So you've just begun to hack your Wii. You've downloaded the HackMii installer and everything is running smoothly when lo and behold...there is more than just the Homebrew Channel packaged inside HackMii! In fact, there are 3 applications:
Hopefully at this point you know what the Homebrew Channel is. What about DVDX? Simple...DVDX enables your Wii's DVD drive to read any standard DVD. But what is this BootMii application? Do I need it? What does it do?
BootMii is a project by Team Twiizers (the same people who brought us the Homebrew Channel) that aims to eventually replace the standard Wii menu with a custom one. While that's cool and all, my first reaction was that I didn't really need it because I'm pretty satisfied with the standard Wii menu. What really piqued my interest was when I started reading about the anti-brick protection that BootMii can provide.
Since we're screwing around with system files and modifying things that Nintendo never meant for us to modify, wouldn't it be nice to have a little peace of mind that we have a recovery option should we mess something up royally? BootMii can provide us with that peace of mind. Let me put it this way...it's better to have it and not need it, than to need it and not have it.
OK, so you've gone ahead and installed the Homebrew Channel and DVDX. If you had previously installed the Homebrew Channel and want to go back to add BootMii, just extract the .elf file from the HackMii download and rename it to boot.elf. Then pop it in apps\homebrew_channel on your SD card and run it via the Homebrew Channel.
Inside the installer, go into the BootMii section. Here you have 2 options: install as IOS or install as boot2. If possible select boot2. I'm not really sure how installing as an IOS helps you (although it does enable you to load BootMii when you press the Home button inside the Homebrew Channel). If the HackMii installer tells you that you can't install as a boot2, go ahead and install as IOS.
After installing as boot2, exit the installer and continue as usual. Next time you power your Wii down and start back up, you will be presented with the BootMii interface. The boot2 install modifies a couple of your Wii's boot files to allow BootMii to load before the Wii Menu loads. This is how it protects you from bricks! If you do brick your Wii system menu, you can load and use the BootMii menu to recover.
In the BootMii Menu, press the reset button on your Wii, you should be taken to the Wii's System Menu. Open up the Homebrew Channel and use the Homebrew Browser to download the BootMii Configuration Editor from the Utilities section. If you cannot access the Hpmebrew Browser, download the BootMii Configuration Editor from here. Extract the .zip file and place the files in a folder labelled 'Bootmii_cfg_ed'. Place that folder in the apps folder of your SD card. Load the Configuration Editor in the Homebrew Channel and then change the settings to your preferences:
? If you have a PAL Wii obviously you would have to select PAL50 or PAL60 in the Video option, depending on what your TV supports.
? In AutoBoot you have a choice of whether you want your Wii to go to the Homebrew Channel, System Menu or the BootMii Menu (OFF) after the delay time when the Wii is turned on.
? Boot Delay Time allows you to choose how long you want your Wii to stay on the BootMii Menu before it goes to your selection in AutoBoot.
For example, if I select HOMEBREW CHANNEL in the AutoBoot option and 5 in the Boot Delay then, when I turn the Wii on, the BootMii screen will appear for 5 seconds and then the Wii will go straight to the Homebrew Channel. When you are finished click 'Save & Close'. You will be returned to the Homebrew Channel.
If your Wii can only install BootMii as an IOS, don?t despair. After you have downloaded it, head back to the Homebrew Channel and press the Home button. Select the ?Launch BootMii? option. Then skip to Step 2 in the following guide.
One thing that you will immediately notice is that BootMii does not support the Wiimote (yet). Don't panic! Just push the Power button on your Wii to cycle between the choices and then press the Reset button to select your choice.
Finally, and this is critical, use BootMii to take a backup of your NAND! Think of NAND as the hard drive of your Wii. BootMii will enable you to essentially snapshot your entire Wii setup (channels, saves, configuration, system files, everything) onto an SD card so that if you mess something up, you can cruise back into BootMii and re-establish your backed up NAND. To do this:
1. If you have everything set up as described above and your BootMii is installed as boot2, just restart your Wii and when the dots are counting down below the 'Wii' option, press your Wii's power button. This should stop it from counting down.
2. Use the Power button to navigate over to the Options Menu (the one that looks like 2 gears). Press the reset button to enter it.
3. After inserting the SD Card that you want to use for the backup, use the power button to navigate to the icon that looks like a Wii console with an arrow to an SD Card (the green icon). Press the reset button and watch it roll. You should now see a screen with a bunch of blocks and a status. When the process completes, you have backed up your NAND and you can use that SD Card to recover your console should you brick it. When finished - don't worry if you have some bad blocks - copy your NAND backup and keys file to a place where you will remember on your computer?s hard drive. You can then delete it off you SD card.
Take a backup every so often so you don't ever lose any settings.
4. To restore your Wii to when you backed it up, place the NAND backup and keys files back onto the root of your SD card. Select the gear icon in the BootMii homepage and then select the icon of an SD card with an orange arrow pointing towards a Wii. Follow the onscreen instructions until you return to the Options Menu. Select the back button then select the icon that looks like the Wii symbol. TADAA! You have successfully restored your Wii.
Congratulations, you've now got BootMii installed and running smoothly. You also have a full system backup for your Wii. If you ever need it, it's there for you.
