UPDATE:

Since our original story, Nintendo has released more details on what types of drives will be supported by Wii U. It's worth emphasizing that there is still a degree of uncertainty at this point, and the best way of knowing whether your particular hardware will work with the system is to test it.

Even so, here's what's new:

Bus-Powered vs. Self-Powered vs. USB 3.0

Perhaps the most important detail concerning Wii U and hard drives is this - self-powered drives (i.e. ones that you not only connect by USB but also power through an AC adapter plugged into an outlet) will definitely work with the system. Bus-powered discs, apparently, either won't work until a future update or won't be directly confirmed by Nintendo as able to work until a future time. Either way, it seems as though self-powered HDDs are the better option at this point.

Some drives are able to be powered only through USB 3.0. As we noted in our original story (below), 3.0 drives are not promised to work, though Nintendo has clarified these devices will effectively operate at USB 2.0.

Moving Your Drives

When you connect a drive to Wii U, you will have to format that drive for the system. Unless you partition, your entire drive will be dedicated to your Wii U. What's important to note is the system will format the drive for itself - not all Wii Us. In other words, if you try to relocate your HDD to another Wii U, that new system will apparently want to format the drive again. All data will be erased.

What Will Work

Nintendo has explicitly confirmed the following drives to work with Wii U, though it cautions it cannot guarantee they will always work. So, again, you'll have to just test these things to make sure.

Buffalo HD-LBU3-C Series HD-LB2.0TU3-BKC／HD-LB2.0TU3-WHC HD-LB1.0TU3-BKC／HD-LB1.0TU3-WHC

Buffalo HD-LBU3 Series HD-LB2.0TU3J HD-LB1.0TU3J

Toshiba CANVIO DESK Series HD-EA20TK／HD-EA20TW HD-EA10TK／HD-EA10TW

ORIGINAL STORY:

For months we've known that Wii U will support various storage solutions in addition to the variable internal storage that comes with different system bundles (8GB and 32GB at launch). Nintendo has now provided more details on SD card and hard drive support, plus even shed some light on how much space the system's OS will take and more. Thanks to NeoGAF user cvxfreak for translating all of the details from the last second Japanese broadcast.

The OS Space

When buying a Wii U, gamers will be able to choose between the Basic bundle, which comes with 8GB of internal storage, and the Deluxe bundle, which comes with 32GB of space. By default, due to formatting, the Basic system will have 7.2GB of free memory and the Deluxe will have 29GB. From there, though, the Wii U's OS will take 4.2GB of space. That's about half of the Basic's storage, not counting any expansion through hard drives or SD cards.

Nintendo also specified that New Super Mario Bros. U is approximately a 2GB download. Nintendo Land ranks around 3.2GB. That means Basic system owners can't download both Mario and Nintendo Land to their internal storage without running out of space. Something to keep in mind.

USB Hard Drives

By default, and barring an update that Nintendo says is coming in the future, Wii U will only allow one USB drive to be connected at a time. These drives cannot be disconnected while Wii U is powered on, and the system will support and read up to 2TB of storage.

Drives that will be used by Wii U must be formatted by the system's Data Management system, meaning you can't use the drive with a PC without partitioning. However all data can be moved internally and externally through Wii U's OS.

Drives that require more than USB 2.0 connections might not work properly with Wii U. Drives that have two USB connectors will work, however.

SD Cards

Wii U will accept SD cards, but their use is limited. PC, Wii Virtual Console, WiiWare and Wii saves can be stored on these cards, but Wii U save data cannot.

Rich is an Executive Editor of IGN.com and the leader of IGN's Nintendo team. He also watches over all things WWE, Resident Evil, Assassin's Creed and much more. Follow him on Twitter, if you dare!

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