Upgrade from 4.2U? Start Over? Backing up?

Hi everyone, keeping it simple:

1. I currently have Homebrew installed on 4.2U, but I want to upgrade to the latest and want to make sure it's safe. How? Just use the Wii update and start all over again? Is it 4.4? Any advice would be awesome. (I really want Netflix, that's why.)

2. Before I do anything, I want to make sure I can backup the saved games. Is there any way to do this other than onto SD card using the data management features of the Wii? Or is that good enough? This is extremely important to me or I will have some devastated kids who have been playing the same game for 3 years and keeping it all saved. (Animal Crossing, etc.)

3. I can't imagine there is a safe way to install the Wii update to 4.4 or whatever while keeping Homebrew installed, is there? If so, what's the best way? If not...

4. Once I update my Wii, what's the best way to install Homebrew and get all that going again? I read about Letterbomb, but what's the latest and best and easiest way to go about all this?

Thanks so much! I'm reading so many different things that conflict and people have their own custom packages and there's a million different videos on YouTube about this. It's not that I'm lazy - I will do the research - I just need help filtering out the good and bad, you know? I just want to have confidence I'm doing the right things here...

As long as you have the latest version of the homebrew channel you can update using the official updater. 4.3 is the newest System Menu version. You will not lose the HBC.
When updating you don't need to backup any saves or data.

Really??? All this time! Wasted... what a tragedy...

Well the upside is that I learned how to backup all my saved games, and I even learned how to add some bells to Animal Crossing. :)

Okay, I'm going to try updating it now and hold my breath...

About to update, and I get this:

"IMPORTANT: If your Wii includes unauthorized modifications, this update may detect and remove unauthorized content causing immediate or delayed inoperability of your console. If you do not with you accept this update, you can hold down the POWER button..."

So I went ahead with it, and it started, and I got this:

Error Code: 32004
An error has occurred. Unable to perform the Wii system update. Visit support.nintendo.com for assistance.

[www.nintendo.com]

Quote

Lost connection during Wii system update

Likely cause: Your wireless router may need to be power cycled, or the connection settings have changed.

It could be internet connection issues that are causing it to fail, you can try again. It may also be a hack that forces the update to fail. If you have Priiloader installed then that may be the case. You can disable the hack and update normally but you would have to re-install Priiloader afterwards.

I re-checked my wireless router and this connection is really solid and stable. I've also tried it 4 times in a row and it stops at the exact same spot (near the very beginning), so I think it's something getting blocked and it's not the internet connection.

I don't remember what I did years ago but I do remember setting it up to not do this. Boot 2 ... whatever it's called. I found Priiloader and just removed it and will try again...

70% through with updating...

Worked!!! Thank you!

So I'm now installing Netflix and downloading the latest Priiloader v0.7 and hope I remember to set everything properly.

Okay, problems.

I re-installed Priiloader v0.7 but I don't know where to apply any settings, but it's installed.

I tried to run WAD Manager 1.6 but it locked up the system. I updated to v1.7 and it also locked up the system.

Not sure if I'm allowed to mention USB Loader, but I updated that to v3 and ran all the updates, but it only shows the menu. If I try loading anything it just sends me back to the menu. Sucks!!!

I tried going back to the SaveGameManagerGX and it says:
"No SaveGame found in Wii"
And my controller completely stops working.

I have Netflix, but I screwed up everything else. Please help!

Priiloader: hold reset while turning on the Wii

WAD Manger: mostly used for piracy, we do not support that tool here

USB Loader: No, you can't mention that here or get help for it

SaveGame Manager GX: You need a cIOS install to use that I believe. We can't help you with that either.

Okay, got it. I won't mention any of those unmentionables again! Thanks for letting me know...

On the original post, though, just for anyone reading this, it was not good advice to simply update and everything will be fine. The warnings are true - things will not function properly after upgrading.

You will need to re-install Homebrew afterwards even if you still have it and it appears to work. I had to start all over again from scratch. Working now. :)

If you had plain ordinary homebrew (HBC) it would have worked fine. You had a bunch of other stuff that we don't support on this forum.