$21 Nintendo Wii U upgrade lets you add TBs of storage to your console with an M.2 or SATA SSD — upgrade makes console slightly faster, but requires Homebrew and custom firmware

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No more DVD swapping to change games.

WiiU
(Image credit: Getty / Bloomberg)

The Peaceful Outcome, a retro gaming solutions provider, has announced an SSD upgrade kit for the Wii U, allowing owners to increase the storage on their console from 8GB or 32GB to 1TB or higher. You get the kit for $21.99 on the TPO shop. It lets you internally attach a SATA or NVMe M.2 drive of various sizes so you can directly load your games on your Wii U without needing an external drive or to swap out DVDs. It also comes with a USB port that lets you transfer files to your SSD without needing to disassemble your console again.

You can already get a 3.5-inch SATA hard drive mounting kit at the same price (or a 2.5-inch kit for $17.99), but TPO said that it created the M.2 version for longevity reasons. It also noted that SSDs won’t give you a significant performance boost on the Wii U — an SSD loads just 7.5% faster than the DVD drive and 6% quicker compared to a hard drive — but it does give you more space to save your games on the console. TPO said that this does not offer any performance uplifts versus SATA drives, but it created this anyway because of easier M.2 NVMe drive availability in the future.

Note that this isn’t a straightforward upgrade — first, you have to provide your own drive, which could be one of the best SSDs you can get today or one that you already have lying around at home, and then you’ll need to break open your console to install the kit. This is the easy (and most expensive, given current storage pricing) part. Once done, you’ll need to hack into your console so that it can use the custom Aroma firmware. While there’s a complete guide on how to install it, it’s not without risk, as there’s a small chance that you could brick your device during the process.

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If you’ve previously purchased a drive upgrade kit from TPO in the past, you could get updated parts to upgrade your current kit at shipping cost. All you need to do is upgrade the firmware on your interposer board, and you should be good to go.

While the Nintendo Wii U already accepts external drives, installing this upgrade kit will give your console more storage without needing to have a bulky drive hanging outside it all the time. This upgrade is more for aesthetics, but if you’re willing to accept the risk of (or already have) homebrew software, then finding a way to have a “permanent” storage upgrade on your Wii U is a no-brainer.

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Jowi Morales
Jowi Morales
Contributing Writer

Jowi Morales is a tech enthusiast with years of experience working in the industry. He’s been writing with several tech publications since 2021, where he’s been interested in tech hardware and consumer electronics.

4 Comments Comment from the forums
  • hotaru251
    i mean Wii U is like THE device you softmoded (had to re-do the mod every boot or could do a more permanent one if wanted) even when was new as it let you bypass region lock and stuff (also it was so simple a kid could do it) and at that point you downloaded the custom e-shop, downloaded a game dumper, put disk in and dumped it to an external hdd, then you played off said hdd that held every one of your games, in 1 spot, and faster (reading off an external hdd was still faster than reading disc itself).
    Reply
  • Joomsy
    hotaru251 said:
    i mean Wii U is like THE device you softmoded (had to re-do the mod every boot or could do a more permanent one if wanted) even when was new as it let you bypass region lock and stuff (also it was so simple a kid could do it) and at that point you downloaded the custom e-shop, downloaded a game dumper, put disk in and dumped it to an external hdd, then you played off said hdd that held every one of your games, in 1 spot, and faster (reading off an external hdd was still faster than reading disc itself).
    Did a free solution ever come out? I remember when I did it, I had to buy Brain Age from the shop. Granted, it was like $4, but since the eShop is now closed, that kinda makes this method unreliable these days. Oh, and having to buy a Y cable for the external drive is a pain. The Wii U isn't powerful enough to run an external drive without a Y cable plugged into both of its USB slots on the back, and I always found that cumbersome. This mod would actually cut out the need for that.
    Reply
  • TerryLaze
    Joomsy said:
    Did a free solution ever come out? I remember when I did it, I had to buy Brain Age from the shop. Granted, it was like $4, but since the eShop is now closed, that kinda makes this method unreliable these days. Oh, and having to buy a Y cable for the external drive is a pain. The Wii U isn't powerful enough to run an external drive without a Y cable plugged into both of its USB slots on the back, and I always found that cumbersome. This mod would actually cut out the need for that.
    Yup I did it free, you have to connect the wii-u to the net and go to a special site while having files on your sd ready to act, also you only need the y cable for mechanical drives, usb thumb sticks and ssds work fine with a simple cable.

    https://wiiu.hacks.guide/
    Reply
  • hotaru251
    Joomsy said:
    Did a free solution ever come out?
    yeah similar to the og wii just had visit url with some files on an sd card. (that one did have some random issues and got patched out iirc but they have better ways and still free no game needed)


    TerryLaze said:
    also you only need the y cable for mechanical drives
    it was hit or miss on how much power the drive used.
    I only needed a basic one for a mechanical hdd as was low power enough (iirc was a mechanical WD portable one) but one of my other ones wouldnt run off one.
    Reply