Hacking Should I buy a Wii U to hack or fix my Wii?

[Smur]

My wii is already hacked with homebrew, emulators and all that stuff. I run Wii games off a hard drive, but the only problem is I can't access my Wii menu (can't get past the safety screen) and since I can't get to that, I can't set wifi settings for games. It just pops up and stays there with no prompt to press A. I've tried waiting and that doesn't help. Is there any way to restore my wii and re-hack it? Or do my hacks need updating?

OR, should I just get a Wii U and hack that so I can play my Wii games?

 

[air2004]

If you have boot mii installed as boot 2 , you should be able to restore it I think.
I would buy a wii u , your gonna eventually any way.

 

[blaisedinsd]

If you screwed up your wii that bad I wouldn't mess around hacking a brand new $300+ Wii U.

You can get a BC wii pretty cheap. Personally I still keep my hacked Wii hooked up and my Wii U at that same time. I may hack my Wii U someday but not while its brand new and under warranty and while there are so many unknowns with hacking it.

 

[air2004]

I hacked my wii u and everything seems to be just fine . The only thing that's annoying is the fact that it wants to format the hard drive every time I turn it on , other than that , its good. On a side note I have noticed that the vwii doesn't fill the entire screen like the wii did with component cables . There is a about a quarter inch black bar on both sides of the screen.

 

[blaisedinsd]

The only thing that's annoying is the fact that it wants to format the hard drive every time I turn it on

That's enough of a reason right there for me not to do it. Kids....that Hard drive would be getting formatted constantly in my house.

I have seen people saying also that they got Wii U warranty repairs with no problems after hacking their console as well. I also use my Wii for some gamecube games so if I am going to keep it hooked up anyway I got no reason to hack my WiiU.

 

[Smur]

I hacked my wii u and everything seems to be just fine .

Ok cool, so just to be clear, I can safely hack a Wii U, download Wii games on a hard drive (say MKWII), and play them online?
What do you mean by it has to format the hard drive each time? Can't you just plug it out if you don't want to play Wii games?

 

[blaisedinsd]

Ok cool, so just to be clear, I can safely hack a Wii U, download Wii games on a hard drive (say MKWII), and play them online?
What do you mean by it has to format the hard drive each time? Can't you just plug it out if you don't want to play Wii games?

Yes and yes.

You can unplug it every time if you remember, but it the hard drive is plugged in when the Wii U turns on it will see it and prompt you to format so you can use it with your Wii U. You can say no, but if you say yes your Wii U will erase everything on your hard drive.

 

[air2004]

Ok cool, so just to be clear, I can safely hack a Wii U, download Wii games on a hard drive (say MKWII), and play them online?
What do you mean by it has to format the hard drive each time? Can't you just plug it out if you don't want to play Wii games?

Not sure about the online play , I haven't tried that .
Yes you can disconnect the hard drive , but even when you plug it in it will say it needs to be formatted , I just hit the cancel button then go to the homebrew channel . ( my son said hit he the format button once , but all my games are there so not sure if he is mistaken , he is only 6 lol )

 

[PityOnU]

Yes and yes.

You can unplug it every time if you remember, but it the hard drive is plugged in when the Wii U turns on it will see it and prompt you to format so you can use it with your Wii U. You can say no, but if you say yes your Wii U will erase everything on your hard drive.

Wow that sucks super hardcore I had no idea the WiiU did that.

 

[air2004]

Wow that sucks super hardcore I had no idea the WiiU did that.

Its annoying , but all you have to do is hit cancel and everything is fine . you might want to back up your games to another drive just incase though lol , that's what I did.

 

[Cyan]

If you plug a USB drive in WiiU mode, the WiiU menu always asks to format it to WiiU partition format. (it fully erase the drive, you can't make multiple partitions)

You have two solutions :
- Disconnect the drive when you are not playing, and connect it when you are in Wii mode.
or
- Answer "no" when it asks you to format the drive to WiiU format.


Edit: ninja'd

 

[air2004]

Its cancel or format , and the format button is on the right which takes some getting used to , I would expect the format to be the left button .

 

[hippojay]

If you plug a USB drive in WiiU mode, the WiiU menu always asks to format it to WiiU partition format. (it fully erase the drive, you can't make multiple partitions)

You have two solutions :
- Disconnect the drive when you are not playing, and connect it when you are in Wii mode.
or
- Answer "no" when it asks you to format the drive to WiiU format.

I notice there was a thread about modifying the partition data to hide it from the WiiU? How did this go in the end (as I wasn;t sure whether the thread was about hiding drives or just separate partitions on the drive).

 

[Cyan]

editing the MBR partition table signature prevent the WiiU from asking you to format the drive.
You need to add support of the altered-signature to USBLoaders to recognize the partitions, but the drive will not work on your computer or any Host anymore unless you fix your MBR signature.

I think it's not a clean method, and users messing with their partition table is not a good idea.

You can do it manually (edit the device's sector 0 in an hexeditor), and rebuild your prefered loader to add the mbr signature you chose.

 

[hippojay]

Thanks - as you say not the best method but I might give it a test and see if its worth it.

 

[Warlord698]

the online play in vWii supposedly isn't gonna be up much longer though, nintendo is shutting dodn support for all their online bits (eShop will still be up though) and I think they are shutting down the online stuff for the Wii's online gaming as well (the nintendo servers, others depend on if the other companies decide to keep them up)

 

[blaisedinsd]

Have not heard about gaming getting shut down, what's your source? They announced shutting off some services such as the weather channel news channel check mii out and message board messaging. mk wii still has lots of online play, last I checked mario kart ds still works online too.

 

[Elusivo]

Not sure about the online play , I haven't tried that .
Yes you can disconnect the hard drive , but even when you plug it in it will say it needs to be formatted , I just hit the cancel button then go to the homebrew channel . ( my son said hit he the format button once , but all my games are there so not sure if he is mistaken , he is only 6 lol )

About a 6y old son nothing can be donne lol but, to avoid getting the format pop up warning and if u just want to play vWii games, simply keep the B button pressed on the gamepad while turning on the Wii U until u log in ur Mii and the Wii U will go into vWii directly, skipping the Wii U menu and the format warning altogether.

MKWii works perfectly online from usb hard drive game, and i doubt it's servers will get shutdown anytime soon, the game is still very popular online i think, and Wiis and MKWii disks are still being bought too i think ._.

 

[Green Cat]

there any way to restore my wii and re-hack it?

Did you make a NAND backup of your wii ?