Hacking Question NAND backup compresses to 500MB (WinRar)

877

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So I just dumped my new Switch NAND (v3.0.2) and it comes to 29.1GB (exfat one file)
But Winrar compresses it down to a total of 480MB!

Is this normal guys/gals?
 

Thetoto

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Yes, if you have less than 480MB in your NAND. DO you have any eshop games, update, album pictures, ... in your NAND ?
 
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877

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@Thetoto No the console is brand new on v3.0.2 only used once, will only have a save game on it as my son couldn't wait :)
Thanks
 

VuuI

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In addition to your rawnand.bin, make sure you also backup your BOOT0 and BOOT1. They're also small.
What do these do exactly? I was planning to restore my nand in the future to before I used SXOS, but don't have these, only have the 29.1GB rawnand.
 

Lacius

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What do these do exactly? I was planning to restore my nand in the future to before I used SXOS, but don't have these, only have the 29.1GB rawnand.
http://switchbrew.org/index.php?title=Flash_Filesystem

As far as the end user is concerned, it's good to have these backed up for the following reasons:
  • They're needed if you're restoring a NAND backup from a different system version than the one you're currently on (e.g. downgrading).
  • In case you corrupt BOOT0/1 and can't restore them (e.g. AutoRCM)
 
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VuuI

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Alright, sounds like I can just make those backups right now to use with my previous backup then, since i haven't updated my FW or anything and it doesn't sound like SXOS affects those
 
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TamarindoJuice

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Backup BOOT0 and BOOT1 with AutoRCM enabled (boot data corrupted) can lead to any problem in the future in case i need to use my backup to restore my potentially soft bricked Switch?
 

nightweb

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I was wondering if anyone could advise me, I made two backup's of my NAND (and Boot0/1) however both times when I compressed them they come to nearly 22.7GB and the 7-zip file when compressed is 22GB. anyone suggest how I can compress it down to what everyone else seems to be able to compress it to?
 

atschatner

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I was wondering if anyone could advise me, I made two backup's of my NAND (and Boot0/1) however both times when I compressed them they come to nearly 22.7GB and the 7-zip file when compressed is 22GB. anyone suggest how I can compress it down to what everyone else seems to be able to compress it to?

Try WinRar and see if the archive is smaller.
 

Engezerstorung

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guys, the compressed size of your nand backup depend on what is actually on your switch, so all raw backup will be max size available on your nand (29.1GB), but if you have nothing on it if will just remove all the "empty space" in it, to leave only the really used space, when you compress it

so if your switch is full with stuff, your compressed nand will be big anyway
there is no "magic compressing algorythme"
 
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nightweb

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Try WinRar and see if the archive is smaller.
sorry My post bit unclear, overheating here at the moment, WinRAR is 22.7GB 7-Zip is 22.0GB

guys, the compressed size of your nand backup depend on what is actually on your switch, so all raw backup will be max size available on your nand (29.1GB), but if you have nothing on it if will just remove all the "empty space" in it, to leave only the really used space, when you compress it

so if your switch is full with stuff, your compressed nand will be big anyway
there is no "magic compressing algorythme"

This is where I'm totally confused, my NAND is empty, well there's a few files that Mario Odessdy installed but it says that is only few MB in size, other than that everything is on my SD card :(
 

Albytrozz

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To explain this more simply, the archiving app just sees all of those useless '0's in the full NAND backups and skips them and keeps any actual info left. This is why compression is so useful on ROM dumps or even some of your untrimmed XCIs, you don't need to be storing blank space if you can help it.

It's also why the size that people end up with will vary big time based on how much free space was left empty on the NAND for the archiving app to 'skip over'...
 

linuxares

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Yes it's normal. The rest if your NAND is just filled with empty preoccupid space. So Winrar compresses it. Also if you want smaller, go with 7zip and LZMA2 compression.
 
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Drakia

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sorry My post bit unclear, overheating here at the moment, WinRAR is 22.7GB 7-Zip is 22.0GB



This is where I'm totally confused, my NAND is empty, well there's a few files that Mario Odessdy installed but it says that is only few MB in size, other than that everything is on my SD card :(
If you had previously installed things, there's a good chance the Switch isn't going to set the NAND back to 0's when it's deleted (Waste of a write cycle), it's just going to flag that area as free. You most likely have had up to 22GB in use throughout the NAND in the past.
 

nightweb

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If you had previously installed things, there's a good chance the Switch isn't going to set the NAND back to 0's when it's deleted (Waste of a write cycle), it's just going to flag that area as free. You most likely have had up to 22GB in use throughout the NAND in the past.

Ah ok, that might explain it, when I had first got my sd I downloaded my games that must have been what caused the space to be "used", would there be a way to free or "zero-out" on the switch side? I know may seem like waste of a write cycle but the extra space I could save on the backup I could store my sd too
 

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