Make your Wii a virgin

by zidane_genome

This tutorial will make it so your Wii is back to it's virgin state. No cIOS, no preloaders, Starfall, DVDx, nothing, but the way it was shipped to you.

First, you have to get your SystemMenu-v2xx.WAD file (289 is for US, 290 is for EU). No one will give you a link to it, since it contains Nintendo Copyrighted code. Here's a hint, go to Hackmii.com

Second, you will need 2 apps for your Homebrew Channel. WADManager, and AnyTitleDeleter.

Put the apps in the APPS folder on your SD card. Put the SystemMenu-v2xx.WAD file in your WAD folder.

Load the homebrew channel.

Run the AnyTitleDeleter, and delete any IOS verison above 60 (example, IOS249)

When your done, go back to the Homebrew Channel, and reboot your Wii by holding the power button till it goes RED.

Restart your Wii, and run the Homebrew Channel agian, this time, running WadManager. Install the SystemMenu-v2xx.WAD file by selecting it and pressing the + button. Yes, you are sure.

When it's done, press the Home button. and agian, reboot your Wii by holding the power button until it goes RED. Turn your system back on, and you now have a Virgin Wii, cherry intact!

NOTE: Your save games, and channels will still be there, as well as the Homebrew Channel. If you want to get rid of the homebrew channel and all the Saves/Channels, go to the System Setting menu, and on the third page, select "FORMAT WII MEMORY". This will wipe out everything else.

If you've installed Preloader, and have the hacks.ini file still in your Wii, you can use the Hacks Remover that comes with the Softmii package, or just leave it there. It won't hurt anything, and will only take up a block of space. Doing a System Format won't get rid of it.



I stole this I'm sure the author won't mind me passing it on

Should come in handy if you want Softmii or Riskiimod off? Or need to start the install fresh as you made mistakes and now know how to sort them etc. etc.


1. this only works if your regular IOS are trucha capable, if you are at 3.3v2 or 3.4, this won't work, you can't delete the IOS then with AnyTitleDeleter and you can't overwrite the system menu. If you could, you wouldn't need IOS16 for the downgrade. Maybe you can modify the AnyTitleDeleter to use IOS249 to delete IOS files and i'm almost sure the WAD Manager uses IOS249 to install wads if IOS249 is found. So for 3.3v2 and 3.4 users, I would change it to, don't delete IOS249, and use a special (yet unreleased) AnyTitleDeleter to delete the unneeded IOS if there are others than IOS249
2. I would install IOS30v1040 before the installation of the system menu to get a real 3.2 system menu and not just a half. Before because, this should be more safe. If you have for example 3.4 the system menu uses IOS50, and wouldn't be bricked if you delete IOS30(when you are at 3.4!). If you don't have IOS30 or there's something wrong with it when installing the 3.2 system menu, you get a full brick.
3. The installation of IOS30 and the system menu are critical processes, if you delete one of these, or something goes really wrong with the installation of these, the Wii is bricked. If the installation just fails, because trucha is not supported, the Wii should not be bricked, but i'm not sure about that and i'm not going to test it
4. Maybe the installation of IOS36v1042 before IOS30 and the system menu is a good test, if this works without a problem, the rest should work too. The installation of IOS36 can't fail that much to brick your Wii even in the worst imaginable case.

would also udating to 3.4 not make it vigin again and removing homebrew channel?

thats what ive been doing updating to 3.4 through nintendo update solves all the problems

Can I use this method with a riiskimodded console, can anytitledeleter be used to delete cios as well as ios.

Ignore my last post, I was just being thick.

Does the SystemMenu-v2xx have to match the firmware m8?

And does anybody know if Bushing's recovery disc would also return to a virgin state? and would we still need to delete the cios ios etc?

Thx in advance

Most of the times if people are referring to SystemMenuXXXX.wad they mean the SystemMenu thats in de disc from Bushing (v3.2x). You can extract it from the disc using WiiScrubber.
Don't use this wad on 3.3 or higher. It'll only work correctly on 3.2 and lower I guess.

If you want a virgin Wii, the answer would be yes on the question whether to remove ioses/cioses as described.

Just used the method and can confirm it works a treat.

I used v290 for pal.

I extracted the file from wii-system-menu-update-PAL-v290-repad.iso using wiiscrubber and deleted the ios over 60 (there was only 1 on my system: ios254) using anytitledeleter.

Scarfish said:

Most of the times if people are referring to SystemMenuXXXX.wad they mean the SystemMenu thats in de disc from Bushing (v3.2x). You can extract it from the disc using WiiScrubber.
Don't use this wad on 3.3 or higher. It'll only work correctly on 3.2 and lower I guess.

If you want a virgin Wii, the answer would be yes on the question whether to remove ioses/cioses as described.

Click to expand...

many thx m8 for your reply all starting to make sense abit now lol

vin2deep said:

Just used the method and can confirm it works a treat.

I used v290 for pal.

I extracted the file from wii-system-menu-update-PAL-v290-repad.iso using wiiscrubber and deleted the ios over 60 (there was only 1 on my system: ios254) using anytitledeleter.

Click to expand...

Did you not have any cIOS's to delete m8?

6bellys said:

Did you not have any cIOS's to delete m8?

Click to expand...

No there were no cios'

vin2deep said:

No there were no cios'

Click to expand...

ok thx, what mod were you using then m8 just curious?

6bellys said:

ok thx, what mod were you using then m8 just curious?

Click to expand...

using riiskimodv2. I was expecting to see some cios entries but there were none.

But i can confirm all is working well.

vin2deep said:

using riiskimodv2. I was expecting to see some cios entries but there were none.

But i can confirm all is working well.

Click to expand...

yes that is strange i would of expected some to be there somewhere

A more upto date method I found made by someone else.


A) If you are on system
menu lower than 4 then the first thing you should do is the the official Nintendo update, this will get rid of a lot of mods and is the safest way to do it, if you are on sys menu 4 already then downgrade to 3.2 first with cios downgrader 1.2 then do the official update.

B) If you have preloader/dvdx run NAND Clean and it will go through all the files it's going to delete one at a time and ask you if you want to delete them, say yes to all of them. ONLY RUN THIS AFTER YOU HAVE UPDATED, IT WILL CAUSE PROBLEMS IF YOU HAVEN'T!

C) Next load up AnyTitle Deleter and delete any IOS that has a number greater than 200. DO NOT DELETE ANY OTHER IOS WITH IT!

Ca) Bootmii users should now run the installer and select 'uninstall'

D) Still using AnyTitle Deleter go to 'installed channels' and delete any channels that you installed yourself, backup launcher channels, pirate wiiware, etc. Then delete the Homebrew Channel and you are done.

Step A) is a bricker for everyone with a LU64 (or Wii's with another serial that have boot2v4)!!!
If these Wii's get downgraded to 3.2 they're fully bricked!

Maybe a downgrade to 3.4 will work but I cant assure that.

cheers Scarface its good u post up here as i'm well behind, people should pay more attention when u post mate