Hacking noob,loader,ntfs,ios,cios questions

[totalnoob617]

hey,im a total noob to wii modding but i have read ALOT ,but im getting more and more confused on what to do the more i read,
ok so i have an old first production run wii ,really old system menu version,i forget which 1 tho,(i thinks like 2.8or 2.5its really low),with a broken non d2-3 drive,that i want to fix or replace (minus the d2-3 motherboard ,of course)before i get started modding

anyway,i was thinking of using the latest modmii version (4.5.1,i think it is),to mod my virgin wii,but i noticed that the usb loader wizard section for using a loader with a ntfs partition only mentions cgf loader,
so can i use modmii(latest version)to mod my wii and install and use wiiflow and usb loader gx,with a hdd(2tb) formatted with 2 partitions,1 fat32 and 1 ntfs partition?and be able to put .wbfs games on the ntfs partition and rip games to the ntfs partition?
also i know this prolly a real noob question but do all the latest versions of the 3 main loaders i mentioned above(or any of them)rip the games to the hdd,weather its ntfs or wbfs partitoned ,already "scrubbed"?i remember reading awhile back that you had to rip the game then put it on your pc and use an app on your pc to cut the iso file down from the 4.xx gb file size to a much smaller .wbfs file(if you wanted it to take up little space as possible),so is that a thing of past now?wil the new usb loader versions just rip my game to the hdd,to either a ntfs or wbfs partition as the smallest possible size .wbfs file?

also i would like to have all 3 loaders installed ,just like i have many different loaders on my JBen ps3 ,so i can switch it up if i want,will that be a problem?
i've read about different loaders using or needing different ios's or cios files(not really to sure what they are or how they work,despite all i read and watching the 08'ccc team twiizers wiihacking talk video on YT)so can i just install all the files(latest version or latest "rev"ios's&cios's)on my wii at once, and then just be able to select and open/load any loader i want from a forwarder channel on my wii system menu ?or will i have to keep installing and uninstalling different ios or cios files evertime i want to use a different loader?dont the ios or cios fies occupy certain "slots".
i thought that i read something about 2 of the loaders using ios 249 and the other 1 using ios 222 or the other way arround,but im not really grasping the whole ios, cios thing so,im not sure how it works exactly,can they all(all the ones i need for all the loader to work) be installed at once? or do they both need to be in the same "slot"so that i have to pick 1 or the other to be installed at once?


i tried to find a way to explain this easy below but i can seem to be able to, i just want to know if i can use all 3 loaders (wiiflow,usbloadergx and cfgloader)at the same time with out having to delete and add new ios or cios files into my wii every time i want to switch to using a different loader,i am really confused about ios and cios files,what they are and what "slots"are and if you can install all the latest versions of all the ios and cios file that you will need for all games and all the loaders to work, at the same time,so i can have all the files i need for everything to work installed at once,without having to delete and install system or ios/cios files all the time




what i mean is will i only be able to install the ios or cios or whatever file the loader needs for 1 loader?if i want to use another loader and it needs a different ios or cios to be installed to the same slot the other loader needs the ios/cios file that works with it to installed to ,and that ios or cios needs to be installed to the exact same slot,for the loader to work,then does that mean i will have to delete the ios or cios that one loader needs form that slot and then load a different ios or cios that the other loader i want to use needs into that same slot?

 

[ddetkowski]

Just use modmii.
If you install IOS's or cIOS's, your loader will automatically find the needed ones for games to run.
Simple

 

[scooby74029]

yeah you can use wiiflow with 2 partitions and use .wbfs games on the ntfs partition

thats what i use on one of my wiis

 

[Fishaman P]

yeah you can use wiiflow with 2 partitions and use .wbfs games on the ntfs partition

thats what i use on one of my wiis

1. Why would you use Wiiflow? CFG Loader is much better.

2. Why would you use .wbfs files? They're frikkin' HUGE compared to trimmed ISO's. Well, if you consider about 1MB huge...

3. To answer the OP: Use Modmii, get games off net (don't bother fixing drive to dump games), use IOS222 unless you need something else for Black Ops, MH3, Guitar Hero, etc.

 

[totalnoob617]

ok thanks guy so then what file formay should i use for the games to take up the least space?
.wbfs or a trimmed iso? what should i look for to downlaod my games as ,or what should i rip them to?
and will any of the 3 loaders i mentiond be able to rip right to the games to my ntfs partition in the smallest possible file size? or will i have to connect the drive to my pc and use some program on my pc like wii scrubber or something to make them smaller?

and like i mainly asked will i be able to have all 3 loader installed at once? like have forwarder for all 3 of them on my system mune so i can just use which ever one i want ,case i feel like using a different one day to day or if i i want to use 1 to rip and 1 to load,which 1 would suggest for ripping?

and to wnswer the posters question i like wiiflow cause it looks cool also like the look of usbloader gx,but like i said i want to install them all as forwarders on my menu so i can use which ever 1 i feel like that day,i was just asking if it was possible or if i would have to keep switching ios or cios's?

also i want to fix my drive because i would like to be able to read burned discs so i can load GC backups and dvd backups, also i hear dvdx is obsolete ,so what should i use for dvd movie discs?

the reason i asked about the different loader working with ntfs when modding with modmii is because the documentation mod mii only talks about cfgloader it doesnt say anything about weather or not the other loaders like wiiflow and usbloadergx will work or if modmii installs the proper ios cios file for those loaders to work with an ntfs partition,

alo as the the poster about asked why would i want to use .wbfs files,and then told me there huge and to use iso,its because i thought that .wbfs was the smallest type of file
i thoguht that iso were bigger files ,but i guess the trimmed ones are smaller then?but then he say something about 1 meg,what does he mean?how much smaller are the trimmed iso files than the .wbfs files?and can they be read by all loaders?and what are the option for ripping with a loader on my wii to my ext usb hdd? .wbfs?,iso?trimmed iso?whats the smallest size a loader will rip a game to my hdd ?what format will it be?id ld just like to avoid having to use a program on my pc to convert,trim ,shrink the game,if i can rip it to the smalles size or close to it directly ,i dont care if the differsnce is ony a few megs,not sure if that was what the poster above was trying to say

 

[scooby74029]

my pref is wiiflow i think cfg is well yuck

i store all my games as.wbfs game partion only so they are the same size as scrubbed .iso's

really its easier to use pc for game stuff

guess its what ever you prefer man

 

[totalnoob617]

thanks but im not really sure what you mean ,and it does not answer my questions
you mean you have you drive formatted to wbfs partition?and gams in ,wbfs format?
or you mean you have a ntfs partition and your games are in wbfs fromat?

what i want to know is:

1)can i have all 3 usb loaders(cfg,gx,flow)installed at once and have them all work and be able to be launched from forwarder channels on my wii menu and work with a ntfs partition to rip and load games,if i use modmii to mod my wii?or will i need to change which ios/cios the loaders use every time i wnt to switch to using a different loader?i thought it said one needed ios249 and another needs 222,but i dont know about,or understand anything about ios/cios,or if you can have the both installed at once and have each loader use the one it needs without having to constantly change them arround

1.5)if i use modmii what system menu is the best one?which on should i use to mod?
i have an old first production run wii on a very old system menu,so i can choose any system menu at this point w/o downgrading ,so which version system menu should i go with for best game compatability,features, and ntfs support?,i know above 4.x gives u sdhc support ,not sure what the best menu is,or what the last one to add a usefull feature was and which ones are just there for security updates

2)what is the best format for my games to be in ,in terms of smallest size?
(i dont care if its only a matter of a few mb's like if the difference between .wbfs and trimmed iso files is only a few mb difference,like sio trimmed files are only a few mb smalles,i guess i would still go with .wbfs)

3)when i use a loader to rip a game from a disc ,what formats can i choses to rip it in with a the loader?(like what option do the 3 i mentioned have)


3.5),and much more importantly, will the loader rip the game"scrubbed"or in the smallest possible size?,or will i need to connect my hdd to a pc and use program on there after to shrink the files


4),and which loader is best for ripping games? to the smallest file size/format?

5)are there any drawbacks to using a drive formatted to have large ntfs and much smaller fat32 partition,or just

any drawbacks to using the ntfs partition for games and ripping games?
and what are they if there are?

6)what does the above poster mean about .wbfs being the same as scrubbed iso?are there 2 kinds of .wbfs? what will the output be if i rip a game on my wii with a usb loader( the best one for ripping,or whatever one u think would be best for ripping into a small file size)and can the loader rip rip a game from disc into the smallest .wbfs file size possible ,or would i get a smaller file size if i rip the game on with my wii ,then connect the usb hdd to my pc and run some scrubbing program to make it smaller.or is that something that is obsolete and noe the loaders just rip the games to scrubbed size automatically?

 

[totalnoob617]

why dont ask about about sneek?
it says something about a sneek installer in modmii and,that there is a wizard for it
i thought it was for making a second nand,an emulated one that can go on hdd or sd card?
what if i want to install my vc and wiiware games to my system menu or install forwarders for them to my system menu ,and still be able to have enough room for forwarrders to launch my homebrew like loaders and mediaplayers and emulators and stuff directly from my wii menu,wont i run out of room if i decide to use the real nand?but then again i just realized that there is a 47 channel limit,which sucks,cause i would like to be able to launch everything directly off of the regular wii menu, and not have to go into the hbc first, and be able to launch my vc games from the menu too w/o opening the vc menu,so if i install everything as a forwarder channel,then will i run out of memory on my real nand?or does it have enough memory to store 47 channel forwarders?and will the game save data for games i play off of the usb hdd have to be stored on the nand too?or can it go on the hdd?or do i need sneek/uneek to be able to have my game save data be stored on the hdd?and what is triforce?does it work with sneek/uneek ?or is it another method or hb program for making/using a virtual nand?i know u need a backup of your real nand for sneek/uneek but not really sure about triforce,from what i read some people call it a launcher for an emulated nand and other people say it IS an emulated nand program ,so which is it?
i mean if worst came to worst and i couldnt fit all my vc games and homebrew on my menu as forwarder channels on the main wii menu then i could use triforce and just move my games there right?assuming it is another type of emulated nand,would be nice if it was an emulated nand that lets you just use it through a channel,so you can boot your wii into the real nand and then put stuff on the virtual nand and access it through that channel instead of having to reboot to 2 different nands ,the real and emulated one i mean
thats what it looks like it does but im not really sure ,it is hard to find much info about it, i looked but no luck
so should i use an emulated nand? and which is best program to use for it? i like how modmii says it has an installer for it but maybe triforce would be better for me?if it is an alternative to sneek/uneek and not something that works with it that is,this is all verry confusing to me,all i know is i see people on youtube with all their wiiware and vc games and homebrew installed to their regular system menu ,and they can launch everything right directly from there,thats what id like to be able to do,or if its not possible use that triforce channel and put my games there and have the other 47 channels for homebrew and emulato and some game forwarders

 

[totalnoob617]

no im able to find and understand sneek/uneek and sneek-di/uneek-di guides and understand them for the most part ,its triforce that i dont really understand,weather its the same thing or similar to those programs or if it is something that works with those programs and that i need sneek/uneek already installed to use and the differences between if they are the same
i want to know if i can boot in the real nand and then access that riforce channel when im booted into my real nand system menu and then use the triforce channel access stuff on an emulated nand,
and also where game save data would go for games backed up an external fat/ntfs partition drive ,on the fat partition?,the ntfs?or none and have to go on the real nand unless i use one of those programs

 

[bazamuffin]

my pref is wiiflow i think cfg is well yuck

Wiiflow looks and feels well better than CFG. The submenus look trashy in my opinion and ruin the look of it.

 

[totalnoob617]

yes thanks braz i have been reading that wiiflow is becoming more and more popular and is becoming the loader of choice,but i will install all 3anyway ,just like i have about 4 or 5 loaders installed on my ps3,
this way is a game gives me trouble with one i can use another 1 ,or if i just feel like using a differsnt one i can

as for triforce,yes i already googled it ,and i read the complete softmod giude sction on about 10 times
but it still doesnt address my question sand its poorly written and disjointed,it talks about sd here and barely about usb there ,usb is hardly mentioned at all,it just tells you how to install it ,but not really what it is or how it actually works works ,it really gives no pratical information,except for installing it,and even there it fails as it syas ,dont use a nand dump made with bootmii ,but then doesnt suggest what to use to make the dump,and if it does then it is in a different place and is not explained clearly

i want to know if i need to use sneek/uneek or have one of those installed for it to work,cause it describes it a forwarder for an emulated nand ,not an emulator itself
i know its not listed in the requirements ,but maybe it is just assumed,i dont know

and it says there is a forwarder,but im guessing it is just a forwarder for only the channel,not to be able to launch games in the triforce channel directly from the system menu without going to the triforce channel first

all i want to know is how it works,like do you boot your wii into a virtual/emulated nand?
or do you boot into the real nand and only access the stuff on the nand from inside the triforce channel?

and is that how it differs from sneek/uneek?
because it seems to me from what i read that sneek/uneek require you to reboot into the emulated nand,so that everything is running fron the emulated nand ,like your system menu too,which im not sure but seems like is not the case with triforce,thats what im trying to confirm

and also if i use triforce can i still install forwarder channels on my system menu that point to games on the triforce emulated nand?will it be my real nand system menu ?or the emulated nand system menu?
and if i want to boot into the real nand system menu and have forwarder channels installed on the menu that point to vc games stored on the triforce emulated nand ,so i dont have to go to the triforce channel to launch a vc game,then will the forwarder take up room on my real nand ?or the emulated nand?

i have googled and i can not find any clear answers to there questions ,there is not much good up to date info on triforce

 

[ddetkowski]

PM xflak, from our forums, HE is the MAN when it comes to issues such as yours.....

 

[XFlak]

PM xflak, from our forums, HE is the MAN when it comes to issues such as yours.....

thanks ddetkowski!

@OP, if u want to ask me questions specifically, please organize them, all your posts are so long, and right now I don't have the time to read through this whole thread.

btw, a quick note, triiforce is a dead project, a similar app that works better is mighty channels. But what works even better is a way different app called s/uneek (+di).

Anyways, I haven't read ur questions, but I bet I can answer 90% of them with the following advice:
-download modmii, from the main menu enter "W" to run ModMii's Wizard, answer the questions, read your custom guide, let it download. Follow the guide step by step, when ur finished your Wii will be fully hacked and u will have usb-loaders up and running.
-afterwards, if u still want to check out sneek, enter "S" from ModMii's main menu, then enter "3", from there I recommend Uneek+DI, but details of all the different forms of s/uneek are available on that page. Then answer the rest of the Qs, let ModMii do its thing, then read ModMii's quick sneek tips and ur done.

If u still have questions after doing that, I'll be more than happy to answer them.

 

[totalnoob617]

ok thanks alot,yeah i know alot of my posts were long rambling run ons,but since i know so little about emulated nands and how they and the programs that you need for them work ,i had trouble explaining exactly what my questions were

i just wanto to be able to have alot of vc and wiiware game installed to my system menu as forwarder and be able to launch them from there directly and still have room for forwarder for my homebrew apps,but since there is a 47 channel limit ,and i assumse that still applies with the mighty channels app,

so will 47 channels with channels forwarders installed to them fill my whole nand?or will there be enough room for them and room for saves?or do i not need to worry about save data?like will save game data go to the usb hdd for games backed up on a usb hdd?or does i still need blocks on my nand for them?

i want to know basically if i need a emulated nand,and which one or which program i should use for one
befor i mod my wii,because i dont want waste my time doing all kinds of work and installing all kinds of stuff to my real nand,only to find out later that i will not be booting into it to do what i neeed to do anyway,and then have to reinstall everything all over again on an emulated nand

i want to be able to use loaders for loading games from usb-ntfs partition and have all my vc and wiiware games installed and be able to launch them from my menu directly,if possible,if not then through a channel like triforce or that other app you mentioned,without having to reboot into two different nands to use all the features,i dont want usb game loading on one nand and then have vc games on another wherei have to reboot

so should i just do all my modding to the emulated nand from the start?
and what progam do you suggest i use ,i know you said uneek-di ,but does triforce or mighty channels require uneek? or is it its own thing,and doesnt need me to have uneek/sneek installed?

 

[brausm08]

....i dont want waste my time doing all kinds of work and installing all kinds of stuff to my real nand....

i assure you, it won't be a waste of time....all the answers in the world won't compare to the knowledge you will gain by getting you hands dirty and modding your wii....these apps will need to be tried by you before you will know what will work best for you....

with all the time you've spent typing your very long posts to this thread, you could have modded 50 wii's by now....

Mighty Channels: you need a fully modded wii and an emulated NAND. the emulated NAND can be an unmodified Modmii built NAND or a dump of your own NAND. Mighty Channels launches from your real NAND (via a single forwarder or via HBC) and runs VC/WW from an emulated NAND on it's own GUI. all saves are stored to the emulated NAND. the size limit is whatever your emulated NAND is stored on. there is no channel limit, though it does get a bit boggy and possibly buggy as the emulated NAND gets larger. there is not 100% compatibility with WW games. if you use a Modmii built NAND, it will have to be expanded via a SNEEK/UNEEK launch prior to first use...however Mighty Channels does not require a functioning S/UNEEK.

S/UNEEK: you only need bootmii (and HBC if you cannot do bootmii/boot2)....these are required to launch the emulated NAND.... this will function exactly as you real NAND...complete with the 47 channel limit. you can run everything from SNEEK/UNEEK so long as you modify the emulated NAND or use modified apps designed to run on S/UNEEK. near 100% compatibility. it too can get boggy as the NAND gets larger.
SNORT48+...an answer to the channel limit in S/UNEEK...i have not tried this....to my understanding, it's an app which allows you to re-order your channels such that the top 47 will be displayed on you system menu....all launching is still done as normal from the system menu.

 

[XFlak]

i just wanto to be able to have alot of vc and wiiware game installed to my system menu as forwarder and be able to launch them from there directly and still have room for forwarder for my homebrew apps,but since there is a 47 channel limit ,and i assumse that still applies with the mighty channels app,

so will 47 channels with channels forwarders installed to them fill my whole nand?or will there be enough room for them and room for saves?or do i not need to worry about save data?like will save game data go to the usb hdd for games backed up on a usb hdd?or does i still need blocks on my nand for them?

If u have 47 forwarder channels, they won't take up much space. But if u have actual wiiware/vc channels, they take up a lot of space, and I doubt u'd be able to even fit 47 large games on your real nand. However, u can install as much wiiware as u like, then u can use the Wii's normal functions to move the channels to the SD card menu. If this wiiware is pirated, u will need a patched system menu IOS (and a wad manager to install the pirated stuff).

i want to know basically if i need a emulated nand,and which one or which program i should use for one
befor i mod my wii,because i dont want waste my time doing all kinds of work and installing all kinds of stuff to my real nand,only to find out later that i will not be booting into it to do what i neeed to do anyway,and then have to reinstall everything all over again on an emulated nand

i want to be able to use loaders for loading games from usb-ntfs partition and have all my vc and wiiware games installed and be able to launch them from my menu directly,if possible,if not then through a channel like triforce or that other app you mentioned,without having to reboot into two different nands to use all the features,i dont want usb game loading on one nand and then have vc games on another wherei have to reboot

so should i just do all my modding to the emulated nand from the start?
and what progam do you suggest i use ,i know you said uneek-di ,but does triforce or mighty channels require uneek? or is it its own thing,and doesnt need me to have uneek/sneek installed?

Both mighty channels and s/uneek require u have an emulated nand. And even if u choose to use an emulated nand, u will still have to mod your REAL nand (bootmii\HBC at a minimum).

Anyways, I know what u want to do, and this is how to accomplish it.

Download ModMii, run the ModMii wizard, hack your wii's real nand according to your custom guide. It's very easy, and most of it is required for what u want anyways.

After u are done modding your real nand, u can install wiiware to your real nand from the shopping channel or using a wad manager to install pirated wiiware to your Wii. If you're real nand starts running out of space, u can go the Wii Settings page and move channels to your SD Card (SD card has space for 240 channels). Alternatively, u can install all your wiiware to an emulated nand (built using ModMii), this is required for both s/uneek AND mightychannels\triiforce. But I recommend uneek+di, it has better compatibility.

U will begin to understand how everything works once u start using ModMii, it has on screen instructions that will help u understand what's going on, then the custom guide just seals the deal.

It's very easy to switch between real nand and uneek+di, ModMii will install channels to switch back and forth.

Both mighty channels and uneek+di support an unlimited number of channels (with uneek+di u will require to launch the channels that are off screen using joyflow, which is also installed using modmii)

But yea, dude, ur asking to learn about nand emulation before learning about general wii hacking and brick protection. Take things slow, u will not be wasting any time to hack your wii's real nand, and u will learn a lot in the process. U need to learn to walk before u can run, as they say.

Seriously, using the ModMii Wizard to hack a wii is easy and safe! In the time u spent wondering whether u should waste your time with real nand hacking u would have been done by now. Give it a shot, if u have questions, I'm here.

peace

 

[totalnoob617]

thanks alot guys that was really helpfull, thanks brausm and xflak your posts were very helpful

it is confirming i think,what i already knew though ,about how the programs work and some new information as well,
and i did do alot of research believe it or not ,i knew id have to mod my real nand to some extent either way,i just was wondering which 1 to concentrate on to do all the fancy stuff and have as my main one
,i guess it will come down to weather or not i have any room after i install 47 channel forwarders,or if that snort thing looks any good to me,
and i have read alot about the modding believe it or not ,alot before i got sidetracked with my ps3 ,and some more ,but not as much more recently,
so i do have a pretty good idea of the general overview of that process,it was just a few things about the nand stuff that werent entirely clear
,and if i am going to be using modmii, and the nand and sneek stuff is an option in the modmii wizard i just want to be able to know what to do when i run it,or run into those options,
i guess im just really paranoid too,since i have a first production run wii ,and i know it should definitly be able to install bootmii on boot 2, and id hate to mess it up and have to get another 1 where id have to install bootmii as an ios ,since i keep hearing boot2 is better
,and yes i would have started already,
but im still debating on what to do about my broken drive,its an old non d3-2 one so i think i should either try and fix it, or get a new one and keep my old non d2-3 motherboard and swap it out for the new dvd drives motherboard before i put it in ,so i can keep burnt disc compatability for GC backups
,im still debating on weather to mod first , or fix the dvd first,im leaning toward fixing the dvd first though

and thanks again for all your help guys ,i really appreciate your time