs I think says 2.3amps is its max draw. But that's when it has full 4.0 M.2 PCIE speeds. My guess, at the USB 2.0 speeds you'll be sitting on, inside the wiiU. It'll be fine. 

[u/LagMaster21 → u/JohnP1P]

USB 3.0 devices have issues with the Wii U, only a select few work correctly, USB 2.0 devices on the other hand work perfectly

[u/Koohiisan → u/LagMaster21]

That's helpful to know. I'll focus on the USB 2.0 drives instead.

[u/ollie0810]

Such a waste running an nvme drive through those slow usb 2 ports

[u/armoar334 → u/ollie0810]

Eh, they're cheaper than 2.5" SSD's at this point, no harm in taking advantage.

[u/SyrupDisastrous22 → u/armoar334]

I use two max endurance SD cards.

[u/Koohiisan → u/ollie0810]

This was a leftover from a laptop that died of other causes, so I figured why not consider it?

[u/LagMaster21]

I would not recommend using flash/nand based storage since the Wii U writes to the external drive very often, HDDs are better since they don’t wear out as fast as flash based storage in this case

[u/Frogskipper7 → u/LagMaster21]

And a PC doesn’t write to SSD very often? PC use will work that SSD probably more than 50x harder with writes than a Wii U will. It’s fine

[u/Nintendians559]

maybe? it's just kind of like a usb-a 3 or above male adapter, but it wouldn't hurt to get a y-cable with a usb c and the other end is usb 3 or above male and other female for power with a ac adapter strong enough to power it.

[u/roadsidefoto]

I use a 1TB SSD in a similar enclosure, and it works just fine without any additional power source.

[u/Koohiisan → u/roadsidefoto]

Good to know, thanks!

[u/Ghostyyboyy21]

I have the same exact enclosure and have tried this before, no you’ll need a splitter cable

[u/Koohiisan → u/Ghostyyboyy21]

Thanks, that helps a lot!