I want to install these apps, but...

I want to get Savegame Manager GX, Priiloader, BootMii, and more, but they make changes to the Wii's NAND. Is that bad?

It has the potential to be dangerous, with the potential varying with the app. BootMii is installed by HackMii Installer, which has undergone plenty of testing, and so is "safe" (there have been no reported bricks from installing BootMii that I know, other than one or two who lost power during the wrong moment of the install [which only takes a few seconds, so is extremely unlucky]; considering the hundreds of thousands of installs, that's not bad going). Savegame Manager GX doesn't make any drastic changes, it just deals with savegames. Worst that should happen is corrupting a save game or two. Priiloader is notoriously badly coded, and is also one of the most invasive modifications to the Wii there is. It moves the System Menu and places itself in it's place. There have been plenty of bricks over the years. I think it has improved of late, but I would still never install in on my own Wii personally. Take from that what you will.

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SifJar
It has the potential to be dangerous, with the potential varying with the app. BootMii is installed by HackMii Installer, which has undergone plenty of testing, and so is "safe" (there have been no reported bricks from installing BootMii that I know, other than one or two who lost power during the wrong moment of the install [which only takes a few seconds, so is extremely unlucky]; considering the hundreds of thousands of installs, that's not bad going). Savegame Manager GX doesn't make any drastic changes, it just deals with savegames. Worst that should happen is corrupting a save game or two. Priiloader is notoriously badly coded, and is also one of the most invasive modifications to the Wii there is. It moves the System Menu and places itself in it's place. There have been plenty of bricks over the years. I think it has improved of late, but I would still never install in on my own Wii personally. Take from that what you will.

Well, I heard that you could unbrick a Wii with Priiloader, by loading BootMii from it.

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NintendoBoy
Well, I heard that you could unbrick a Wii with Priiloader, by loading BootMii from it.

Not really. Technically, yes you can load BootMii/IOS with Priiloader. But that requires you to be able to access Priiloader, which is only possible in minor bricks (banner bricks, theme bricks) that can very easily be avoided (don't install untrusted custom channels, don't install themes). In these cases, you can fix the bricks in other ways provided you can access Priiloader; priiloader can load any homebrew app, so you can just load an app to delete the bad channel or install stock theme. BootMii/IOS won't automatically allow you to restore a NAND backup, because it is more dangerous than it is with BootMii/boot2 (if the restore fails in BootMii/IOS, the Wii is gone as you probably won't be able to access BootMii any more. If it fails in BootMii/boot2, you can just restart the Wii and try again, as BootMii/boot2 will still be accessible).

The only BootMii (in fact, the only software) capable of providing true brick protection is BootMii/boot2, which can only be installed on an older Wii. BootMii/IOS is not designed to be used as brick protection, and priiloader doesn't change that. If you have priiloader installed and get one of the few bricks that can be fixed using it, the best way is NEVER using BootMii/IOS via priiloader. Personally, my advice is just stay away from themes and custom channels, and you'll have no real need of priiloader.

See my FixMii topic.