Hacking 3DS SD CARD Help

NathanBrown · Jun 12, 2019

I am new, I hacked my 3DS to get Luma 3DS, FBI, and like a ton of other apps. I love homebrew on here.

I did this entire process on a 16GB SDHC card.

Now, I want to use a 64GB SDXC card. However the 3DS can't even recognize my sd card. Is there any way to get all these hacks on a new SD card? I tried to format the sd card to FAT32 and even created a 30GB Partition, but that also didn't work.

Any help? Is switch sd cards as simple as copying and pasting files tho?

godreborn · Jun 12, 2019

yes, copy and paste.

Dothackjhe · Jun 12, 2019

Make sure that the micro-SD Card is formatted to FAT32. Otherwise, it would still be in ExFAT. Use a third-party tool like EaseUs Partition Master to format the 64Gb micro-SDXC to FAT32.

NathanBrown · Jun 12, 2019

Dothackjhe said:
Make sure that the micro-SD Card is formatted to FAT32. Otherwise, it would still be in ExFAT. Use a third-party tool like EaseUs Partition Master to format the 64Gb micro-SDXC to FAT32.

So I formatted my card using the Mini Partition Tool or whatever that software is called. And now if I go into the windows properties, it says its FAT32. However, if I take the empty SD Card and simply put it into my 3DS, the 3DS doesn't even recognize that!

ThoD · Jun 12, 2019

NathanBrown said:
I am new, I hacked my 3DS to get Luma 3DS, FBI, and like a ton of other apps. I love homebrew on here.

I did this entire process on a 16GB SDHC card.

Now, I want to use a 64GB SDXC card. However the 3DS can't even recognize my sd card. Is there any way to get all these hacks on a new SD card? I tried to format the sd card to FAT32 and even created a 30GB Partition, but that also didn't work.

Any help? Is switch sd cards as simple as copying and pasting files tho?

NathanBrown said:
So I formatted my card using the Mini Partition Tool or whatever that software is called. And now if I go into the windows properties, it says its FAT32. However, if I take the empty SD Card and simply put it into my 3DS, the 3DS doesn't even recognize that!

What exactly do you mean by "doesn't recognize that", because if it boots while you have CFW, it DOES recognize it. The 3DS boots into a black screen if the SD card doesn't have the boot.firm file and as long as you have an SD card inserted it will always try to load boot.firm from the SD card, not the NAND. Basically, if it boots into home menu the card is recognized just fine. The games installed not showing up has nothing to do with the card being recognized and everything to do with the fact you didn't properly initialize the card, so a second ID1 was created. Simply go in the "Nintendo 3DS folder", then the folder inside there and if you see two folders in there that's your problem. Compare the size of the two folders, then move the contents of the bigger folder over to the smaller one overwriting everything, then delete the now empty (previously large) folder as it's useless. That's all.

Dothackjhe · Jun 12, 2019

Which particular 3DS model you have?

NathanBrown · Jun 12, 2019

ThoD said:
What exactly do you mean by "doesn't recognize that", because if it boots while you have CFW, it DOES recognize it. The 3DS boots into a black screen if the SD card doesn't have the boot.firm file and as long as you have an SD card inserted it will always try to load boot.firm from the SD card, not the NAND. Basically, if it boots into home menu the card is recognized just fine. The games installed not showing up has nothing to do with the card being recognized and everything to do with the fact you didn't properly initialize the card, so a second ID1 was created. Simply go in the "Nintendo 3DS folder", then the folder inside there and if you see two folders in there that's your problem. Compare the size of the two folders, then move the contents of the bigger folder over to the smaller one overwriting everything, then delete the now empty (previously large) folder as it's useless. That's all.

So what I mean is, my 16GB SD CARD, has all the apps and games on it. If I take it out and turn on the 3ds, it says sd card removed and the apps and games are gone, but it works just fine. I can play cartridge or go into eshop.

Now If I place a completely empty 64gb sd card, I expected that if I go into settings, I can see how much space is open in the sd card. But no. It says sd card not recognized. After taking it out of my 3ds and plugging it into my laptop, the new sd card, i see that it HASN'T created new folders at all, its still completely blank.

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

Dothackjhe said:
Which particular 3DS model you have?

OG 2011 Cosmo Black Fat 3DS.

I got luma and everything to work fine on the 16GB.

Quantumcat · Jun 12, 2019

ThoD said:
What exactly do you mean by "doesn't recognize that", because if it boots while you have CFW, it DOES recognize it. The 3DS boots into a black screen if the SD card doesn't have the boot.firm file and as long as you have an SD card inserted it will always try to load boot.firm from the SD card, not the NAND. Basically, if it boots into home menu the card is recognized just fine. The games installed not showing up has nothing to do with the card being recognized and everything to do with the fact you didn't properly initialize the card, so a second ID1 was created. Simply go in the "Nintendo 3DS folder", then the folder inside there and if you see two folders in there that's your problem. Compare the size of the two folders, then move the contents of the bigger folder over to the smaller one overwriting everything, then delete the now empty (previously large) folder as it's useless. That's all.

They may have boot.firm on CTR-NAND - so it booting didn't necessarily mean the SD card is being read

@NathanBrown try formatting with GodMode9 - https://3ds.hacks.guide/godmode9-usage in the section "format an SD card". You can boot it with the working 16GB card and then take out the SD and replace it with the one you want to format, when it is time.

NathanBrown · Jun 12, 2019

Quantumcat said:
They may have boot.firm on CTR-NAND - so it booting didn't necessarily mean the SD card is being read

@NathanBrown try formatting with GodMode9 - https://3ds.hacks.guide/godmode9-usage in the section "format an SD card". You can boot it with the working 16GB card and then take out the SD and replace it with the one you want to format, when it is time.

Wish me luck, this is the boldest thing I am about to do. Will report in 15

ThoD · Jun 12, 2019

NathanBrown said:
So what I mean is, my 16GB SD CARD, has all the apps and games on it. If I take it out and turn on the 3ds, it says sd card removed and the apps and games are gone, but it works just fine. I can play cartridge or go into eshop.

Now If I place a completely empty 64gb sd card, I expected that if I go into settings, I can see how much space is open in the sd card. But no. It says sd card not recognized. After taking it out of my 3ds and plugging it into my laptop, the new sd card, i see that it HASN'T created new folders at all, its still completely blank.

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

OG 2011 Cosmo Black Fat 3DS.

I got luma and everything to work fine on the 16GB.

In that case tell me a couple things. It it an SD card or a micro SD card with an adapter? It's possible for the adapter to not work right if you are using one. Make sure write protection is disabled too just in case and if possible try with another SD card as well just in case you got a faulty one (assuming it's a new card), since faulty cards can appear to work properly even when running chkdsk (DOS's check disk function that looks for errors).

NathanBrown · Jun 12, 2019

ThoD said:
In that case tell me a couple things. It it an SD card or a micro SD card with an adapter? It's possible for the adapter to not work right if you are using one. Make sure write protection is disabled too just in case and if possible try with another SD card as well just in case you got a faulty one (assuming it's a new card), since faulty cards can appear to work properly even when running chkdsk (DOS's check disk function that looks for errors).

Its a full size SD card. Kinda old, like 3-4 years ago. I'll switch and try another card.

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

Quantumcat said:
They may have boot.firm on CTR-NAND - so it booting didn't necessarily mean the SD card is being read

@NathanBrown try formatting with GodMode9 - https://3ds.hacks.guide/godmode9-usage in the section "format an SD card". You can boot it with the working 16GB card and then take out the SD and replace it with the one you want to format, when it is time.

Hey I formatted my SD CARD using the GodMode9, It sorta worked...The 3DS can now recognize the sd card, however none of my homebrew apps or hacks or games showed up...Any fix for this? I'm still in CFW, cause on settings it says Sys 11.10.0-43U

wyattberryhill · Jun 12, 2019

I have used fat32 formatted in the past! Right now i have a 128GB SD card in my 3ds!

NathanBrown · Jun 12, 2019

wyattberryhill said:
I have used fat32 formatted in the past! Right now i have a 128GB SD card in my 3ds!

My 3DS can recognize my card.

Now, how do I transfer hacks from one sd card to another?

ThoD · Jun 12, 2019

NathanBrown said:
My 3DS can recognize my card.

Now, how do I transfer hacks from one sd card to another?

Just copy paste everything from the old card to the new one except for the "Nintendo 3DS" folder. Once the files are transferred, go in the "Nintendo 3DS" folder on the old SD card, you will see a folder with a random name consisting of 32 characters (that's called the ID0 folder), inside that you will find another folder with a similarly random name (that's the ID1 folder). Copy the contents of the ID1 folder from the old SD card to the new one's ID1 (if there's no ID1 just turn the DS on and it will be created automatically, then transfer them over).

Basically, ID0 never changes and is part of the system-specific unique encryption key each 3DS has. ID1 on the other hand changes pretty much every time a new SD card is used among other times and the 3DS recognizes ONLY the most recently created one, which can make it so that sometimes just copy-pasting everything from one card to another as-is makes games inaccessible. The contents of the ID1 folder are anything you have installed, your saves (encrypted though), etc. and there should always only be 1 ID1 folder just to avoid troubles.

NathanBrown · Jun 12, 2019

ThoD said:
Just copy paste everything from the old card to the new one except for the "Nintendo 3DS" folder. Once the files are transferred, go in the "Nintendo 3DS" folder on the old SD card, you will see a folder with a random name consisting of 32 characters (that's called the ID0 folder), inside that you will find another folder with a similarly random name (that's the ID1 folder). Copy the contents of the ID1 folder from the old SD card to the new one's ID1 (if there's no ID1 just turn the DS on and it will be created automatically, then transfer them over).

Basically, ID0 never changes and is part of the system-specific unique encryption key each 3DS has. ID1 on the other hand changes pretty much every time a new SD card is used among other times and the 3DS recognizes ONLY the most recently created one, which can make it so that sometimes just copy-pasting everything from one card to another as-is makes games inaccessible. The contents of the ID1 folder are anything you have installed, your saves (encrypted though), etc. and there should always only be 1 ID1 folder just to avoid troubles.

I love you. It worked. Thank you for everything. Time to backup 300 games.

Hacking 3DS SD CARD Help

Well-Known Member

Welcome to the Machine

"Joker"

Well-Known Member

GBATemp Addict (apparently), but more like "bored"

"Joker"

Well-Known Member

Dead and alive

Well-Known Member

GBATemp Addict (apparently), but more like "bored"

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

GBATemp Addict (apparently), but more like "bored"

Well-Known Member

Similar threads

Popular threads in this forum