2 more questions...

[Ondrashek06]

1. Why even bother with a NAND backup? Sure, it is better than having nothing & no way to recover a bricked Wii U whatsoever, however if you don't want to hardmod, there's no recovering the backup nor the Wii U either, unlike 3DS.
2. Is wiiu.hacks.guide still not recommended? That might explain why I got a near-brick when I tried to follow that guide. If so, what guide is recommended then?

 

[Lostbhoy]

A nand backup is just good practice incase you have the unfortunate event where you have to use it and possibly the skills or someone who can repair it but it is always down to user choice.

Depends on how you want to mod your wii u. I haven't been on it in a good while but I'd assume tiramasu hasn't been added yet? Strange if not but you'll get all the guides you need right here and helpful assistance. Since tiramasu is relatively new, active and free I'd suggest going with that.

 

[Deleted member 571007]

I haven't been on it in a good while but I'd assume tiramasu hasn't been added yet?

It was added to the guide within the month of it's release, plus Maschell the creator of Tiramisu, along with GaryOderNichts a trusted dev have made commits to the repo that hosts' the site. I'm not sure why their guides "arent recommended" as they've always worked fine for me.

Imo anyone who bricks following the guides hosted there is just an idiot

 

[KleinesSinchen]

1. Why even bother with a NAND backup? Sure, it is better than having nothing & no way to recover a bricked Wii U whatsoever, however if you don't want to hardmod, there's no recovering the backup nor the Wii U either, unlike 3DS.

Let's ask the other way round: Why not backup the NAND? You can skip the big MLC part if data storage is a concern. Everything else takes about 1GB. My late 1999 desktop computer had two HDDs with 20GB. There is absolutely no reason why one can't store the tiny OTP, SEEPROM as well as the 512MB each: MLC/SLCCMP. Any smartphone will be able to hold the data. Any PC from the last two decades will be able to do this. There is free online storage. Or go retro and write it to a DVD which costs less than 50 cents.
Somebody might be able to find a boot time exploit and make it ready for end users. Then software NAND restore should become possible. This sounds unlikely, but we can't rule it out.

wiiu.hacks.guide
is fine in my opinion. Worked like a charm for me installing Tiramisu.

 

[spitzeqc]

if you don't want to hardmod, there's no recovering the backup

You back up the NAND because you never know when a software-based restore will become possible (in this instance, the day after you posted one became available)

https://gbatemp.net/threads/cbhc-unbrick-guide-without-soldering.613371/

 

[V10lator]

1) As other said: Why don't bother? We get new ways of recovery from time to time and you'll hate yourself when/if we reach a boot0 exploit and you can't recover cause of no backup...
2) wiiu.hacks.guide is the only guide recommended. It had zero day tiramisu support and stuff like that. How exactly did you "near-brick" (and what does that even mean) ?

 

[Ondrashek06]

You back up the NAND because you never know when a software-based restore will become possible (in this instance, the day after you posted one became available)

https://gbatemp.net/threads/cbhc-unbrick-guide-without-soldering.613371/

HOLY SHIT, what an irony. It still requires extra hardware but 0 soldering. Cool!

How exactly did you "near-brick" (and what does that even mean) ?

Basically, the guide said absolutely nothing about not using the browser exploit twice & instead launching HBL via Mii Maker. I got a black screen saying exactly that, and no matter how many times I restarted the gamepad, it still booted into that screen. So I posted on gbatemp needing urgent help, and after quite a while of not getting actual help, I declared a brick (it was 11 PM at that time) and went to sleep.

It seriously didn't occur to me that the gamepad didn't shut off the console, like it normally does. So the next day I took out the SD card, shut off the console, booted it, and it booted straight to the wii u menu like this all never happened.

Let's just say that my mom threw a huge tantrum about it and forbidden me from ever trying to hack consoles again.