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Thread: Wii Channels and Game Saves from USB guide

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    Default Wii Channels and Game Saves from USB guide

    DISCLAIMER TYPE OF THING

    I know it will be asked why do this so I will make this simple it is very easy to run out of space on your nand memory just with save data let alone games as well

    Even with the feature to move to SD some games lag from SD and again you are limited by space as some of these channels and games take up a lot of space, some channels can't be moved either and need to be on the internal nand though like the Homebrew channel and a couple of the default channels.

    P.S. Do not use this for any sort of system related files you can't use this to install ios, cios or mios files this is only used for channels also keep the Homebrew channel on the real nand.


    GUIDE STARTS HERE


    Getting up to date



    Firstly you will need the basics to be up to date so I recommend you give ModMii a run that is the easiest and safest way to mod and update your wii's driver sets (I am not saying update the Wii system menu, you are advised not to this will update the internal drivers the Wii uses both for games and devices)

    If you are just updating and not sure what to do just do this as a Mod My Wii (Option W) once past the basics of QA's you will get the option for ModMii to generate a guide for you to follow for those new to this and those that are maybe a bit rusty at this

    P.S. with all the updates just about everything can be run directly from USB this is reflected in the new version of ModMii (Make sure it is formated as Fat32 with 32KB clusters, you can use the free tool EaseUS Partition Master - Home Edition for that) [Noticed ModMii also gives you a HDD formatting tool anyway though I have not used that myself]

    https://sourceforge.net/projects/modmii/ for the latest version of ModMii


    Nand dumping



    You will need a nand dump from your Wii

    For those that skipped nand dumping or can't find there nand dump you can do that now it's not too late

    Start up the Homebrew Channel and hit the home button then on that menu select BootMii

    If it just goes to a black screen then you do not have BootMii so go get it from http://bootmii.org/ it includes a Homebrew channel updater as well as BootMii just extract that to it's own folder in the apps folder of your SD (they have basic instructions for that)

    To control BootMii you can either use a GC pad or if you do not have one then you can use the control buttons on the front of the Wii, Power is used to toggle through the options and Reset is used to select the option

    We want to go to the to the last option (image of cogs) [hit power until the item is highlighted then hit reset] on the next screen we want the first icon (image is a green arrow pointing to a SD card) [hit reset] once that is done (it can take a little bit of time to complete) you can power off the Wii, just hold down the power button until it turns off

    Now we have a nand dump there should be a nand.bin and a key.bin (keep them safe if you ever want to restore your Wii's nand)



    Programs needed



    We need a couple more programs one to extract the nand and another to add wad files to the extracted nand

    WiiQT WIN32 used to extract the nand.bin file
    ShowMiiWads for installing Wads to nand folder

    Now you have the 2 above files, hook up your USB drive that you use with your Wii to your PC



    Extracting your nand and clearing it of junk



    Create 2 folders on the root of the USB drive
    nand
    nand tools

    Extract both of the files you just downloaded to the nand tools folder
    now run NandExtract
    Once running hit File > Open Nand > Slect the nand.bin file on the SD
    Right click on the root folder icon (has an image of a folder with / next to it) then hit extract and select the nand folder you created on the USB HDD
    Once complete close NandExtract

    now open the nand folder and then open the ticket folder

    in that folder you will see several folders named with numbers that all need to stay there but the contents of them all except for the 00000001 folder should be removed (00000001 contains system data leave that one alone)

    also in the nand\title folder you will see the same thing, do exactly the same remove the contents of all the folders except the 00000001 folder (again it's the folder contents not the folder that is to be removed)

    this will ensure that you do not have any dummy data left from uninstalled or unused channels not doing this will cause issues



    Installing Wads/Channels



    Now we can get get to adding Wads into the nand folder

    Have all the wads you want ready by extracting them into a folder together on your computer

    Start up ShowMiiWads now

    [You only need to do this bit once] click on tools then click Create Common-key then follow the on-screen prompt
    [You only need to do this bit once] click on options then click Change NAND Backup Path and choose the nand folder you created before and extracted the nand to
    [You only need to do this bit once] click on view and select ShowMiiNand

    Now that's all set up and you have your wads ready just right click anywhere in the file list field and click on Install then Folder and choose the folder you extracted all the wads to (you can also pick individual wads by using Install > File)



    Setting up your USB Loader to see your new nand installs



    I only have USB Loader GX to hand so for now it is specific just for that loader but I do know that WiiFlow can do this as well

    Hook that HDD and SD back into your Wii first

    Boot up the Wii and then USB Loader GX

    Now go into the settings (large cog on the lower left)

    From here go to the right once and hit Custom Paths
    Scroll down to Nand Emu Channel Path, then change it to your USB drives nand folder
    Hit Back twice

    Now back at the main screen to make sure the emulated nand is showing along with all your other games hit the 4th icon from the left on the top row of icons this lets you diplay the following if ticked Wii Games (disc installs) GC games (disc installs) Nand (what is installed on your real nand) Emulated Nand (what is installed into the nand folder) just tick all that apply to your needs or for testing just have Emulated Nand ticked and hit OK

    All Done Enjoy


    MORE


    Emulated nand for your disc Wii games from USB for save data

    Now I do advise for users that have had there Wii for a while to either do a fresh nand dump or to set this up per game otherwise your saves will not be shown

    Anyway either in the....
    main settings go into Loader settings and change Nand Saves Emulation to Partial (Full gave me problems saving to it)
    or...
    individual game settings go into Game Load and change Nand Emulation to Partial, if your Global settings for Nand Saves Emulation is set to OFF again (Full gave me problems saving to it)
    Attached Files Attached Files
    Last edited by Zorlon; 16th-June-2016 at 07:18.

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    Just a quick question, I followed your steps & everything worked fine, but I have found a few more games (.wads) that I want to add so do I need to do everything over the same way or is there a way to just add the games without doing what you listed under the "Installing Wads/Channels" portion???

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    Just use the Installing Wads/Channels it's quicker than using any Wii Wad installer anyway and a cleaner install, most of the steps are one use only so you can skip most of it and just directly to installing wads

    Start ShowMiiWads right click anywhere in the file list field and click on Install then Folder and choose the folder you extracted all the wads to (you can also pick individual wads by using Install > File) that in itself is quicker than navigating via the Wii itself in any of the Wad installers

    A Wii Wad installer installed & ran from the Virtual Nand may work though but I never did test that, then again it may just install to the real Nand instead
    Last edited by Zorlon; 14th-December-2014 at 08:40.

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    Cool, thanks a lot man I shall give it a try tomorrow. Just DL`d that Contra Rebirth joint lookin` to give it some play `cuz I`m a huge fan of the NES original...

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    Just had another look at this thread. How relevant is the info provided? Is this still the best way to set up a virtual nand, or is there a newer method?

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    Quote Originally Posted by Jackhammer View Post
    Just had another look at this thread. How relevant is the info provided? Is this still the best way to set up a virtual nand, or is there a newer method?
    It's a simple enough & very fast way to do it, I just tend to span the steps a bit so may sound more complicated than it is but in doing so I simplify things so anyone can follow them

    I admit I have not looked into any other ways to get virtual nand though

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    @Zorlon: Can I use the same HDD I use to store Wii WBFSes (I use in WiiFlow) and GameCube ISOs (I use with Nintendont) for the emulated nand? The hard drive is formatted as FAT32, and I also use it to store documents.

    And can I also use the emulated nand for game saves from games off of an hdd?
    Last edited by SuperMew98; 9th-June-2015 at 00:02.

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    You can have what you like on it

    I use Nintendont myself though my loader has always been USB loader GX via the forwarder that comes with ModMii
    I also have Wii games GC games Wiiware/WiiVC & Emulators

    WiiWare, WiiVC and Saves can be stored on the Virtual Nand though for alot of games I still use the real nand because that is the location of the game saves before I started using virtual nand otherwise I use virtual nand for saves also

    Not tested virtual nand with emulator forwarders though, or not that I remember anyway, but don't see why that would not work
    Last edited by Zorlon; 9th-June-2015 at 07:58.

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    Thanks, Zorlon.

    One last thing, how do I delete a save game from the emulated NAND, and how do I copy WiiWare/VC save games from the internal NAND to the emulated NAND, and vice versa?

    I'm using WiiFlow, btw.
    Last edited by SuperMew98; 9th-June-2015 at 17:12.

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    I never used Wiiflow as stated

    ...beem a while since I turned the wii on...

    Virtual nand is just files and folders so easy enough to manage as long as you know where the save data goes that I dont know off the top of my head.

    I dont remember if save data can be transfured to SD and if the firmat is the same or if nintendo do some sort of compression anotherwords I can't realy answer your q at this point

    P.S. you can always do a fresh nand dump that will have all your saves, manage this seperatly and takes the save from that dump over to the currently used virtual nand

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    Thanks for your answer, Zorlon

    I'll try out the method you considered with the fresh nand dump, and I'll report back if there are any problems.

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    Actually, I decided to switch to USB Loader instead because WiiFlow was giving me trouble. I can load my wbfs games and my channels from my emulated NAND just fine, but I can't seem to get them to save to the emulated NAND. It always saves to the internal (I want them all to save to the emulated nand, except for a few of them).

    My Nand Saves Emulation is set to Partial and the Nand Chan. Emulation is set to Full.

    Any suggestions?

    P.S. My USB Loader GX is Rev1239
    Last edited by SuperMew98; 11th-June-2015 at 20:09.

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    I just tested Iron Man with it set to full, Global I had it set to Partial I will test Iron Man 2 out in a second though with the Global setup in place anyway the same was taken directly from the virtual Nand

    Make sure the settings for the actual game are setup correctly in USB Loader GX

    Select the game you want to play on the nest screen before you hit play look at the setting then Load Options it should have much the same settings as the Global set up but you can change them for that game

    If you list some of the games you have issues with I can see what works for those as some games may have issues with emulated Nand

    P.S. make sure the virtual Nand path is correct

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    I seem to have problems with every game I try. For example, I own a disc and file version of Bakugan Battle Brawlers. When I switch the save settings to Partial (or even Full, for that matter) it always writes to the internal NAND. To verify, I first run the file version and make slight changes to my profile. When I run the disc version directly from the Disc Channel, it shows the same results.

    And yes, the path points to usb1:\nand\, which does exist on my HDD and does contain the necessary files.

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    have you tried with a game that has no saves on the Nand to see if it is added to the Nand or not

    P.S. the settings are per game be they ran from HDD, DVD or even virtually mounted the game still has the same ID

    I don't remember exactly what Partial does mind it may create data on both internal Nand and virtual Nand, maybe even a base ID save on internal Nand then the rest in virtual Nand not sure it's been too long since I looked into it
    Last edited by Zorlon; 12th-June-2015 at 20:32.

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