OK, so for some reason, My Wii got this ugly eror whenever it booted up:

"The system files are corrupted , please refer to the Wii Operations Manual for help troubleshooting."

I couldn't click anything, I barely got a glimpse of the Wii menu after the warning sign... Naturally I almost shit myself 'cuz wel... firstly my SSBB save file! DX

Not sure why this happened, last thing we did was play WiiSports Resort for the first time (on this Wii), and we hadn't turned it back on since...

Anyway, I do some googling and forum necro-crawling and it basically tells me I'm fucked (on all sites, but this is more straightfoward). $80 Repair fee, all my game saves gone (that I didn't back up), and no Wii for 2 weeks -__-

http://www.gamespot.com/pages/forums/show_msgs.php?topic_id=25399076

So me being me, I just keep resetting my wii, hoping for it to work again so I can back up some saves (that I can -_-) that I hadn't backed up via SD recently (SMG, TC, RS2, etc)... and my little brother (helping me with it, 'cuz he is the one who wanted to play) accidentally holds down the plus and minus buttons while pressing A on the WiiMote as he boots it up. 

Which gave me this message:

"The system is operating in maintenance mode. The Wii Message Board cannot be used"

O.O "Maintenence mode?" I said, "Time to do some maintenance of my own hehehe" :3

Sooooo, immediately I started backing up all possible save files to my SD card. After I was done, I decided "Well... if it's not the saves that are corrupted...", and I re-updated my Wii (I'd already installed it but, hey, good thing  you can re-install it). Waited 5 minutes and...

BINGO, after entering my PIN and re-installing the firmware, my Wii was back to normal :)

I checked and surely enough, the messsage board was slammed with 7 WiiSports Resort postings XD I guess it overloaded the Message Board's limit? o.o

Guess that's how the Nintendo Reps fix it... for $80... Seriously? -_-

Anyway, comment on the adventure, and I'm glad I could share a way to fix this devastating problem ^_^

Congratulations! Just so I understand how to enter this maintenance mode - you wrote "holds down the and - buttons on the WiiMote". Did the you mean the plus and minus buttons? (the plus sign does not show in comments on VGC...)

^Oh, um... yeah, you hold down the Plus and Minus buttons as you click the A  Button when you're told to click the A button onscreen. Sorry, not used to the nu layout XD

EDIT: It's fixed now XD

good to know!

I never knew about that maintenance mode, how weird. Your brother is an accident-genius!

I wonder what other problems the maintenance mode can fix....

Maintenance mode was identified a long time ago, and was believed to exist for that purpose (crack firmware updates at odd ends)

Odd that you didn't find that in your forum-crawling.

Yeah, odd I agree. But I found it after this was all said and done XD

What an accident to find.

I'm curious how you backed up your SSBB file because i'm under the impression that you can't move save data from Wi-Fi enabled games like SSBB.   It's never let me back up mine before.

I didn't. I wrote in the forum post that you can't which is why I said I was frantic. I backed up SMG, RS2, and a few others I hadn't saved at all or updated.

Although, you can back up saves on WiFi Games via:

- A Datel Wii Product (I think it's called PowerSaver or something  O.o)  my friend has it (which is how I unlocked everything for Mario Kart for a party)

- Installing the homebrew channel (like another one of my friends does) and using the save manager

-Modding your Wii with custom firmware (which none of my friends shave done... yet -.-)

I personally don't know why Nintendo locks the biggest and hardest to re-do savegames...  I mean, it doesn't stop cheating. I quit playing The Conduit because of cheating -_-

You obviously haven't met our younger brother! XD