Hacking one click savegame backup solution

[mike333]

Hello,

I'm looking for homebrew application which do the following:
- without any user intervention/help
- extract all saves from Wii
- saves them in compressed form 7z/zip
- in folder sd:/whatever
- under name YYYYMMDD-HHMM
- wait 5s then quit to HBC
- pushing data to ftp/smb/http-form/nfs share is optional

Which save game manager may work in above scenario?

Have a nice day,
mike333

 

[XFlak]

I think a lot of what you're asking for is unrealistic.... I mean, if it doesn't require any "user intervention" how are you supposed to choose whether or not you're going to install saves or extract them?

Anyways, closest thing to what you're asking for is savegame manager gx. It has an option to extract all saves and IIRC it also has an option to install all saves. Note, in order to copy a save file to a Wii, the game in question must have been launched at least once on that specific Wii.

 

[mike333]

I think a lot of what you're asking for is unrealistic.... I mean, if it doesn't require any "user intervention" how are you supposed to choose whether or not you're going to install saves or extract them?

No restore functionality needed.
In case of save disaster I can use one of SGMs out there to restore.

Anyways, closest thing to what you're asking for is savegame manager gx. It has an option to extract all saves and IIRC it also has an option to install all saves. Note, in order to copy a save file to a Wii, the game in question must have been launched at least once on that specific Wii.

I'm going to test it now.

 

[XFlak]

if the purpose is to backup your saves in case of disaster... why not take it one step further and just make a bootmii nand backup? then in case of disaster you can restore not only your game saves but everything.

 

[DeadlyFoez]

none that I am aware of. I'm pretty sure you'd have to code something else.

Why not just do a nand backup?

 

[JoostinOnline]

You need to do a nand backup anyway, but just to cover your saves, click Backup All in SGM GX, then zip "savegames" on your computer. You could add the date to the name if you want.

 

[mike333]

Anyways, closest thing to what you're asking for is savegame manager gx. It has an option to extract all saves and IIRC it also has an option to install all saves. Note, in order to copy a save file to a Wii, the game in question must have been launched at least once on that specific Wii.

I'm going to test it now.

Is there any special magic required to browse SD (non SDHC) card under SGM-GX?
"Reload SD" icon does nothing. Screen only fades out/in very fast.
From top menu i can only choose "usb1/Wii/Mii".
SGM-GX uses IOS249 which is d2x v8 IOS56 based.
This is main SD card which works under HBC/Cfg/BootMii/d2x installer.

Another issue is related to "custom paths" from "settings menu".
I'm unable to clear current path, letter "u" stays from "usb1:/".
Even hitting "clear" icon won't help.

if the purpose is to backup your saves in case of disaster... why not take it one step further and just make a bootmii nand backup? then in case of disaster you can restore not only your game saves but everything.

Why not just do a nand backup?

Do not worry. I have nand backup (and keys) stored in 3 different places. Zipped for crc32 check sums.
Problem is that nand backup takes lots of time and space (encrypted data compress badly). It also does not support usb device as target.
I believe that SMG-GX will get automatic_backup_mode described in first post much sooner than bootmii.

You need to do a nand backup anyway, but just to cover your saves, click Backup All in SGM GX, then zip "savegames" on your computer. You could add the date to the name if you want.

Main idea is to make backup fast and efficient without any additional steps.

 

[DeadlyFoez]

It takes 10 minutes to do a nand backup. Big deal.

So it's wither deal with that or code something yourself. You don't have any other choices here.

 

[mike333]

It takes 10 minutes to do a nand backup. Big deal.

Run bootmii. Make backup. Run wiiexplorer. Move backup to usb. Rename it according to current date.
Same actions every time.
From save game point of view this is very low quality backup.
I don't have direct access to individual save. Other tools are needed for extracting such data.

So it's wither deal with that or code something yourself. You don't have any other choices here.

Cheer up, there are some options in between.
SMG-GX manual backup might work - as soon as I figure out problems described in previous post.
SMG-GX might get feature from first post..
About coding, more like I'll tear apart SMG-GX code and duck-tape something - this wheel is invented already.

 

[DeadlyFoez]

Why not just leave it on the SD card? I don't see a need for you to transfer it to USB.

Someone over at hacksden has made an app to extract the savegames from an extracted nand backup. Yeah, that is a little bit of a run around. But when it comes down to what is going to take less time in the long term, making a nand backup is the best solution, afaik.

 

[JoostinOnline]

http://www.hacksden.com/showthread.php/3171-NAND-Gamesave-Restore

 

[mike333]

Why not just leave it on the SD card? I don't see a need for you to transfer it to USB.

Having multiple backups is very handy when You hit following problem:
This game won't go any further because choices You've made broke game logic. Start again fresh.

So far zelda_ss is big example. Big also means we got fix for it which is cool but not granted for every game out there.

 

[Taleweaver]

Here's an alternative idea:

just go nand emulation all the way (neek2o). Once set up, you don't even need your wii to make backups. Just copy the contents of \nands\nameofyouremunand\title\00010000 into a zipped archive and you're done. Depending on the zip program you use, you can probably make it into a batch file as well.


EDIT: of course, when it comes to restoring savegames from certain games, you need to know which of the underlying folders corresponds with which games...but there are tools for that (IIRC, showmiiwads and savegame manager gx can do this). Once you know this, simply replace the folder with the one from your archive.

 

[XFlak]

why are you so concerned with backing up your saves anyways? Unless you're messing around with softmods frequently on a wii without bootmii@boot2, the risk of actually losing any of your saves is next to nothing (only risk is hardware failure really). I think most people backup their saves not to save them for a rainy day like you're intending, but to install them on a friends' Wii or an emulated nand.

 

[Anon10W1z]

why are you so concerned with backing up your saves anyways? Unless you're messing around with softmods frequently on a wii without bootmii@boot2, the risk of actually losing any of your saves is next to nothing (only risk is hardware failure really). I think most people backup their saves not to save them for a rainy day like you're intending, but to install them on a friends' Wii or an emulated nand.

Just a question dude, why do you always mention bootmii as boot2 but not pre/priiloader?

 

[DeadlyFoez]

Just a question dude, why do you always mention bootmii as boot2 but not pre/priiloader?

BC you can't do NAND backups and restores from priiloader, and you can't recover from a full brick with priiloader.

 

[Anon10W1z]

Just a question dude, why do you always mention bootmii as boot2 but not pre/priiloader?

BC you can't do NAND backups and restores from priiloader, and you can't recover from a full brick with priiloader.

Give me an instance where you can't recover from a full brick (I'm sure there is one but have never seen it) from Priiloader.

 

[JoostinOnline]

why are you so concerned with backing up your saves anyways? Unless you're messing around with softmods frequently on a wii without bootmii@[member='boot2490'], the risk of actually losing any of your saves is next to nothing (only risk is hardware failure really). I think most people backup their saves not to save them for a rainy day like you're intending, but to install them on a friends' Wii or an emulated nand.

Just a question dude, why do you always mention bootmii as boot2 but not pre/priiloader?

Because
1) Priiloader is useless if you have a full brick
2) You can't make a nand backup with Priiloader, so it has nothing to do with saves

 

[scooby74029]

bootmii@boot2 is best if something goes wrong with system menu or its ios then no priiloader!!

bootmii@boot2 will always be there(unless a boot2 update happens)

 

[XFlak]

priiloader can't recover from problems relating to the system menu or system menu IOS. BootMii @ boot2 can recover from anything (except losing power at the exact wrong moment during a boot2 update\install).

priiloader is great because it allows wii's without vulnerable boot1's to have some sort of protection (ie. can recover from banner bricks and theme bricks) but it will never be as much protection as bootmii @ boot2