Can you use SD cards or flash drives for more memory?

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chequelots
Posted 2/15/2013 2:02:27 AM
See I wanna buy Fist of the Norh Star and doing so will only leave me with 10 GB. Buying an external ardrive is too expensive for me so I was wondering if there's an alternative.
Thunderbird8
Posted 2/15/2013 2:27:55 AM
A SD card would require a USB card reader to use, as the SD card slot in the Wii U itself can't be used for game storage (unless Nintendo adds that later on). A USB flash drive will work just fine. Though Nintendo doesn't recommend either one.
chequelots
(Topic Creator)
Posted 2/15/2013 8:21:15 AM
Is there something wrong with either one?
Thunderbird8
Posted 2/16/2013 8:10:55 PM
The Wii U reformats the device being used for external storage. For SD cards, formatting them without a specialized utility meant directly for it is not recommended, I've read that it might mess up some of the stuff used for wear leveling on the card. Flash drives may have a similar issue as well. And I doubt the Wii U takes either into account.
rudgerlight
Posted 2/16/2013 8:15:26 PM
Nintendo requires you use an external drive that either has a power supply or has two USB prongs. The reason is two-fold. USB sticks and SD cards are too slow to emulate the speed of the Wii U's disc drive. And Nintendo doesn't want the USB slots consuming too much power, so it doesn't supply a single slot with enough power to run an external.

You're stuck having to buy an external sadly. My suggestion is to buy a really cheap eSata dock and then either use a leftover drive from something or buy the cheapest drive you can find. That's almost as cheap as a large USB stick.