Homebrew Buying a used Wii, want to install BootMii at Boot2

[SSJ2 Dark]

I'm looking around for a used Wii, and I want to buy one where I can install BootMii at Boot2 to take advantage of the brick protection. Is there any way I can do this without just hoping I get lucky?

Otherwise, are there good alternate options for brick protection? I intend to install WADs, so I think I need something to recover from corrupt WADs (banner bricks?).

 

[boomario]

Aways look for white ones with GC controller ports, most probably some of them have boot2. Also you must check the serial, if it's something like "LU40,37,36" (More than 40 its a bit hard to be compatible) you got lucky.

 

[obcd]

You could try the wads on a neek(2o) emulated nand to check if they behave. If they work fine on that, they should on real nand as well.
Most wads use the same banner annimation (with different media), so they shouldn't cause a banner brick.

If you have a bootmii backup of the nand contents and the keys, it can be restored to the nand using an infectus. Deadly Foez is the guy that has most experience in this area. It requires some fine pitch soldering to remove the nand chip, so I wouldn't recommend to try this yourself unless you have experience with such work..

A bootmii @ boot2 will always be the safest solution.

 

[SSJ2 Dark]

I definitely want the GC compatibility, but looking for specific serial numbers will be useful. I also like the idea of having an emulated NAND to test installs; that way if I make a mistake or use a corrupt WAD, I can just delete the NAND and start over. I should have mentioned, I have little experience with Wii hacking. I did memory dumping with GC, and installed the HBC on a Wii I used to have. Now I'm reading up on what is available for Wii, but would also like opinions from people who have already done it.

I also wanted to ask, what system menu version is best for homebrew compatibility? I think that later versions prevent BootMii from functioning at Boot2, and also eliminate the Trucha bug. But I also think that some of these shortcomings can be changed by up/down grading different IOSes.

Thanks for the advice so far.