Before I go on, this reply will be very detailed and I will try to add as much information as possible. I cringe every time I see replies on how to do something and the information provided is half arsed and you have to fill in the missing gaps.
For those that want to for some reason to convert/migrate your current
Hidden EmuNand or
SysNand Backup to
EmuNand as Files on microSD, this can be done and can confirm it works, I have recently been playing around with this and have successfully managed to do just that.
Scenarios that I have successfully converted to EmuNand as Files on microSD:
Current Hidden EmuNand
SX OS SysNand Backup Method
Hekate SysNand Backup Method
With either
SX OS or
Hekate NAND backup, yes you could
just restore the NAND backup and then create EmuNand as files on SD, this method can be long and tedious, I know I wouldn't do it if I realy have to.
Why would you want to convert your SysNand backup or Hidden EmuNand to EmuNand as Files on microSD you might ask?
Possible scenarios:
- Helpful if you want to go back to a previous FW version of EmuNand for whatever reason.
- If you want to move to a bigger SD CARD and ditch Hidden EmuNand and start using EmuNand as Files on microSD.
- If you somehow screwed up your Hidden EmuNand partition or SD CARD, you could just create a new Hidden EmuNand but what if your SysNand is on the latest FW but want an earlier FW on EmuNand?
- What if your currently using Hidden EmuNand but want to move to EmuNand as Files on microSD so it's easier to backup your EmuNand? Yes you can backup Hidden EmuNand with either some cloning app or manually extracting the
BOOT0.bin, BOOT1.bin and
rawnand.bin files from the Hidden partition. Manual file extraction and restore method for a noob, can be a very daunting. EmuNand as Files on microSD is by far the easiest way to backup your EmuNand for safe keepings.
There is a debate which is better, Hidden EmuNand or EmuNand as Files on microSD? For me, I prefer Hidden EmuNand because if the SD CARD gets corrupted, in most cases the hidden partition is not affected only the data partition, so you just pretty much reformat the data partition again and your back in business. However all your saves will be gone and also all the NSP's you installed will also be gone so you have to reinstall these again. Yes it's a pain, it's a small trade off but at least you still have your EmuNand.
Prerequisites for migrating from Hidden EmuNand to EmuNand as Files on microSD:
You need the follow files extracted from the Hidden EmuNand partition:
Minimum of 64GB SD CARD is required, EmuNand takes up about 30GB of space.
BOOT0.bin
BOOT1.bin
rawnand.bin
Extracting files from your Hidden EmuNand partition:
You can either use
@thaikhoa method above or you can read through the following threads here on GBATemp which has further discussions about the process;
Moving from SX OS SD-emunand to SD-hidden_emunand
Below is from an external site which has some good instructions, site is in Spanish however using site translation can get you started.
[MANUAL] Extract and inject the SXOS emunand from / into a hidden partition
What you want to do is extract the
BOOT0,
BOOT1 and
rawnand.bin files ONLY.
Converting SysNand backups to EmuNand as Files on microSD:
Depending how you backup your NAND files:
SX OS Nand Backup:
Regardless if your SD CARD is either FAT32 or exFAT, the SysNand backup files will be split and will be in the
CORRECT file format for
EmuNand as Files on microSD, no further action is required unless you have joined all the split files to make
rawnand.bin. If this is the case you will have to split the files again back to it's original file, format and size, details on how to do this is further below.
Hekate Nand Backup:
SD card as FAT32: 14 split files, your required to join the files to create
rawnand.bin.
SD card as exFAT:
rawnand.bin.
BOOT0 rename to:
BOOT0.bin
BOOT1 rename to:
BOOT1.bin
EmuNand as Files on microSD File/Folder Structure:
The following files:
boot0.bin
boot1.bin
full.00.bin
full.01.bin
full.02.bin
full.03.bin
full.04.bin
full.05.bin
full.06.bin
full.07.bin
In the following folder:
SD CARD\sxos\emunand
How to Split rawnand.bin file to SX OS Compatible EmuNand as Files on microSD:
You
MUST split the
rawnand.bin file in
7 parts that SX OS requires (see above), the file
MUST be identical in
SIZE and
DATA, no more, no less!
I have tried several apps that can split files by entering a curtain file size, the final output files either
DID NOT have the exact file size or
DID have the exact files size but data was slightly modified. This was evident when I compared both the
rawnand.bin and the split files using a HEX editor. I have been using
HxD Hex Editor for some time and I just noticed that it has a
Split function!
Open the
rawnand.bin file using
HxD Hex Editor and go to:
Tools => File Tools => Split...
File to split: Should already be populated.
Base name for partial files (incl. path): Give the output file a name and save location, name can be anything for the time being as you will need to rename them later.
Naming pattern for partial files: Leave as default
Naming Consecutively.
Size of partial files: Leave as default
Custom, change to
bytes, enter the following (
Very Important):
4294836224
Then click
OK to start splitting the files, once completed, rename the split files to
full.00.bin to
full.07.bin (See above).
To make sure the split files are correct,
RIGHT CLICK on the file and check the properties:
The following files should be the following
Size: 3.99 GB (4,294,836,224 bytes)
full.00.bin
full.01.bin
full.02.bin
full.03.bin
full.04.bin
full.05.bin
full.06.bin
The last file should have the following
Size: 1.12 GB (1,204,682,752 bytes)
full.07.bin
Congratulations, you now have
ALL the files required for
EmuNand Files on mirsoSD, if your using SX OS SysNand backup, the files are already EmuNand as File on microSD ready, no further action is required.
If your migrating from Hidden EmuNand to EmuNand as Files on microSD,
MAKE SURE you
BACKUP everything on your SD CARD, specially the following folder "
SD CARD\Emutendo", as this folder contains all your game saves and installed NSP's.
There is two ways to go about this, if your migrating, either start fresh and format either in FAT32 or exFAT or use your current SD CARD.
Not recommended:
If you want to use your current Hidden EmuNand SD CARD and want to save time, you
*could* use some partition tools to delete the first hidden partition and resize the 2nd data partition to take up all the available space on the SD CARD. This saves you from having to backup your files, format the SD CARD and restore files, but there is a high chance that you or the app might mess something up, loosing everything, so make sure you have a
BACKUP! of the files on your SD CARD. I have not done this so can't comment if this works or not.
Recommended:
Start fresh either use 3rd party partitioning app or
windows disk management tool to delete all the partition on the SD CARD, then create a new partition and format your SD CARD to either FAT32 or exFAT.
All you have to do now is copy
ALL of the
SPLIT files plus the
BOOT0 and
BOOT1 files:
Make sure the BOOT0/BOOT1 files are from the same SysNAND backup, as different FW have different BOOT0/BOOT1 files.
boot0.bin
boot1.bin
full.00.bin
full.01.bin
full.02.bin
full.03.bin
full.04.bin
full.05.bin
full.06.bin
full.07.bin
To your
SD CARD\sxos\emunand folder, then proceed to copy back
ALL the files you backed up previously.
To make sure the files above is working as
EmuNand Files on microSD, boot into your SX OS boot menu, you should see the
EmuNAND enabled option, this tells you that your files are all good and ready to go. If not, double check to make sure the files are in the correct folder.
If the
EmuNAND option is
NOT enabled, you did something wrong, go back and double/triple check you have done everyone correctly.
Added Notes: If your still having issues with EmuNAND after going through the steps, only other thing I can think of is that you may have a bad/corrupted rawnand backup.
Moving forward, make regular backups of your EmuNand files and if you have the space for it, also backup all the files on your SD CARD. This saves you from having to re install ALL your NSP's again.