Total Wii Noob, where do I go from here?

[crashwg]

So I got myself a Wii. 
Apparently it has a WiiKey in it which I do not doubt because it came with a burned game in the drive that worked fine when I booted it. 
I tried to play a newer game and it updated the system menu to Ver. 4.0U.
The Wii Menu contains The Homebrew Channel.

How do I go about making DVD backups of games so my kids don't destroy them?

I have no idea what I'm doing here and trying to sift through the information on the web is futile knowing as little on the subject that I do.

As of right now I do not want to do anything with USB HDDs or anything of that sort, just a simple rip and burn.

[crashwg]

In before post hell.

Not quite sure what you think is wrong with my post but whatever...  I just want to know how to backup the investment that buying games has become in this day and age of optical media.

[Dazz]

USB HDD is THE way to go.  I set mine up over the past couple days and it is freaking awesome.

[spiffyshoes]

The only ways that I know of to dump your Wii games is to use Wii DVD Dumper or to use WiiHDDLoader.  Wii DVD Dumper takes around 3hours to dump one game over a local network.  Now that they have HDLoader it is the fastest way to dump your games.  It only takes any where from 5 min to 30 min depending on the size of the game to dump it to your usb drive.  And then it only takes about 5 min for WBFS Manager to extract it from the hard drive to your computer for burning.

If you don't want to actually play the games off of the hard drive Fry's sells 8gb usb flash drives for around $20.

[Red]

You can also dump your Wii games using your computer or laptop with a Hitachi-LG GDR-8164B DVD Drive, which are available on eBay.

[crashwg]

So let's say I want to use WiiHDDLoader to dump the games.  How do I go about installing that on a Wii with system menu 4.0U if I already have the Homebrew Channel?

[crashwg]

You read the links in the other thread.

Ok, so I've followed a link from the other thread to HERE and the only thing I can find is setting this up from the beginning.  Do I have to start from the beginning or can I jump in in the middle somewhere after getting the homebrew channel up and running?

[crashwg]

Alright then.  So I started at step 3.

Step 3: CHECK

Step 4: CHECK

Step 5: Followed link and downloaded "USB Loader GX V1.0 (updated to r316)"
this file does not contain "USB Loader GX[version].wad"

Now I'm stuck

[hypernova]

You extracted the entire folder (the folder itself included) into the apps folder on the SD card, correct?

Then loaded the HbC, and selected the usbloader_gx?

If so, it should work.  If not, try the latest build, or waninkoko's or cover flow loader.

By the way, starting at step three, did you install DVDX and bootmii?  bootmii is apparently as a safeguard, and DVDX to read regular DVD media.

[Generic Eric]

The website lifehacker.com has some good guides and links. 

[crashwg]

If I extract the folder to the apps directory on my SD I can load the program from the HomeBrew Channel.  It will load up and say there is no USB HDD attached if I try either a USB to IDE adapter on a HDD or use a thumb drive that I have but that's a problem I'm going to try and work on once I get this installed...

What I'm trying to do is install the program "wad?" so that I will have a channel on my wii menu.

[Blanka]

There is no need to backup stuff on a Wii. Games get boring way before the discs become unreadable. A Wii is a 2-month gadget, not a serious gaming machine.

[ChadTower]

There is no need to backup stuff on a Wii. Games get boring way before the discs become unreadable.

Depending on your media and drive some can be glitchy.  I have a couple games that like to crap out at random times that would work a whole lot better off a hard disc.

[hypernova]

There is no need to backup stuff on a Wii. Games get boring way before the discs become unreadable. A Wii is a 2-month gadget, not a serious gaming machine.

Opinion about the Wii noted.  Irrelevant to the situation.

crashwg, perhaps you could list what parts of step 5 you've gotten done?  Or perhaps it may be your HDD or flash drive.  I don't believe they are all fully compatible with the Wii.

[spiffyshoes]

If I extract the folder to the apps directory on my SD I can load the program from the HomeBrew Channel.  It will load up and say there is no USB HDD attached

Make sure you have it plugged into the correct USB port.  The new versions of the loaders only work with the Hard Drive plugged into the left USB port.

What I'm trying to do is install the program "wad?" so that I will have a channel on my wii menu.

Check out this thread.

http://gbatemp.net/index.php?showtopic=114165

[danny_galaga]

wow. this all seems so complicated. I think I'll just be careful with my wii games...

[ChadTower]

He's right, the Wii is totally not a serious gaming machine.  It does require some prep time, though.  Takes me 20 minutes to get my clown makeup on every time I want to use it.

[crashwg]

I went out and bought a Western Digital My Book Essential Edition because it's the closest thing I could find to the list of "hardware recommendations" on THIS PAGE  Matter of fact it has the same model number other than being 500 GB rather than 1 TB.

I've plugged the HDD into my computer, created an unformatted partition and formatted a partition with WBFS Manager.  I plugged the HDD into the Wii and loaded up USBloaderGX from the Home Brew Channel and in either port is says "No USB Device."  I then tried waninkoko's SD/USB loader v1.5, pressed "A" when USB Mass Storage Device is selected and instantly this whole thing shows up:

Code: [Select]

Mounting device, please wait...
(30 seconds timeout)

ERROR! (ret = -1)

Press and button to restart...

Make sure you have it plugged into the correct USB port.  The new versions of the loaders only work with the Hard Drive plugged into the left USB port.

By "left USB port" are you referring to the one nearest the top of the console when it's layed on it's side?

[crashwg]

Figuring that the problem was either USB ports just plain not working or a previous step not working for some reason I went back to step 4, installing cIOS and instead of installing the recommended 38 I used the 249 that it defaults to and everything works now.

Thanks everyone.

[hypernova]

Feel like this?   

 

[shmokes]

He's right, the Wii is totally not a serious gaming machine.  It does require some prep time, though.  Takes me 20 minutes to get my clown makeup on every time I want to use it.

 

[skim36]

Yes, 249 rev 10 is the most compatible.  I get all my info from wiihacks.com  A great place to start.

[hypernova]

I've found rev10 to be the best as well.  rev13 requires setting all the games to enable the error 002 fix.  I've only had to do that on two games with rev10.