Newbie question about SD cards

Hi guys,

I am a newbie here and have been reading a ton of post from the site and the links too.

I have a few questions that I hope you can help me with and sorry that they are so dumb...

Just got a Wii yesterday and plan to run HackMii tonight on it to install BootMii and Homebrew Channel. My question is this. Once I have things installed do you have to keep the SD card in the Wii all the time or does it write everything to internal memory and you can boot without it once installed? I have read that its best to back up the NAND and that seems to be pretty large so was thinking that maybe it was best to have a dedicated SD card just for this so it can be kept safe in case its needed in the future.

Also was wondering how many SD cards the typical user has (assuming you can swap them in and out as needed) I remmember the old days when most had a stack of memory cards (but thats when they were pretty small in size too) Basicaly I am trying to figure out how many and what size card(s) I will need to buy. And its not clear if you have to keep a card installed all the time or not from what I have read here.

I have seen that you need to create an apps folder to store things downloaded off Homebrew but was not sure if you did that on the same SD card or if it was another one.

Thanks for your help with this.

1.) You will be able to access the HBC without an SD card, but you won't be able to launch any apps. Also, since I'm assuming that you got a new wii, you won't be able to install bootmii as boot2. You can still install it as an IOS, though.

2.) I just use one SD card. Its 2GB. Unless you're planning on having lots of emulators or a large media center setup up (music, movies, etc.), I would suggest to just get a 2 or 4 gig SD card.

3.) You can setup everything you need on one SD card. You don't need multiple ones.

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I have read that its best to back up the NAND and that seems to be pretty large

Its only 512mb, IIRC.

Hope that helps. If you have more questions, feel free to ask. :)

Thanks for the fast answers. After I asked the question I kept looking through more post here and once again saw some different answers :-)

Once the initial install is finished and working do you leave the boot.elf file and the private folder on the SD of should they be deleted?

I bought the Wii from Best Buy Outlet online so am not sure about when it was actually made so will be a crap shoot as to if I will be able to install as boot2 but I am betting it wont. Does it provide any real benefit to do a full NAND if you cant install as boot2? I saw a few post here that kinda led me to believe that. Have not seen anything that said how to do a restore if its installed as an IOS instead.

Thanks

1.) You can delete the boot.elf if you want to.

2.) If you can only install it as an IOS, then you can back up your NAND, but its kind of pointless, because if you were to try to restore it with bootmii as an IOS, you could brick your wii.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/24/2010 05:22PM by WaxyPumpkin72.

It is still a good idea to backup your NAND with Bootmii IOS since if your wii ever bricks, you can restore it with a hardware NAND programer.

It doesn't matter if you delete the Hackmii Installer after using it; however, it is best not to keep Bannerbomb on your SD card when not in use.

1. okay so what is the reason to keep an SD card in the wii, do you have to??? How else are you supposed get apps running, from dvd's?

2. I am not quite sure how the wii will read dvd's afterwards as I've installed HBC and got the wiiLevel app running from my SD card but when I stuck a dvd in it, it didn't work. I used a movie, should it have worked?

3. When I burn things to a dvd how will I access them? Do I click the HBC and it will show the files? Almost there but not quite.

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wdiddy
1. okay so what is the reason to keep an SD card in the wii, do you have to??? How else are you supposed get apps running, from dvd's?

Apps are stored on the SD card, so yes you have to. You can't use DVDs. You can however use a USB drive instead of an SD card, but not all apps like being run from USB.

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wdiddy
2. I am not quite sure how the wii will read dvd's afterwards as I've installed HBC and got the wiiLevel app running from my SD card but when I stuck a dvd in it, it didn't work. I used a movie, should it have worked?

What's the point of the DVD?

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wdiddy
3. When I burn things to a dvd how will I access them? Do I click the HBC and it will show the files? Almost there but not quite.

What are you burning to a DVD? The HBC does not read DVDs.

I saw that MPlayer plays DVD's, is this not right? I guess I can save things onto a USB or HDD, will HBC let me access these files? I still don't have MPlayer working so DVD/USB is moot at this point.

The HBC cannot read apps from DVD. MPlayer, if DVDX is installed, can play DVDs on some Wiis.

Since you have a new wii, it probably can not play DVDs.

If I downgrade to version 3.2 will I be able to play DVD's???

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wdiddy
If I downgrade to version 3.2 will I be able to play DVD's???

That won't make a difference. Downgrading never helps you.

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wdiddy
If I downgrade to version 3.2 will I be able to play DVD's???

1) don't downgrade....ever

2) the problem isn't your firmware, it's the DVD drive itself. The new DVD drives being put in Wiis are designed to not be able to read standard DVDs

If you downgrade below 3.4, your wii will fully brick (I believe installing IOS 60 into the IOS 30 slot and not downgrading any IOSes would prevent a brick, but it is still a very bad idea and it wouldn't allow you to play DVDs anyway). There is nothing you can do to make it play DVDs except replace the disc drive with one that can play DVDs.