Do you like to play games on your Wii U? Do you want to know how to get more storage on Wii U? All the various methods are outlined in this post.
There are many ways you can maximize the storage on your Wii U. In this post, we will be providing you with 3 alternatives. And, we will also share some important tips and tricks on getting more storage on Wii U. We have written the steps and methods in a very easy to understand manner. So, even if you are not techy, you will be able to follow it.
So, let’s fire away…
How To Get More Storage On Wii U – Introduction and Specifications of Wii U
Wii U is one of the popular video game consoles from Nintendo. It was the successor of the original Wii. Wii U was released back in 2012. Unfortunately, this console from Nintendo has stopped the run of this console back in 2017. But before that, Nintendo has sold over 3.56 million units of this famous gaming console.
The Wii U comes with 2 GB DDR3 RAM, Tri-Core IBM PowerPC CPU @ 1.24 GHz clock speed, AMD Radeon 550 Hz GPU, 1.3 MP capers, resistive touchscreen, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, 4 USB ports, and more features. So, you can see that it was a high-end gaming console for 2012. Also, it was the first Nintendo gaming console with HD graphics.
The Wii U was available in 2 versions in terms of the internal storage space. The basic Wii U came with 8 GB internal storage and the Deluxe Wii U had 32 GB of internal storage. So, you can see that this is not enough storage space for installing multiple top-rated games.
As a result, Nintendo has implemented an expandable memory slot that supports up to 32 GB of SD/SDHC memory card. Additionally, they also have support for USB storage devices. But, how do you work with these removable storage systems? Let’s find out below…
How To Get More Storage On Wii U?
Method #1 Use an SD Card
The number one method of expanding the storage space on your Wii U would be to use an external SD card. As we have mentioned earlier, that Wii U supports SD or SDHC cards up to 32 GB. So, you can buy one of those SD cards and you insert that in the memory card reader slot in the Wii U. That’s it! It will be detected by the Wii U automatically.
However, there’s a catch with this method. For the record, the external SD card slot is available for only the ‘Wii Mode’. So, it is not that helpful, if you are looking for expanding the storage space. But don’t lose your hope yet. We have a couple of more methods for you to try.
Method #2 USB Flash Drive
The second method is another simple one. In this method, you will need a USB flash drive. You can get them for a very low price nowadays. You might know USB flash drives as pen drives as well. So, if you are looking to increase the storage space on your Wii U for a cheaper price, you can follow this route.
Then again, like the previous method, there is also one drawback here. You should have already known that the USB flash storage devices come with a limited number of rewrites. That means, if you install/uninstall a game for a certain amount of time, the flash storage device will be obsolete.
As a result, we don’t recommend this method if you are constantly installing and uninstalling games on your Wii U. So, what do you do now to get more storage on Wii U? Fear not, we have another method for you. So, next…
Method #3 External Hard drive
Here we are, at the last method of expanding storage space on your Wii U. At first, let’s talk about the drawback of this method.
And that is that you will need to spend a bit more on this method compared to the previous ones we have mentioned already. However, even if you have to spend much in this way, you will be able to expand the storage space of your Wii U for sure without any issues by following this method. That means this is the best process to get more storage space on Wii U.
For this method, you will need an external HDD or Hard Drive Disk. For the record, the Nintendo Wii U supports up to 2 Terabytes or TB of external storage. But many users have claimed that they could use up to 4 TB of HDD with the Wii U.
However, Nintendo officially says that the console will recognize the hard disk drives that have more than 2 TB of capacity. But the extra storage space will not be available for use in reality. So, in our opinion, 2 TB of HDD would be more than enough. And, in choosing the storage capacity, you have your own preference.
But before you jump in to use an external HDD, here are a few things you should be aware of…
Which Type Of HDDs Are Best?
There are 2 types of external hard drives. The first one is the self-powered external HDD. That means this will come with an extra power adapter that you will need to plug into the wall socket for powering up the device. On the other hand, you will find the ‘Bus-Powered’ hard disk drives.
This type of bus-powered HDDs gets the power from the source device via a USB port. Nintendo recommends self-powered HDDs for their Wii U. But typically, these self-powered external HDDs tend to be pricey than the bus-powered ones.
So, what is the best option in this situation? Interestingly, you can go with the ‘Bus-Powered’ external Hard disk drives. But, you will also get to need a USB Y-cable for external hard disk drives. The USB Y cables come with 2 USB connections at one end and the other end has another microUSB/mini-B connector. You can see that from the image above.
How to Connect the External Hard Disk Drive to Your Wii U?
This is very simple to follow. So, here are the steps…
- Turn off the Nintendo Wii U at first
- Next, take USB Y cable and connect the single small end to the external HDD
- And, plug in the other two USB connectors to the USB ports of the Wii U. It is better to connect them to the rear USB ports if you want to keep it clean. However, you can also connect it to the front ports
- So, you can turn on the Nintendo Wii U with the external storage device connected
- Now, it should automatically detect the new HDD. But before you can use it, the Wii U will prompt you to format the HDD
- So, follow the onscreen instructions to format the external HDD
- Interestingly, you don’t have to do anything as the Wii U will recognize this external storage device from the next time as usual
- And, it will also install the games to this external drive automatically after the internal storage is filled up
How to Copy and Move Files to the External HDD?
If you want to move or copy any data to the newly added external HDD, there is an easier way to do that as well. Here’s how…
- Navigate to the System Settings of your Nintendo Wii U
- Next, go to the ‘Data Management’ option
- Now, select the ‘Copy/Move/Delete Data’ option from the next screen
- In doing so, you will be shown both the internal and external storage options of your Wii U on the next page
- So, select the storage option you want to modify. And, you will get the option to move/delete/copy
- You can then select the software to copy or move and then tap on the ‘Copy’ or ‘Move’ button from the top right or left corner of the screen
- That way the selected software will be moved or copied to the destination storage device of your choice
Format, Configure or Remove Storage Device
These are a few tips to remember that might come in handy in the future. Before you can use any external storage device on your Nintendo Wii U, you will need to format and configure it from the Wii U device itself. So, if you already have any data on the external storage device, you should back those up before connecting the storage device to the Wii U.
After you have connected the storage device to the Wii U for the first time, it will show you all the instructions to format and configure the storage solution on the screen. So, you can follow that to format the storage device.
Next, you should never connect any external storage devices to the Wii U while it is turned on. Similarly, it is also prohibited to disconnect or remove any external storage devices while the Wii is powered on. This might damage both your external HDD or the Wii U.
Connect 2 External USB Storage Devices to the Wii U
Did you know that you can add up to 2 USB storage devices to the Nintendo Wii U at once? Yes, you can do that. And, the Wii U will detect both of those devices as well. However, there’s a caveat here.
You can connect up to 2 storage devices to the Wii U only to copy or move files between those storage devices and the internal storage space. You cannot use those 2 storage devices at once for any other cases. For instance, you cannot actually install games to both of those connected USB storage devices. Rather, if you want to back up files from one USB storage device to another, you can use this method effectively.
Sum Up
Here, we have shared 3 methods on how to get more storage on Wii U. We hope that this post will assist you in expanding the storage space on your Nintendo Wii U.
We have tried to outline all these methods in a beginner-friendly way. So, if you have read the post carefully, you will already be able to increase the storage capacity on the Wii U with ease.
Do you think that the Nintendo Wii U was a good console? Or its successor, the Nintendo Switch is the best one of them all? Don’t hesitate to share your thoughts on this in the comment section. We would like to hear your input!
