Slave Power to Wii external HDD.

[LentFilms]

I've been using a 3.5 internal HDD, enclosed into an external enclosure for my Wii's HDD for about two years now. It works great, but the thing runs on its own power supply and needs to be turned on/off via a switch on the back. I would like to make the HDD more unified with the system it's self and be turned on/off as the system does automatically.

I figure there must be some type of device that could set one outlet to master power and then a second to slave. Then the Wii would be plugged up to the master and the HDD would be plugged up to the slave. I would then just leave the HDD's enclosure on 24/7 but the power would only be fed to the slave outlet when the Wii was on and then be cut the second it was shut off.

Is there anything like this or is there another avenue I could investigate? In either case I would greatly appreciate the help.

[D.D.D.]

I know what you mean about the streamlining of it. I'm gonna check into that too. Post if I find something.

[LentFilms]

I found out that some surge protectors have this option.

The thing is I don't need an entirely new surge protector for $30 just for te Wii only to achieve a small bit of convenience.

Does anyone know of a cheap 1 master 1 slave adapter that could be used?

[irixith]

You could always use a 2.5" HDD in an enclosure instead, since that's powered via USB. I have a 1TB 2.5" HDD installed inside one of my Wiis in place of the disc drive, with an extendable cable poking out the back plugged into the USB port. The extendable cable is so I can pull it longer to hook up to a PC the odd time I want to add stuff. (You don't have to put the drive inside your Wii .. but a 2.5" drive will instantly eliminate your issue.)

Other than that, a 3.5 external that powers on and off with the device it's plugged into like any modern day prefab drive (like those WD drives -- they have no power switch because they're designed to go on and off with your PC) .. or a surge bar designed for that purpose.

[D.D.D.]

What are those kind of surge protectors called?

The 2.5" drives had some sort of issue before I thought... Can't recall though.

[LentFilms]

They don't really have a distinctive name aside from master-slave power strip. In most cases they usually have a "energy saving" label slapped onto it. Just make sure it says it has master/slave functions somewhere on the box.

I've never heard of 2.5 drives having issues? In either case I'm not interested in buying a new drive, just want to make the drive I have now simpler.

[ZenErik]

I connect a 2.5" drive to my Wii. No issues.

[marurun]

It sounds like the simple, cheap solution you want may not exist. I run into that all the time. I always think "something like this should definitely exist" only to find out that apparently the market and my specific needs to not align.

Then again, if you DO manage to find a solution for this, please share.

[LentFilms]

Yeah, that's what I'm starting to realize.
However I'll keep this thread posted if I do find something.

[D.D.D.]

Lent, did you try that power strip?

Also, I'm considering getting a 2.5"hdd+converta-case just because the 3.5" case is huge and a little noisy.