Hacking Question How to make compressed backups small after having used NANDs space?

[ArviDroid]

Hello.
My NAND backups barely get compressed, since the space on my NAND has previously been used up by games and such. So I'm wondering whether there's a way to remove the "unnecissary data" from the backup/ make that data blank zeros again? Thanks in advance.

 

[milkyTommy]

compress it in with a file compression software (7z is a very good compress format ) ... My backup is about 10.7gb after compression and around 30gb without any compression

 

[ArviDroid]

compress it in with a file compression software (7z is a very good compress format ) ... My backup is about 10.7gb after compression and around 30gb without any compression

Oh, I think you misinterpreted what I meant! I have tried compressing with 7z, but it basically comes out the same size as it was before compressing. The cause for this is that my NAND has prevously been filled up with data. That data will kinda be there even when I remove the files. As deleting the data doesn't mean the "empty space" is rewritten as zeros. Hence the backup will barely get compressed.

 

[NiggerGuy]

My winrar (normal compression), nand backup is 745MB. There's a post on how to make a clean nand with 6.1.0

 

[milkyTommy]

Oh, I think you misinterpreted what I meant! I have tried compressing with 7z, but it basically comes out the same size as it was before compressing. The cause for this is that my NAND has prevously been filled up with data. That data will kinda be there even when I remove the files. As deleting the data doesn't mean the "empty space" is rewritten as zeros. Hence the backup will barely get compressed.

oh yeah, then i dont know if its possible ... you can read your nand with HacDiskMount but i dont think we can modify that ...

 

[ArviDroid]

My winrar (normal compression), nand backup is 745MB. There's a post on how to make a clean nand with 6.1.0

I'm currently not on 6.1.0, if that's relevant.(I'm on 5.1.0) Off to find that post, I guess!

 

[NiggerGuy]

oh yeah, then i dont know if its possible ... you can read your nand with HacDiskMount but i dont think we can modify that ...

You can dump your nand (6.1.0) with SXOS, create an emunand - then hex edit the files (full.00.bin - full.07.bin) and change most of those bytes to 00, then you test your modded files in emunand - there's a guide already posted on how to do it.

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I'm currently not on 6.1.0, if that's relevant.(I'm on 5.1.0) Off to find that post, I guess!

That guide is for 6.1.0 - it won't work with 5.1.0. For 5.1.0 - don't edit full.00.bin, from 01-06 bins these can be edited for all bytes to be 00 - (07.bin - only the last part of this file needs to be left intact, as this contains partition information, make 00 to 47cdfdff bytes 00 - leave the rest untouched).

 

[uyjulian]

Use dd to make 4gb 0 filled files on the filesystem, then delete those

 

[ArviDroid]

You can dump your nand (6.1.0) with SXOS, create an emunand - then hex edit the files (full.00.bin - full.07.bin) and change most of those bytes to 00, then you test your modded files in emunand - there's a guide already posted on how to do it.

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------



That guide is for 6.1.0 - it won't work with 5.1.0. For 5.1.0 - don't edit full.00.bin, from 01-06 bins these can be edited for all bytes to be 00 - (07.bin - only the last part of this file needs to be left intact, as this contains partition information, make 00 to 47cdfdff bytes 00 - leave the rest untouched).

Sadly I'm using Atmosphere...

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Use dd to make 4gb 0 filled files on the filesystem, then delete those

Pardon me, but what is "dd"?

 

[Deleted member 456320]

It is possible, I have done it. You will have to back up all files on the user partition, mount the encrypted partition, full format, decrypt and mount, and do a quick format on the decrypted partition, then move files back to restore.

 

[rajkosto]

you actually cant zerofill the partitions because after encryption the zeroes become random data == basically uncompressible.

if you want lean backups then just backup the files on mounted partitions instead of the partitions themselves ? like make a folder called USER and copy everything from your mounted USER there (use total commander and show hidden files inside of it), instead of dumping entire 27GB of user.

 

[Deleted member 456320]

If you zerofill the encrypted form of the partition, you can still include the files while having just a compressable rawnand.bin.

 

[BigPanda]

It depend on the amount of things you have on your user partition. (Games, Saves, DLC)

Mine is about 3.3GB but the first backup I did in the past was a little bit less than 2GB

 

[rajkosto]

If you zerofill the encrypted form of the partition, you can still include the files while having just a compressable rawnand.bin.

yes you would have to zero out the ENCRYPTED USER partition, then use guiformat with quick fat32 16KB cluster size (run HacDiskMount as admin if you cant see the mounted drive letter in guiformat)
then put all the files back. is it worth it ? probably not.

 

[Deleted member 456320]

yes you would have to zero out the ENCRYPTED USER partition, then use guiformat with quick fat32 16KB cluster size (run HacDiskMount as admin if you cant see the mounted drive letter in guiformat)
then put all the files back. is it worth it ? probably not.

True, it is annoying, but it isn't that hard, and depending on the needs of OP it could be useful.

 

[ArviDroid]

Seems like a pretty extensive process. I think I'll pass up on it, in that case. Anyhow, thanks for the help guys!

 

[cualquiercosa327]

The easier and probably the best way is :
1)make a nand backup of the system .
Rename it as nand-full .
2)On the Switch delete the most stuff you can (games,dcl,saves..)
3)Make other dump from the nand and compress it : you could use this if you have anykind of problem.

4-Restore the first nand dump you did (nand-full)

 

[ArviDroid]

The easier and probably the best way is :
1)make a nand backup of the system .
Rename it as nand-full .
2)On the Switch delete the most stuff you can (games,dcl,saves..)
3)Make other dump from the nand and compress it : you could use this if you have anykind of problem.

4-Restore the first nand dump you did (nand-full)

I´m not quite sure I understand what you mean. My NAND is almost empty as I´ve deleted most stuff on it, but that does not equal to it being able to be compressed well. The deleted data is still there in a sense, hindering the backup from being compressed much. So your method won´t do any good. Or have I misunderstood you?

 

[cualquiercosa327]

I´m not quite sure I understand what you mean. My NAND is almost empty as I´ve deleted most stuff on it, but that does not equal to it being able to be compressed well. The deleted data is still there in a sense, hindering the backup from being compressed much. So your method won´t do any good. Or have I misunderstood you?

No,you undertand well.
Then if you desinstall the stuff it still keep on it ?(similar when one delete a file on pc:it doesnt delete it).
Then you need to mount your nand backup and fill with zeros the free space.
I dont know if they are some tool which make it (you can make it manually but you need know what files-sectors...).
Sorry listen it

 

[ArviDroid]

No,you undertand well.
Then if you desinstall the stuff it still keep on it ?(similar when one delete a file on pc:it doesnt delete it).
Then you need to mount your nand backup and fill with zeros the free space.
I dont know if they are some tool which make it (you can make it manually but you need know what files-sectors...).
Sorry listen it

Yes, the data is still there. People listed a method earlier in this thread, but it´s a bit complicated. So I´ll make do without a compressed backup.