Hacking [HELP!] Weird SD Card problem - Can I still get my o3DS files back through recovered files?

[Gameoverman]

Don't know if this is the right section, but I have a CFW o3DS, so I figured this may be the right place. Move it if it should've gone somewhere else.
Okay, technically I want to tell the long story for clarity on everything that happened, just in case it's needed, but I'll include a TL;DR too at the end. Edit: Wow, what I typed feels like a narrative. Lol.

Spoiler: The Long Story

So I have an old 3DS (the very first one) and a faulty SD Card reader. Should've known better than to continue using that SD card reader, but hey, I only wanted to back up my SD card that I was already happy setting up. Funnily enough, the very moment I wanted to back up files was the very moment my SD card had to run into a problem. So I inserted my SD card, and it ended up playing that Windows sound in repeat, as though it's being inserted and reinserted. I hurriedly disconnected, as I knew that would corrupt my SD Card. Then, I reconnected again from a different angle, since that worked before. Suddenly, Windows showed "Installing new hardware". Knowing this was formatting the SD Card, I quickly removed it, but perhaps that was the wrong move. Now, I reinserted the SD Card and instead, my SD card couldn't be accessed and says it has "write protection", yet the switch isn't on "lock". Thinking it may just be my SD Card Reader, I placed it on my 3DS. Wrong move, I noticed my theme wasn't applied anymore and my games were gone, too. I figured the files really were lost. But I was okay, since I only recently hacked it and didn't have much on it. I still had my legit files backed up before I installed the CFW. So, I went and used another SD card and copied the Nintendo 3DS folder I backed up and...Nothing. My legit games didn't come back. Of course, I thought. Nintendo anti-piracy measures so you can't just copy games back and forth and share them. So, I hoped using the CFW files from 3dsguide might magically bring them back to my home menu. Wrong move again, I installed all the same files again from 3dsguide to get all my CFW apps back, but nothing else happened except that I had FBI, HBL and all the other typical CFW essentials.

So, now, I ran my "write protected" SD card through EaseUS Data Recovery and got a lot of my files back, including my Nintendo 3DS folder and reformatted the SD card. Unfortunately, somehow, the SD card can't fit all the information now. Apparently, it also recovered the games I deleted. So, I still have to buy a bigger capacity SD card just to test it. However, now I just realized that since I placed new items on the home menu, it's likely that I will never be able to bring them back to the home menu without just re-downloading it all again (Ugghhh. Slow o3DS Wi-Fi we meet again). And even then, the Nintendo 3DS folder is in a different state than it was, so it likely won't be accepted. Is there any way to use this Nintendo 3DS folder to grab my old saves and games back?

TL;DR: I have a CFW o3DS. How does the "Nintendo 3DS" folder work? Can I recover my games and saves from it using recovered files? Got some legit games there and some stuff installed via CIA. Is there any solution developed for it for a CFW 3DS?

 

[lone_wolf323]

Don't know if this is the right section, but I have a CFW o3DS, so I figured this may be the right place. Move it if it should've gone somewhere else.
Okay, technically I want to tell the long story for clarity on everything that happened, just in case it's needed, but I'll include a TL;DR too at the end. Edit: Wow, what I typed feels like a narrative. Lol.

TL;DR: I have a CFW o3DS. How does the "Nintendo 3DS" folder work? Can I recover my games and saves from it using recovered files? Got some legit games there and some stuff installed via CIA. Is there any solution developed for it for a CFW 3DS?

From what you've stated if that 3ds is still somewhat usable. *ie. can use jksm on it to pull the decrypted saves* then you still got a chance to get the saves from the console. If not, those saves are encrypted per console and needs that console to decrypt the saves to use on other consoles or to transfer saves.

From what I've seen also. When a SD Card becomes *write protection on* with the switch not turned on shows sign of that card dying or failing. You may want to look at getting another card if you can salvage the current one with its contents.

 

[Gameoverman]

From what you've stated if that 3ds is still somewhat usable. *ie. can use jksm on it to pull the decrypted saves* then you still got a chance to get the saves from the console. If not, those saves are encrypted per console and needs that console to decrypt the saves to use on other consoles or to transfer saves.

From what I've seen also. When a SD Card becomes *write protection on* with the switch not turned on shows sign of that card dying or failing. You may want to look at getting another card if you can salvage the current one with its contents.

o3DS is still 100% usable. It was just my SD card that failed. Heck, I even have FBI, Hombrew Launcher and Luma 3DS Updater all back in on a separate SD Card, so CFW is still intact. I'm still going to grab a new SD card with sufficient space.

Technically, I used a Data Recovery program to salvage my files, and it seems it also recovered some deleted files. No idea if those folder names are even the same. So, if I understand correctly, saves are stored within the console, and not on the SD card? And jksm can decrypt those saves and then re-encrypt them for my console? Alright, so my saves are safe, but what about my home menu items? The CIAs I already installed? They're in the Nintendo 3DS folder, right? Can those not be restored?

 

[lone_wolf323]

o3DS is still 100% usable. It was just my SD card that failed. Heck, I even have FBI, Hombrew Launcher and Luma 3DS Updater all back in on a separate SD Card, so CFW is still intact. I'm still going to grab a new SD card with sufficient space.

Technically, I used a Data Recovery program to salvage my files, and it seems it also recovered some deleted files. No idea if those folder names are even the same. So, if I understand correctly, saves are stored within the console, and not on the SD card? And jksm can decrypt those saves and then re-encrypt them for my console? Alright, so my saves are safe, but what about my home menu items? The CIAs I already installed? They're in the Nintendo 3DS folder, right? Can those not be restored?

The saves your looking for are in the Nintendo 3ds folder. and those saves are all located on the SD card itself and not the console. If you can place that folder on the system and use JKSM there is a good chance to pull the saves that are on there. The cias you installed. Those should still remain on the system. Home menu items may need to be reinstalled.

 

[Gameoverman]

The saves your looking for are in the Nintendo 3ds folder. and those saves are all located on the SD card itself and not the console. If you can place that folder on the system and use JKSM there is a good chance to pull the saves that are on there. The cias you installed. Those should still remain on the system. Home menu items may need to be reinstalled.

Ohhh... Thanks a lot! I'll have to grab a new SD card first before trying. Some deleted files from the Nintendo 3DS folder were also recovered, though, so I'm hoping that doesn't cause any problems.
How do you reinstall menu items, though?

 

[lone_wolf323]

Ohhh... Thanks a lot! I'll have to grab a new SD card first before trying. Some deleted files from the Nintendo 3DS folder were also recovered, though, so I'm hoping that doesn't cause any problems.
How do you reinstall menu items, though?

For those. FBI will be best to install whats missing.