Hardware Backing up a GameCube memory card

[matthiask16]

I have 2 GameCube memory cards I found from my youth, one formatted for Japanese games and one for American (I had a GameCube with region switch). The console is long gone and all I currently have are these two memory cards. For nostalgic reasons I'd like to back them up before throwing them away. What is the simplest way for me to achieve this? These are official Nintendo memory cards.

 

[Glyptofane]

You need a modded Wii and GCMM. If you want to extract or convert the individual saves, I think you have to load your results from GCMM into the memory manager in the Dolphin emulator.

Also, why throw them away?! Hang on to those or at least sell them.

 

[matthiask16]

Thank you, my next step is to buy a Wii then. I hate having things I'm not using, and I can't imagine that a couple of GameCube memory cards would be worth more than a couple of dollars.

 

[Maeson]

Yeah, as Glyptofane says, GCMM works beautifully. You can either back up the entire memory card on a single file (RAW format), or copy each save by itself and create a GCI file individually (you can press R1 in the Backup menu to make it an automatic process so the program copies all of them without going one by one).

I backed up my two memory card yesterday. This little program is just great. It's also cool for seeing all the save icons (and its animations).
I'd also stick with them just in case, but that's just me.

 

[Knight of Time]

You don't actually need to buy a Wii to use GCMM; if you are able to get Datel's SD Media Launcher, you can install the GameCube version of GCMM on the SD card used with the SD Media Launcher disc. I also used to use GCMM on my Wii, but since I was nervous about accidentally losing save data on my GameCube memory card, I switched over to my GameCube and SD Media Launcher for my save backups and restorations. Despite the fact that getting into GCMM on my GameCube is a little trickier, it is more convenient.

 

[matthiask16]

You don't actually need to buy a Wii to use GCMM; if you are able to get Datel's SD Media Launcher, you can install the GameCube version of GCMM on the SD card used with the SD Media Launcher disc. I also used to use GCMM on my Wii, but since I was nervous about accidentally losing save data on my GameCube memory card, I switched over to my GameCube and SD Media Launcher for my save backups and restorations. Despite the fact that getting into GCMM on my GameCube is a little trickier, it is more convenient.

Thank you for providing another option. Unfortunately I don't have my GameCube any longer. I literally only have the memory cards, a Wave Bird and one of these adapters for attaching GameCube controllers via USB. I eventually plan to fire everything up in Dolphin. If I could make a raw byte-by-byte copy of each memory card I assume I will be able to more easily manipulate them via software on PC. So a Wii, if that's the easiest approach, with GCMM, sounds like the way forward for me. Just ordered a used Wii for this purpose.

 

[eyeliner]

Heck, I'd be willing to accept whatever gamecube devices you do not want. I'd pay for postage. I only have a Harry Potter + Memory card. Sad me, indeed.

 

[Knight of Time]

Thank you for providing another option. Unfortunately I don't have my GameCube any longer. I literally only have the memory cards, a Wave Bird and one of these adapters for attaching GameCube controllers via USB. I eventually plan to fire everything up in Dolphin. If I could make a raw byte-by-byte copy of each memory card I assume I will be able to more easily manipulate them via software on PC. So a Wii, if that's the easiest approach, with GCMM, sounds like the way forward for me. Just ordered a used Wii for this purpose.

Ah, I thought you still had a GameCube right around the time I made my first post here...my apologies for overlooking that you don't have a GameCube anymore. It's ironic you mentioned you have an adapter for connecting GameCube controllers via USB; I have one of these kind of adapters too which I generally use (though not always) when I play a GameCube game in Dolphin.

Anyway yeah, as long as you are able to get GCMM working on a Wii (you know how to use Smash Stack, right? It's pretty much the only reliable method I know of for getting homebrew working on a Wii; I used that exploit on my Wii and it has homebrew on it now as a result), you should have no problems getting your saves to appear in Dolphin.