I installed usb loader gx without any issues, and I'm playing wbfs backup files. The only thing I am wondering is if my saved games are actually being saved anywhere? The Wii isn't at my house so I can't check, but I'd really like to know and can't find any info via Google.Thanks
You can back your NAND up, then your save files will (probably) be backed up.
USB Loader GX stores save files directly in the SD/USB.
Just like all Wii games (retail digital), all save data is stored directly on the Wii's Internal Storage as that's where it ALWAYS CHECKS FIRST for that stuff... regardless where the game data is coming from. If you have a lot of games in your collection, you'll likely need to do some very judicious memory management as you should keep around 350 blocks open at all times, especially if you store digital titles on SD cards (as the SD Channel requires 320 blocks as a swap file to temporarily copy the data back to the Wii's internal storage prior to starting the game). With that said, you don't really need to reserve any space on your USB HDD unless it's FAT32 formatted you have the USB Loader GX core files stored on the drive instead of an SD card. If you have the core files stored on the drive, you might want to keep that space open for any incidental downloads you may run into (themes, ocarina cheats, covers, ect.)... but use your own discretion here.
The games played will save in the same place as if you were playing them off of the disk. They will be stored in the Wii's system NAND memory.
