Hacking Your Wii

Update Your Wii

-If it says “4.3U” in the top right corner of “Wii Settings,” you won’t be able or need to update.

Go to Wii Options (bottom left of the Wii menu) > Wii Settings > Internet > Connection Settings

Connect to your router (even if you can’t update.)

Once it says “connection test successful”, say YES to the update.

-If the update fails,  go back to Wii Setting, then Wii System Update, and try again.

-If you have Priiloader, you may need to change your settings to allow updates. To do this, turn off your Wii, then turn it back on while holding the reset button. When Priiloader comes up, go to System Menu Hacks, then switch “Block Online Updates” to “disabled.” After that, hit “save settings” at the bottom, then restart your Wii and try to update again.

Once the update is finished, go to Wii Options > Wii Settings > See “4.3U” on the top-right.

EXPLANATION: Everything can now be done on the 4.3 firmware. 4.3 is also required for Letterbomb.

It is also good to have the last firmware that Nintendo will ever make, as a system update can delete your hacks.

Format your SD Card

Download and install: http://download.cnet.com/EaseUS-Partition-Master-Free-Edition/3000-2248_4-10863346.html

EXPLANATION: The goal is to format your SD card as FAT32 and Primary and give it a 32kb cluster size. If you don’t do this, GC load times will be awful, the music will skip around, and the games will freeze.

Go to Start > My Computer > triple check the drive letter of you SD card. (ex: G)

Open your newly installed EaseUS Partition Manager (This may take a minute.)

Find the letter of your SD card (ex: G) and make note of what disk number it is under (ex: Disk 4)

Right click on your SD card > Delete partition

It should say “  *  unallocated” under whatever disk number you had.

Right click where it says “unallocated” under your disk number > right click > Create partition

In the window that opens, choose the following setup options:

Create as: Primary

File System: FAT32

Hit “OK”

Right click on your drive letter again > Format Partition

In the window that opens, set cluster size to 32kb > ok

IMPORTANT: A cluster size of 32kb is important if you want to run GC games (Melee, etc.) off your SD. The 16GB PNY SDHC Performance card will have this option. *See “What Type of Storage Should I Get” for more info.

Hit the big blue check mark that says “Apply,” then hit “Yes.”

When it says “operations executed successfully,” close EaseUS Partition Manager.

IMPORTANT: If you do not select “Primary” you will be frustrated for at least a good hour trying to figure out why the hell Bootmii won’t start. This is a common reason for the “blue flashing light error.”

Go to Start > My Computer > Double click on your SD card to open an empty window.

Open the “SP File Pack” in another window. (Download from the requirements section of this guide.)

Open the folder “Copy Contents to SD”

Highlight and drag everything from “Copy Contents to SD” into the empty window for your SD card.

After the transfer is finished, go to My Computer > right click on SD card > “Eject”

Take the SD card out and put it in your Wii.

Letterbomb

Turn on your Wii, then Press A on your Wiimote to pass the health screen.

Click the mail icon (bottom right) > go to “yesterday” > click the red envelope with the bomb.

-If you do not see the mail with the bomb, reformat your SD card again, or try another SD card.

Give it time to load

You will see Hackmii Installer V1.0. This will install BootMii and Homebrew Channel. Hit “continue.”

Install HBC > Yes > Continue

Bootmii > Prepare SD card > Yes > (You should see “Success”) > Continue Install Bootmii as IOS > Yes > Yes > (You should see “Success”) > Continue > Return to Main Menu > Exit

NAND Backup

Select Homebrew Channel (HBC) from the Wii Menu.

Once it has loaded, press the “home button” on the Wiimote

Select “Launch Bootmii.”

Using the D-pad, select the gears icon >select the green arrow icon.

Go do something for 10 minutes while Bootmii backs up you NAND.

When it says it is completed, press start to exit, then turn off your Wii.

EXPLANATION: Your NAND is now backed up to your SD card. Having a NAND backup is essential in case your Wii becomes bricked somehow. You will be able to use Bootmii to restore your NAND and therefore restore your Wii’s functionality.

cIOS Made Easy

Remove your GC Memory Card. DO NOT SKIP THIS STEP! (Not sure why, but better safe than sorry.)

EXPLANATION: There is so much confusion about IOSs and cIOSs. cIOS just stands for “custom IOS.” This part of the guide was the most difficult to figure out. Basically what it comes down to is: cIOS236 is a custom version of Nintendo’s IOS36. cIOS236 makes it easy to install other cIOSs. cIOSs let us do cool stuff. What we are going to do next is install the updated versions of all necessary cIOSs. Rest assured you are going to have everything you need for Smash and any other game.

Note: if you encounter errors in this section, reboot your Wii and start over from this section.

Go to the HBC.

Launch “IOS236 Installer.” (Once complete it will take you back to HBC.)

If it fails, go to HBC > Multi Mod Manager > IOS Manager > highlight “236” and press “home” on the Wiimote.

Press B and then “home” again to get back to HBC.

Launch “Priiloader.” Press A or “+” to install. (Once complete, it will take you back again.)

Verify Priiloader installed by rebooting the Wii and holding the “reset” button when it is powering up.

(It should say Priiloader 0.7 and have a bunch of options.)

In Priiloader, go to System Menu Hacks > Change “Block Online Updates” and “Block Disc Updates” to “enabled”

Hit “save settings.” (It should say “settings saved.”)

Hit B to go back to Priiloader home.

In Priiloader, go to Settings > Change “autoboot” (at the top) to “disabled” > save settings.

Reboot your Wii, and Priiloader should load automatically now. (No more Wiimote, yay!)

Plug in a GC controller in controller port 1. (We will use D-pad to navigate from now on.)

Go to HBC > Launch “Multi Mod Manager” > Select “Wad Manager”

Mark each of the 6 cIOS .wads by hitting the R button on the GC controller when next to each one.

(A little green “+” will appear if you did it right.)

Press A twice.

It will say “OK” for all six > press any button to continue > press “home” TWICE to return to HBC