Hey guys,

I was looking for a tutorial to transfer a working emuNAND to a new SD card, and only found fragmented tutorials which required following other tutorials to work, or one which used a partition transfer tool rather than EmuNAND tools. So I decided to write up a quick tutorial to detail how I transferred my N3DS 10.4 emuNAND to a new SD card.

There are two methods for doing this: using EmuNAND tool on a PC to backup/restore the EmuNAND, or using EmuNAND9 on the 3DS to do it. The EmuNAND9 method is more convenient but requires you to have enough space on your SD card for the EmuNAND dump. I have therefore included both methods in this guide. You need to follow part 1 to prepare the new SD card, then either part 2a or part 2b depending on how much space you have on your SD card.

Precautions

• Make sysnand and emunand backups before starting
• Make sure you know how to check whether you are on sysnand or emunand
• Make sure you think about what you're doing instead of blindly following this guide. If things go wrong, you need to know what you're doing so you don't cause problems

You will need:

• 3DS with access to Homebrew and emuNAND already set up
• Minipasta installed to your old SD card
• EmuNAND9 installed to your old SD card
• If your original SD card has less than 2GB of available space, you will also need EmuNAND Tool on your PC

Part 1: Prepare the new SD card for emuNAND

Spoiler: Part 1: Prepare the new SD card for emuNAND

1. Back up the contents of both SD cards to your computer
2. Boot your 3DS to sysnand from the old SD card (if you have menuhax autobooting to CFW remember to bypass it to get to sysnand)
3. Boot into the Homebrew Launcher
4. Boot minipasta (again remember to bypass menuhax if it's set to autoboot to CFW)
5. Boot back into the Homebrew Launcher
6. Run EMUNAND9
7. Choose "SD Format Options..."
8. Choose "Format SD..."
9. Choose "... for EmuNAND (default)"
10. When prompted, switch to the new SD card
11. Follow the instructions to proceed with the format and wait for it to finish

Part 2a: If your old SD card has at least 2GB of available space

Spoiler: Part 2a: If your old SD card has at least 2GB of available space

1. Wait for the new emuNAND to finish formatting
2. Take out the new SD card and replace the old SD card
3. Press B three times to return to the main EmuNAND9 menu
4. Choose "EmuNAND Manager Options"
5. Press SELECT to unmount the SD card and B to remount it. This will ensure EmuNAND9 can see your EmuNAND after swapping SD cards
6. Choose "Dump EmuNAND to EmuNAND.bin"
7. While the EmuNAND is being dumped, you can put the new SD card into your computer and restore the backup of all your SD card files. Eject it when it's done
8. When the EmuNAND dump is finished, press B to return to the EmuNAND manager options
9. Press SELECT to unmount the SD card
10. Put the old SD card in your computer, open the EmuNAND9 folder on the SD card, and copy the EmuNAND.bin file somewhere safe on your computer. Eject the old SD card
11. Put the new SD card in your computer and copy EmuNAND.bin from your computer to the EmuNAND9 folder on the new SD card, then eject the new SD card
12. Put the new SD card back in your 3DS and press B to return to the EmuNAND Manager Options
13. Choose "Clone EmuNAND.bin to EmuNAND"
14. Wait for the clone to finish
15. Power off your 3DS
16. Power back on your 3DS

Part 2b: If your old SD card has less than 2GB of available space

Spoiler: Part 2b: If your old SD card has less than 2GB of available space

1. Wait for the format to complete and power off your 3DS
2. Put the OLD SD card into your computer and wait for it to be detected
3. Run EmuNAND tool and click the option to "Extract emuNAND"
4. Choose a safe location on your computer to save the emuNAND backup and wait for it to complete
5. Eject your old SD card, put in the new SD card, and wait for it to be detected
6. Re-run EmuNAND tool and this time choose "Inject NAND to emuNAND"
7. If you see a message saying that NAND.bin does not exist and asking if you want to create it, press No
8. Browse to the emuNAND backup you created in step 15 and select it
9. If you get an error saying invalid or unknown NAND size, use emuNAND tool 1.01. The error will still appear but you can ignore it in this version
10. Wait for the NAND file to be written
11. Copy the backup of your old SD card to the new SD card
12. Eject the SD card from your computer and put it back in your 3DS
13. Power on your 3DS

Whichever method you used, after powering your 3DS back on you should be able to boot back into your EmuNAND on the new SD card.

Comments, questions and corrections are welcome

 

[TR_mahmutpek]

Nice

 

[Ekaitz]

I was watching for something like that. I'll try as soon as I receive my 2 microSD. (One for the n3DS, the other for the Sky)

Thank you

 

[jowan]

A couple of days ago I did that to tmigrate to a brand new 64GB SDXC. For people getting errors like "Invalid Emunand size" or "Cannot format SD" on emunandtool, you have to Backup the emunand on the old SD and the format it using in both cases the GW launcher. Also the 64GB SDXC needs to be FAT32, primary partition with a 32kb cluster.

 

[Returnofganon]

I'm thinking about getting a 10 speed 32 gig microsd and this will be very useful! Thanks a bunch

 

[Acro]

Thanks for the tutorial! , This will come in handy when I get a few dollars and get a 128gb micro sd card lol.

 

[the MCDO]

success on moving 128 gb micro sd card emunand to my new 200 gb micro sd card on New 3DS XL everything loaded up fine and all games and mii plaza stuff working great just had to put black theme back on it because it defaulted out on me

 

[Falkiner]

Why I need to open minipasta before going to EmuNAND9? Can I use rxTools instead? Thanks!

 

[mashers]

Why I need to open minipasta before going to EmuNAND9? Can I use rxTools instead? Thanks!

Yes rxtools should also work.

 

[Falkiner]

Yes rxtools should also work.

Well I have a problem trying to start HBL from RxTools or Mini Pasta, then I've started EmuNAND9 without a CFW. It worked as well!

And while EmuNAND9 was open I've selected the option "Dismount SD Card" to switch cards before trying to format!

Thanks for the tutorial bro!

 

[mashers]

Well I have a problem trying to start HBL from RxTools or Mini Pasta, then I've started EmuNAND9 without a CFW. It worked as well!

Oh, so you don't need CFW to run EmuNAND9? I assumed you would need it! If that's the case I'll try to edit the tutorial.

And while EmuNAND9 was open I've selected the option "Dismount SD Card" to switch cards before trying to format!

Well, I think it does that for you when you choose the option to format the SD card so it shouldn't be necessary to unmount it before selecting the format option.

Thanks for the tutorial bro!

You're welcome

 

[Clydefrosch]

personally, i started with dumping the old emunand using emunand9
while formatting new sd to fat32 format on pc.
then switched sd cards
then, while copying all old sd card files to pc, i created emunand partition on the new sd using emunand9
then copied everything from pc to new sd card (including emunand9's emunand backup file)
and finally injected the emunand dump.

you never leave emunand9 on 3ds and its the most time effective way.

what exactly do you need minipasta for?

 

[richardparker]

can i use this for transferring my 4gb sd card to a 64gb one? i mean completely,including everything?

 

[mashers]

personally, i started with dumping the old emunand using emunand9
while formatting new sd to fat32 format on pc.
then switched sd cards
then, while copying all old sd card files to pc, i created emunand partition on the new sd using emunand9
then copied everything from pc to new sd card (including emunand9's emunand backup file)
and finally injected the emunand dump.

you never leave emunand9 on 3ds and its the most time effective way.

Well yes of course you can do some of the tasks in parallel, but for inexperienced users this can lead to mistakes. The purpose of the tutorial is to put everything step by step in sequence. If some more experienced users want to carry out more than one step at a time to save time then that's up to them.

what exactly do you need minipasta for?

I that EmuNAND9 needed CFW.

can i use this for transferring my 4gb sd card to a 64gb one? i mean completely,including everything?

Yes! This will result in a complete clone of the SD card data and the emunand.

 

[DarkMatterCore]

You can also use my program to backup the EmuNAND from the old SD card (using the "EmuNAND SD card" drop-down list + the "Extract EmuNAND" button) and then format the EmuNAND on the new SD card with that backup (using the "Format EmuNAND" drop-down list + the "Start format" button).

This option has been available since v1.0.

 

[richardparker]

Well yes of course you can do some of the tasks in parallel, but for inexperienced users this can lead to mistakes. The purpose of the tutorial is to put everything step by step in sequence. If some more experienced users want to carry out more than one step at a time to save time then that's up to them.


I that EmuNAND9 needed CFW.


Yes! This will result in a complete clone of the SD card data and the emunand.

That's exactly what I want but how do I do it?

 

[mashers]

That's exactly what I want but how do I do it?

How do you do what?

 

[richardparker]

How do you do what?

how do i clone my 4gb sd card which results in a copmplete copy of my sd data and emunand? i mean how do i go about the process of transferring my 4gb sd card to a 64 gb one in one go?

 

[mashers]

how do i clone my 4gb sd card which results in a copmplete copy of my sd data and emunand? i mean how do i go about the process of transferring my 4gb sd card to a 64 gb one in one go?

That is exactly what this tutorial explains how to do.

 

[SonicRings]

how do i clone my 4gb sd card which results in a copmplete copy of my sd data and emunand? i mean how do i go about the process of transferring my 4gb sd card to a 64 gb one in one go?

*cringe*

Scroll up to post #1, bro