How to Set Up an External Hard Drive on Wii U

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Last Updated: January 26, 2025

The Wii U has an internal storage where you can save your game data, downloaded games, and other media files. If you find that the internal storage is insufficient for your media needs, you can set up an external hard drive to expand your Wii U storage. Use any external hard drive you have on hand (or purchase one) that you can format and use solely for your Wii.

1

Get an external hard drive.

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Any external hard drive will do (which you can purchase from online retail stores as well as electronics stores near you), but it is recommended that you use a hard-disc drive (HDD) with a dedicated power sources (i.e., uses an A/C adapter) for maximum performance.

2

Turn off the Wii U console.

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To turn off your Wii U, hold down the Power button on the gamepad for 1 second. The LED light of the console will turn red and the gamepad screen will turn off.
- The Power button is at the bottom-right corner of the gamepad.

3

Connect the external hard drive to the Wii U.

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Connect the USB cable of the external hard drive to the Wii U USB port at the front of the console or at the back. Both will work just fine.

4

Turn on the Wii U console.

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Press the Power button of the Wii U to turn it on. Once the console is on, it will detect the external device, and a dialogue will prompt you to format the hard drive.

5

Select “Yes” to begin the formatting of the hard drive.

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After the formatting, the Wii U will now detect the external storage as an official storage device for your Wii U.

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Question

What can I do if it does not pick up my external hard drive?

Community Answer

What do you mean by "pick up?" I had the issue where the WiiU stated "cannot format HDD," so I plugged it back into my PC and formatted it (with miniTool partition wizard free version) as FAT32 with 32kb clusters. The WiiU was then able to format it appropriately.

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Question

How much time is needed to format 2 TB of external memory?

Milos Tosic

Community Answer

It depends on how many files you have on your external drive. If you don't have anything, it should be done within a couple of seconds.

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Question

I followed steps 1, 2, and 3. I plugged the external hard drive into one of the back USB ports in the Wii U console. I turned the Wii U back on and it did not give me a message to format it. What should I do?

Erick Hagstrom

Community Answer

From the Wii U menu, open System Settings. First, you'll see "Internet". Scroll to the right. Open "Data Management". Select "Format USB Storage Device". Follow the prompts from there.

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