Noob Help Topic

Ok, so I downloaded the HBC the other day and everything works great, but I still have some questions about some of all this...

1.) Can shutting down the system normally (via power button on Wii remote) brick it? And is it in any other way bad? I assumed that since the option was there to shutdown from the HBC that's what you were supposed to do, (and that's what I had been doing) but this time I forgot. I have yet to try turning on the console again to see if it works, but I just want to know how dangerous that is.

2.) Can someone please explain BootMii to me? I don't care how it works, I just want to know how to use it. The Readme said it was for only for experts and stuff - but I would like to be able to recover from a bricking if and when it happens. I know how to install it (I have the older white Wii), I just don't want to permenantly **** anything up not knowing what I'm doing, since it messes with your NAND or whatever.

3.) General tips on how to avoid bricking

1) It's perfectly fine to turn off normally. The option in HBC is just there for convenience (e.g. if you're using a GC controller and want to power off without getting up etc.)

2) BootMii inserts itself in the boot process of the Wii. In other words, it gets loaded before the System Menu (the main Wii interface). Within BootMii, you can do a few things. The main feature is it's ability to backup and restore your NAND. In essence, what this means is that it takes a snapshot of the exact condition of your Wii's internal memory, which can then be restored at a later stage if required.

A few things to note about this; if you brick, this is a sure fire way to recover. However, you will lose any and all other changes made to your Wii in the time between taking the NAND backup (or NAND dump, as it's also known) and restoring it. So any updated save games or newly downloaded VC or WW titles will be lost. If you take regular backups, and always take a backup before anything "risky", you can avoid losing much/anything.

BootMii will (by default) load it's own menu when you power on your Wii, but once you've made a NAND backup you can set it to autoboot the System Menu (or HBC, if you'd prefer) so it doesn't get in the way during boot. Also, because of how it works, you can't use Wii remotes within the BootMii menu, you need to either use a GC controller or navigate using the power and reset buttons on the Wii itself.

3) Generally, stay away from anything that modifies the system in any way. Stuff like IOS patchers, cIOS, theming, anything mentioning "patching"; these are all things which can potentially be dangerous if you don't know what you're doing. If you think you need to use stuff like this, make sure you know exactly what it does, why you need it and how to do it properly. Most of this stuff is only really used for backups & piracy (mostly piracy), and as such is against the rules of discussion here.

What about IPS files? (translation patches) Are they dangerous in any way?

The SNES9x gx said it had an update available today. I can update that without being paranoid right?

Yes you can update apps without being paranoid. Regular homebrew apps do not effect the internal storage of the Wii in any way, they are completely located on the SD card and run from there.

The IPS patches...I'm not sure what you're applying the patches to. IPS files in themselves are not "dangerous." A bad patch on a critical file would be a brick, but I'm assuming you're talking about patching ROMs for emulators or maybe Wii backups (which as said above we do not support here), and the worst that would happen in those cases is that particular game would stop working properly.