Wii's USB Loader has dropped ...

[Galaxy_Stranger]

Thanks for the advice. Now, I can do hard-core homework on each step.

I was gonna back-up my games to .iso so I can play them on PC, and that leaves the USB hdd hooked up to the wii expendable. Then, I can either just use .isos or convert them if anything happened. By then, the Wii U should have been out a while past early-adoption and there'll be a new process to follow anyway!

[Shane R. Monroe]

You can't read commercial Wii discs on any DVD drive. You have to have a special one on the PC to do that. Or, obtain your ISOs another way.

What you CAN do is ... Rip the games on the WII to the HDD, then drag the HDD back to the PC and dump them off there.

So, the drive still ends up going back and forth anyway - hence the HDD docks.

[TechMaster]

Western Digital USB Passports worked fine for me and a friend. I suspect most will be compatible.

[Galaxy_Stranger]

Sweet.

Ok, so if I want .iso's, I can still rip them from the wii anyway.

Thanks, TechMaster.

[Galaxy_Stranger]

I'm almost home-free. I followed this tutorial: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GnQU3...eature=related

The next step is the CIOS. How can I determine that I have a CIOS installed? I can't see anything in my new channels for it.

-=[EDIT]=-
Ok - based on that video tutorial, I'm 90% sure I've got CIOS covered.

Now, I have a channel for "USB Loader GX", but it freezes up the system. I have my USB drive, what do I do next?

-=[EDITEDIT]=-
Ok, I need to install CIOS v222 and v249. How can I surgically install these two?

[Galaxy_Stranger]

Ok, I think I may have missed a step and skipped over installing the CIOS v222 and v249 files. At least one of these are required for USB Loader GX and other applications. So, I'm going to start over and reinstall everything.

On Bricking your WII
I thought I'd post a note about this. While reading all this information about modding the Wii, I came across the actual reason why a Wii gets bricked. (If this has already been discussed in the thread, I apologize. I just couldn't sit through the entire thread - but I DID get about half-way!)

The Wii uses what is called the IOS for the games you have installed on your system. It's kind of like a mini-operating system that is used on a per-game bases. When you buy a new game and start playing it on the Wii, it checks to see if the IOS needed is on your system. If not, it will install that specific version of IOS that it requires along-side the versions that are already there. There are many versions of the standard IOS installed on your system at the same time, and they are each used by specific games. When modding your Wii, new Custom IOS files are required for certain apps and functionality. They are refered to as "CIOS" files.

The problem arises when you've downloaded and installed a modified IOS file and overwritten an existing one with it. This has an extremely good chance of bricking your Wii and nobody will feel sorry for you. The only IOS files you require/need to worry about are the CIOS files created by the modding community. Standard IOS files follow a naming convention that numbers them. They are most often named well under 100. So, if you've got an IOS file named around 30 or so - DO NOT INSTALL IT. CIOS files are usually named above 200 to avoid overwriting the pre-existing standard IOS files.

I have found the Wii modding process to be quire resilient and easy to fix mistakes - you shouldn't have to worry about bricking your wii because you skipped a step or zig when you shoudl have zagged. However, overwriting an IOS file with a modified one is dividing by zero and crossing the streams. All modding instructions I've come across avoid doing this, so as long as you keep this in mind, you should be good.

[Galaxy_Stranger]

Ok - I've crapped-out. I reinstalled everything from scratch and USB Loader GX keeps freezing.

HALP! - Exception (DSI)

[Shane R. Monroe]

Which CIOS are you using? W's or H's?

[Galaxy_Stranger]

Should be Winkoko's. Anywhere I can look to check?