Hacking Help! regarding reading win32diskimager formatted mSD card

[juins]

Can someone help me? i was playing KH 3D, shut the game down correctly and turned the 3ds off, and lent my brother the 3DS sd card. The &$/%$/(%&( formatted it, along with my savefile on proud mode, 32 hours in!

How can i "read" OR extract data from the microsd card that GOES IN the flashcart? in other words, read data from a microsd card formatted with win32diskimager.
i havent loaded it up again on the 3ds hoping the savegame may STILL be on that microsd card as long as i dont boot it up, even if it was deleted from the sd card where gateway copies the savedata to.

Help please?

 

[Armadillo]

-ignore.

Wrong info.

 

[redkeyboard]

Download recuva, it's a program used to recover files from a formatted SD card.

 

[juins]

Save game is not on the Microsd that goes in gateway.

It's on the Gateway's SPI flash. If you haven't played anything else, then it should still reside there and be there when you play and then it make a backup of it from the onboard flash-> 3ds sd card after you are done.

thanks for ur help, im a bit desperate. ive already tried in the past deleting savefiles from the 3ds sd card just to see what happens, and gateway makes a new one. new fresh one, as far as i remember.

so what do u recommend? i havent played anything else yet, but the 3ds sdcard was formatted. i think that doesnt matter tho. u are saying i just try loading the game normally and itll make the same savegame again? plz can u be alittle clear, im scared to load gateway and lose what little hope i have.

 

[Cyan]

if he formated the SD card, I think the Gateway will reset the save in the SPI flash too (unable to check what was the last played game, it reset it like if it was a changed game).

GW Team should force a SPI backup before restoring the save when changing games or in case of SD card formating.

 

[juins]

if he formated the SD card, I think the Gateway will reset the save in the SPI flash too (unable to check what was the last played game, it reset it like if it was a changed game).

GW Team should force a SPI backup before restoring the save when changing games.

am i dead then? what do u recommend i try'

 

[Cyan]

Do what RedKeyboard suggested, use a file recovery program or unformat your SD card before writing anything new to it.
use Recuva like he suggested.

 

[pyromaniac123]

am i dead then? what do u recommend i try'

Can you see Morgan Freeman yet?

 

[juins]

Do what RedKeyboard suggested, use a file recovery program or unformat your SD card before writing anything new to it.
use Recuva like he suggested.

well, the microsd card was quick formatted by my brother, i havent wanted to format it again, in case it makes my chances even less probable of finding it. Recuva isnt giving me any .sav files tho. is there any trick or recommended config for those type of files to be found?

 

[Armadillo]

if he formated the SD card, I think the Gateway will reset the save in the SPI flash too (unable to check what was the last played game, it reset it like if it was a changed game).
.

Just checked, it does reset it. I thought it was done on rom info (game header or whatever), but yeah, it resets it. Deleted my zelda save (have a backup) and it reset the spi even though nothing else has been played.

 

[redkeyboard]

well, the microsd card was quick formatted by my brother, i havent wanted to format it again, in case it makes my chances even less probable of finding it. Recuva isnt giving me any .sav files tho. is there any trick or recommended config for those type of files to be found?

Use the regular SD card, not the microsd

 

[Cyan]

I'm not sure, but I think it writes some data directly to the .sav to keep track of the last played game. (as the date/time is not updated)
It should update that data in SPI when you do a home>x before backing it up.
When you launch the game, it checks if the existing file has the same data or not. if it's the same, it doesn't touch SPI and launch the game.

edit;
No, that's probably not how it's working.
1. it would corrupt saves which are using 512k
2. it would create different .sav files on each Home>x, but they are identical as long as you don't save in game.


Edit2:
After comparing both saves from DS dongle and Gateway, I see that for the same games the size is different but both covers the full size of the file. Gateway actually use the full 512k size for all games, even the one expecting 128k.
I think it's possible, but it's not writing data to the dump itself.
The save is using a file system and partitions, Gateway could add a check inside the file system (as an additional file for example).

 

[juins]

Use the regular SD card, not the microsd

yea, its a microsd card+adapter, the one thats in the 3ds. any recomentations to be able to find sav files? i just get a bunch of other files.

 

[juins]

I'm not sure, but I think it writes some data directly to the .sav to keep track of the last played game. (as the date/time is not updated)
It should update that data in SPI when you do a home>x before backing it up.
When you launch the game, it checks if the existing file has the same data or not. if it's the same, it doesn't touch SPI and launch the game.

edit;
No, that's probably not how it's working.
1. it would corrupt saves which are using 512k
2. it would create different .sav files on each Home>x, but they are identical as long as you don't save in game.

sometimes i turn the 3ds off without home>x, and the sav is intact . sorry for being a bother, in the end with this info u have posted, can i improvise in any way to create a savegame?

EDIT: i extracted an image of the gateways microsd card with the read button, and got a 14.6gb file (16gb) i still cant read it tho so...

Returning to my previous question, any way to manipulate this iso? open it, check contents? MAYBE, JUST MAYBE...

 

[CalebW]

Do what RedKeyboard suggested, use a file recovery program or unformat your SD card before writing anything new to it.
use Recuva like he suggested.

You can't unformat a sd card...

 

[juins]

You can't unformat a sd card...

u CAN though. u just make it raw data again.

 

[deoFusion]

You can't unformat a sd card...

If you don't know what you're talking about, then STOP giving bad advice.

Depending on how it was formatted, the 'files' are likely still there, just inaccessible.

 

[CalebW]

If you don't know what you're talking about, then STOP giving bad advice.

Depending on how it was formatted, the 'files' are likely still there, just inaccessible.

You might could recover the data, but you can't "undo the format"("unformat") the sd card to the way it was..there is a difference.

 

[juins]

If you don't know what you're talking about, then STOP giving bad advice.

Depending on how it was formatted, the 'files' are likely still there, just inaccessible.

it was just quick formatted to fat32, was on fat32 before too. so, what, should i format again or something? how can i make em accessible again?

 

[npbg6464]

The proper way to recover that save file would be:
1. Make a new save file on a different card and remember the save file's header (first 4 or so bytes)
2. Create a raw disk image of the card you're trying to recover data from.
3. In the resulting disk image file, do a binary search for the header you got from step 1. It should be sector-aligned - meaning it starts at an address divisible by 512.
4. Read from the start of the header you found in step 3 to whatever the size of the new save file was in step 1 - there's your recovered save file.
That's the gist of how to do it. You will need to use a hex editor of your choice for steps 3 & 4. Note that if your save file has already been overwritten by something or was fragmented (unlikely) you're out of luck.