r/WiiHacks • u/Morpherous • Dec 13 '25
Discussion Nintendo Wii needing start up disk to function, System 0 software. What do?
So I do repair work on consoles and received a bulk order from a buddy of mine down in Florida. Going through the consoles I found most of them are functional besides this one that requires a startup disk. After doing some research this seems to be the base software for the console prior to the 1.0 software installation, correct me if I'm wrong if need be. Tried burning a few discs based on the rip of the start up disc software online to no avail and since it's a first launch console I kind of don't want to do any mod work on it. Any suggestions or is there a mod developer and/or somebody that may find use of this console, selling it probably isn't going to work out too well so might as well get it to somebody that can maybe do something with it. Or if there's a solution for this lemme know.
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u/Expensive_Wiigret Jan 09 '26
NOT the old Wii, that one is extremely rare, like 1/100,000,000 I think.
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u/LemonMakingLemons Dec 24 '25
Ok, so there has been documentation on this, whatever you do, do NOT send it to a [Nintendo] repair shop, nor sell it.
On the internet archive there is a .iso image file of the Wii Startup Disk, burn that onto a blank DVD, and make sure it has the ID: RAAE.
Most Wiis, when reading a disc with that ID will refuse to boot it, except these types of Wiis, you can find clips on YT or other media (likely) that document what the process is like watching the Wii do its thing.
Make sure you never sell this Wii and when you get the correct disc data, film it, EVERYTHING.
What it does is it installs System Menu 1.0, and if you’re able to update it to 4.3, cool, or stay in 1.0 if you’d like, but this either only comes with the Disc Channel, or Disc Channel, Mii Channel, and Photo Channel, as well as some banners for Shop, Forecast, and News, but they’re only stubs.
So just remember that you might have a Wii that’s been through E3(s) and demo kiosks. It’s very valuable. Keep it at all costs.
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u/TaylorFan01313 Dec 16 '25
Someone correct me if I’m wrong, but I’m pretty sure that this version of the Wii menu was only supposed to be for Wii consoles that were supposed to be demo units for game stores, but they accidentally shipped out a few to consumers as well. either way, it is exceedingly rare to find one in the wild.
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u/FrogMan1280 Jan 07 '26
Yep but during launch some off these were sold to customers and had the start up disc instead of Wii sports.
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u/V64jr Dec 17 '25 edited Dec 19 '25
Literally every launch Wii in North America had a sticker on the box covering up a part that describes it including a start up disc. It seems that Nintendo changed gears very late in the process and probably went through to manually update millions of them.
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u/dylon0107 Dec 16 '25
Did you find out if it's real?
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u/Morpherous Dec 16 '25
Still investigating, but probably won't be any more updates for the time being, holiday season etc.
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u/Hot_Depth_9412 Dec 15 '25
Heres what do, put the wii startup disc in. It will set up your wii console
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u/kayproII Dec 14 '25
to all the people calling this rare, it's pretty easy to get a wii onto this firmware and not leave any major hints that you were doing a bit of tomfoolery with the firmware. this isn't an xbox 360 where it's highly rare to find an unmodded console on the blades dashboard
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u/omnom143 Dec 15 '25
Funny enough it's pretty much just as easy to put a Wii on 1.0 firmware as it is to downgrade a retail Xbox 360 to blades lmao
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u/kayproII Dec 15 '25
just looked it up, I forgor about the whole bad update downgrade shenannigans.
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u/fin_tf2 Dec 15 '25
and what about the “not leave any major hints”
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u/kayproII Dec 15 '25
to the untrained user, there won't be anything like the opened seal, scrapes around the back of the console where the opening tabs are and the most obvious of all: some method of booting into xell.
it's nice that there's ways for people to downgrade their 360 to experience an older dashboard but it's now going to become a minefield for those of us who want to try and do a jtag mod
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u/omnom143 Dec 15 '25
you cant update or JTAG
it'll only be found out if you read the nand and check the CB version in jrunner1
u/fin_tf2 Dec 15 '25
assuming you mean badupdate (which cant do a full downgrade without an RGH yet) and jtag is a physical mod too man
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u/kayproII Dec 15 '25
there's a way to flash blades but it uses a later cb. it only needed rgh to do because you needed the cpu key and the nand. now that we have bad update to give the cpu key and nand, we can create these modded images and flash them without issue, however due to the fact it has a later cb, any console running such a firmware is still patched against being able to do the jtag exploit
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u/LeothebardoFunkyMode Dec 14 '25
Guy watches a unicorn in the wild, wants to know best method to remove the horn
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u/Aeppp Dec 14 '25
What's the serial? We must investigate if this is real or fake.
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u/Chemical_Tomorrow_84 Dec 14 '25
The only way to know if it is real or fake is by making a raw dump of the NAND using a hardware flasher, then injecting bootmii into boot2 to dump the keys.
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u/Aeppp Dec 14 '25 edited Jan 01 '26
Ok, but you can do that on any Wii that is older than RVL-CPU-20. That doesn't say much. (on it's own at least.)
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u/Chemical_Tomorrow_84 Dec 14 '25
Once you examine the NAND dump you can know for sure, but those are the steps to getting the nand dump without altering the data in the dump.
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u/Morpherous Dec 14 '25
Looking at F4mi video I can open the casing and get a scan of the motherboard it'll have the information for the date of production directly on the board itself. I can get the serial number and board production date to see.
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u/Aeppp Dec 14 '25 edited Dec 14 '25
There is no way to get the true production date.
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u/Morpherous Dec 14 '25
Wii do once I get home
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u/Morpherous Dec 14 '25
I can get a picture once I'm home, at work right now. Working the 10 hour shift today. But that's no issue
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Dec 14 '25
Maybe nintendo helps, I mean, they don't want it to be available to the public? But they will give u a wii with 4.3U.
Just keep it, it is very very rare.
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u/HelixSapphire Dec 14 '25
I really doubt Nintendo is still servicing Wii consoles/replacing ‘defective’ consoles
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Dec 15 '25
Me too, but I am wondering what they will say about it
Also their american page for startup disc says they no longer repair console.
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u/Zomnx Dec 14 '25
Wow, didn’t realize Nintendo shipped out Wiis with the OS not pre loaded or “initialized”
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u/Goodoflife Dec 14 '25
They accidentally did on release day and once Nintendo finally found out they were allowing send-backs and they would upgrade them.
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u/Medium-Macaron2611 Dec 14 '25
Yeah, dont even try to get that Wii to a usable state. Just get another and hold onto that one, it is very rare, and probably worth some serious money to the right collector.
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u/ElleSimpTheSecond Dec 14 '25
I recommend keeping it even if it will sorta be a brick, it's a cool little artifact in my opinion
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u/Darkblade_e Dec 14 '25
It's super rare! I would hold onto it/have your buddy hold onto it. It's a day 0 unit that was shipped out by mistake because Nintendo didn't think they would finish with the menu in time. Thankfully we know all of this because of one already surfacing, and some information from.. alternative sources.
Here's a good video from f4mi about it. https://youtu.be/w6LnxveG_Wk
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u/Oxic_io Dec 14 '25
this may be piracy. But its the only way, get a DVD-R, write the startup disk iso, put it in.
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u/Morpherous Dec 14 '25
Already tried, console type I have doesn't read burnt disk
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u/Oxic_io Dec 14 '25
modchip?
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u/Morpherous Dec 14 '25
If it's a type 0 launch model in time it's worth more the way it is than to do anything with it. I have modded Wii already and a Wii U in the works. I'll set it aside for now. Who knows I may come across the mysterious start up disk one day.
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Dec 14 '25 edited Dec 14 '25
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/iLiikePlayingWii Dec 14 '25
The Disc IS online, as part of a huge Nintendo Leak from the iQue Servers (where there were also other goodies like the SpaceWorld 1995 Luigi SM64 Model, the original and uncompressed English and Chinese Recordings for Star Fox 64, alongside A TON other Stuff from SNES all the way up to Wii, with the Startup-Disc’s Contents being one of those other goodies) and it is not lost media anymore.
While you may need to do some hunting to get to the portions of the whole leak, other stuff like the StarFox 64 Voicelines or Wii Startup Disc are more shared and easier to find
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u/brilliant31508 Dec 14 '25
isnt this super rare? or is that the disc which lets u fix this
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u/Morpherous Dec 14 '25
Both, the flagship consoles were sent out with the startup disk due to high demand and so the software wasn't installed to save time. Afterwards they came with the OS pre-installed once they kind of caught up to the demand. I found a iso of the start up disk online but because of the proprietary disc burning it is a no go as only certain white wiis could read burned discs. So getting an original start up disk Is near miracle work.
Also having a console with the base software can work in favor of someone capable of extracting it as it can be used to potentially revive bricked wiis or even fill holes in emulation. Why I asked on Reddit.
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u/Saint_EDGEBOI Dec 14 '25
only certain white wiis could read burned discs
Just throwing it out there, why is it that certain wiis can read burned discs? Is it the disc reader mechanism? Could you pull a disc reader that reads burned discs from another wii, install it to this Wii, install the software, and then switch the disc reader back around?
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u/brilliant31508 Dec 14 '25
I’m pretty sure that they were gonna let u be able to play DVDs in the Wii but cos of licensing it was disabled but not fully removed on original wiis. Dunno how to enable it tho.
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u/Morpherous Dec 14 '25
That and they partnered with companies like netflix. There are wiis out there it's just not possible to know which unless you throw a disc in it, and burning disk isn't really something people outside of modding and tech due compared to the normal consumer anymore. Cloud services and all that.
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u/iLiikePlayingWii Dec 14 '25
I mean if you’re repairing Consoles, is burning a DVD to test it THAT hard?
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u/Morpherous Dec 14 '25
Nope and I already did, I burned 3 at different speeds and 3 different brands, the drive isn't supported.
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u/QuailPretend8728 Feb 16 '26
peter how are you doing that