Softmodding a Black Wii

[Titanium]

Hello folks,

I am going to be venturing into the world of softmodding. i have read a few threads in this section and i feel that it all sounds very complicated. anyway hope i can use this thread to get my Wii up and running.

my current equipment..

Black Wii 4.2e
iomega prestige 500gb ntfs drive
2gb sandisk sd card

am i good to go?

thanks in advance ( have a feeling i will have loads more questions to ask...)

Ti22

[renke_uk]

You've got All the hardware you need Titanium,
It's all down to software and and your softmod route

Happy to help if you feel you need it!
regards

Just think 30 Minutes and you could playin' backups off your hard drive

[Zippeyrude]

The black wiis can be softmodded no problem but i understand that the drives do not allow the playing of backup dvdr games, so any backups will need to be usb hdd based.

The hdd shoudl be fine, may be worth checking the following list:-
USB HDD Compatibility List

Worth noting though that my 500gig 3.5 external maxtor did not work. 2.5 external may be more reliable.

2 gig sandisk sd card shoudl be fine. Some wiis dont like sdhc cards. I would recommend that you keep a spare sd card - i used a kingston 1gig and the wii backup failed which was due to the sd card. I ended up using an unbranded spare which worked flawlessly!

I agree it does look very complicated. I was lucky in that i had some hand holding and it all went 100% smoothly (apart from my hdd and sd card issues!).

[Titanium]

thanks guys, what is the best softmodding route? i have little billy's guide, that seems straight forward.

im still unsure about the drive. it is ntfs and i checked the compatability website, it has 2 iomega 500gb on there that are working.

will i have to reformat my drive to get the best use out of it?

thanks again...


Ti22

[renke_uk]

Just Reformat it to Fat32 In order for you to get the best out of it at the moment.

[Titanium]

just an update, gotit up and running.

used littlebilly's guide and its worked straight away. was expecting errors etc.

just a few q's....

whats this about a nand backup? is it really important? when d/ling bootmi it only saved to ios, couldnt get it to save to boot2?

anyway running games from neogamma. will need to get a loader on the wii.

used wbfs manager and i think that has formatted the drive to a wbfs.

what other suggestions do you guys have that will let me have a play and add interesting stuff on there?

Thanks again for everyones input

Ti22

[Zippeyrude]

yes run bootmii and then save a NAND backup, they are about 550mb so make sure you have enough space on your sd card. You use the power and reset buttons to navigate across the menu buttons (i cant recall which is 'move' and which is 'enter' atm tho'.) In the backup mii menu you need to select the image of the gears, followed by the image of a processor chip with an arrow pointing away from it (i.e. backup).

This is essentially a recovery image should things go wrong in the future.

You get to Bootmii by going to the HBC and pressing the home button.

You will need Priiloader to make use of the NAND backup, did you install this too?

Priiloader is useful not just for Wii system backup restores but settings also allow you to block automatic internet updates, game updates etc. It provides some anti bricking support.

As for the hdd i would recommend a fat32 drive. This way your pc will recognise it and you can also put other stuff on there such as divx files, mp3s etc. It will save you having to use separate hdds for game backups and media files.

Configurable USB loader v50 was recommended and it does everything you need, a nice interface with various scrolling covers etc.

[renke_uk]

Hi there,

Like Zippeyrude say's it is important to install an app like Priiloader to offer you some brick prevention, Because it only takes 1 bad WAD file or channel installer to semi-brick your Wii and you can't rely on a game update to get you out of the Poo, and seeing as your on 4.2 at the Mo it could be quite a while till we see 4.3 or the likes.
It is important to mention that only being able to install bootmii as an ios offers you no way the kind of protection that installing it to Boot2 offers, Although you can do a nand backup, there is no way as of yet that, the nand backup is of no use to you to recover from a semi brick, as theres no way to write the backup back without bootMii at Boot2.
If you are gonna install apps, wads or channels then Priiloader is a MUST!

My kids love Mplayer_ce as they can play all their divx off the wii

Regards

[Titanium]

@renke how do i get bootmii as a boot2?

will definately d/l priiloader thanks.

[renke_uk]

When you installed HBC,DVDX it would have told you if you could install as Boot2 or IOS
newer wii's can't install to Boot2 thats why you need something like Priiloader.

[Titanium]

couldn't install a boot2, probably b ecause its a new black wii......

oh well will definately get priiloader on.

[renke_uk]

You'll need to have the hacks.ini file for your system version 4.2E on the root of the sd card.

Run Priiloader from the Homebrew Channel
1.Holding down the B button press the + button to load IOS249 and install Priiloader
2.After Install Power Down WII
3.Hold RESET & Press Power On
4.On Main Menu select "Setting"
5.Change Autoboot to "System Menu"
6.Save setting and press B to return to Main Menu
7.On Main menu select "System Menu Hacks"
8.Enable the first 4 Hacks (And any you require)
9.Save setting and press B to return to Main Menu
10.Select "System Menu" and Press A

I do believe that the guide you followed patches the system ios(70) so installing shouldn't be a problem.