Hacking Jailbreaking a broken Wii

[Aganar]

So my siblings and I were dismayed to discover that, just in time for Christmas vacation and Skyward Sword, our Wii craps out on us. Specifically, the disc reader is dead. We had suspected for awhile that it was going to eventually die on us (occasional problems and whatnot), but now it's completely dead. Nintendo offered to fix it for us for a whopping $80, but even if we shipped it to them, it'd be weeks before we get it back. Since this was a launch system, we'd essentially be paying $80 for a refurb. Figuring, screw that, we're gonna grab a new one from one of the limited edition blue units at a local Walmart for $120 or so.

But I'm sad to retire our old Wii, which, again, we've had since day-1 launch. This is the first Nintendo system I've ever had to crap out on me, barring an original toaster NES I've got in an attic somewhere. And as best I can figure the other stuff still works. It's annoying, I thought, because now I can only play stuff we've got on the VC or if we had some HD...backups...

*lightbulb*

From that line of thought I reasoned, the system's already broken and the warranty's long gone; why not Jailbreak it? No need to read discs if I can run everything from a USB drive, right? We had always held off on doing so out of fear of voiding the warranty, but no real point in doing that anymore. No one save Nintendo will repair the thing.

With that in mind, I see alot of topics and a plethora of information on what I can do once jailbroken and various methods to do this and that. I just want to know if there's a definitive Newbie Guide I should be reading first and make sure I've got all the bases covered. I'm already looking at the Complete Softmod Guide, but I just wanna know if there's anything else I should consult. So that there's no confusion, I hope to be able to:

A) Backup the games I've already purchased
B) Install homebrew to allow the Wii to play those games without using the disc drive (i.e. from an external HD or a usb drive)
C) Install any other nifty homebrew (always a fan of consoles emulating other consoles, just for the novelty of it)

This will be great if I can get it working, as it will allow another family member to take the modded Wii with him and save the hassle of sending games in the mail whenever one family member wants to play it or another is done with it.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Snailface]

Just about everybody recommends Modmii for hacking Wiis:
http://gbatemp.net/topic/207126-modmii-for-windows/

 

[Lacius]

If your disc drive is dead, you will have to obtain your backups for use on your USB hard drive from other sources, like the internet. Normally, you would be able to pop your retail discs into your Wii and back them up directly to the USB hard drive.

Aside from obtaining backups, ModMii should be able to accomplish all of your needs.

 

[Aganar]

I can't rip using my computer?

 

[Lacius]

I can't rip using my computer?

No, you probably lack the disc drive required.

 

[PsyBlade]

You can only rip them on PC if your DVD drive is from a list of ~4 models (all LG iirc)
You could rip them using the new wii, or you could buy a new drive for your old one.

 

[DeadlyFoez]

You CAN use the Complete Softmod Guide, but it has much more info than what a regular user cares to know and then easily becomes overwhelmed trying to follow it and all of it's sub pages, plus it also is technically an illegal method (because of copyrighted Nintendo code).

Modmii can helpp you do nearly everything you want. The only thing Modmii can't do is rip your games for you. Even if you had one of those rare LG drives to be able to rip games from your PC it takes around 2 hours per game to rip, if not more, and then you still have a lote more crap that you should do to the ISO to be able to save space.

I don't say to download games because it is illegal to do so, but if you already own the game then it is kind of a grey area if you download them as long as you only download the games you own.

If you can borrow a friends wii to rip the games for you (their wii will need to be softmodded also) then that is the most legal and safest method available.

Softmodding your wii is the best thing you could ever do for it, and you probably should have done it a long time ago so you could save your laser, but hindsight isn't going to help much here. Softmod your wii. Obtain a way to put your games on a USB hard drive in whatever way is easiest to you. Staying legal is better than going into the grey (if you have morals, but Nintendo certainly is not going to sue you for you finding alternative ways to get the games you already paid for. Only Sony does crazy stupid shit like that).

In the end, just use ModMii. It's the best way to go.

If you want to learn more of the How's and Why's of the softmodding then take a look deeper into the Complete Softmod Guide's pages. Enjoy, and welcome to the wonderful world of homebrew and the great community that supports it.

 

[FIX94]

Even if you had one of those rare LG drives to be able to rip games from your PC it takes around 2 hours per game to rip, if not more, and then you still have a lote more crap that you should do to the ISO to be able to save space.

It's pretty easy lol, I have such a drive (LG 8162B) and its just like disc into drive, open up friidump, wait a few hours and then copy it to my USB HDD using wii backup manager to play it on my wii But yeah it's prolly easier to just use the new wii for the job to save time.

 

[Lucif3r]

Even if you had one of those rare LG drives to be able to rip games from your PC it takes around 2 hours per game to rip, if not more, and then you still have a lote more crap that you should do to the ISO to be able to save space.

Am I reading this right? 2 hours!? Wtf, are we back to floppys? lol


Anyway, if you decide to buy a new Wii, even though you can just switch to usb loading, you could just swap the disc drives in the Wiis and get your old one working again. Although that would give you a brand new, broken Wii (refering to the new wii you might buy)
On the plus side though, you wouldnt lose the GC compability.
Else you could probably pick up a new drive on ebay or something. If you buy the whole cage its not hard to switch.

 

[DeadlyFoez]

It is said that the new drives won't take the disc, it just spits it back out, so in that case GC compatibility would still be lost.

 

[XFlak]

You CAN use the Complete Softmod Guide, but it has much more info than what a regular user cares to know and then easily becomes overwhelmed trying to follow it and all of it's sub pages, plus it also is technically an illegal method (because of copyrighted Nintendo code).

That's actually not true. AFAIK ModMii and the complete softmod guide are the only guides that do NOT host copyrighted Nintendo code. The complete softmod guide will have you use NUS Downloader GUI to download each IOS manually from ninty directly. It will also have you download cIOS Installers, the hackmii installer, etc. and save IOSs to the root of the SD card or w/e then run the installers to install the cIOSs. Basically it is a legit guide but requires users do all the leg work, whereas ModMii is a legit guide but does all the leg work for you. That being said, the complete softmod guide goes into a lot more detail and covers a lot more then ModMii, but the end softmod is comparable (only difference is if you want to learn how to use ftpii or other apps like that u can get more details on the CSG, whereas ModMii doesn't even address ftpii as it's not a commonly used app). Anyways, I mainly just wanted to point out that the CSG doesn't host anything copyrighted... if it did my name wouldn't be associated with it that's for sure

 

[DeadlyFoez]

I did not know that. Thats what I get for not ever following it and just quickly browsing it over.

 

[Lucif3r]

It is said that the new drives won't take the disc, it just spits it back out, so in that case GC compatibility would still be lost.

Oh youre right, forgot about that.
Anyway, he'd still have the GC ports if a NAND restore is needed, if bootmii is installed as ios(yes I know nand restore isnt recommended with bootmii as ios, but still..), or keep his bootmii@boot2 if he hasnt got the updated boot1. None of which is possible on the new gen.

 

[sudeki300]

i would check what firmware your wii is on first, if it's on 4.3 then you will not be able to softmod the console without a working dvd drive. once you know the firmware then see what options you have....................sudeki300

 

[shamiko_]

i would check what firmware your wii is on first, if it's on 4.3 then you will not be able to softmod the console without a working dvd drive. once you know the firmware then see what options you have....................sudeki300

There's a thing called Letterbomb

 

[Aganar]

Eww. The new Wii arrived yesterday. Those blue ones are the European "slim" kind with GC compatibility disabled.

That's terribly annoying. I might just borrow a friend's Wii for the ripping process and return this one. This loss of functionality was not mentioned anywhere when I bought the thing.

 

[FIX94]

Yeah it's not mentioned, that's just ninty...