Backup Wii Saves & Channels To SD Card

Backing up saves and channels for the Nintendo Wii is an easy but fairly time-consuming process. It also won't allow you to backup every save file (more on this later). If you own a Wii Mini (the red & black one), you are probably out of luck because the Wii Mini has no SD card slot.

You will need a SD card compatible with the Nintendo Wii. Nintendo Wii General Information has details on what the Wii supports, but you have to click on 'SD Cards' and then 'Which SD Cards are Compatible With the Wii Console?'

If you have a compatible SD card reader for your PC, you can read the save files off of it after you transfer them.

Make sure that you insert the SD Card into your Nintendo Wii before starting.

Copying Saves from System to a SD Card

 From the Wii Menu / Main Menu:

1. Hover over 'Wii Options' (lower-left corner) and press A to go to the Wii Options screen
2. Go to 'Data Management'
3. Go to 'Save Data'
4. Go to 'Wii' (the Wii tab of the next page should already be highlighted)
5. Select a save file & follow the on-screen prompts (you will likely want to Copy the save)

Copying Channels from System to a SD Card

From the Wii Menu / Main Menu:

1. Hover over 'Wii Options' (lower-left corner) and press A to go to the Wii Options screen
2. Go to 'Data Management'
3. Go to 'Channels'
4. Select a channel & follow the on-screen prompts (you will likely want to Copy the channel)

As far as I know, saves are not included with channels. You have to backup the save for each channel that you 

Copying Channels or Saves from a SD Card

The process for restoring a save/channel is mostly the same as copying it in the first place. When you get to the screen with your saves (or channels), select 'SD Card' in the upper-right corner of the screen.

Where Are My Saves?

On your SD card, your saves are located at:
private\wii\title

It gets a little complicated after that. It seems like every game has a four-letter folder name associated with it.

What Saves Can't Be Transferred?

Many saves cannot be copied or moved to a SD card. Examples include Mario Kart Wii, Super Smash Bros. Brawl, and Dr. Mario Online RX. All of the non-copyable games that I own have online play, so the save files are possibly locked-down to help prevent cheating. Cheating still occurs, so I don't quite know what Nintendo were thinking...