Wii Needs automatic data backup
Wednesday, April 23rd, 2008 at 3:37pm by David
Infendo reader, Instant Awesome, shares his terrifying story with us:
A couple of weeks ago, My Wii stopped working. It would turn on, but I would just get a black screen that never advanced, and the Wii Remotes would not connect. I tried resetting the power supply, because something similar happened once in the past, and resetting the power supply fixed it last time. This time, however, no such luck.
I called Nintendo Support, and as always, the representative on the other end of the phone was friendly and helpful as he could be. He had me reset the power supply a few more times, but nothing. We proceeded, and he scheduled a repair for me. I would need to send the Wii in, and in 2-3 weeks, I would receive a working Wii. He even put it under warranty even though I was using a 3rd party USB Cooling Stand (The GameStop-branded Afterglow Cooler, to be exact). Good man.
Then, I got the question that put a lump in my throat. “Do you have any important Game Save Data that you need maintained?” I thought to myself, YES, YES, OH GOD YES. All of my Brawl data, as well as 120 stars in Galaxy, a completed RE4:Wii, halfway through No More Heroes, the list goes on. I politely said to him, “Yes, I do. It would be great if you could transfer that.” He explained that this may be possible, but it may not. I think you know where this is going.
I just got my Wii back late last week, the promised 2-3 weeks later. That’s good. Finally.
A plain white envelope was enclosed in the shipping box as well, which included repair details:
- We have verified your problem and have repaired or replaced the defective components. Your Wii and your Wii Remote(s) may need to be synchronized if both were not sent in.
Ok, fair enough. Now for the excrutiating part:
- Due to the malfunction, we were not able to recover any data associated with your system. This includes game save data, any Mii’s you have created on the Mii Channel, message board and address book information, and any history you may have had in the Everybody Votes Channel and Check Mii Out Channel.
Pure agony. I feared this would happen, but now my fears have been realized. Of course, I can still download any Virtual Console games I previously purchased. How deep does this go, though? Will my friend codes in Strikers and Brawl be different? Will any game saves I coincidentally backed up months ago still work even though my Miis are gone? I guess I’ll find out soon enough.
This all stinks enough as it is, but it really got me thinking. Let’s forget about how ridiculous it is that backing up Brawl game save data isn’t even an option. Let’s forget about the fact that because I couldn’t turn my Wii on, I couldn’t move any data to SD before sending the Wii in. Here is my main point: where is the automated backup to SD feature?
This is something I think Nintendo needs to implement in a future update. There should be an option to repeatedly write overwrite all Wii data to an SD card on a periodic basis. It could quietly do this in the middle of the night while the Wii is on standby, at a time specified by the user, and could throw away any backups it was in the middle of in case anything goes awry (power outage, Wii turned on, etc.). Not only would this be a great feature in case anything goes wrong with the Wii itself (like, IT WON’T TURN ON), but it would give all users the peace of mind that their data is being safely backed up to another location. As someone who got a Wii on launch day, losing all of my data was what ignited this wake-up call in my head.
I know, I know. I said I would keep it short, and that wasn’t short. However, I think it needs to be said, and it needs to be heard. Feel free to post this for others to read, as both a cautionary tale, and a call for change.
April 23rd, 2008 at 3:43 pm
Good idea, but there’s no money in it so Nintendo wont do it.
April 23rd, 2008 at 4:14 pm
Good point, but I can’t blame Nintendo for this. You can manually back up just fine (yes a bit dull but completely possible). Nintendo doesn’t need to be here to hold our hand when an ancient issue like corrupt data or lost memory happens.
When my Wii broke I had no worries with data, because I had already sent all my miis, gamesaves, channels, etc to a SD card.
I do understand your situation though. Just remember (everyone) to back up your data.
April 23rd, 2008 at 4:28 pm
Wait, you can’t copy Brawl save data at all?
April 23rd, 2008 at 4:39 pm
Nope. Same w/ Guitar Hero. Which really sucks for people with multiple consoles in different locations.
April 23rd, 2008 at 4:45 pm
Nope, nor any Mii’s, a few select Wii games, messages are a one at a time affair if I remember correctly (where’s the option to view cool stats based on our Wii data and to effortlessly go through messages from people and the system?), and Wii friend codes aren’t copyable from a Wii to an SD card.
In short, only some of your game saves are saveable. Say goodbye to your self-created Boondocks nd Becker collection and all of the family Miis you spent hours on if anything goes wrong. I think Geometry Wars is another game that doesn’t allow for transferring saves.
An update would really help out with this situation. It wouldn’t harm anyone’s system, and should be quick and easy to implement with all of the WiiConenct24 experience Nintendo ahs now. Our SD cards should be useable for something.
I can easily share my RE4 save and any other Instant Awesome may need. In RE4 I have everything, but all of the mercenaries, i stopped going for new ones after I got the one I wanted: Hunk (He’s boss, no one’s better Hunk). Galaxy I’m barely at 50 stars, No More heroes I’ve beaten and have all Katana upgrades, about half of the clothes and every wrestling move. I have beaten other games, I actually have my Wii saves with me now because I’m grabbing IGN stages for Brawl right now. Just e-mail me, I’ll send whatever I have as an attachment, I’m sure others would too if you ask.
April 23rd, 2008 at 4:46 pm
Oh yea, i don’t have the chicago typewriter or the infinite launcher, I almost have enough for either-or, but I’m pressed for neither.
April 23rd, 2008 at 4:54 pm
Where is the “chicago typewriter” from? Sounds cool…
April 23rd, 2008 at 5:18 pm
I guess I knnew about the Mii’s, which you can copy to your Wii remote but that’s kinda lame. You know that is one forgotten about feature of the Wii, the ability to store data on the remote itself.
April 23rd, 2008 at 5:29 pm
Ouch… I would go insane if that happened I feel sorry for you but not much can be done. might I suggest something like http://www.wiisave.com. it has many saves on it, maybe you’ll be able to recover at least something from the tragedy.. even if you can’t get the Brawl data back.
April 23rd, 2008 at 5:53 pm
Would it really be so hard to add a new channel that just made an image of all the saved data on the Wii that could just be dropped onto an SD card!
April 23rd, 2008 at 6:07 pm
What in the hell do you mean unable to copy brawl save data? I better not be hearing that you can’t back up your save file to SD cards.
April 23rd, 2008 at 6:27 pm
@InvisibleMan: the chicago typewriter is an unlimited ammo, relatively powerful, tommy gun (machine gun) from RE4.
@gametaku: since you didn’t go through all the mercenaries you don’t have the handcannon either
April 23rd, 2008 at 7:09 pm
But what you didn’t think through, it’s that some saves can’t be transfered ton another Wii, and when you get a another Wii, you can copy some of those saves (like Brawl). What would be BETTER is an ONLINE automatic data backup, you see, you have to connect your Nintendo account to the shop channel and all the saves would be stored in your account! You see, if something go wrong, you call Nintendo to connect your account to your new Wii and you download the saves!
Same could be done for the Mii channel and others
=P
April 23rd, 2008 at 8:02 pm
I think Verizon has something like what you’re talking about available for their phones. You can backup all the stuff on your phone to a server of theirs in case your phone craps out, then just transfer it right to the new one.
April 23rd, 2008 at 8:04 pm
It is extremely stupid that Wii let’s some games have unmovable saves. What right does Nintendo have to tell me what I can do with my data?
April 23rd, 2008 at 8:18 pm
This happened to me on my gamecube memory card, lost YEARS of save data. I back up everything I can now.
April 23rd, 2008 at 8:29 pm
This is bullshit! I don’t want to invest countless hours unlocking and playing only to find if something goes wrong i’m f*cked!. What about the simple process of taking saves and a game to someone else’s place so i can play there with the unlocked features?
This has me on the fence about buying brawl, and any future online-featured games with unlockable content…
Nintendo. Update. Now.
April 23rd, 2008 at 8:33 pm
Oh, and about Metroid Prime 3, the game has that friend voucher thing. Does that mean that game save is also uncopyable to another system?
April 23rd, 2008 at 9:35 pm
Sorry about your loss, Mr. Awesome. I know how frustrating it can be to lose save data, it can make it extremely hard to get back into a game. Wasn’t the Wii supposed to allow for USB drives to be plugged in? If that’s not already implemented, why not add that in an update, along with a one-click “back up my data” button? I guess Nintendo doesn’t want their console to seem flawed, but honestly any electronic device is going to fail eventually.
Better than backup, why not have a moderately-priced subscription service, similar to Apple’s .Mac, that allows for you to back up your saves and Miis to a server somewhere. Then, if you go over to a buddy’s house to play Wii Sports, for example, your rating carries over from your console and you can bowl with your shiny PRO ball! Nintendo, are you listening?
April 24th, 2008 at 12:18 am
Nintendo should at least allow people to backup ALL of their game files. It happened with F-Zero GX and now with Brawl and a few others. WHY in the world can you not copy the data if you have the space? I see no problem with it! If it’s data linked yo your console, why should it be any different than saving a VC game to your SD card and only allowing that wii to use it? INSANE!
April 24th, 2008 at 3:50 am
Wow dude… sorry about that…
April 24th, 2008 at 1:07 pm
Yea, this situation of not allowing data to be backed up or moved only hurts people who wouldn’t abuse it. There are hacks and other things to move some unmovable game saves for the gamecube and I’m sure one will be made for the Wii later this year, making a great feature available to many of the people who probably abue such a feature.
I never saw the harm it did in GX, it only allowed people to let their friends enjo a game more thoroughly that may not be too good at.
April 24th, 2008 at 1:59 pm
Thanks for your concerns, guys. I do admit it was foolish on my part to not back everything up (that is allowed) on a regular basis, but everybody has 20/20 hindsight, right?
I suppose there’s worse things in the world than having to play through great games a second time. The only ones I am going to play through again are the ones that are worth playing again, so that’s fine. I lost my Red Steel game save too, but to that I say “meh.”
On a minor positive note, my Brawl Replays, Snapshots, and Stages were saved to my SD card, so I still have all of those.
April 24th, 2008 at 2:03 pm
Also, from where did you get that picture of me? I don’t remember posting that online.
April 25th, 2008 at 10:37 pm
I think Nintendo would be smart to make a special Wii-SD card that includes this feature. This way, they make money off of it and those willing to buy it will be happy to know that their Wii save data is all nice and safe in the SD card.
Unfortunately, I don’t think that’ll ever happen. I’d rather see a hard drive of some sort first, but even that’s a stretch.
April 28th, 2008 at 9:08 am
to Instant Awesome:
I just got the same problem as your wii. I haven’t played my wii for a few days and when I turned it on yesterday it just shows me a black screen. I tried troubleshooting steps but it still would not work.
You said that Nintendo gave you repair details - what did they say was wrong and what did they replace/repair?
My wii isn’t under warranty anymore so I wanted to know what may be the problem so i can check and see if the local repair shops near me can repair it cheaper than having to send it to Nintendo.
Thanks for the help!
April 28th, 2008 at 9:11 am
please Instant Awesome I need your feedback.
Thanks!