Wii Region hack status, AnyRegion Changer / Gecko OS / GC Booter / Starfall

[Deuteros]

LetterBomb. Gecko OS. StartPatch. BootMii. Priiloader. Homebrew Channel. USB Loader. HELP!!!

Can someone kindly point me to a nice, idiot's guide to softmodding a PAL Wii? For both region free Wii and Gamecube gaming as well as loading games from a USB HDD (I have no interest in playing pirated games but I'd love the conveniency of it). Feel free to PM me as I know this site's stance on some of these issues.

I know I'll need an 8 GB SD card and an USB HDD.

[briareos_kerensky]

http://wiibrew.org/wiki/Homebrew_Channel

I think the hardest part is to figure out in which directory on the SD card you have to put GeckOS or similar loaders.

[Deuteros]

Thanks, I'll look into that. I haven't bought an SD card yet but I've managed to format a 160 GB HDD I had lying around to FAT32. 32 sectors per cluster and 512 bytes per sector as I've read being mentioned as optimal.

[charlesr]

The HDD I use isn't recognised by windows - it needs a different filesystem completely, but whatever disc manager you end up using should format it for you.

[Deuteros]

It should be formatted to WBFS but all Wii homebrew programs support FAT32 now. Most also support NTFS but FAT32 should cause the least problems. I haven't made much progress but I think I read somewhere that an SD card is no longer necessary, which would be nice as I don't have one.

[Deuteros]

This process isn't as complicated as I initially thought, provided you do some research and understand what you're about to do.

Here's what I've done and where I'm at:

- I've formatted the Wii's system memory, i.e., performed a factory reset.
- I've performed a system update to 4.3E.
- By means of the LetterBomb exploit, I've run HackMii to install the Homebrew Channel and BootMii. Sadly, BootMii could only be installed as an IOS, not as boot2.
- Using BootMii, I've performed a NAND backup.

My next step will be to install Priiloader or StartPatch. Given that I have a newer Wii and BootMii couldn't be installed as boot2, I've seen Priiloader being recommended because of its anti-bricking features. However, this FAQ claims Priiloader is "potentially dangerous" and advocates installing custom IOSes (IOS236 and d2x). Does anyone have an opinion on this issue?

[randombs]

I found a shop in Shinjuku selling boxed Wiis for a measly 2000Y and am seriously considering grabbing one at that price. I expect remotes and games will cost a bit, but I digress.

My UK Wii back home is modded and I used Zelda to do it, but now it looks like LetterBomb is the way to go. Nice and easy!

Question: Does anyone here run stuff off a USB stick or is it all USB hard drives? I bought an 8GB stick that's now lying around doing nothing and I'd like to use it for homebrew...

[Deuteros]

Except for the reduced storage capacity and slower read speed... The latter could have an impact on performance. I'm not sure, though.

I was following one FAQ and when I was almost finished, I found another FAQ that seemed to have been written by people who really knew what they were talking about. As a result, I abandoned this project temporarily...

[randombs]

Hmm. I have a caddy I could use, along with a few hard drives. If I can partition for WBFS and keep a FAT32 one, it'll be no problem. If I have to format the whole drive then I'll be less inclined.

Update:
Looks like Configurable USB Loader can just use fat32, so that's that sorted.

I'll go back there and check if the consoles come with all the bits. Might be cheaper to buy two Wii's as the remotes cost more!

[Yakumo]

My sons Wii runs games from USB stick. He was Playing Smash Brothers via USB the other Day.

[gunrock]

I think you'll want NTFS, Randombs, as that will get around the 2gb file limit.

[randombs]

Fat32's file limit is 4GB. And I'm pretty sure the Wii's usb loaders won't work with ntfs although I haven't checked. I think they can split files larger than 4GB to get around the limitation.

Cheers for the heads up, though

[Deuteros]

You're right on all accounts and the Wii can be made to work with a NTFS file system. From what I researched on the matter a couple of months ago, FAT32 was the way to go about it.

[randombs]

Oh, definitely. Also, ntfs isn't designed for removable drives and I don't like using it with anything other than Windows. I think fat32 has a maximum drive size but I won't hit that with the drives I have, anyway(XP won't make fat32 partitions larger than 32GB but other software can).

[charlesr]

Is there any sort of hack or firmware update for the Wii remotes so that they don't drain batteries just by sitting there when off?