Hacking A9HL to B9S: Lost All Data

[Quantumcat]

The A9LH installation process was lengthy, risky, and prone to user errors and bricks. B9S is ridiculously easy to install. No downgrading to ancient firmwares that were never meant for that system in the first place.

It's fairly obvious that you wouldn't install A9LH when B9S is available. Your post had to be meaning that A9LH was *never* worth it (ie better to stay in menuhax). If you were trying to say not to install A9LH now.... well, duh.... I'll add a few other truisms for you that might be revelations. Typewriters are shit! Faxes are shit! Horse & buggies are shit!

 

[Majickhat55]

It's fairly obvious that you wouldn't install A9LH when B9S is available. Your post had to be meaning that A9LH was *never* worth it (ie better to stay in menuhax). If you were trying to say not to install A9LH now.... well, duh.... I'll add a few other truisms for you that might be revelations. Typewriters are shit! Faxes are shit! Horse & buggies are shit!

But only because we have computers, e-mail and cars!! Lol (Well, faxes are STILL shit)

 

[dpad_5678]

It's fairly obvious that you wouldn't install A9LH when B9S is available. Your post had to be meaning that A9LH was *never* worth it (ie better to stay in menuhax). If you were trying to say not to install A9LH now.... well, duh.... I'll add a few other truisms for you that might be revelations. Typewriters are shit! Faxes are shit! Horse & buggies are shit!

No, the other user said that installing A9LH is just as easy as installing B9S, which is completely untrue. I'm sure you can agree with that.

 

[Quantumcat]

But only because we have computers, e-mail and cars!! Lol (Well, faxes are STILL shit)

Exactly --- faxes were great when the only other alternative for sending documents was posting them. But you wouldn't do it now that we have email :-p

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No, the other user said that installing A9LH is just as easy as installing B9S, which is completely untrue. I'm sure you can agree with that.

That wasn't really what you were saying in your post. You are saying A9LH was never worth it. When it was better than menuhax and worth the effort.

 

[Kazuma77]

No, the other user said that installing A9LH is just as easy as installing B9S, which is completely untrue. I'm sure you can agree with that.

It IS just as easy as installing B9S. If you have a DS flash cart that can run NTRBootHax, you can install either in under a minute. Maybe it wasn't true last month, but it is now. I can have either setup and nicely loadeed in minutes if you bring your device to me. It's all a matter of personal preference at this point. That one guy prefers A9LH for that safe thing (apparently he's in a high-crime area where things get stolen all the time). I kind of prefer B9S because I never have to see the frozen yellow screen again (almost, I still like to play Spectre3DS occasionally, and I still have to play *hax boot roulette for that). Now, to get back to the task at hand...

I don't have any idea on how to do this, otherwise i wouldn't ask here x) How can i go back to A9HL then ? Re installing it from scratch ? Now, when i try to boot with the old SD content, it powers on an off immediately, as it does when there is no SD card under B9S

Of course it does. B9S can't boot without a firm.bin file. You have to restore your SysNAND backup. If it's in "gm9/out" I'd suggest moving it to the root of the card where Decrypt9 can see it. Then use Decrypt9 to restore your SysNAND backup with the regular "NAND Restore" option. Then you will need the old files, of course, because it will be looking for an "arm9loaderhax.bin" at boot like before. If the backup is on the incompatible card, run D9 first, unmount the card, and swap. If upgrading to B9S caused the problem, then restoring your NAND should fix it. If it doesn't, then it's not the process that messed things up.

 

[dpad_5678]

It IS just as easy as installing B9S. If you have a DS flash cart that can run NTRBootHax, you can install either in under a minute. Maybe it wasn't true last month, but it is now. I can have either setup and nicely loadeed in minutes if you bring your device to me. It's all a matter of personal preference at this point. That one guy prefers A9LH for that safe thing (apparently he's in a high-crime area where things get stolen all the time). I kind of prefer B9S because I never have to see the frozen yellow screen again (almost, I still like to play Spectre3DS occasionally, and I still have to play *hax boot roulette for that). Now, to get back to the task at hand...

But then you're relying on another *hax, which defeats the purpose of all of this. B9S is better than A9LH ever was.

The A9LH installation process posed a high brick rate, while installing B9S is safer than doing a normal System Update.

 

[Larenthios]

Then use Decrypt9 to restore your SysNAND backup with the regular "NAND Restore"

Is GodMode9 okay or do i have to use Decrypt9 specifically ? I'll try it anyway, but my .bin save already went through step 1-3 of the A9LH to B9S guide so i don't really know if that will change anything (everything was already gone at this point)

Edit: I tried to use the "NAND Image options -> Restore SysNAND" option of GodMode9 but i still have nothing on boot.
However, since the only thing bugging me are my save files, and i still possess them (probably), couldn't i just re-download the games and copy the saves in the right place ? I heard that saves on 3DS systems were working a little bit weirdly but since it's the exact same console and SD Card, maybe there is a way ?

 

[Larenthios]

Okay, so this may be of some importance, but in the /Nintendo 3DS directory, there is two files corresponding to <ID0> (explained here)
And it looks like all of my games are still in one of them (2 gigs .app file, corresponding ID's), but the console is now using the other one (i installed a game, which went right into the other <ID0> file).
However, i don't know if i can just copy this for the games to appear again. I could also redownload and reinstall each game and move the save file, but that would be quite bothersome (if not useless).
Did someone already encountered such a situation ?

 

[KunoichiZ]

Okay, so this may be of some importance, but in the /Nintendo 3DS directory, there is two files corresponding to <ID0> (explained here)
And it looks like all of my games are still in one of them (2 gigs .app file, corresponding ID's), but the console is now using the other one (i installed a game, which went right into the other <ID0> file).
However, i don't know if i can just copy this for the games to appear again. I could also redownload and reinstall each game and move the save file, but that would be quite bothersome (if not useless).
Did someone already encountered such a situation ?

You cannot copy and paste the folders as the contents inside of the Nintendo 3DS folder are encrypted. You will need to redownload your games and move your saves over.

 

[DocKlokMan]

Sounds like you had Luma setup to auto boot emuNAND on A9LH but when you switched to B9S and setup Luma 8 you didn’t enable that option so you booted to sysNAND and that’s when you noticed everything was missing. If you hold Select while powering on the 3DS and enable the Autoboot EmuNAND option, does anything change?

 

[Larenthios]

Sounds like you had Luma setup to auto boot emuNAND on A9LH but when you switched to B9S and setup Luma 8 you didn’t enable that option so you booted to sysNAND and that’s when you noticed everything was missing. If you hold Select while powering on the 3DS and enable the Autoboot EmuNAND option, does anything change?

It was already on, and sadly nothing changed

 

[DocKlokMan]

It was already on, and sadly nothing changed

Did you format the memory card at any point?

 

[Larenthios]

Did you format the memory card at any point?

Yes, i was doing nothing but following those two tutorials (here and here).
I have some backups, however, but not of every partition, only of the root SD card directory you can access from your computer.

 

[DocKlokMan]

Yes, i was doing nothing but following those two tutorials (here and here).
I have some backups, however, but not of every partition, only of the root SD card directory you can access from your computer.

Ah, then the EmuNAND is gone from the SD card. Unless you had an emuNAND.bin backup from any point in time stored somewhere it’s unlikely you’ll get access to your files and saves. If you do have one, no matter how old, you may be in luck.

 

[Larenthios]

Ah, then the EmuNAND is gone from the SD card. Unless you had an emuNAND.bin backup from any point in time stored somewhere it’s unlikely you’ll get access to your files and saves. If you do have one, no matter how old, you may be in luck.

I have one but i'm not sure, however every save is in '/Nintendo 3DS/somefiles', i think i'll listen to KunoichiZ and try to reinstall and copy the save file from the pre-tutorial backup (not a restorable file one, sadly). But thanks for the hint ! I wouldn't have thought of it otherwise.

 

[KunoichiZ]

I have one but i'm not sure, however every save is in '/Nintendo 3DS/somefiles', i think i'll listen to KunoichiZ and try to reinstall and copy the save file from the pre-tutorial backup (not a restorable file one, sadly). But thanks for the hint ! I wouldn't have thought of it otherwise.

Wait. Did you back up your save files with JKSM first or are you relying on the Nintendo 3DS folder to get your save files? If you are relying on the Nintendo 3DS folder to get your save files, I'm sorry to say those are lost because you no longer have access to the emuNAND and the saves are encrypted. If you used JKSM first, then you can move your saves over.

 

[Larenthios]

Wait. Did you back up your save files with JKSM first or are you relying on the Nintendo 3DS folder to get your save files? If you are relying on the Nintendo 3DS folder to get your save files, I'm sorry to say those are lost because you no longer have access to the emuNAND and the saves are encrypted. If you used JKSM first, then you can move your saves over.

F*ck.
But isn't the encryption on the names of the directories (With the <ID0>/<ID1> key pair)? And if they come from the same machine, decryption may not be a problem, is it ?
I'll test it anyway, don't have anything to loose.

 

[KunoichiZ]

F*ck.
But isn't the encryption on the names of the directories (With the <ID0>/<ID1> key pair)? And if they come from the same machine, decryption may not be a problem, is it ?
I'll test it anyway, don't have anything to loose.

No access to the original NAND the saves came from = no way to decrypt the saves. Your saves are lost. You CANNOT use the other folder in the Nintendo 3DS folder, period.

 

[DocKlokMan]

F*ck.
But isn't the encryption on the names of the directories (With the <ID0>/<ID1> key pair)? And if they come from the same machine, decryption may not be a problem, is it ?
I'll test it anyway, don't have anything to loose.

No, the encryption changes each time you System format your 3DS. Back when emuNAND was a thing, you would System format sysNAND in order to unlink them. That makes your sysNAND and emuNAND have different encryption keys.

If you have a backup file of your emuNAND we can migrate that encryption key. Otherwise those files are as good as gone. Doesn’t matter if the backup is from when you first set the emuNAND up, we just need the encryption key.

 

[Larenthios]

No access to the original NAND

That's pretty sad
However, this guide told me to do some backup with the .bin file. If i was to restore this NAND, would it be the "Original NAND" (it already went through step 1, 2 and 3 from this tutorial at this point)

No, the encryption changes each time you System format your 3DS. Back when emuNAND was a thing, you would System format sysNAND in order to unlink them. That makes your sysNAND and emuNAND have different encryption keys.

If you have a backup file of your emuNAND we can migrate that encryption key. Otherwise those files are as good as gone. Doesn’t matter if the backup is from when you first set the emuNAND up, we just need the encryption key.

Well i don't really know if copying the SD card content in a file counts as a "real" backup, but if we can find the encryption key with this then yeah, let's do it.
And i also have this binary file i was talking about to KunoichiZ, it was just before formatting but i'm not sure it's in an okay state to backup/reinstall/copy (The encryption key may still be the same at this point AFAIK)