Hacking Question EMUMMC SD Card Upgrade - Nintendo Folder wiping itself

[Oteresk]

So, I had a 256gb micro SD card and decided to upgrade to a 512gb since I was running out of space. I cloned my 256gb to the new SD card, and emummc boots up perfectly fine. However, the Nintendo folder wipes itself completely of all installed games I had and resets it to what my sysnand currently has. Even if I copy my Nintendo folder to emummc after the fact, it still deletes everything. Is there anyway around this?

 

[Wuigi]

I also got a corrupted emummc just after restarting when I installed an NSP(and with it all my saves).
Maybe it has to do with my file-based emummc, maybe it has to be a partition to be more stable.

 

[Oteresk]

Anyway to confirm it's corrupt? I'm using the Partition passed emummc, and I've started the process over multiple times and had the same result.

 

[RHOPKINS13]

It depends on how your EmuMMC partition was set up, and how you handled migrating everything to the bigger card. Many guides have you set up the emuMMC partition at the end of the card instead of the beginning. What software did you use to clone the microSD? If you "grew" the FAT32 partition over your hidden emuMMC partition, you'll end up with all sorts of issues.

If you managed to put your emuMMC partition at the beginning of the microSD card, it's a fairly simple process.

 

[Oteresk]

I see what you mean by having the emuMMC at the end of the SD card, which appears to be the case for my original SD card.

Based off of a few different tutorials, I cloned with MiniTool Partition Wizard, EaseUS Partition Master, and HDD Raw Copy. Is there anyway to "move" the FAT32 partition so that it doesn't "grow" over?

 

[RHOPKINS13]

Is there anyway to "move" the FAT32 partition so that it doesn't "grow" over?

That's the difficult part, I don't think I've ever seen a guide for exactly how to do it.

My best guess, you should use dd to create a "emuMMC" backup. You'll have to look at your emummc_sector setting for Atmosphere to determine where to start from, and then make an image from that starting point to the end of your old microSD card.

Then, prepare your new card. It's your choice how you do this. I make two FAT32 partitions, one is going to hold my SD card contents, while the other is going to hold my emuMMC. Most guides throw it at the end, but I like putting my hidden partition at the beginning of the card so that I don't have to worry about all this stuff if I ever decide to upgrade to a bigger card. Your emuMMC partition needs to be at least as big as the image you just made. Copy your SD contents to one partition, for the emuMMC partition you're going to want to use MiniTool or some other tool to find out what sector it starts at. You're going to need to change your emummc_sector setting accordingly. Then, use dd to overwrite the partition with the image you made earlier.

Now, why do most guides put the hidden partition at the end of the drive? Well, since it's listed first in the Master Boot Record (MBR), the Switch (to be more exact, Horizon) will try to mount it and use it, corrupting your emuMMC. So to avoid that, go into Disk Management and simply delete the partition! It sounds a little crazy, but it won't wipe the actual data you copied over, it just deletes it from the MBR. After this, it should work fine, I've been using my Switch this way since Atmosphere first released emuMMC support, and I've had no problems whatsoever.

More info on how that works: https://gbatemp.net/threads/emummc-setup-win-linux-quadboot.541152/page-4#post-8682981 (we're basically doing the third dash under "4 solutions")

Hope that helps!

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Just to clarify, if you do follow my instructions above and decide to put your emuMMC at the beginning of the card, in the future if you wanted to upgrade again you could simply clone the card, then grow the FAT32 partition to the end of the card, and it won't affect your emuMMC because it's at the beginning!

 

[Oteresk]

Thank you! I'll try this now and let you know how it goes

 

[westwood]

Sorry to use this thread but i have a Similar problem. I updated today from a 128 to a 512gb Card. Im Using Kosmos Atmosphere with an RCM Loader. From what i found in the Internet many people say it would be enough to copy everything that was on the old SD Card (128GB) to the PC and then to the new Card (512GB). But if i did this i cant boot into Atmosphere with this Card... Saying fusee secondary would be missing (Which isnt true i checked it multiple times). So im getting FATAL ERROR Codes on booting Up.

I also saw someone on reddit who said that specially on Atmosphere Drag and Drop wouldnt be working. Can someone Help me out where the Problem is ?
For side Information, both cards are using ExFat format

 

[RHOPKINS13]

Sorry to use this thread but i have a Similar problem. I updated today from a 128 to a 512gb Card. Im Using Kosmos Atmosphere with an RCM Loader. From what i found in the Internet many people say it would be enough to copy everything that was on the old SD Card (128GB) to the PC and then to the new Card (512GB). But if i did this i cant boot into Atmosphere with this Card... Saying fusee secondary would be missing (Which isnt true i checked it multiple times). So im getting FATAL ERROR Codes on booting Up.

I also saw someone on reddit who said that specially on Atmosphere Drag and Drop wouldnt be working. Can someone Help me out where the Problem is ?
For side Information, both cards are using ExFat format

Are you using partition-based EmuMMC? If so, "drag and drop" won't work, because the hidden EmuMMC partition won't be copied over.

You'll have to use some sort of cloning utility to copy everything over, I prefer dd but it's not made for beginners.

 

[westwood]

@RHOPKINS13 First, thank you for your reply. Actually im a Beginner. But where can i see if its a Partition Based EmuMMC ?
I just picked the Emunand SD Card Option in Atmossphere

 

[RHOPKINS13]

You should know from when you first set it up. Did you follow a guide to create an emummc first?

It sounds like you may have not set it up at all. Which would definitely put you at high risk for a ban, especially if you've installed NSPs.

 

[lonifar]

(Note for anyone else, MacOS X has been known for causing failures when copying over files between sd cards no matter what file system the sd card uses, the working theory is the way files are copied between the cards as MacOS creates hidden files when copying which the switch may be seeing as the originals even though they're blank temporary storage to make sure the sd card doesn't fill while transferring. MacOS doesn't delete the files after transferring. I don't know about Linux but it may cause similar problems as both are built on the unix system. This doesn't effect homebrew though so don't worry.[may effect EmuNAND though as it seems to be a OS problem with the switch].)

 

[RHOPKINS13]

I don't know about Linux

I primarily use Linux, and I've never had a problem with it when copying files between microsd cards.

 

[TheyKilledKenny]

To move your hidden partition emuMMC (Atmosphere\Kosmos) or Emunand (SX OS) to a new SD Card, make a 30GByte primary partition with a tool like Minitool Partition Wizard (free for personal use), than use EmuTool to backup and restore yor hidden partition Emu

For SXOS the 30GB partition should be the first, for Atmos the 30GB partition can be at the end.
Remember to manually copy the Nintendo or Emutendo software from the source SD to the target SD in the folder that EmuTool suggest at the end.