Hacking I'm an idiot, backed up A9LH SD card using Win32DiskImager but wont boot after restore

[Quantumcat]

Get a new SD card. Put arm9loaderhax.bin on it from the Luma download. Hold Select at start up and choose to boot sysNAND by default (plus any other options the guide recommends in the "installing arm9loaderhax" section) I guarantee you your 3DS will boot up.

If not, go to the troubleshooting section of the guide and try the test payload to make sure you're not bricked.

 

[panicacid]

Get a new SD card. Put arm9loaderhax.bin on it from the Luma download. Hold Select at start up and choose to boot sysNAND by default (plus any other options the guide recommends in the "installing arm9loaderhax" section) I guarantee you your 3DS will boot up.

If not, go to the troubleshooting section of the guide and try the test payload to make sure you're not bricked.

I'll try that right now thank you.

Just FYI this was the final stage of what I did:

Spoiler: Part 5 arm9loaderhax

Part 5 (arm9loaderhax)
Plailect edited this page on 1 Oct · 145 revisions
Pages 28
Home
FAQ
Troubleshooting
Get Started

OTP Info
NAND Size
Device Info

Part 1 - Homebrew
Part 2 - 9.2.0 Downgrade
Part 3 - RedNAND
Part 4 - 2.1.0 Downgrade
Part 5 - arm9loaderhax

9.2.0 Update
Region Changing
Firmware Downgrade
Updating arm9loaderhax

Donations
Credits

Clone this wiki locally
You cannot use another console's OTP or you will brick GUARANTEED.

The final step of this guide is to install arm9loaderhax and setup Luma3DS to run just milliseconds into the boot. This is accomplished by using SafeA9LHInstaller by AuroraWright.

This will install AuroraWright's Fork of arm9loaderhax.

This guide uses "Updated SysNAND" mode, in which we copy our RedNAND to SysNAND (to keep games and such) and install arm9loaderhax to have permanent SysNAND hax with no RedNAND required at all.

We will also setup the ability to launch payloads from arm9loaderhax, giving us the ability to unbrick our SysNAND from situations that would normally brick us by restoring from backup.

Overview of steps
In this section, we will go through the process that all the other steps have led up to: actually installing arm9loaderhax.

This is nearly the best possible kind of device exploit because it is permanantly installable into the NAND firm partitions, and runs before most of the OS loads, allowing it to not only work on allversions once installed, but also protect itself and recover from most situations that would brick a non-a9lhax 3DS such as a nonfunctional home menu or bad title install.

The file arm9loaderhax.bin is what is launched by arm9loaderhax itself after it finishes loading off of NAND, and can be any valid arm9 payload. This file can be replaced at any time, although Luma3DS allows for the launch of other arm9 payloads by holding buttons on boot.

In this case, we use Luma3DS by AuroraWright to boot a patched SysNAND directly, allowing us to completely bypass the need for any kind of RedNAND, vastly simplifying the usage of a hacked 3DS in addition to saving SD card space.

Once arm9loaderhax is installed and Luma3DS is setup with the correct options, we then backup our SD card and format it using EmuNAND9 to remove the now obsolete RedNAND and reclaim the SD card space it previously used.

During this process, we also setup programs such as FBI (installs CIA formatted games and applications), Luma3DS Updater (updates our CFW installation easily), Decrypt9 (NAND + decryption tool which can also convert physical cartridge games to digital CIA files), Hourglass9(allows us to restore NANDs and such before boot to recover from bricks and do many other miscellaneous functions), and EmuNAND9 (manages RedNAND installations in addition to several miscellaneous features).

Screeninit arm9loaderhax payloads turn on the screen before handing control over to arm9loaderhax.bin (making sure it works with all arm9loaderhax.bin files), while noscreeninit arm9loaderhax payloads do not (allowing arm9loaderhax.bin to control things like brightness during boot). You can choose to use either (the guide used to only have screeninit payloads).

What you need

• data_input_v2.zip
• aeskeydb.bin
• The latest release of arm9loaderhax
  • See above paragraphs for explanation of "screeninit" and "noscreeninit"
• The latest release of SafeA9LHInstaller
• The latest release of hblauncher_loader
• The latest release of Luma3DS
• The latest release of Hourglass9
• The latest release of EmuNAND9
• The latest release of Decrypt9WIP
• The latest release of Luma3DS Updater
• The latest release of DspDump
• The latest release of FBI
• The Homebrew Starter Kit

Instructions
Section I - Preparatory work

1. Copy emergency_SecureInfo_A, emergency_movable.sed, emergency_title.db, emergency_ticket.db, NCSD_header_[o/n]3ds.bin, and firm0firm1.xorpad from the root of your SD card to a safe location on your computer and back them up to multiple locations (such as online file storage); they do not replace NAND backups, but in the event of lost backups could save you from total data loss (after further research and development is completed)
2. Delete emergency_SecureInfo_A, emergency_movable.sed, emergency_title.db, emergency_ticket.db, NCSD_header_[o/n]3ds.bin, and firm0firm1.xorpad from the root of your SD card
3. Delete the EmuNAND9 folder from the root of your SD card if you have one
4. Delete the 3ds folder from the root of your SD card
5. Copy the contents of the starter folder in starter.zip to the root of your SD card
   • (this will reset homebrew launcher apps to default, you don't need the others from before)
6. Copy the a9lh folder from data_input_v2.zip to the root of your SD Card
7. Copy payload_stage1.bin and payload_stage2.bin from the arm9loaderhax zip to a9lh folder on your SD card
8. Copy arm11.bin and arm9.bin from the SafeA9LHInstaller zip to the root of your SD card
9. Copy hblauncher_loader.cia from the hblauncher_loader zip to the root of your SD card
10. Copy lumaupdater.cia from the Luma3DS Updater zip to the root of your SD card
11. Copy FBI.cia from the FBI zip to the root of your SD card
12. Copy arm9loaderhax.bin and the luma folder from the Luma3DS zip to the root of your SD card
13. Copy Hourglass9.bin from the Hourglass9 zip to the /luma/payloads/ folder on your SD card and rename Hourglass9.bin to start_Hourglass9.bin
14. Copy EmuNAND9.bin from the EmuNAND9 zip to the /luma/payloads/ folder on your SD card and rename EmuNAND9.bin to y_EmuNAND9.bin
15. Copy Decrypt9WIP.bin to the /luma/payloads/ folder on your SD card and rename Decrypt9WIP.bin to x_Decrypt9WIP.bin
16. Copy aeskeydb.bin to the root of your SD card
17. Copy DspDump.3dsx to the /3ds/ folder on your SD card
18. Copy emuNAND_original.bin and emuNAND_original.bin.sha from Section II of Part 4 to the root of your SD card

Section II - Installing arm9loaderhax

1. Reinsert your SD card into your 2.1.0 3DS
2. Go to http://dukesrg.github.io/2xrsa.html?arm11.bin on your 3DS
   • If you get an error, follow this troubleshooting guide
   • If you get a glitched screen, follow this troubleshooting guide
3. Select Full Install
4. The installer will now install arm9loaderhax on your device (this is very fast)
5. Following this, booting to a black screen is normal (Luma3DS cannot boot a 2.1.0 NAND).
6. Copy your console specific OTP.bin from the /a9lh/ folder on your SD card to a safe location on your computer and back it up to multiple locations (such as online file storage)

Section III - Configuring Luma3DS

1. Hold select on boot to enter the Luma3DS menu.
   • If you get a black screen, follow this troubleshooting guide.
   • If you boot to SafeA9LHInstaller, follow this troubleshooting guide.
2. Use the A button and the D-Pad to turn on the following:
   • "Autoboot SysNAND"
   • "SysNAND is updated"
   • "Force A9LH detection"
   • "Show current NAND in System Settings"
   • "Show GBA boot screen in patched AGB_FIRM"
3. If you are using a New 3DS, you should also enable the following:
   • Toggle "New 3DS CPU" to "Clock+L2(x)" for improved game performance
4. Press Start to save and reboot
5. Following this, booting to a black screen is normal (Luma3DS cannot boot a 2.1.0 NAND).

Section IV - Copying RedNAND data to SysNAND

1. Open Hourglass9 from arm9loaderhax by holding Start on boot
2. Go to "SysNAND Backup/Restore..."
3. Select "SysNAND Restore"
4. Confirm and restore from emuNAND_original.bin
5. Your device should now be able to boot properly once more.
   • If you get a black screen, follow this troubleshooting guide

Section V - Removing RedNAND from your SD

1. Press Select on the main menu to eject your SD card
2. Delete emuNAND_original.bin and emuNAND_original.bin.sha from the root of your SD card
3. Backup every file on your SD card to a folder on your computer, all files will be deleted in the next step
   (if you followed Part 3 of this guide, you can delete the SD card backup from that - this will replace it)
4. Reinsert your SD card into your 3DS.
5. Hold Y on boot to launch EmuNAND9
6. Go to "SD Format Options", then "Format SD..."
7. Select the "Format SD (No EmuNAND)" option
8. Press Select on the main menu to eject your SD card
9. Put your SD card in your computer, then copy all your files back into it

Section VI - Finalizing setup

1. Reinsert your SD card into your 3DS
2. Still from EmuNAND9, go to EmuNAND Manager Options and make a backup of SysNAND to sysNAND.bin
3. Press Select on the main menu to eject your SD card, then put it in your computer
4. Rename sysNAND.bin to sysNAND-A9LHAX.bin and sysNAND.bin.sha to sysNAND-A9LHAX.bin.sha
5. Copy both to a safe location on your computer; this is a SysNAND backup containing arm9loaderhax (Your backup should match one of the sizes on this page; if it does not, you should delete it and make a new one!)
6. Delete sysNAND-A9LHAX.bin and sysNAND-A9LHAX.bin.sha from your SD card
7. Reinsert your SD card into your 3DS then press Start to reboot
8. Update your CFW SysNAND to the latest version using system settings (if it is not already)
9. Open Health and Safety (which is now FBI)
10. Select "SD"
11. Navigate to FBI.cia and press A to install
12. Navigate to hblauncher_loader.cia and press A to install
13. Navigate to lumaupdater.cia and press A to install
14. Exit with the home button
15. Launch the Homebrew Launcher from the home menu
16. Select "DSP Dump"
17. Press Start when prompted to exit
18. Reboot while holding Start to launch Hourglass9
19. Go to SysNAND Backup/Restore, then select Health&Safety Inject
20. Select hs.app (the original one from Part 4), then press A and confirm to inject
21. Press Start on the main menu to reboot!

If everything has gone according to plan, arm9loaderhax will be installed to your device, your RedNAND will have been copied to your SysNAND, you will no longer need RedNAND, you will have a CIA installer, and you'll be able to launch the Homebrew Launcher from an icon on your home menu. Your device will now automatically launch into CFW SysNAND.

You can now use Luma3DS Updater to update your Luma3DS to the latest version just by opening it and pressing A. (This is not the same thing as a System Update; it just downloads and extracts the newest Luma3DS files)

You will no longer be able to boot without the SD card in, that is normal.
You will now boot a Custom Firmware based SysNAND by default.
You can now hold Select on boot to launch the Luma3DS configuration menu.
You can now hold Start on boot to launch Hourglass9, an arm9loaderhax safe NAND tool.
You can now hold Y on boot to launch EmuNAND9, a full featured RedNAND and SD management tool.
You can now hold X on boot to launch Decrypt9, a full featured NAND + decryption tool which can also be used to convert a physical game cart to an installable file.

You can update your arm9loaderhax installation in the future by following the instructions on the Updating arm9loaderhax page.

To use NTR CFW, get ntr.bin from the appropriate zip on this page and copy it to the root of your SD card, then install BootNTR.cia from this page.

You can remove any extra files from the root of the SD card that are not in the image

 

[x65943]

I'll try that right now thank you.

Just FYI this was the final stage of what I did:

Part 5 (arm9loaderhax)
Plailect edited this page on 1 Oct · 145 revisions
Pages 28
Home
FAQ
Troubleshooting
Get Started

OTP Info
NAND Size
Device Info

Part 1 - Homebrew
Part 2 - 9.2.0 Downgrade
Part 3 - RedNAND
Part 4 - 2.1.0 Downgrade
Part 5 - arm9loaderhax

9.2.0 Update
Region Changing
Firmware Downgrade
Updating arm9loaderhax

Donations
Credits

Clone this wiki locally
You cannot use another console's OTP or you will brick GUARANTEED.

The final step of this guide is to install arm9loaderhax and setup Luma3DS to run just milliseconds into the boot. This is accomplished by using SafeA9LHInstaller by AuroraWright.

This will install AuroraWright's Fork of arm9loaderhax.

This guide uses "Updated SysNAND" mode, in which we copy our RedNAND to SysNAND (to keep games and such) and install arm9loaderhax to have permanent SysNAND hax with no RedNAND required at all.

We will also setup the ability to launch payloads from arm9loaderhax, giving us the ability to unbrick our SysNAND from situations that would normally brick us by restoring from backup.

Overview of steps
In this section, we will go through the process that all the other steps have led up to: actually installing arm9loaderhax.

This is nearly the best possible kind of device exploit because it is permanantly installable into the NAND firm partitions, and runs before most of the OS loads, allowing it to not only work on allversions once installed, but also protect itself and recover from most situations that would brick a non-a9lhax 3DS such as a nonfunctional home menu or bad title install.

The file arm9loaderhax.bin is what is launched by arm9loaderhax itself after it finishes loading off of NAND, and can be any valid arm9 payload. This file can be replaced at any time, although Luma3DS allows for the launch of other arm9 payloads by holding buttons on boot.

In this case, we use Luma3DS by AuroraWright to boot a patched SysNAND directly, allowing us to completely bypass the need for any kind of RedNAND, vastly simplifying the usage of a hacked 3DS in addition to saving SD card space.

Once arm9loaderhax is installed and Luma3DS is setup with the correct options, we then backup our SD card and format it using EmuNAND9 to remove the now obsolete RedNAND and reclaim the SD card space it previously used.

During this process, we also setup programs such as FBI (installs CIA formatted games and applications), Luma3DS Updater (updates our CFW installation easily), Decrypt9 (NAND + decryption tool which can also convert physical cartridge games to digital CIA files), Hourglass9(allows us to restore NANDs and such before boot to recover from bricks and do many other miscellaneous functions), and EmuNAND9 (manages RedNAND installations in addition to several miscellaneous features).

Screeninit arm9loaderhax payloads turn on the screen before handing control over to arm9loaderhax.bin (making sure it works with all arm9loaderhax.bin files), while noscreeninit arm9loaderhax payloads do not (allowing arm9loaderhax.bin to control things like brightness during boot). You can choose to use either (the guide used to only have screeninit payloads).

What you need

• data_input_v2.zip
• aeskeydb.bin
• The latest release of arm9loaderhax
  • See above paragraphs for explanation of "screeninit" and "noscreeninit"
• The latest release of SafeA9LHInstaller
• The latest release of hblauncher_loader
• The latest release of Luma3DS
• The latest release of Hourglass9
• The latest release of EmuNAND9
• The latest release of Decrypt9WIP
• The latest release of Luma3DS Updater
• The latest release of DspDump
• The latest release of FBI
• The Homebrew Starter Kit

Instructions
Section I - Preparatory work

1. Copy emergency_SecureInfo_A, emergency_movable.sed, emergency_title.db, emergency_ticket.db, NCSD_header_[o/n]3ds.bin, and firm0firm1.xorpad from the root of your SD card to a safe location on your computer and back them up to multiple locations (such as online file storage); they do not replace NAND backups, but in the event of lost backups could save you from total data loss (after further research and development is completed)
2. Delete emergency_SecureInfo_A, emergency_movable.sed, emergency_title.db, emergency_ticket.db, NCSD_header_[o/n]3ds.bin, and firm0firm1.xorpad from the root of your SD card
3. Delete the EmuNAND9 folder from the root of your SD card if you have one
4. Delete the 3ds folder from the root of your SD card
5. Copy the contents of the starter folder in starter.zip to the root of your SD card
   • (this will reset homebrew launcher apps to default, you don't need the others from before)
6. Copy the a9lh folder from data_input_v2.zip to the root of your SD Card
7. Copy payload_stage1.bin and payload_stage2.bin from the arm9loaderhax zip to a9lh folder on your SD card
8. Copy arm11.bin and arm9.bin from the SafeA9LHInstaller zip to the root of your SD card
9. Copy hblauncher_loader.cia from the hblauncher_loader zip to the root of your SD card
10. Copy lumaupdater.cia from the Luma3DS Updater zip to the root of your SD card
11. Copy FBI.cia from the FBI zip to the root of your SD card
12. Copy arm9loaderhax.bin and the luma folder from the Luma3DS zip to the root of your SD card
13. Copy Hourglass9.bin from the Hourglass9 zip to the /luma/payloads/ folder on your SD card and rename Hourglass9.bin to start_Hourglass9.bin
14. Copy EmuNAND9.bin from the EmuNAND9 zip to the /luma/payloads/ folder on your SD card and rename EmuNAND9.bin to y_EmuNAND9.bin
15. Copy Decrypt9WIP.bin to the /luma/payloads/ folder on your SD card and rename Decrypt9WIP.bin to x_Decrypt9WIP.bin
16. Copy aeskeydb.bin to the root of your SD card
17. Copy DspDump.3dsx to the /3ds/ folder on your SD card
18. Copy emuNAND_original.bin and emuNAND_original.bin.sha from Section II of Part 4 to the root of your SD card

Section II - Installing arm9loaderhax

1. Reinsert your SD card into your 2.1.0 3DS
2. Go to http://dukesrg.github.io/2xrsa.html?arm11.bin on your 3DS
   • If you get an error, follow this troubleshooting guide
   • If you get a glitched screen, follow this troubleshooting guide
3. Select Full Install
4. The installer will now install arm9loaderhax on your device (this is very fast)
5. Following this, booting to a black screen is normal (Luma3DS cannot boot a 2.1.0 NAND).
6. Copy your console specific OTP.bin from the /a9lh/ folder on your SD card to a safe location on your computer and back it up to multiple locations (such as online file storage)

Section III - Configuring Luma3DS

1. Hold select on boot to enter the Luma3DS menu.
   • If you get a black screen, follow this troubleshooting guide.
   • If you boot to SafeA9LHInstaller, follow this troubleshooting guide.
2. Use the A button and the D-Pad to turn on the following:
   • "Autoboot SysNAND"
   • "SysNAND is updated"
   • "Force A9LH detection"
   • "Show current NAND in System Settings"
   • "Show GBA boot screen in patched AGB_FIRM"
3. If you are using a New 3DS, you should also enable the following:
   • Toggle "New 3DS CPU" to "Clock+L2(x)" for improved game performance
4. Press Start to save and reboot
5. Following this, booting to a black screen is normal (Luma3DS cannot boot a 2.1.0 NAND).

Section IV - Copying RedNAND data to SysNAND

1. Open Hourglass9 from arm9loaderhax by holding Start on boot
2. Go to "SysNAND Backup/Restore..."
3. Select "SysNAND Restore"
4. Confirm and restore from emuNAND_original.bin
5. Your device should now be able to boot properly once more.
   • If you get a black screen, follow this troubleshooting guide

Section V - Removing RedNAND from your SD

1. Press Select on the main menu to eject your SD card
2. Delete emuNAND_original.bin and emuNAND_original.bin.sha from the root of your SD card
3. Backup every file on your SD card to a folder on your computer, all files will be deleted in the next step
   (if you followed Part 3 of this guide, you can delete the SD card backup from that - this will replace it)
4. Reinsert your SD card into your 3DS.
5. Hold Y on boot to launch EmuNAND9
6. Go to "SD Format Options", then "Format SD..."
7. Select the "Format SD (No EmuNAND)" option
8. Press Select on the main menu to eject your SD card
9. Put your SD card in your computer, then copy all your files back into it

Section VI - Finalizing setup

1. Reinsert your SD card into your 3DS
2. Still from EmuNAND9, go to EmuNAND Manager Options and make a backup of SysNAND to sysNAND.bin
3. Press Select on the main menu to eject your SD card, then put it in your computer
4. Rename sysNAND.bin to sysNAND-A9LHAX.bin and sysNAND.bin.sha to sysNAND-A9LHAX.bin.sha
5. Copy both to a safe location on your computer; this is a SysNAND backup containing arm9loaderhax (Your backup should match one of the sizes on this page; if it does not, you should delete it and make a new one!)
6. Delete sysNAND-A9LHAX.bin and sysNAND-A9LHAX.bin.sha from your SD card
7. Reinsert your SD card into your 3DS then press Start to reboot
8. Update your CFW SysNAND to the latest version using system settings (if it is not already)
9. Open Health and Safety (which is now FBI)
10. Select "SD"
11. Navigate to FBI.cia and press A to install
12. Navigate to hblauncher_loader.cia and press A to install
13. Navigate to lumaupdater.cia and press A to install
14. Exit with the home button
15. Launch the Homebrew Launcher from the home menu
16. Select "DSP Dump"
17. Press Start when prompted to exit
18. Reboot while holding Start to launch Hourglass9
19. Go to SysNAND Backup/Restore, then select Health&Safety Inject
20. Select hs.app (the original one from Part 4), then press A and confirm to inject
21. Press Start on the main menu to reboot!

If everything has gone according to plan, arm9loaderhax will be installed to your device, your RedNAND will have been copied to your SysNAND, you will no longer need RedNAND, you will have a CIA installer, and you'll be able to launch the Homebrew Launcher from an icon on your home menu. Your device will now automatically launch into CFW SysNAND.

You can now use Luma3DS Updater to update your Luma3DS to the latest version just by opening it and pressing A. (This is not the same thing as a System Update; it just downloads and extracts the newest Luma3DS files)

You will no longer be able to boot without the SD card in, that is normal.
You will now boot a Custom Firmware based SysNAND by default.
You can now hold Select on boot to launch the Luma3DS configuration menu.
You can now hold Start on boot to launch Hourglass9, an arm9loaderhax safe NAND tool.
You can now hold Y on boot to launch EmuNAND9, a full featured RedNAND and SD management tool.
You can now hold X on boot to launch Decrypt9, a full featured NAND + decryption tool which can also be used to convert a physical game cart to an installable file.

You can update your arm9loaderhax installation in the future by following the instructions on the Updating arm9loaderhax page.

To use NTR CFW, get ntr.bin from the appropriate zip on this page and copy it to the root of your SD card, then install BootNTR.cia from this page.

You can remove any extra files from the root of the SD card that are not in the image

You should really put that in a spoiler.

 

[panicacid]

Done thanking you.

I copied the 3ds folder and arm9loaderhax.bin file from the luma download from earlier but booting up and pressing select does nothing, just solid blue light.

Usually I can tell when it's going to fire as when you press power you'll get the power light and then instantly the read light will flash for the SD but that just aint happening. I'm 99.9% sure the 3DS isn't bricked as it was working perfectly before I stole the SD card as I was playing steamworld dig (awesome game).

 

[xBleedingSoulx]

Done thanking you.

I copied the 3ds folder and arm9loaderhax.bin file from the luma download from earlier but booting up and pressing select does nothing, just solid blue light.

Usually I can tell when it's going to fire as when you press power you'll get the power light and then instantly the read light will flash for the SD but that just aint happening. I'm 99.9% sure the 3DS isn't bricked as it was working perfectly before I stole the SD card as I was playing steamworld dig (awesome game).

Don't boot up and then press select. Hold select while you power on the 3DS, if it doesn't work, you're bricked. It just seems to me that it's not booting because it's trying to boot into an Emunand you don't have, the holding select while powering on menu should work, even without the Emunand and that's where you would change it to boot SysNand.

 

[panicacid]

Apologies for my wording there I am indeed holding select at the point of powering on.

From what I remember and understand from the guide in the last part I took my RedNAND and flashed that to the 3DS negating the need for an EmuNAND partition but meaning that the console won't boot without an SD Card.

Should I be able to boot into some ARM9Loader options without the SD card in?

 

[masenko]

i had a similar issue and it turned out to be that the 3ds cant read sd cards set to logical. i used a partition manager to change the sd to primary. you could give that a shot

 

[ScarletDreamz]

Apologies for my wording there I am indeed holding select at the point of powering on.

From what I remember and understand from the guide in the last part I took my RedNAND and flashed that to the 3DS negating the need for an EmuNAND partition but meaning that the console won't boot without an SD Card.

Should I be able to boot into some ARM9Loader options without the SD card in?

Nop, if the SD Card does not contain the Arm9loaderhax.bin, it wont boot at all.

Try any other SD Card formatted to fat32, and just place the Arm9loaderhax.bin from the Luma folder here https://github.com/AuroraWright/Luma3DS/releases/download/v6.6/Luma3DSv6.6.7z into the root of the SD card, and it should work normally.

 

[panicacid]

None of those worked unfortunately I'm about to flash a different 3DS for a guy at work. When I get to the stage of the guide whereby it asks me to format the new SD card in EMUNAND9 I'm going to also format my own and eject it then copy my data to it and see if that will allow it to boot in my 3DS, no harm in trying I guess?

Failing that I'm all out of ideas.

Also when people say all i Need is the ARM9Loaderhax.bin I'm presuming that JUST that file on the 3DS will work? My SD Image has a 3dsboot file in there too is something like that not needed?

 

[ScarletDreamz]

None of those worked unfortunately I'm about to flash a different 3DS for a guy at work. When I get to the stage of the guide whereby it asks me to format the new SD card in EMUNAND9 I'm going to also format my own and eject it then copy my data to it and see if that will allow it to boot in my 3DS, no harm in trying I guess?

Failing that I'm all out of ideas.

Also when people say all i Need is the ARM9Loaderhax.bin I'm presuming that JUST that file on the 3DS will work? My SD Image has a 3dsboot file in there too is something like that not needed?

boot.3dsx its used if menuhax is installed, also to load homebrelauncher, or homebrew launcher forwarder, so if you are using arm9loaderhax, then this file its not needed to boot.

Hvae you tried booting a payload? as example Hourglass or Decrypt9WIP? if you can, then you can easily restore your nand.

 

[kublai]

Hopefully someone can suggest a program to make an image for cases like this. I have not backed up my working SDcard yet but wanting to do it but needing some program that will create an exact image to restore.

 

[ScarletDreamz]

Hopefully someone can suggest a program to make an image for cases like this. I have not backed up my working SDcard yet but wanting to do it but needing some program that will create an exact image to restore.

With A9LH, i dont see the point on creating an image of the SD. just 2 nand backups, one with A9LH and 1 without A9LH. that's it. as for backing up the SD, just copy all the contents to your PC and that's it, tough i don't see why do this unless you have very specific reasons, since you can install everything again.

 

[kublai]

With A9LH, i dont see the point on creating an image of the SD. just 2 nand backups, one with A9LH and 1 without A9LH. that's it. as for backing up the SD, just copy all the contents to your PC and that's it, tough i don't see why do this unless you have very specific reasons, since you can install everything again.

It's been so long since I did A9LH so I'm not sure if I still have the guide to do so. I just want to restore and everything would be back up and running again.

 

[ScarletDreamz]

It's been so long since I did A9LH so I'm not sure if I still have the guide to do so. I just want to restore and everything would be back up and running again.

if you have a9lh, and you want to start from scratch again, format your system, delete all your stuff on your SD, and just place ARM9LoaderHax.bin on the root of your SD card. and TaDa~!

 

[panicacid]

Yeah I wish it was that simple ha ha, I can't boot without an SD in therefore can't format the system and putting ARM9LoaderHax.bin on the root of 4 different SD cards hasn't worked at all... I'm open to other suggestions.

 

[ScarletDreamz]

Yeah I wish it was that simple ha ha, I can't boot without an SD in therefore can't format the system and putting ARM9LoaderHax.bin on the root of 4 different SD cards hasn't worked at all... I'm open to other suggestions.

Try loading a payload?

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

As said here:
Put any payload you wish to use in SD:/luma/payloads, and rename it to <button>_<name>.bin (where <name> can be whatever you want)

<button>_<name>.bin can be as follows:

• x_NAME.bin
• y_NAME.bin
• select_NAME.bin
• start_NAME.bin
• r_NAME.bin
• a_NAME.bin
• b_NAME.bin
• right_NAME.bin
• left_NAME.bin
• up_NAME.bin
• down_NAME.bin

As example, download Hourglass9.bin and change it to x_Hourglass9.bin, hold X when turning on the 3DS, and it should open Hourglass9, dont forget to include also the arm9loaderhax.bin to the root,

If this does not work, HardMod will be your only choice. but that makes 0 sense, since it only needs arm9loaderhax.bin to work, just make sure your SD its fat32 formatted.

 

[panicacid]

Just tried that with Luma 5.5 and hourglass.bin as x_ and still no dice :'(

 

[Quantumcat]

Just tried that with Luma 5.5 and hourglass.bin as x_ and still no dice :'(

Did you try the test payload from the troubleshooting section yet? That's the way to tell if you're bricked. If it works, then you're just having SD card or file problems.​

 

[panicacid]

I did but powering on I can see that it doesn't read the SD card and pressing A after a minute or two does nothing. (I believe it's supposed to shutdown the 3DS?)

Further more if I try and power it on without an SD card in it just turns off. Strange...

 

[Quantumcat]

I did but powering on I can see that it doesn't read the SD card and pressing A after a minute or two does nothing. (I believe it's supposed to shutdown the 3DS?)

Further more if I try and power it on without an SD card in it just turns off. Strange...

Yeah I'm pretty sure there's something wrong with your SD card. Turning off by itself without the SD card in is a very good sign!