Hacking A9HL to B9S: Lost All Data

[Larenthios]

Hello,

I was running a N3DS with A9HL, and wanted to play online, and thus to update my software.
Unsure about the safety of this procedure, i wanted tu upgrade A9HL to B9S using the famous guide.
I did step 1, 2 and 3 without any problems.
However, at the end of step 3, i saw that my homescreen was empty (it requires to reboot).
I then saw the part of the tutorial saying "if you would like to move the contents of your previous EmuNAND to your new SysNAND CFW, follow this"
I then backed up the SD card both before and after following this other tutorial, to no avail. I followed every step but my homescreen is still empty.
I then proceeded to finish A9HL to B9S, and nothing changed.
I know have a fully working B9S with GodMode (as far as i can tell), but nothing more.

I possess 3 backups (backup, as in "opening the SD card and dumping everything in a directory on my computer"), one before step 1, one after step 3 but before the "Move EmuNAND", and one right after "Move EmuNAND".

My first goal would be to recover my game saves, even if it means downgrading to some old A9HL / Emunand.
Being able to both get my saves & games back and a fully functionnal B9S would be cool but optionnal.

Thanks a lot, and sorry for the rusty english and the lack of details.

 

[lone_wolf323]

Hello,

I was running a N3DS with A9HL, and wanted to play online, and thus to update my software.
Unsure about the safety of this procedure, i wanted tu upgrade A9HL to B9S using the famous guide.
I did step 1, 2 and 3 without any problems.
However, at the end of step 3, i saw that my homescreen was empty (it requires to reboot).
I then saw the part of the tutorial saying "if you would like to move the contents of your previous EmuNAND to your new SysNAND CFW, follow this"
I then backed up the SD card both before and after following this other tutorial, to no avail. I followed every step but my homescreen is still empty.
I then proceeded to finish A9HL to B9S, and nothing changed.
I know have a fully working B9S with GodMode (as far as i can tell), but nothing more.

I possess 3 backups (backup, as in "opening the SD card and dumping everything in a directory on my computer"), one before step 1, one after step 3 but before the "Move EmuNAND", and one right after "Move EmuNAND".

My first goal would be to recover my game saves, even if it means downgrading to some old A9HL / Emunand.
Being able to both get my saves & games back and a fully functionnal B9S would be cool but optionnal.

Thanks a lot, and sorry for the rusty english and the lack of details.

When you check data management and 3ds titles. Does it show any games listed within there perhaps greyed out or does it also show nothing?

 

[Larenthios]

It doesn't show anything in "Softwares" aside from "Luma3DS Updater", and there is no additionnal data nor additionnal content

 

[The Real Jdbye]

Hello,

I was running a N3DS with A9HL, and wanted to play online, and thus to update my software.
Unsure about the safety of this procedure, i wanted tu upgrade A9HL to B9S using the famous guide.
I did step 1, 2 and 3 without any problems.
However, at the end of step 3, i saw that my homescreen was empty (it requires to reboot).
I then saw the part of the tutorial saying "if you would like to move the contents of your previous EmuNAND to your new SysNAND CFW, follow this"
I then backed up the SD card both before and after following this other tutorial, to no avail. I followed every step but my homescreen is still empty.
I then proceeded to finish A9HL to B9S, and nothing changed.
I know have a fully working B9S with GodMode (as far as i can tell), but nothing more.

I possess 3 backups (backup, as in "opening the SD card and dumping everything in a directory on my computer"), one before step 1, one after step 3 but before the "Move EmuNAND", and one right after "Move EmuNAND".

My first goal would be to recover my game saves, even if it means downgrading to some old A9HL / Emunand.
Being able to both get my saves & games back and a fully functionnal B9S would be cool but optionnal.

Thanks a lot, and sorry for the rusty english and the lack of details.

If you booted the 3DS to the home menu after following "Move emuNAND" and before copying the backup on again, you have to delete the "Nintendo 3DS" folder and copy it on again from the (pre-move emuNAND) backup, otherwise there will be conflicting data in the folder.

 

[Larenthios]

The "Nintendo 3DS" directory was overwritten, and i tried to put it again and boot the console, it didn't change a thing (still the same empty homescreen)

 

[Quantumcat]

Did you have an emuNAND but you were primarily using sysNAND? If so you need to restore the backup of your sysNAND from before you restored emuNAND over it.

 

[Kazuma77]

The "Nintendo 3DS" directory was overwritten, and i tried to put it again and boot the console, it didn't change a thing (still the same empty homescreen)

Overwriting is not enough. You have to make sure you delete any existing "Nintendo 3DS" folder on the card (or at least any matching ID folders in it) before you copy the old one back over. Otherwise files get mixed, and the system will not accept the older files.

I'm also not completely certain as to whether you actually copied EmuNAND to SysNAND or not. There's really no guide required for that (actually, next GM9 release, the guide is dead, because d0k3 has added firm installing, so there will just be "one script to rule them all" and a pack that gets GM9 up and running with any existing exploit). All you have to do is select your EmuNAND (either a backup or "nand.bin" on the E: drive) in Godmode9, and pick the safe restore option that keeps your exploit (should be the only option it gives you, actually). It should go without saying, but, make sure you have a backup the original before doing so.

 

[koffieleut]

I've read enough to stay on a9lh masterace

 

[Kazuma77]

I've read enough to stay on a9lh masterace

It wasn't the switch to B9S that caused whatever happened. This is completely unrelated to installing B9S. This happened when they decided to move their NAND. That's been in the guide since it was created, and it was originally created when A9LH came out. Regardless, it's completely optional. You don't have to do it.

My AIO has an "A9LH to B9S" folder in it that makes switching to B9S itself foolproof. You power up your system, Safe B9S Installer runs, you enter the key combo, it installs. When the system reboots, whichever configuration you copied over loads. If you then go into Godmode9 and enter the scripts, you'll find a post-install script that deletes the temporary installation files for you. The configurations presented are a little bit outdated (you'll need to grab the latest Luma3DS and Godmode9), but they still work well. There's nothing to mess up because it's all been setup for you. Check it out at least.

 

[dpad_5678]

I've read enough to stay on a9lh masterace

A9LH is shit. The fact that accidentally closing the system during the installation process could potentially cause a virtually unrecoverable brick makes the entire thing not worth it.

 

[Quantumcat]

A9LH is shit. The fact that accidentally closing the system during the installation process could potentially cause a virtually unrecoverable brick makes the entire thing not worth it.

You could also walk off a cliff. This doesn't mean walking is shit. If you think the risk of you being an idiot is high, then cost benefits ratio says you shouldn't install it. If, however, your risk of being an idiot is low, then it is worth installing.

 

[democracy]

A9LH is shit. The fact that accidentally closing the system during the installation process could potentially cause a virtually unrecoverable brick makes the entire thing not worth it.

i just downgraded back to A9LH for 3DSafe.

Personally i just havent seen anything done with boot.firm warrenting its use as a cfw over what a9lh can already do.

Interested to know more about that brick though, is that the infamous mcu brick? Brick due caused by a voltage overload or something?

Sent from my SM-G955F using Tapatalk

 

[Majickhat55]

i just downgraded back to A9LH for 3DSafe.

Personally i just havent seen anything done with boot.firm warrenting its use as a cfw over what a9lh can already do.

Interested to know more about that brick though, is that the infamous mcu brick? Brick due caused by a voltage overload or something?

Sent from my SM-G955F using Tapatalk

That would be that. B9S is safer to your console in the sense it doesn't corrupt your FIRM 0/1 on purpose to run an inferior exploit.

A9LH is shit. The fact that accidentally closing the system during the installation process could potentially cause a virtually unrecoverable brick makes the entire thing not worth it.

That's the dumbest reason I ever heard to say A9LH is shit. You're on 2.1 for all of 3 minutes, if you're too dumb to finish in one sitting and regard the warnings you deserve the brick. Why the hell would anyone put their N3DS in sleepmode, when you can safely turn the console off instead if you want to take that unnecessary break.... Stupid is as stupid does.

 

[Larenthios]

Overwriting is not enough. You have to make sure you delete any existing "Nintendo 3DS" folder on the card

Yes, by overwriting that's what i meant

It wasn't the switch to B9S that caused whatever happened

Well i lost my data right after step 1-3 so there is no "Move EmuNAND" involved, i guess ? I don't really know why "A9HL to B9S" would do this, tho.

 

[Kazuma77]

A9LH is shit. The fact that accidentally closing the system during the installation process could potentially cause a virtually unrecoverable brick makes the entire thing not worth it.

For one thing, I've never closed any of my systems by accident. It's pretty easy to avoid if you know not to do it. And I don't know why you'd put the system to sleep while installing an exploit anyway. For another thing, its actually Nintendo's sleep code that does it (though in all fairness, they never intended 2.1 to be run on an N3DS).

Also, it's just as safe as B9S now. If you use NTRBootHax, you can use a script to dump "otp.bin" then run a copy of d0k3's Safe A9LH Installer that's been converted to a .firm (it can only install v1, but with some crafty renaming and copying tricks performed by the OTP dumping script and cleanup script, you can keep your v2.2 folder intact and just run the installer again once cleanup has completed).

Actually, you can do it with SoundHax (using udsploit and safehax to run OldLoader), but since B9S has to be running to dump "otp.bin" if you're not on 2.x, you kind-of have to install B9S first, then run the dump script, then run the script that uninstalls B9S, then reboot and go through Soundhax again, then run the installer. Then run the cleanup script and rerun the installer to update to A9LH v2.2 as previously mentioned. Granted, it's a bit convoluted, but I was still able to describe it in a rather short paragraph. And there's no brick risk whatsoever. So, your point is no longer even valid.

Yes, by overwriting that's what i meant


Well i lost my data right after step 1-3 so there is no "Move EmuNAND" involved, i guess ? I don't really know why "A9HL to B9S" would do this, tho.

Hmm, I'm not sure what you did, but I've updated several systems to B9S, some multiple times for various reasons. AGB_FIRM and TWL_FIRM not decrypting with Cakes on B9S on an N3DS. I lost my encrypted firm backups to use with d0k3's uninstall script (still one of the easier ways back to A9LH when you do want to test something), so I had to restore a NAND dump just to re-run the installer. And I've done it a lot recently testing scripts with NTRBootHax (and other things). Not once have I ever lost anything. Maybe you should just restore your first backup and use my AIO. As I said, it's a bit outdated, but it will suffice until my next release. Which literally does everything via scripts (activity log management, default payloads, switching chainloaders, even switching exploits, though I'm keeping that one separate since most people won't even want it, and you could brick your device if you use it incorrectly).

 

[Larenthios]

I tried to restore the .bin file that was made in "Move to EmuNAND", and nothing changed (the .bin created in Section VII of this link)

 

[Larenthios]

Maybe you should just restore your first backup and use my AIO

I should just dump the old SD card content on it and use your script(s) to restore it, then ? Or will the dump supposedly work in itself and the script will just be to upgrade to B9H without any hitch ?

 

[Kazuma77]

I should just dump the old SD card content on it and use your script(s) to restore it, then ? Or will the dump supposedly work in itself and the script will just be to upgrade to B9H without any hitch ?

I meant go back to before you even started, restore your NAND back to A9LH, and use my "A9LH to B9S" folder to upgrade (and copy over one of the configurations so it has something to boot when it upgrades). There's actually no scripts used for that. It's actually CBM9 setup to boot straight into the installer. It's slightly modified to use a different configuration file so it won't interfere with existing configurations that might be using CBM9 (my configurations included -- I tend to use it as a menu for less frequently used payloads). You just have to put the card in, turn it on, follow the prompts, and it should reboot into Luma 8.1-something. It's a nightly, so, it's not far behind the current stable release, but you can grab the new release and copy it over after you get it working.

 

[Larenthios]

I meant go back to before you even started

I don't have any idea on how to do this, otherwise i wouldn't ask here x) How can i go back to A9HL then ? Re installing it from scratch ? Now, when i try to boot with the old SD content, it powers on an off immediately, as it does when there is no SD card under B9S

 

[dpad_5678]

You could also walk off a cliff. This doesn't mean walking is shit. If you think the risk of you being an idiot is high, then cost benefits ratio says you shouldn't install it. If, however, your risk of being an idiot is low, then it is worth installing.

The A9LH installation process was lengthy, risky, and prone to user errors and bricks. B9S is ridiculously easy to install. No downgrading to ancient firmwares that were never meant for that system in the first place.