Hacking Wii NAND-Backup help

[Davve_DP]

Hey guys. So I happen to own 2 wiis that are virtually copies of each other with usb loader GX and a usb drive with all my games on. Installed as well is the homebrew launcher on IOS 56 and I installed cIOX in the IOS247 and IOS248 slots, so in other words I'm also running IOS 249 (ofc I'm using USB loader GX). The only thing I haven't done is to backup my NAND. I've looked around on different tutorials, but all of them assume I just softmodded my wii. Now I'm not very experienced when it comes to homebrew either so I'm scared that If I backup my NAND now (with all my things installed) something might go wrong. Also I was hoping someone could point me in the right direction of how to actually do this (backing up the NAND).

All comments are much appreciated!

PS. Does anyone know if USB loader GX creates an emuNAND and in that case can I install n64 Wads on it?

Thanks again!

 

[Ryccardo]

You just can't screw up a nand backup - unless of course the SD it's going to be saved on is defective
Just start BootMii (assuming you didn't replace the contents of the BootMii folder on the SD) and press the buttons on the console to navigate to the last option then the green one!

I'm not familiar with USB loader GX, but if it can't create an emunand you can do so yourself by extracting your nand backup (recommended) or generating one from scratch (Modmii will help you to do so)
Yes, once you have an emunand you can install any wad to it - using one, at your choice, of: a compatible wad manager with this feature, a compatible usb loader with this feature, or ShowMiiWads on a PC

 

[Davve_DP]

well... the thing is I don't even have an SD card plugged into my wii. I just use a single HDD to store all my wii and gc games and play them through USB loader GX. The only reason I'm asking this is because I wanted to play n64 games and that messes a lot with the nand. So if I don't have an SD card with bootmii the bootmii package am I just screwed?

 

[Ryccardo]

There is indeed an alternative to BootMii for making a nand backup (an homebrew I don't remember the name of - it should be mentioned in Vwii (Wii part of WiiU) modding guides since they can't easily install BootMii) but I'm unsure on how smart it is to take a backup of a system that's changing during the process

It won't cause damage, but unless the creator of this homebrew considered the issue, I'm not sure if the result will be a good backup - and I don't know if it can save to USB in the first place!

 

[Davve_DP]

well you know what? I bought that wii for 20 bucks. If it bricks I'll still have my huge game library and I'll just get a new one and then do it properly. Thanks anyway for the advice! Btw can I play VC (USA) super smash bros and super mario 64 on a PAL wii, and if so how? I really am struggling to find a good tutorial for this.

 

[XFlak]

To my knowledge, there's no alternative to a bootmii backup in the sense that you can restore a bootmii backup to recover a bricked wii.

You can create a fresh emulated Nand using modmii, but you need to boot it at least once using neek which requires an SD card if I'm not mistaken.

So if the objective is to make an emulated Nand without requiring an SD card, other homebrew like usbloader gx should be able to do this for u.... But again, there's no replacement to a true bootmii backup

 

[Cyan]

if you want a NAND backup (for security reason), then USBLoaderGX is not what you need. only bootmii can make clean dump of your NAND to be restored in case of brick.
if you only want to get a copy of your NAND's content to use as emuNAND or neek, then it's just fine

USBLoaderGX can dump your NAND to any folder, to use as EmuNAND.
You can then use USBLoaderGX's internal "wad manager" feature to install wads to your emuNAND and launch games from it.

note that N64 are usually NOT compatible with simple cIOS emuNAND and you'll probably want to use neek instead.


@XFlak:
in another thread, we tried to make a clean NAND from modmii and some games didn't work.
we made a dump from a modmii updated sysNAND and it worked.
I'm not sure what's different from a generated modmii NAND. maybe the user made a mistake? we compared the nand with showmiinands and I'm not sure what to look for, but IOS are different size/version.
https://gbatemp.net/threads/wiiware...ader-gx-and-neek2o.532968/page-4#post-8570790

 

[Davve_DP]

Thanks a lot for the replies! I'll probably just stop worrying about backing up the NAND since it doesn't matter too much if my wii bricks. But I will follow Cyan's advice and look into using neek for my n64 wads.

 

[tswntk]

in another thread, we tried to make a clean NAND from modmii and some games didn't work.
we made a dump from a modmii updated sysNAND and it worked.
I'm not sure what's different from a generated modmii NAND. maybe the user made a mistake? we compared the nand with showmiinands and I'm not sure what to look for, but IOS are different size/version.
https://gbatemp.net/threads/wiiware...ader-gx-and-neek2o.532968/page-4#post-8570790

Sorry, I commented in another thread just a moment ago before reading this thread : https://gbatemp.net/threads/trying-to-build-neek2o.534775/
As for the IOS differences, I haven't really look into it but I guess Modmii is using 4.3 while the other guy is using 4.1

 

[Cyan]

I thought the IOS would still be updated to latest version, even if the system menu is not 4.3.
there's no issue having updated IOS with old system menu (I'm still on 3.2E without problem, but have latest IOS58 for example)

But I didn't spent too much time on comparison, I don't know if they are really different or the user made a mistake (highly possible, like you said we repeated ourselves a lot of times)

 

[Davve_DP]

Just on more question (he said a week later...)

I've been looking into using neek2o and if I've understood it correctly I don't need the nswitch apps if I'm only using it for usbloadergx. Also, does usbloader gx let me create NAND backups of a different region? I'm living in europe and I want to play my USA n64 wads (mario 64 and smash bros). Or can a PAL NAND work for these games?

Also would it be possible for me to install modmii and create a NAND backup for security reasons with the setup I have? (see the syscheck).

Spoiler: Syscheck

SysCheck HDE v2.4.0 HacksDen Edition by JoostinOnline, Double_A, R2-D2199, and Nano
...runs on IOS58 (rev 6176).

Region: PAL
System Menu 4.3E (v514)

Drive date: 12.18.2008
Homebrew Channel 1.1.2 running on IOS58

Hollywood v0x21
Console ID: 138309297
Console Type: Wii
Shop Channel Country: Sweden (107)
Boot2 v4
Found 84 titles.
Found 47 IOS on this console. 16 of them are stubs.

IOS3 (rev 65280): Stub
IOS4 (rev 65280): Stub
IOS9 (rev 1034): No Patches
IOS10 (rev 768): Stub
IOS11 (rev 256): Stub
IOS12 (rev 526): No Patches
IOS13 (rev 1032): No Patches
IOS14 (rev 1032): No Patches
IOS15 (rev 1032): No Patches
IOS16 (rev 512): Stub
IOS17 (rev 1032): No Patches
IOS20 (rev 256): Stub
IOS21 (rev 1039): No Patches
IOS22 (rev 1294): No Patches
IOS28 (rev 1807): No Patches
IOS30 (rev 2816): Stub
IOS31 (rev 3608): No Patches
IOS33 (rev 3608): No Patches
IOS34 (rev 3608): No Patches
IOS35 (rev 3608): No Patches
IOS36 (rev 3608): No Patches
IOS37 (rev 5663): No Patches
IOS38 (rev 4124): No Patches
IOS40 (rev 3072): Stub
IOS41 (rev 3607): No Patches
IOS43 (rev 3607): No Patches
IOS45 (rev 3607): No Patches
IOS46 (rev 3607): No Patches
IOS48 (rev 4124): No Patches
IOS50 (rev 5120): Stub
IOS51 (rev 4864): Stub
IOS52 (rev 5888): Stub
IOS53 (rev 5663): No Patches
IOS55 (rev 5663): No Patches
IOS56 (rev 5662): No Patches
IOS57 (rev 5919): No Patches
IOS58 (rev 6176): USB 2.0
IOS60 (rev 6400): Stub
IOS61 (rev 5662): No Patches
IOS70 (rev 6912): Stub
IOS80 (rev 6944): No Patches
IOS222 (rev 65280): Stub
IOS223 (rev 65280): Stub
IOS236[36] (rev 65535, Info: rev 3351): Trucha Bug, ES Identify, NAND Access
IOS249[56] (rev 20, Info: rev 20): Trucha Bug, NAND Access, USB 2.0
IOS250[38] (rev 20, Info: rev 20): Trucha Bug, ES Identify, NAND Access
IOS254 (rev 65280): Stub
BC v6
MIOS v10
Report generated on 04/07/2019.

Sorry for reviving this thread after a week, but I'm still stuck

Have a nice Sunday!

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

Just on more question (he said a week later...)

Well... That was a bit more than one question I'm afraid...

 

[XFlak]

I recommend updating your softmods using ModMii, you have a couple outdated items. You can either run the main modmii wizard as if it is a virgin console (even if it isn't) and it will get you to make a nand backup as part of that process. There's no harm in overwriting old mods with new. Alternatively you could open your syscheck with ModMii and it will analyze it and will instruct you to update only the specific items that are outdated.

Nswitch won't be necessary if you're accessing the emunand via usbloader gx, but having it won't hurt anything, just don't launch nswitch

Edit: modmii can also help u build emulated Nands for all the different regions. They do require you launch them at least once with neek before they'll work properly with usbloader gx

 

[Davve_DP]

So if I've understood correctly I just download modmii and put it in my "apps" folder. Then I launch it from the hbc. I then open my syscheck with modmii and update all my outdated items. And then I create my NAND backups.

Is that right?

Thanks for the reply

 

[XFlak]

No, modmii is a windows application. It's idiot proof, download and run it, it will ask questions and build u a custom guide for you based on your responses as well as prepare your sd card with all the needed files so it will work even on wii's without wifi

 

[robyspy]

No, modmii is a PC app: https://gbatemp.net/threads/modmii-for-windows-official-support-topic.207126/

 

[Davve_DP]

Aha, well I'll give that a shot and get back to you tomorrow. Thanks again for explaining everything in such a noob-friendly way.

U guys are awesome!

 

[Davve_DP]

Thanks a lot for all the help Xflak. Ur an absolute legend, didn't know u actually made modmii!

So this is my new syscheck:

Spoiler: New Syscheck

SysCheck HDE v2.4.0 HacksDen Edition by JoostinOnline, Double_A, R2-D2199, and Nano
...runs on IOS58 (rev 6176).

Region: PAL
System Menu 4.3E (v514)
Priiloader installed
Drive date: 12.18.2008
Homebrew Channel 1.1.2 running on IOS58

Hollywood v0x21
Console ID: 138309297
Console Type: Wii
Shop Channel Country: Sweden (107)
Boot2 v4
Found 86 titles.
Found 49 IOS on this console. 6 of them are stubs.

IOS3 (rev 65280): Stub
IOS4 (rev 65280): Stub
IOS9 (rev 1034): No Patches
IOS10 (rev 768): Stub
IOS11 (rev 16174): Trucha Bug, NAND Access
IOS12 (rev 526): No Patches
IOS13 (rev 1032): No Patches
IOS14 (rev 1032): No Patches
IOS15 (rev 1032): No Patches
IOS16 (rev 512): Stub
IOS17 (rev 1032): No Patches
IOS20 (rev 16174): Trucha Bug, NAND Access
IOS21 (rev 1039): No Patches
IOS22 (rev 1294): No Patches
IOS28 (rev 1807): No Patches
IOS30 (rev 16174): Trucha Bug, NAND Access
IOS31 (rev 3608): No Patches
IOS33 (rev 3608): No Patches
IOS34 (rev 3608): No Patches
IOS35 (rev 3608): No Patches
IOS36 (rev 3608): No Patches
IOS37 (rev 5663): No Patches
IOS38 (rev 4124): No Patches
IOS40 (rev 16174): Trucha Bug, NAND Access
IOS41 (rev 3607): No Patches
IOS43 (rev 3607): No Patches
IOS45 (rev 3607): No Patches
IOS46 (rev 3607): No Patches
IOS48 (rev 4124): No Patches
IOS50 (rev 16174): Trucha Bug, NAND Access
IOS51 (rev 4864): Stub
IOS52 (rev 16174): Trucha Bug, NAND Access
IOS53 (rev 5663): No Patches
IOS55 (rev 5663): No Patches
IOS56 (rev 5662): No Patches
IOS57 (rev 5919): No Patches
IOS58 (rev 6176): USB 2.0
IOS60 (rev 16174): Trucha Bug, NAND Access
IOS61 (rev 5662): No Patches
IOS70 (rev 16174): Trucha Bug, NAND Access
IOS80 (rev 16174): Trucha Bug, NAND Access
IOS202[60] (rev 65535, Info: hermesrodries-v6): Trucha Bug, NAND Access, USB 2.0
IOS222[38] (rev 4, Info: hermes-v4): Trucha Bug, ES Identify, NAND Access, USB 2.0
IOS223[38+37] (rev 4, Info: hermes-v4): Trucha Bug, ES Identify, NAND Access, USB 2.0
IOS224[57] (rev 65535, Info: hermesrodries-v6): Trucha Bug, NAND Access, USB 2.0
IOS236[36] (rev 65535, Info: rev 3351): Trucha Bug, ES Identify, NAND Access
IOS249[57] (rev 21008, Info: d2x-v8final): Trucha Bug, NAND Access, USB 2.0
IOS250[56] (rev 21008, Info: d2x-v8final): Trucha Bug, NAND Access, USB 2.0
IOS254 (rev 65280): Stub
BC v6
MIOS v10
Report generated on 04/08/2019.

So now the only thing I need to do is to install neek. I just have one last question before doing this however.

If I want to be able to play n64 games and whatnot and see them amongst my other games in USBloader GX, will modmii be able to set up sneek in a way that supports this and help me with nands of different regions?

Also, does the priiloader option for "region free channels" work instead of setting up a NTSC-USA NAND to play USA wad games?

I have a PAL wii and want to be able to play USA wads.

(Just realised that I forgot to install IOS 62, Even though it's not in the syscheck I've installed it now )

Thanks again a million for all the support!

 

[XFlak]

Lol, ModMii is my baby, thanks for the compliments.

Yes, usbloader gx will work with modmii created emunand, although you may need to load them at least once using neek first.

I think other region channels will work on an emunand, but honestly this is where my memory gets fuzzy. You could try it to check (there's no risk in that and you can remove channels from the emunand after the fact using showmiiwads/showmiinand), or you could do some deeper research if you don't like the trial and error approach.

 

[Davve_DP]

I'll do the modmii neek setup and see how I get along. Get back to you when I have time to do it though.

Have to go to work now. Its 9pm where I'm at right now so f*** me.

I'll be back...

 

[Davve_DP]

So is the sneek folder supposed to be in all caps? as in COPY_TO_USB/SNEEK

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

Actually, I'm going to be honest. After I have copied all of my content to USB and SD from modmii I don't really know what to do next. Do I open up bootmii or do I launch something from the hbc? Couldn't I just put it all on my usb hdd drive?

Sorry again for sounding like such a noob but I don't want to screw anything up at this point.

That might be something u want to add to modmii XFlak; Just a tutorial on what to do after downloading all the components for uneek+DI and a modmii NAND.

Thanks again!