GOOD NEWS EVERYBODY!!! I have decided to make a..

How to have
SEPARATE ATMOSPHERE AND SXOS EMUNAND HIDDEN PARTITIONS ON THE SAME SD TUTORIAL!

​

PLEASE READ THE ENTIRE GUIDE BEFORE PROCEEDING. I WILL DO MY BEST TO MAKE THIS COMPLETE AND EASY TO FOLLOW.

I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY DAMAGE OR DATA LOSS DUE TO THE USE OF THIS GUIDE. I DO THIS FOR FUN AND AM NOT A PROFESSIONAL. i HAVE TESTED THIS METHOD AND HAVE SET UP A COUPLE SD CARDS.

USE AT YOUR OWN RISK!!!!

The intent of this guide is to make ONE SD CARD with TWO HIDDEN EMUNANDS. One on 11.0 for SXOS and one with current firmware for Atmosphere.

More than likely the currently installed games WILL NOT WORK IN ATMOSPHERE if they were installed with the SXOS installer.

Tinfoil/awoo installed games may work fine. This is SXOS 's fault as the installer patched stuff in a way that is not compatible with the other CFWs.

There is also a section on SHRINKING the SXOS partition if you intend to only use it for USB loading. To minimize the impact it has on your SD and keep your HDD functionality for all 3000+ compatible games.. If you do this the current SXOS EmuNAND will break including installed games and saves.. IF you made backups of the save data you can restore them later.

Bottom line is, you will probably be reinstalling games and you need a backup of everything.

This guide make a few assumptions.. I will assume you are a current SXOS user with a working 11.0 Hidden Partition EmuNAND with a FAT32 SD. No Atmosphere installation required. There many ways to accomplish most things in this guide. I am doing the bulk of the work on the PC to limit the amount of times we take the SD out of the fragile Switch SD slot.

If you do not understand the above then this tutorial may be out of your league. Please google beginner switch hacking and learn some basics.

EmuNAND is the same thing as EmuMMC. It's just an older term. I call it by the old school term. Old habits..

This guide starts with a SXOS installation in place. If you wanted to go the other direction, adding a SXOS partition to an Atmosphere EmuNAND SD you would have to adjust accordingly but the main concept still stands.


DO NOT USE EXFAT!!! EVER! NINTENDO'S FAULTY DRIVER WILL CAUSE DATA LOSS!! DONT BE LAZY! FORMAT TO FAT32 AND DO IT RIGHT TO AVOID FUTURE ISSUES! I KNOW YOU DON'T WANT TO. DO IT ANYWAY! ANY EXPERIENCED PERSON WILL TELL YOU THE SAME. WHY WOULD WE ALL GO THROUGH THE HASSLE IF IT WASN'T NECESSARY? DO IT!


THERE ARE OTHER MULTI BOOT METHODS. THIS ONE IS THE MOST STABLE. YOU COULD JUST MAKE A FILE BASED EMUNAND FOR ATMOSPHERE. FILE BASED EMUNANDS ARE KNOWN TO CORRUPT. Good way to lose all your saves.

You will need a few things

• Latest version of Hekate.
• Latest NxNandManager
• Latest EmuTool
• Atmosphere SD files
• Latest Sig Patches (the GBATemp thread)
• A Raw Backup Of your SXOS EmuNAND (if you don't have one we will make one.)
• A Backup of your current Atmosphere EmuNAND (if you don't have a current Atmosphere EmuNAND we will convert your SXOS EmuNAND)
• A partition manager capable of moving and making partitions installed on your PC, I will be using MiniTool Partition Wizard but any capable partition manage should work.
• A PC. Any should do, this guide is written with Windows in mind
• A WORKING FOLDER ON YOUR COMPUTER (NxNandMnager and EmuTool can be quite finicky about external drives and things. Just make a new folder. For the sake of this tutorial I will use a folder CALLED C:\NANDS)
• Keys.txt You can get these using Lockpick RCM or find them online.

BACK UP YOUR SAVES!!! I USE JKSV
BACK UP YOUR ENTIRE SD TO YOUR PC
This process will FORMAT YOUR SD!!!!!!

PREPARATIONS

Now we will set up the programs

On your PC:

1. Make a folder for NXNandMananger. Folder can be anywhere except the working folder as long as you can find it.
2. Unzip the NXNandManager .ZIP file to this folder
3. Place the Keys.txt in the same directory as NXNandManager.
4. Open NXNandManager, click OPTIONS then CONFIGURE KEYSET then IMPORT FROM FILE and point it to the Keys.txt.
5. Unzip EmuTool and put the emutool.exe file anywhere except the Working folder as long as you can find it.

BACKUP CURRENT SXOS EMUNAND

If you have a raw backup already you may skip this step. Just put it in the working directory.

1. Using a SD Reader insert SD with your SXOS EmuNAND in to computer.
2. Run NxNandManager
3. Select File > Open Drive> Select your SD.
4. Select Full Dump
5. Select Output Directory and choose your WORKING DIRECTORY. Name your backup. For the guide I name it SXOSemunandFULL
6. Wait Until done
7. Press OK

If you have a current Atmosphere EmuNAND you can back it up using the same steps now. Name it ATMOemunandFULL

OPTIONAL: Shrink SXOS EmuNAND

If you shrink your EmuNAND make sure you backup all saves first! Back them saves up even if you don't shrink the EmuNAND

If you would like to shrink your SXOS EmuNAND now is the time. This will make all installed NSP stop working. You can reinstall but it won't hold much. The intent is to make SXOS's impact minimal. I make SuperXCI (XCI files that contain all updates and DLC for the game) I convert NSP files and make Super XCIs out of them as well. This way Everything for SXOS compatible games is on the HDD. Except a Small EmuNAND.

You can select whatever USER data size you want. I only intend to have SAVE data on this EmuNAND so 8GB is enough for me. I play all NSP off of my SD in Atmosphere. SXOS is just for XCI USB loading.


In NxNandManager

1. Select File>Open File and select your EmuNAND raw backup.
2. Select Options > Resize EmuNAND
3. Check Format User (this is optional, however this process will render the current USER data useless anyway so just format it to make it clean, Input file will not be altered)
4. Select New Size.. I went with 5504 MB for user partition (8 GB Total) to keep enough room for saves.. some games have fairly large save files, you can choose whatever you want,
5. Click Save As,, name the file whatever you want and choose the working directory. I call mine SXOSemuRESIZED
6. Click Save.

Convert Hidden SXOS EmuNAND to Atmosphere File Based EmuNAND.

This will convert your Hidden Partition SXOS EmuNAND to Atmosphere EmuNAND files in the event that you don't have a Atmosphere EmuNAND backup. You should be able to migrate your saves and games over. GAMES INSTALLED USING THE BUILT IN SXOS INSTALLER WILL NOT WORK IN ATMOSPHERE.

If you have a raw backup from an Atmosphere Nand you can use that instead and skip this step. This section duplicates and converts your SXOS backup if you don't have an Atmosphere EmuNAND.

1. Open EmuTool
2. Under source select SXOS Hidden Partition
3. Click "Select SD card" and select the SD with the SXOS Hidden Partition
4. Under Select target select Atmosphere File.
5. Under TARGET Click "Click to Select SD Card" Name the backup and save to the working directory. Ill Call it SX2ATMOemu
6. Click START

Create New SXOS EmuNAND Partition

IF YOU ALREADY HAVE A SXOS EMUNAND IN A HIDDEN PARTITION ON THE TARGET SD YOU MAY SKIP THIS STEP
THIS SECTION WILL REFORMAT YOUR SD WITH THE NEW SHRUNKEN EMUNAND! YOU WILL LOSE ALL DATA!!! BACK UP THE SD FILES

In NxNandManager

1. Select File > Open file and select the (Shrunken or not) backup of the SXOS EmuNAND
2. Select Options > Emunand Creation Tool
3. Check NAND path is pointing to your SXOS EmuNAND backup (Shrunken or not)
4. Under "Select Emunand Type" Select SD partition
5. Under "Select Target Disk" Select your target SD.
6. Click "Create Emunand"

Resize FAT32 Partition and Make New Hidden Partition

THIS WILL MAKE ROOM FOR A SECOND HIDDEN PARTITION.


Now we will RESIZE your FAT32 Partition to leave a 29.2GB Unallocated Partition at the end of the SD

1. Open MiniTool Partition Wizard
2. Find the TARGET SD
3. Right Click on the FAT32 partition
4. Select Resize
5. Reduce the size of the FAT32 Partition by 29.2GB using the slider. Make sure that the unllocated space AFTER the FAT32 partition is 29.2GB and DON'T MESS WITH THE UNALLOCATED SPACE BEFORE THE FAT32 PARTITION! THIS IS SXOS EMUNAND!!
6. Press OK
7. Right Click on the New Unallocated Partition after the FAT32 partition. (once again not the first one. That is your SXOS Partition.)
8. Click CREATE
9. In the "CREATE NEW PARTITION" window Select the following:
   1. Create As: PRIMARY
   2. Drive Letter: NONE
   3. File System: UNFORMATTED
   4. Cluster Size:; NONE
   5. Click OK
10. In the MAIN WINDOW press Apply

That should format the unallocated space so the tools can see it.

Make new Atmosphere Hidden Partition EmuNAND

In EmuTool

1. Under "Select source" select Atmosphere files (Or hekate back up files if that's what you have)
2. Select "Click to select SD Card" and point to the Converted SXOS to Atmosphere Backup files (SX2ATMOemu) or your Atmosphere Backup, You must point to the directory with the BOOT1 BOOT2 00,01 etc etc files, Probably emummc\(A Numeric Code)\eMMC\
3. Under "Select Target" Select Atmosphere Hidden partition
4. Select "Click to select SD card" and point to your Target SD card.
5. Press START.

Restore SD backup and install Atmosphere
If all went well you should be able to copy your SD files you backed up in the beginning of the guide. That should get SXOS back up and running. then you can install Atmosphere. There are a TON of guides. just get the newest SDfiles and toss them on the SD. You'll need sigpatches too if you want to play downloaded content.

1. Copy FILES YOU BACKED UP IN THE BEGINNING OF THE GUIDE back to the SD FAT32 Partition .
2. Copy all Atmosphere files to your SD
3. Copy Sigpatches to the SD

If you are converted your EmuNAND from SXOS to Atmosphere and you didn't shrink your EmuNAND you need to copy the files in the EMUTENDO folder contents from SXOS to the Atmosphere NINTENDO folder (emuMMC/XXXX/Nintendo, XXXX is a Alpha Numeric 4 digit ID) this should make everything compatible work.
(Remember games installed with the built in SXOS installer will probably need to be reinstalled.)

Make EmuNAND visible to Atmosphere.

1. Unzip Hekate files to the ROOT of your SD.
2. Insert SD in to the Switch
3. Boot Hekate using the hekate payload and your favorite payload launching method.
4. Select EmuMMC
5. Select Migrate EmuMMC
6. Select Fix Raw
7. Select OK

Now you should be able to boot in to SXOS and Atmosphere each with their own EmuNANDS!!! Just boot the payload for the CFW you want using your favorite injection method.

Now you can update the firmware for your Atmosphere EmuNAND using daybreak. There are MANY guides on the subject. Google it!

Make sure your games work. Then you can uninstall duplicate games from the SXOS. You can move games from SD to System NAND in the Switch Data management Menu while in EmuNAND. This will move them from the FAT32 partition to the Hidden EmuNAND to free up the FAT32 even more. Remember to leave room for save files.


EXTRAS!

Here I would like to make a few suggestions....

TESLA with the FastCFWSwtich overlay,

If you would like a convenient way to switch between the CFWs (and other things too) I recommend you install TESLA with the FastCFWswitch overlay. Once installed you can Hold down L and DPad Down then Click the right joy stick to bring up Tesla at any time. It allows you to run "overlays" that are basically just homebrew programs. Emuiibo is a great Amiibo emulator, there is a fast reboot, a UMS feature, FTP etc. in this case I recommend FastCFWswitch.

FastCFWswitch allows you to switch between different CFWs with a few clicks.

TESLA page on GBATemp
This is the page for Tesla. In this instance the trick is to install it for BOTH SXOS AND ATMOSPHERE.

1. Download the latest fastCFWswitch NX-ovlloader and Tesla-Menu
2. Unzip all to the root of the SD
3. You must manually copy all the \atmosphere\contents files from NX-ovloader zip file to SXOS\titles\ to make it work in SXOS too, (I will make a pack if the developer gives me the green light.)

That's it. in SXOS or Atmosphere you can press the hotkey combo.. (hold down L and DPad Down and Click the right joy stick) to bring up the TESLA menu, then select fastCFWswitch and the CFW you want and off you go.

I suggest using different themes on your EmuNANDs so that you can tell them apart at a glance. There are SXOS and Atmosphere versions of my skeletal themes,

Skeletal Switch Theme
Skeletal TV theme
Skeletal HDD for SXOS Theme <-- Made this today

I will add more stuff and tweak this out as I have time. Please feel free to ask questions. It will help me fine tune this tutorial.

CHEERS!

Thanks to Maupiti for all the help.

 

[Kaziukas]

Then I take the cleanest route.
Thank you and much fun with the new kitten.

 

[Ratatattat]

How

Figure it out?

No. Using EmuTool in admin mode I try to select sxos hidden partition on my I: drive which contains my SXOS setup with hidden emunand on the SD as the source. No drives show up. If I select "show all drives my C drive shows up but thats it. I went to the Emutool tutorial and it seems others are having same issue but no resolution. If I select Hekate backup files it does show the I Drive. So how to make SXOS partition into Hekate backup files? Maybe I can then work around the issue. Also is there a good tutorial on making a hidden partition for atmosphere. I've tried everything I could find and nothing works.

 

[LiborNX]

Thanks for posting this very useful tutorial. Now I am considering to move from file based EmuNAND (SXOS) & EmuMMC (ATM) to two hidden partitions!
Any heads-up / limitations / sequence to respect / extra things to do (...) when also wanting to have Android or/and Ubuntu partition(s) on the same SD card? I sort of had in mind (saw somewhere I guess) that: 1) the sequence of setting partitions matters: you have to decide upfront if you wanted to reserve space for Android / Linux; 2) if you did then SXOS had to be file-based only otherwise it would cause an issue due to Android (or Linux) partition using sectors needed by SXOS (not an expert in sectors, hope this is phrased OK). Is there any truth in these assumptions..?

 

[mikefor20]

No. Using EmuTool in admin mode I try to select sxos hidden partition on my I: drive which contains my SXOS setup with hidden emunand on the SD as the source. No drives show up. If I select "show all drives my C drive shows up but thats it. I went to the Emutool tutorial and it seems others are having same issue but no resolution. If I select Hekate backup files it does show the I Drive. So how to make SXOS partition into Hekate backup files? Maybe I can then work around the issue. Also is there a good tutorial on making a hidden partition for atmosphere. I've tried everything I could find and nothing works.

Can you please run partition manager and show me what your SD card looks like in there? Are there partitions active? How did you make your emunand in the first place?

Thanks for posting this very useful tutorial. Now I am considering to move from file based EmuNAND (SXOS) & EmuMMC (ATM) to two hidden partitions!
Any heads-up / limitations / sequence to respect / extra things to do (...) when also wanting to have Android or/and Ubuntu partition(s) on the same SD card? I sort of had in mind (saw somewhere I guess) that: 1) the sequence of setting partitions matters: you have to decide upfront if you wanted to reserve space for Android / Linux; 2) if you did then SXOS had to be file-based only otherwise it would cause an issue due to Android (or Linux) partition using sectors needed by SXOS (not an expert in sectors, hope this is phrased OK). Is there any truth in these assumptions..?

Technically you can make all of them on the same SD card. I don't really recommend that. Having three partitions is already pushing it a little bit. It's safe I've done it for a long time now. But I think having five would be ridiculous. There is a quad boot tutorial somewhere around here someone else wrote. Including a script to make it all happen. Check that out if you really want to add Android and Ubuntu. I do those on the separate SD.

 

[Ratatattat]

Can you please run partition manager and show me what your SD card looks like in there? Are there partitions active? How did you make your emunand in the first place?

Technically you can make all of them on the same SD card. I don't really recommend that. Having three partitions is already pushing it a little bit. It's safe I've done it for a long time now. But I think having five would be ridiculous. There is a quad boot tutorial somewhere around here someone else wrote. Including a script to make it all happen. Check that out if you really want to add Android and Ubuntu. I do those on the separate SD.

Note Disk 5. Made with SXOS as a hidden partition emunand. Note other drives but C cannot be seen on EmuTool. Could it be because I drive is FAT32?. I thought there was a tutorial that showed you how to add Atmosphere hidden partition at the end of Drive 5 but I cannot find it.
Probably didn't work. What I want is SXOS partition to stay on 11.0, Atmosphere hidden partition to elevate to latest firmware and sys partition to stay at 11.0 Is this possible?

 

[mikefor20]

Ok. Still there? Backup the exfat stuff already?
Pm me. We will handle it there and post the resolution.

Sorry i fell ansleep.

 

[mikefor20]

Note Disk 5. Made with SXOS as a hidden partition emunand. Note other drives but C cannot be seen on EmuTool. Could it be because I drive is FAT32?. I thought there was a tutorial that showed you how to add Atmosphere hidden partition at the end of Drive 5 but I cannot find it.
Probably didn't work. What I want is SXOS partition to stay on 11.0, Atmosphere hidden partition to elevate to latest firmware and sys partition to stay at 11.0 Is this possible?

You need to re-read the tutorial. In order to backup your SX OS partition use NXNandManager as written. Also you are on exfat. Your sxos emunand doesnt show active. Backup your SOS nand, backup your entire exfat partition. After that you can try right clicking on the SX OS nand and Mark as active. Don't forget to click apply. That might make it show up in the tool. Otherwise started the beginning of the guide. Don't skip anything except for the shrinking emunand part. I doubt being a exfat has anything to do with it but that's the one thing I see that's very different from my setup. Also your petition is not marked as active so that might be it as well. All the tools are Homebrew sometimes it's just the SD reader that's an issue. Also if you didn't listen to my warnings about having other things in the directory that might be the issue as well. The Homebrew tools are finicky. Maybe format to FAT32 after you back everything up. I wish I could tell you something definite but I know it will work if you can get it to see everything. Please let us know what work

 

[Maupiti]

Note Disk 5. Made with SXOS as a hidden partition emunand. Note other drives but C cannot be seen on EmuTool. Could it be because I drive is FAT32?. I thought there was a tutorial that showed you how to add Atmosphere hidden partition at the end of Drive 5 but I cannot find it.
Probably didn't work. What I want is SXOS partition to stay on 11.0, Atmosphere hidden partition to elevate to latest firmware and sys partition to stay at 11.0 Is this possible?

If you want to follow the tutorial, follow the steps , forget about your I: . Make a working folder on C:

I’ve been through this steps/setup , several times, starting from scratch, for test purposes, it definitely works.

Big external hard drives are not well recognised by NxNandManager or Emutool, it depends, kind of a lottery, or depending how you attach your drives, before of after launching the apps.

 

[mikefor20]

If you want to follow the tutorial, follow the steps , forget about your I: . Make a working folder on C:

I’ve been through this steps/setup , several times, starting from scratch, for test purposes, it definitely works.

Big external hard drives are not well recognised by NxNandManager or Emutool, it depends, kind of a lottery, or depending how you attach your drives, before of after launching the apps.

This^^ Exactly. Follow the guide. Use your C drive. Make a dedicated working folder. It could be your SD reader. The Homebrew applications are finicky

 

[Maupiti]

@Ratatattat : under witch windows is your PC ? or are you on Mac running bootcamp ?

 

[rp05]

Is There by any chance of a video of this ?? thanks very much for the guide im just confused with some of the terms

 

[Lutfi]

Mike, you should mention in CAPSLOCK that some of your tutorial doesn't work on MARIKO Switch. I did my research as well and with SYSNAND 13.0.0, no SXOS could be run via Emunand.

 

[HK-51]

Is this how we find the exploit for the Lite?

 

[mikefor20]

Mike, you should mention in CAPSLOCK that some of your tutorial doesn't work on MARIKO Switch. I did my research as well and with SYSNAND 13.0.0, no SXOS could be run via Emunand.

What?

 

[rp05]

My SD is in Exfat can i use that for this part
"Resize FAT32 Partition and Make New Hidden Partition"
Or do i need to restart the whole process in fat 32

 

[KingManu23]

Getting a large sd card to try this. I use sxos dongle, should I create a hidden sxos partition and store the boot.bin in there before proceeding with this guide? On my previous sd card I was using file based partitions with sxos and atmosphere running on 11.0. Though I want to update atmosphere to the latest and leave sxos at 11.0 to play the super XCIs

 

[rp05]

Guide should be renamed to How to live in the past and present
Or
Obsolete 101

LOL

Why is there an easier way to set up dual booting for atmosphere and sxos ??

 

[mikefor20]

Why is there an easier way to set up dual booting for atmosphere and sxos ??

No. He's a troll.

Start at the beginning of the guide. It will reformat to Fat32 for you. Exfat is shit on switch. Yes you need to reformat. Back up everything start at the beginning

 

[mikefor20]

It's about USB loading. What's it to you? Troll.

 

[Ratatattat]

You need to re-read the tutorial. In order to backup your SX OS partition use NXNandManager as written. Also you are on exfat. Your sxos emunand doesnt show active. Backup your SOS nand, backup your entire exfat partition. After that you can try right clicking on the SX OS nand and Mark as active. Don't forget to click apply. That might make it show up in the tool. Otherwise started the beginning of the guide. Don't skip anything except for the shrinking emunand part. I doubt being a exfat has anything to do with it but that's the one thing I see that's very different from my setup. Also your petition is not marked as active so that might be it as well. All the tools are Homebrew sometimes it's just the SD reader that's an issue. Also if you didn't listen to my warnings about having other things in the directory that might be the issue as well. The Homebrew tools are finicky. Maybe format to FAT32 after you back everything up. I wish I could tell you something definite but I know it will work if you can get it to see everything. Please let us know what work

Partiton tool won't allow me to mark emmunand as active. Going to wipe everything and start over.