Hacking No disk wii's on eBay?

kiel379 · Nov 14, 2011

Hey guys
I was looking at eBay and their are quite a few wii's on their for really cheap, their only problem is it can't read disks anymore. So my question is can those be hacked and have a hard drive for games instead or would the no disk problem cause the wii to go into death mode or something. I have already hacked a few wii's and this may be a stupid question but I don't want to buy it then to find out theirs something I overlooked that will stop me from using it.

Sir VG · Nov 14, 2011

As long as the NAND, WiFi, SD Slot, and USB ports work, yes. You don't have to have a disc based game in order to hack in the firmware. Update to the newest OFW and then use LetterBomb. After that use that to install Homebrew Channel and have at it!

bazamuffin · Nov 14, 2011

You should still be able to hack via methods that don't require a game exploit. To be fair, I can't remember the last time I used a disc. I know people who have knack'd drives and just use USB

WiiPower · Nov 14, 2011

It should different from Wii to Wii, depending if the drive itself is damaged or just the laser. The Wii needs the drive to theoretically work, even if you load games from usb. If you disconnect the drive, nothing works anymore.

So if the drive has a hard time to read the discs, but it works more or less, you are good to go. If nothing works at all, or there's some loose cable causing it to randomly work or not work, look for another one.

kiel379 · Nov 14, 2011

Oh ok so it's a yes it will work as long as the drive kinda works lol, cheers guys, off to get some eBay bargains lol

wilsoff · Nov 15, 2011

WiiPower said:
...The Wii needs the drive to theoretically work, even if you load games from usb. If you disconnect the drive, nothing works anymore.

This hardware mod provides a workaround that let's you take most of the drive out. Although having never tried it I can't vouch for it's success.
http://gbatemp.net/topic/149299-tutorial-internal-hard-drive-mod-for-wii-high-bandwidth/

WiiPower · Nov 15, 2011

I guess this won't work if the drive is too damaged to let the Wii do its stuff while it is properly connected. Well, that one pin looks suspicious, just from looking at it, i'd think there's a small chance if a drive is not working, it's because this pin got loose or whatever. But i wouldn't buy anything because of that theory.