Hacking [Help] Corrupted 3DS microSD - Copy recovered files to correct directory

Red771 · Feb 15, 2020

Hello. So, the microSD card of my New 3DS XL got corrupted yesterday and I need some help restoring a few files. It's a Samsung 64GB Evo Plus (formatted to FAT32), but it was bought on AliExpress (for the same retail price as on Amazon), so I'm not sure if it's a genuine one. Anyways, I had over a hundred hours worth of in-game saves, so I would very much appreciate some help.

[Backgroud about how it got corrupted]
The microSD card got corrupted after I copied over two CIA files/games to it. I was copying the files from my phone over USB-OTG to the microSD card but after the files finished copying, the files size of the copied CIAs were showing as 0 Bytes (even though I refreshed the folders several times). And then after a few minutes, the phone stopped recognising the microSD and was prompting me to format the microSD before it could be used. So i connected the microSD to my PC and same result; Windows told me to format the drive before it could be used. So I opened up Minitool Partition Wizard and it was showing that around 59 GB pf the microSD was unallocated and only 16MB was partitioned(!!). I tried to use a program called TestDisk to try and recover the lost partition, but no success. Then I tried to use a (paid) software called EaseUS Data Recovery to recover the lost partition... and BAM!!...all my files have been recovered successfully (Yay!). The name of some folders/files were in full Caps so I renamed those correctly to lowercasing letters, no big deal. But the part I'm having problem with is that despite the fact that all my files were recovered, the EaseUS program was not able to identify the directory of certain files. I manged to correctly place the simple ones like the "boot.3dsx" file and the "boot.firm" ones, but there are 2 files that I don't know the location of, can anyone help? (See attached images)

So, does anyone know where I should place these "ROM.BIN" files or can I ignore them?

[TL;DR]
3DS microSD corrupted. Used EaseUS Data Recovery software to recover files. Most files were recovered in correct directory. Need to identify the directory of 2 particular files. (See attached images)

PS: Although I've been a member on GBATemp for a few years now, this is my first thread (I usually find most of my answers by searching the forums, but I have been unable to find anything this time). So tell me if I said/did anything wrong (posted on wrong section, etc).

Thanks!

TurdPooCharger · Feb 15, 2020

Copy everything off the SD card to a computer.
Attempt to find or salvage lost/deleted files with data recovery software(s).
- List of data recovery programs
- Go look for these on your own.
Reformat the SD card with SD Memory Card Formatter.
For extra thoroughness, quadruple reformat .
Full Write + Verify the empty card in H2testw. Do not skip.

That last program will determine whether the SD card you purchased is either fake or dying.

Red771 · Feb 15, 2020

TurdPooCharger said:
Copy everything off the SD card to a computer.

Attempt to find or salvage lost/deleted files with data recovery software(s).

List of data recovery programs

Go look for these on your own.

Reformat the SD card with SD Memory Card Formatter.

For extra thoroughness, quadruple reformat .

Full Write + Verify the empty card in H2testw. Do not skip.

That last program will determine whether the SD card you purchased is either fake or dying.

Thanks for your response. I already recovered the files, it's just that the software used to recover them was unable to find the directory for the "ROM.BIN" files. Do you know where I should place these files?

Thanks for the tip about the SD Memory card Formatter btw. I'll try it.

I used H2Testw to test the card when I had bought it. It is indeed 64GB, but I'm unable to confirm the advertised R/W speeds as I don't have a USB 3.0 port unfortunately (I know, it's a very old PC). I'll try re-testing it though. Thanks.

TurdPooCharger · Feb 15, 2020

Red771 said:
Thanks for your response. I already recovered the files, it's just that the software used to recover them was unable to find the directory for the "ROM.BIN" files. Do you know where I should place these files?

Thanks for the tip about the SD Memory card Formatter btw. I'll try it.

I used H2Testw to test the card when I had bought it. It is indeed 64GB, but I'm unable to confirm the advertised R/W speeds as I don't have a USB 3.0 port unfortunately (I know, it's a very old PC). I'll try re-testing it though. Thanks.

For those BIN files, those are raw binary dumps of whichever software program produced those. Dunno how you'll extract files of those.

Are you using a crappy SD-to-USB reader like one of these T-FLASH adapter?

Red771 · Feb 15, 2020

TurdPooCharger said:
Are you using a crappy SD-to-USB reader like one of these T-FLASH adapter?

In fact, I was using a no-name chinese card reader. It noticed something weird, a folder name would sometimes change to random string of characters if I rename a folder. So I now plug the microSD directly to my phone's microSD card slot if I have to copy something over. This issue is now no longer present. So I guess it could have been the crappy card reader causing the microSD to get corrupted. Anyways, it doesn't matter now. I'll get a better card reader in the future. All I need to find out now is where to place these "ROM.BIN" files on the microSD card if anyone could help.

TurdPooCharger · Feb 15, 2020

Red771 said:
In fact, I was using a no-name chinese card reader. It noticed something weird, a folder name would sometimes change to random string of characters if I rename a folder. So I now plug the microSD directly to my phone's microSD card slot if I have to copy something over. This issue is now no longer present. So I guess it could have been the crappy card reader causing the microSD to get corrupted. Anyways, it doesn't matter now. I'll get a better card reader in the future. All I need to find out now is where to place these "ROM.BIN" files on the microSD card if anyone could help.

Yah, definitely get another SD card reader.

[aliexpress] OTG Micro SD Card Reader USB 3.0 Card Reader 2.0 For USB Micro SD Adapter Flash Drive Smart Memory Card Reader Type C Cardreader

I don't think you can use those ROM.BIN files as they are because that's what your recovery software produced. It's kinda like if you're a furniture mover and went to someone's house to pack their stuff up. The owner receives all their decorations and possessions in unlabelled boxes. Your recovery program probably doesn't know how to unpack those files in those BIN due to missing or incomplete files table (or as a mover, no instructions about items arrangement in the new house).

Kwyjor · Feb 15, 2020

Is there some reason the recovery program would decide on the name ROM.BIN, though? I mean, it has no idea that the card was being used with a 3DS or that the files have anything to do with ROMs. If it found some miscellaneous data it could not identify, I would expect it to use some more generic name (like how chkdsk uses "file0000.chk").

But there aren't any files on my 3DS SD card named rom.bin either.

I suggest opening the files in a hex editor and seeing if there's anything recognizable in them. Alternatively, there's this thing called trID which might work, though I don't think it recognizes any data types that would be found on a 3DS SD card. And if the files are still encrypted (like most data used by the 3DS), then there would be no hope of identifying them that way.

Red771 said:
I tried to use a program called TestDisk to try and recover the lost partition, but no success. Then I tried to use a (paid) software called EaseUS Data Recovery to recover the lost partition... and BAM!!...all my files have been recovered successfully (Yay!).

Shucks, I would have hoped that TestDisk would be at least as capable as EaseUS. That's disappointing.

Red771 · Feb 16, 2020

TurdPooCharger said:
Yah, definitely get another SD card reader.

[aliexpress] OTG Micro SD Card Reader USB 3.0 Card Reader 2.0 For USB Micro SD Adapter Flash Drive Smart Memory Card Reader Type C Cardreader

I don't think you can use those ROM.BIN files as they are because that's what your recovery software produced. It's kinda like if you're a furniture mover and went to someone's house to pack their stuff up. The owner receives all their decorations and possessions in unlabelled boxes. Your recovery program probably doesn't know how to unpack those files in those BIN due to missing or incomplete files table (or as a mover, no instructions about items arrangement in the new house).

Thanks for the explanantion. And yeah, I'll be sure to get a better microSD card reader.

Kwyjor said:
Is there some reason the recovery program would decide on the name ROM.BIN, though? I mean, it has no idea that the card was being used with a 3DS or that the files have anything to do with ROMs. If it found some miscellaneous data it could not identify, I would expect it to use some more generic name (like how chkdsk uses "file0000.chk").

But there aren't any files on my 3DS SD card named rom.bin either.

I suggest opening the files in a hex editor and seeing if there's anything recognizable in them. Alternatively, there's this thing called trID which might work, though I don't think it recognizes any data types that would be found on a 3DS SD card. And if the files are still encrypted (like most data used by the 3DS), then there would be no hope of identifying them that way.

Shucks, I would have hoped that TestDisk would be at least as capable as EaseUS. That's disappointing.

I, unfortunately, don't have any skills using hex editors and the TrID program failed to recognise the file. Thank you anyways, I appreciate it.

So I guess I'll ignore the "ROM.BIN" files. I thought they would be important files, that's why I asked before plugging the restored microSD back in my 3DS.

Red771 · Mar 24, 2020

DaveWK said:
I had the same issue and I check the given list of data recovery program and choose Stellar Photo Recovery to get back lost photos, videos or games from the SD card. It's help for recovering corrupt or formatted SD cards containing 3DS files.

But that program appears to be for recovering photos, video and audio files only. Did it work for other files as well?
Anyways, if anyone runs into a similar issue as I did, I'd recommend trying the EaseUS data recovery program as that was able to restore nearly all if not all of my files.