Giantpune Utilities, SaveGame Manager, & Shop Findings

Formatting & Giantpune Utilities
About two years ago I had to muck about ios to get SaveGame Manager GX to work. I then learned about Giantpune's Wii NAND Utilities and decided to tinker around with them to see if I can get a clean Wii while keeping my Shop Information. Here are the results of various testings:

1st = oldest bootmii backup
cur = most recent bootmii backup
ones = ohneschwanzenegger is used for this operation
Using Bootmii v1.3 in boot2v4
NEVER ERASED SHOP INFO when prompted by Wii during format.

Case A: ohne cur, ohne 4.2u,                 Wii update
Case B: ohne cur, ohne 4.2u,    ohne format, Wii update
Case C: ohne cur, ohne format,  ohne 4.2u,   Wii update
Case D: ohne cur,               Wii format,  Wii update
Case E: 1st,      DOP-Mii 4.2u, Wii format,  Wii update
Case F: 1st,                    Wii Format,  Wii update

                   A       B       C       D       E       F
loadSysMenu?      yes      no     yes     yes     yes     yes
runsSetupWizard?  yes       -     yes     yes     yes     yes
loadsBootMii?     yes     yes     yes     yes     yes     yes
hasHBC?            no       -      no      no      no      no
oldSaveGames?      no       -      no      no      no      no
oldChannels?       no       -      no      no      no      no
oldMiis?           no       -      no      no      no      no
oldAddBook?        no       -      no      no      no      no
ableUpdate4.3?    yes       -     yes     yes     yes     yes
oldSettings?       no       -      no      no      no      no
oldFC?             no       -      no      no       2       2
accessShop?         1       -       1       1     yes     yes
oldTitlUDwn?      yes       -     yes     yes     yes     yes

1: gives 205906 Error
2: new FC, but the exact same one

Notable Observations
* You retain your current version of BootMii no matter what you do.
* Loading a ohneschwanzenegger file or using the Wii's Format always brought up the setup wizard. There is a long pause but it does come up.
* You retain "Titles You've Downloaded" on the Shop Channel no matter what you do.
* If you have a FC made by ohneschwanzenegger you get the 205906 error, but still have and are able to download & play "Titles You've Downloaded".
* Using ohneschwanzenegger generates new FC's every time unless the exact same nand and ohneschwanzenegger operations are used.
* Using the Wii's Format always generated the same new FC no matter what combination or permutation of any backup, DOP-Mii, Wii update, or Wii format.

I wish there was a way to use ohneschwanzenegger and still retain your old FC.

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SaveGame Manager GX
After testing out restores, formats, etc. I tinkered a bit with backing up saves and SaveGame Manager GX (SGM GX) to see it's results. For those who don't know SGM GX allows you to back up nontransferable Wii game saves.

* Games that don't require the Nintendo WiFi are called Offline.
* Games that requires Nintendo WiFi are called Online. N.B. even if it's just to access a leaderboard.

* When you insert a new disc into the Wii it creates a "title location" for that game.
* Games that have a "title location" on a Wii will display their Channel Image instead of a disc on the System Menu.
* This is why it takes a long time to load the Channel Image for a new game. It's creating the "title location".

* Offline games can be backed up and restored using the Wii's Data Management or SGM to any Wii any way.
* Offline games can be restored as soon as they have a "title location". They don't need an existing file on the Wii.

* Online games cannot be copied using the Wii's Data Management.
* Online games can be backed up and restored using SGM GX.
* Online games must have an existing and officially Wii created save file in order to be restored by SGM GX.
* Online games restored with only the "title location" and no existing file will create a corrupted save file. Subsequent uses of SGM GX will crash until it is deleted by the Wii's Data Management.
* It seems that Online games using features explicitly tied to FC give 60000 error and never connected.

So among the games I have that are Online here were their behaviors when attempted to restore them to my Wii that got a new FC from the Wii's formatting. I wish there are a repository of this knowledge since testing is a simple matter.

N.B. all games retained everything from their Offline portion including game files, progress, equipment, unlocks, scores, etc.
ExciteBots: Trick Racing: unable to access Nintendo WFC, still had stars and unlocks
Geometry Wars: Galaxies: none
Monster Hunter Tri: online profiles and friend lists lost ; HR rank, HR XP, and online quests retained
Monster Lab: none
Spectrobes: Origins: unable to access leader boards
Wii Music: videos kept, received videos have blank smiley instead of Mii (probably due to empty Address Book)

SGM GX saves can be hex edited and restored for a modified save file. (Which is the main reason Online games cannot be transferred.) I suspected that it might be possible to modify games that created 60000 errors to match the old FC. I attempted to do so with Excitebots and Spectrobes but couldn't find anything useful. A such I gave up since I would rather not have to remember about that one part of the save file being modified and potentially requiring modification each time.

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BootMini

This is an awesome little file and technique that is easily overlooked. (There should be a WiiBrew page for it.) It comes with recent versions of the HackMii installer as "bootmini.elf" Here is how to use it.

1. Load BootMii.
2. Select "Browse SD"
3. Browse to and select "boomini.elf"
4. Your screen turns green, then the Hack Mii installer loads up.

This is a very useful because it will work and run with very old nand backups. I'm talking about Twilight Hack old. So there is no need to worry about having the more recent install method if you have Bootmii.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/06/2011 08:34PM by Vidus.

The main wii FC is made from a combination of all the unique hardware in your wii, plus the serial number stored on the NAND. Although you stated that the "Format Memory" operation always generated the same FC, that's not true - the number of times it has been generated is stored on the NAND and affects the result. So it is possible to use ohneschwanzenegger and still retain your old FC - you just have to run the "Format Memory" operation for the same amount of times as what you had done before generating the new nand.

Interesting. I've made recent attempts to use ohneschwanzenegger and keep my old FC or to get the new FC with the official Wii format. Thus far I have failed. Can you explain to me the steps to do this given a image named "old_nand.bin" that has System Menu 3.0u for example?