I'm probably what you'd call obsessive about backing data up. My habit stems from a pretty disastrous event in the mid-90's where I lost a bunch of music I'd composed—one song survived only because I'd given my then-fiancée a copy on cassette—and I swore never to let that happen again. Nobody at Nintendo has apparently ever had any kind of data-loss disaster, because here we are two years out from Wii's release and we're still getting games that don't permit us to copy their save data to an SD card—even if said save data has years of time invested, like Animal Crossing might.
And you know, even the SD method, where it works, is significantly less-than-ideal. Copying a save is simple enough, but updating one that's changed? Try to copy, get told you can't, navigate to the SD, delete the old (praying you aren't accidentally deleting the one on the Wii, since they're not very distinguishable), go back to the Wii, copy again. It's no surprise that almost none of my save backups are up-to-date, let alone the fact that I really have no chance of knowing which are.
So what would I have done instead, you ask? Why not an automatic online backup system that operates over WiiConnect24? (Just don't make it a new channel. Making room for Space Invaders Get Even's DLC was rough enough.) There's only about 256 MB of actual user space, according to common wisdom; providing every Wii owner this sort of storage would likely not cost all that much. The first upload would take awhile, but syncing only changed saves and channels whenever WiiConnect24 kicks in would be child's play, bandwidth-wise. Such a system, since it's controlled online, could also be used to conveniently move the data from one system to another, should someone choose to buy a new one out-of-warranty.
But most of all, it'd be simple. It'd give more people a reason to take their Wiis online, and everyone—not just those with the patience to navigate the save management menus—would get the ability to safe-keep copies of the data stored on their Wii. It'd be a nice Christmas present for everyone, don't you think?
So what would I have done instead, you ask? Why not an automatic online backup system that operates over WiiConnect24? (Just don't make it a new channel. Making room for Space Invaders Get Even's DLC was rough enough.) There's only about 256 MB of actual user space, according to common wisdom; providing every Wii owner this sort of storage would likely not cost all that much. The first upload would take awhile, but syncing only changed saves and channels whenever WiiConnect24 kicks in would be child's play, bandwidth-wise. Such a system, since it's controlled online, could also be used to conveniently move the data from one system to another, should someone choose to buy a new one out-of-warranty.
But most of all, it'd be simple. It'd give more people a reason to take their Wiis online, and everyone—not just those with the patience to navigate the save management menus—would get the ability to safe-keep copies of the data stored on their Wii. It'd be a nice Christmas present for everyone, don't you think?