Wii Startup Discs
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 An image of what the Startup Disc might have looked like, ripped from the Startup Disc Menu. | |
| Disc Internal Name | Wii Startup Disc |
|---|---|
| Disc ID | RAAE01 |
| Disc IOS | IOS9 |
| Disc Release Date | Exact date unknown, somewhere around October/November 2006 |
| Disc Build Date | October 7, 2006 |
| Disc Apploader | October 7, 2006 |
The Wii Startup Disc is a disc which was used to install the initial retail version of the Wii System Menu and various channels and IOS versions onto an early Wii system which did not have this software pre-installed with 122E.
The Wii Startup Disc was leaked on September 2, 2020, as a part of the Zammis Clark Breach.
The leaked startup disc is v0; a Nintendo release spreadsheet from the CIS-004 dump reveals an additional v1 revision which has not been found; the difference between the two is unknown.
The disc's program is nearly identical to that of the Startup Disc Menu.
Origin
The final version of the Wii System Menu had not yet been created as of August 2006, and by the time it was scheduled to be ready in October 2006, it would be too late to preinstall it on newly produced Wii consoles for shipment to retail stores for use in demo kiosks as well as early retail units, as these units would have needed to start the firmware flashing phase of their production earlier in order to meet demand. As such, the Startup Disc Menu was created and preinstalled on all Wiis being produced at that time, until the backlog was caught up with. This menu would only accept this disc and certain other repair discs; further information is available on its page. While this menu was originally intended to be deployed to all launch day Wii consoles, ultimately production scaled as such that the vast majority of consoles which had the menu installed were shipped as store kiosk demo consoles, either along with the disc or to have the disc installed on them by a Nintendo representative. (It is theorized, but not known, that the disc was only included with the system package for store kiosks in rural areas, such as central Indiana.)
However, this plan did not go completely as written; many consoles were shipped at launch day with the menu installed but without the disc, and a very small subset of consoles were shipped both with the menu and the disc. It is from the former of these types of consoles that the NAND dump containing the Startup Disc Menu has been obtained from, and the latter where the uid.sys listing has been obtained from.
It is also notable that early versions of the retail Wii box listed the Startup Disc on their contents; certain launch day Wii boxes listed it, others did not and listed the Wii Sports Disc instead. This appears to have no relation to the actual contents of the box.
Starlight version
It has been discovered that there was a development-signed version of the Startup Disc, used as part of the initial factory setup of Starlight Fun Center Wiis.
Contents
- Wii System Menu 1.0
