Homebrew Homebrew app Bricked Wii By Installing NAND Backup From Another. Unbrick With BootMii as boot2???

[Patrickcvest]

[SOLVED][FIRST POST] If this is in the wrong place, would a mod move it for me?
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I know just enough about wii homebrew to be dangerous (:

I have one of my wii's set up exactly how I like it and I foolishly thought that taking a NAND backup of that wii and restoring it to the second wii would allow me to set the second wii up quicker.

I have concluded that this caused an IOS brick, which I understand is recoverable but I don't really know how to do that.

The wii boots regularly to a black screen. BootMii is installed as boot2 on the bricked wii, so with an SD card inserted, I can access the bootmii menu. But when I try to launch the homebrew channel from bootMii I get a black screen. I have kind of given up on accessing the homebrew channel to reinstall all of the IOSs but I am at a loss for fixing this thing.

Does anyone have any ideas?

Feel free to ask any questions about what happened and I will answer them ASAP

 

[XFlak]

Two options, first, you can try using punetwiin to convert your nand backup from your working wii to the bricked wii, but u will need the keys for both consoles, and obv the nand from the working console that's set up how u like it. More info here: https://wiibrew.org/wiki/Punetwiin

The other option is to use the bricked wii's keys to generate a virgin nand using ohneschwanzenegger
https://wiibrew.org/wiki/Ohneschwanzenegger

Once you have a nand created with the bricked wii's keys, just restore it like normal and it should be fine. You're lucky to have bootmii @boot2

Edit : in the future you should make a new nand backup before trying anything so monumentally ill-advised

 

[Patrickcvest]

Two options, first, you can try using punetwiin to convert your nand backup from your working wii to the bricked wii, but u will need the keys for both consoles, and obv the nand from the working console that's set up how u like it. More info here:

The other option is to use the bricked wii's keys to generate a virgin nand using ohneschwanzenegger


Once you have a nand created with the bricked wii's keys, just restore it like normal and it should be fine. You're lucky to have bootmii @boot2

Edit: in the future, you should make a new NAND backup before trying anything so monumentally ill-advised

Thank you so much for your response! I actually found out about ohneschwanzenegger last night about 2 hours after I made this post and it was late so I didn't update it. I got it all straightened out and learned a lot in the process! I also have NAND backups of both Wiis (;

I have seen you comment on a lot of stuff on this forum and I really admire how helpful you are! Thanks again!

 

[Patrickcvest]

Two options, first, you can try using punetwiin to convert your nand backup from your working wii to the bricked wii, but u will need the keys for both consoles, and obv the nand from the working console that's set up how u like it. More info here:

The other option is to use the bricked wii's keys to generate a virgin nand using ohneschwanzenegger


Once you have a nand created with the bricked wii's keys, just restore it like normal and it should be fine. You're lucky to have bootmii @boot2

Edit : in the future you should make a new nand backup before trying anything so monumentally ill-advised

XFlak, so if solutions like ohneschwanzenegger exist, is a Wii with bootMii as boot2 impossible to software brick?

 

[XFlak]

Almost impossible. You could uninstall bootmii boot2 then the protection is gone, or if it crashes/loses power during a boot2 update. Or if something goes wrong when flashing the eeprom (separate from the nand) with tools like KoreanKii. All of these are super unlikely.

With "sd boot" u can get this kind of software protection on newer wii's that can't install bootmii @boot2, but I don't like this solution as the console refuses to even boot without appropriate files present on the SD card, so if your sd card reader fails then you're soft bricked until u repair the hardware. Anyway, I know u didn't ask about sd boot, but I thought it was worth mentioning. Oh, and sd boot is leaked Nintendo software, so it may be challenging to locate, no one here will link to it that's for sure

 

[KleinesSinchen]

XFlak, so if solutions like ohneschwanzenegger exist, is a Wii with bootMii as boot2 impossible to software brick?

As long as the BootMii sectors aren't overwritten, the rest of the NAND can "safely" trashed -- as you have proven. NAND restore leaves those blocks as they are -- this is what saved your Wii.

Writing to boot2 is a bit dangerous. Since you mentioned learning, I'll just drop this link here:
https://hackmii.com/2009/11/updates-and-bricking/
To be clear: With writing boot2 is a bit dangerous I mean exactly what XFlak said above: Powerfailure in the wrong moment is bad (and yes, I'm super paranoid and use an UPS when installing BootMii in boot2). Once BootMii is installed in boot2 there should never be a reason to uninstall it.
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Wii consoles with BootMii@boot2 are often considered to be unbrickable. I would not say so. Legitimate homebrew tools should not delete BootMii, no matter what goes wrong or whatever nonsense the user does (e.g. with AnyTitle Deleter). But I guess it would be trivial for an attacker to build a trojan horse overwriting the first NAND sectors with 0x00 bytes -- which will be fixable with a hardware flasher only (given the keys are dumped). To my knowledge there is thankfully no Wii malware in the wild.

Good luck and have fun!

 

[SaulFabre]

BootMii as boot2 doesn't completely protects Wii from bricking.

You should have all these three things for ensure your Wii is protected against bricks:

BootMii (as boot2 (if possible) and as IOS) + Priiloader + a NAND Backup from your Wii