Run Backups on any Wii Without a Modchip (Updated)

NOTICE: I just updated the instructable, if there are any errors, tell me. I will be editing my instructables for the next week or so.

The first version of this instructable was extremely outdated and the DVDs were really annoying.

In this version, you will be loading ISOs from you SD Card, USB Stick, or USB HDD.

P.S. - I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR YOUR WII OR WHAT YOU DECIDE TO DO WITH IT. I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY DAMAGES TO YOUR CONSOLE OR ACCESSORIES

Ace - If your gonna add to the instructable please use proper capitalization, grammar, line spacing, etc. Each step has an outline of what needs to be written there. The outline can be erased once you finish writing that step

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What you Need:

Separate SD Card -or- USB Stick -or- USB HDD

Homebrew Enabled Wii (go here to enable it for homebrew)

Computer with SD Card Reader <= Required (even if your using usb to load ISOs)

If Using USB: Computer with USB Slots

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Troubleshooting:

2011 or similar errors- Fixing this is no longer hard, there is now a Trucha Bug restorer. PLEASE READ EVERYTHING ON PAGE...INCLUDING DISCLAIMERS.
Link

Step 1: Pre-notes

**
Please note that you will probably not need a 4.7 gigabyte storage device to hold one game. This may come as a shock to those of you who have messed around with ISOs for awhile, but a game like Wii Play is only 0.09 gigabytes. No I didn't mess up the decimal. The extra stuff that makes the ISO 4.7 gigabytes is sheared off and you get a cISO, or a compressed ISO. Wii Sports is only 0.3 gigabytes. Other games with more textures and story play are bigger, like Metroid Prime 3, which is 4.1 gigs. Supersmash Brothers Brawl is 6.4 gigabytes because the disc is dual layered. if you use a WBFS manager to copy over your ISOs you will see an "estimated size". I saw this size and almost fainted lol. my prediction of 25 games for 80 gigabytes of space shot up to 50+. I'm telling you this so you dont go overboard shopping for a 32 gigabyte flashdrive. If you have one of the older ipods with alot of free space, say about 10 gigabytes (you can do this with less, but i like 10 gigs), you could partition it off and store the cISO wii games on the Ipod itself! I will discuss this further in step 5.
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Comments

[wiihacks]

Hi, i dont understand when you say "Copy the CoverFloader folder into the SD://apps/ folder" wheres SD://apps/folder? Is it in my sd card? im confused

[wiihacks]

since i didnt understand where to copy coverfloader and cios rev 14, i copied them to the root of my sd card and when i plugged my card on the wii, i see nothing in the homebrew channel, please help!! sorry for being such a noob :(

Am I supposed to make a "Apps" folder in my card? :S

[BigPrestige]

i have a similar problem, when i make an apps folder it has the same problem as yours. HELP US PLEASE!!!!!

[Raxxen]

Yes, if you do not have an "Apps" folder you should make one.
You sd card should have:
SD://apps/CoverFloader
SD://apps/Cios Rev 14
SD://apps/WADManager

hope that makes sense.

[Ahmendo]

does his work with sd cards?

[gccc56]

I accept the agreement and choose IOS36 and then SD card and then it says something like

mounting device.....success
retrieving files......failed

Any help?

[yogurtisfurry]

i cant shrink any volume, is it necessary for me to shrink volume? if it is can someone please help me to shrink volume. look at the two pictures so that its easier to understand.

[poolio]

In WBFS , there is a little tab at the top that says Format. Al you have to do is select the drive (E) and then click format, it automatically formats for you, then continue the rest of the steps.

[endsenten]

 The seme here. How to solve it?? HELP!!

[asdfps2123]

does this work on 4.3?

[Josh1999]

plzzzzz help!!! i don't have the cIOS36 rev 14 installer. what do i do

[openskys]

Well I am going to try this method out I think. I have tried to do this softmod with no success. So now this is going to be my last shot at it. I will follow this Instructable to the letter and see what happens. I will let anyone who is still following this know how it goes. If I am able to make this work anyone can. This will be a few days. Good Luck To Me!!

[Wii_User]

Coverfloader doesnt evn show as a wad file on mine

[Wii_User]

ok i got it good luck to everyone else

[dxer]

where did you find it?

[Svoboda]

Can i use the same card with homebrew installer on it?

[LastResort29]

it wont let me unzip it

[ColdForge]

I am having similar issues as many of the other posters here. I went through and redid all the previous instructions 3 times just to be sure I had not made an error. I'm running 4.2 of course, so this may be the issue. Also, I'm using an 8gb sd hc card which I've used in the past to run homebrew with zero issues.

When I try to run the cIOS36 rev 10 installer, my remote freezes up and I get a black screen. I've waited a decent amount of time while periodically trying to turn my remote on with no success. If anyone has any ideas or solutions, I'd greatly appreciate it.

[ColdForge]

I found at somewhat stable cISO here: www.starcube.co.uk/2009/08/wii-cios-38-rev-14/

But, now I am running into another issue I've seen people have run into. When I press A in the version selection screen (which is the first screen after selecting the cIOS installer in Homebrew) my remote no longer communicates with my Wii and I'm left at this first screen. I've tried my other remotes and simply waiting for over an hour with no positive results. Again, any help or suggestions are greatly appreciated.

[ColdForge]

Hah! Long story short, I had to choose cIOS36 because I had not previous cIOS installed. If you use the link above, download that cISO and have no previous cIOS installed, choose cIOS36 and you should be able to move on to the next step. Onward!

[cv07nguyend]

 hi, I am running 4.2 also, I was wondering what you meant by choosing cIOS36 again since in your first post you said you had the black screen, since thats what I am getting too, I also tried your link to cIOS38 and same thing happened to me. What rev of cIOS36 did you end up using and can you post a link to it please? Thanks!!

[ColdForge]

Your having the same problem as I had because of the Truncha Bug. It's too long for me to explain and better minds have already done a great job on making a guide for it. READ IT FROM THE VERY BEGINNING, WORD FOR WORD. Here's the link:
gbatemp.net/index.php

I'm at the point where I've backed up all my games on an external harddrive and play them right from the harddrive. It took me a lot of research to get to this point and that link is where nearly 95% of that knowledge came from. Have fun. :)

[wiihacks]

@ColdForge, so what i have to do is to download the truncha bug and copy it to my sd card then plug it into my wii? its not clear enough on the page >.<

[valleycrosser]

 The link is very helpful! Everyone should read (or at least skim) the guide before doing any wii hacking except for maybe homebrew channel and homebrew brower.

[matstermind]

when i get to install the cios, i can move left and right to select the ios, but when i press "A" the remote disconnects. i am running 4.2U

thanks

[akinich]

hey nice instructable
i have a question for you
i have a wii and it has a mod chip in it
can i do this if the mod chip is still inside?
will this damage my wii if there is a mod chip inside it when i do this
thanks
akinich

[TheMightyStaindFan]

I'm having a little trouble with the 2.0 installer. I think I've got everything installed correctly, I used the network option so all patches were applied ect. But I can't find the RunBackup channel anywhere on my Wii. I'm on 4.2E
Help? :-(

[TheMightyStaindFan]

Okay, so a step by step of what I'm doing once I've run the cIOS36 rev 14...

1. I'm taken to a navigation page saying the following:

[+] Select IOS version to use during installation:
<IOS249> (My Wii freezes if I choose any option other than < Do Not Reload IOS > or < IOS254 >)

I get the disclaimer, to which I agree.

I select the WAD installation option as I seem to get further with that than I do with the Internet Option...

Everything goes fine except:
[+] Installing Custom IOS, please wait...
         >> Install Error! (ret = -2011)

Then below that it says:
[+] Finishing Installation, please wait... OK!
Press any button to restart...


Then I press a button on the Wii remote and I'm sent back to the Wii Menu with nothing changed. I've never done this before so I don't have a clue whats going wrong!
Any help would be greatly appriciated
Thank you :-)

[arcteryx_bird]

So...I was able to install the Homebrew Channel using bannerbomb, but then I was using the old walkthru and managed to install cIOS36 rev7...now I can NOT install anything from the Homebrew channel anymore. I get the black screen and disconnected remote, etc. I can't downgrade the cIOS, can't install WADManager, or anything. What the heck do I do now?

I am on 4.2, btw.

[ColdForge]

Did you install bootmii and make a backup of your OS in the last most stable condition? If not, your better off restoring your wii and starting from scratch. If so, just restore the OS with bootmii and you should be fine.

[arcteryx_bird]

No, I didn't install Bootmii or make a backup. I missed that somehow. How do I restore the wii? I'm fine with starting over....

[ColdForge]

Goto the last part of Wii Settings and Press Reformat Wii System Memory. After doing that, use HackMii as through Bannerbomb and be sure to install all three things! (HomeBrew, DVDx, and BootMii) After that, FIRST thing you should do is make a backup using BootMii on an SD card. I back mine up every time I'm going to make any software changes and I store the back-up on my PC, this way, I can restore back to any point if I make a mistake in the chain of changes.

[arcteryx_bird]

OK, reformatted the Wii, installed HBC, installed DVDx, installed BootMii as IOS...first thing it did was "prepare an SD card" in HackMii...then, in HBC when I go to start BootMii, it freezes

[ColdForge]

I'm a little confused. Boot Mii should start when you turn your Wii on, it's a preloader. You shouldn't have to run it from the HBC, it should be on when you turn on your wii(keep in mind your wii remote WILL NOT WORK in BootMii, you have to use a gamecube controller or the power/resent buttons on your console). Plus, after you refomatted your wii, did you update to OS 4.2 through nintendo? Also, are you using the most up to date Bannerbomb? Let me know as much as you can so I can help u out.

[arcteryx_bird]

OK...so last night (early this morning!) I read through ALL of nabster's guide on GBAtemp which I think you linked to before and got EVERYTHING working fine. The last time I installed bootmii as IOS instead of boot2 and then didn't know about the remote not working for it.

Long story short...I have two games that I'm playing now (and am very well informed) :) thanks!

[ColdForge]

Your welcome. I'm glad I was able to help. Soft Modding can be really overwhelming and intimidating. Plus, I lot of the more experienced/knowledgeable can be really harsh on the forums. Calling people noobs and then getting mad when they don't read EVERY freaking post in some forum is really lame.

[frriction]

for those who have menu 4.2 follow this guide http://www.wiihacks.com/recommended-faqs-guides-tutorials-only/24630-full-hacking-guide-4-2-system-menus.html
this is worked for me

[xxHolyxxWolfsbanexx]

Whenever I select the option to load the Custom IOS Installer V1.7, my Wii Remote freezes. Any help?

[stuiedaman]

same with me, are you on 4.2, because i am. that may be part of the problem

[weegee1989]

 im using 4.2 as well... i wish that they would respond to this problem...