Encrypted or Decrypted DS ROMs?

[jtabc123456]

Hi, I am dumping my DS game cards with GM9 as a backup and I am not sure of the difference between the encrypted and decrypted ROMs (.nds or .nds.enc). Is there any reason I would ever need the "Encrypted" dumps, or should I only keep the Decrypted ones?

If you do recommend I only keep the Decrypted ROMs, is there any tool that can reproduce the encrypted ROMs from the decrypted ones?

If instead you recommend I keep the Encrypted ROMs, is there a way I can produce the decrypted ROMs from the encrypted ones?

Rather than wasting space storing both, I'm happy to store either and then use a tool to convert from one to the other in case I would ever need it, if such as tool exists.

Please advise, thanks.

 

[The Real Jdbye]

Hi, I am dumping my DS game cards with GM9 as a backup and I am not sure of the difference between the encrypted and decrypted ROMs (.nds or .nds.enc). Is there any reason I would ever need the "Encrypted" dumps, or should I only keep the Decrypted ones?

If you do recommend I only keep the Decrypted ROMs, is there any tool that can reproduce the encrypted ROMs from the decrypted ones?

If instead you recommend I keep the Encrypted ROMs, is there a way I can produce the decrypted ROMs from the encrypted ones?

Rather than wasting space storing both, I'm happy to store either and then use a tool to convert from one to the other in case I would ever need it, if such as tool exists.

Please advise, thanks.

You should go for decrypted because that matches No-Intro and that is likely what AP patches, AR codes, romhacks and such are made to work with.
(To be specific, No-Intro has both dats for both encrypted and decrypted, but the releases they are cataloguing were originally decrypted and that seems to be the preferred format)

You can convert between them using NDecrypt. Encrypted roms are mainly only useful on real hardware (not emulator, though some might be able to read them with the right keys)

 

[jtabc123456]

You should go for decrypted because that matches No-Intro and that is likely what AP patches, AR codes, romhacks and such are made to work with.
(To be specific, No-Intro has both dats for both encrypted and decrypted, but the releases they are cataloguing were originally decrypted and that seems to be the preferred format)

You can convert between them using NDecrypt. Encrypted roms are mainly only useful on real hardware (not emulator, though some might be able to read them with the right keys)

This tool works great. So far I've been able to reproduce the exact encrypted versions from the decrypted ones on every game I've tried. I'll keep the decrypted dumps. Thanks!