ROM Hack What is the save location?

Dg63

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Hi people. I had an accident that lead me to lose all my SD data. Luckily EaseUS could find everything finely. Since I guess all my saves together should be less than 500mb in size I might be able to recover them for free. (Assuming that it can restore only less than 500mb even though there is no paid membership) For all the games I will either use the freeshop or manually install their cias. So this is why I really need to know which exactly is the savegame folder!! Please..I really appreciate help. Very Sorry if my english sucks.
 

Kwyjor

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Did you use JKSM or Checkpoint to backup your saves?

Because if you didn't, then every game saves its data in its own folder, and it's actually kind of a pain to get to them – you'll need a database like https://hax0kartik.github.io/3dsdb/ or http://www.3dsdb.com/ to locate the specific folder for each game.

Also be advised that even if you recover save data this way, you'll need to use Checkpoint (or JKSM) to circumvent Anti Savegame Restore for a couple of titles, namely Animal Crossing or the Pokemon games.

Do *not* try to format your system, because that will change the encryption key and you will end up with more problems.

If you don't want to pay for EASUS, you might want to try Testdisk, which is free. Or you could, y'know, not pay for EASUS (wink wink).
 
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Dg63

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@Kwyjor
Hi. So the savegames are located within the same folder as their respective titles. That answers my question. I didn't know that "testdisk" is a FREE data revovery software. If so I would not have the need to manually search for title IDs and instead recovering EVERYTHING without paying. I will try that program. Your will to help on this issue is really valued.
 

Kwyjor

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There are reports that Testdisk is not as useful as EASUS, but it's not like there are definitive statistics one way or the other.
 

Dg63

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Yes, EaseUS found the folder while Testdisk didn't. It's shown in red and when opening it says "No file found, filesystem may be damaged" Not affording to pay EaseUS when there is This free tool. Any further help would be great!!
 

Kwyjor

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EaseUS found the folder
Which folder? The "Nintendo 3DS folder"?

It's shown in red and when opening it says "No file found, filesystem may be damaged"
Do you mean Testdisk says that, or EASUS says that? Because if EASUS says that, it seems to suggest that even if you somehow (wink wink) got the full version of EASUS, it still wouldn't be able to find the data.
 

Dg63

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EaseUS finds the Nintendo 3DS folder which testdisk locates too but marks as corrupted. But in EaseUS every folder or file inside it is shown with wrong characters (asterisk instead of the original) I am hopeless now. However it would please me to know if there is any other FREE data recovery tool that I could try out. Otherwise I will be forced to Download saves from the Internet after all I finished some games. Or hope as miracle that my broken PC where I had my SD card root can be fixed.
 

Kwyjor

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However it would please me to know if there is any other FREE data recovery tool that I could try out.
Gosh, if only there was some way to get software like EASUS without paying. But that would be impossible! Everyone pays for everything on the Internet, right?

ETA:
But in EaseUS every folder or file inside it is shown with wrong characters (asterisk instead of the original) I am hopeless now.
Do you mean everything is shown only with asterisks, or that some of the characters in the filenames have been replaced with asterisks? This is unclear.
 
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Dg63

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Sure, almost every Tool is paid. But what if there is something else like testdisk which is free. Because if yes there is something left to try before giving up. Just out of curiosity.
Do you mean everything is shown only with asterisks, or that some of the characters in the filenames have been replaced with asterisks? This is unclear.
Not all the characters are like that. It's only one or two per folder.
 

Kwyjor

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Sure, almost every Tool is paid.
Yes, and discussion of piracy is highly discouraged on this board and I would not tell you to find an illegal copy of EASUS, oh no.

Not all the characters are like that. It's only one or two per folder.
Okay, so, what's stopping you from finding your save data? Even if you are restricted to 500 MB, and some of the folder names are partially unreadable, you should still be able to find the save data with a little difficulty.

Can you give an example of a game whose save data you are looking for?
 
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The Real Jdbye

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EaseUS finds the Nintendo 3DS folder which testdisk locates too but marks as corrupted. But in EaseUS every folder or file inside it is shown with wrong characters (asterisk instead of the original) I am hopeless now. However it would please me to know if there is any other FREE data recovery tool that I could try out. Otherwise I will be forced to Download saves from the Internet after all I finished some games. Or hope as miracle that my broken PC where I had my SD card root can be fixed.
Try GetDataBack, it's what I use, it seems to successfully recover more stuff than other recovery tools. It says "free to try" but the trial version seems to have zero limitations.
 

Dg63

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Yes, and discussion of piracy is highly discouraged on this board and I would not tell you to find an illegal copy of EASUS, oh no.

Okay, so, what's stopping you from finding your save data? Even if you are restricted to 500 MB, and some of the folder names are partially unreadable, you should still be able to find the save data with a little difficulty.

Can you give an example of a game whose save data you are looking for?
The issue is that if the folder names are incorrectly how will the console recognize them? But maybe through the database you linked to before I can get into the saves and *try* to rename them properly if they are shown wrong. It's .sav formats right?

Try GetDataBack, it's what I use, it seems to successfully recover more stuff than other recovery tools. It says "free to try" but the trial version seems to have zero limitations.
Unfortunately the app crashes when scanning the SD card for some reason. Tried with both the latest version and a 2012 one... This *unlimited* app would really help in this issue.

Wish me luck please.
 

Kwyjor

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The issue is that if the folder names are incorrectly how will the console recognize them? But maybe through the database you linked to before I can get into the saves and *try* to rename them properly if they are shown wrong. It's .sav formats right?
Do you have a new SD card? Because really all you need to do is re-install your games one by one on a new SD card. Each new game will create a new folder (or possible a folder insider a pre-existing subfolder) on the SD card in:
Nintendo 3DS\[long random string]\[a different random string]\title.
You can use the databases I linked to before to help identify what the folder should be named.

So then you can look at the folders on your corrupted SD card and try to find a folder there whose name corresponds to the newly-created folder on your new SD card. Then you can copy the .sav file from the corrupted SD card to the same folder on your new SD card. Does that make sense?

The only catch is that some games use Anti Savegame Restore, but there aren't many of those – it's mostly the Pokemon games and Animal Crossing. For those games, after you copy the .sav file, you just need to backup the save with Checkpoint and then restore it right away.
 
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The only catch is that some games use Anti Savegame Restore, but there aren't many of those – it's mostly the Pokemon games and Animal Crossing. For those games, after you copy the .sav file, you just need to backup the save with Checkpoint and then restore it right away.
FBI can also delete the "Secure value" for a title to disarm this anti-feature after restoring an encrypted save with a computer.

– or –

On your own risk: Use GodMode9 to delete
[1:]/data/[<ID0>]/sysdata/00010011
to get rid of the potential problem for all games at once.
 

The Real Jdbye

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The issue is that if the folder names are incorrectly how will the console recognize them? But maybe through the database you linked to before I can get into the saves and *try* to rename them properly if they are shown wrong. It's .sav formats right?


Unfortunately the app crashes when scanning the SD card for some reason. Tried with both the latest version and a 2012 one... This *unlimited* app would really help in this issue.

Wish me luck please.
Try Recuva then, it's free.
 

lone_wolf323

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now there's nothing left to do. No tool can find or recover anything, several attempts already. But I really value the time taken in trying to help...

Didn't have anything special either. So where do people get completed 3ds saves from??
there are some threads around which have user submitted saves. Theres been some websites. but you will need to watch if they were gateway saves. or proper decrypted saves.
 

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