Hacking Is it worth doing NAND dumps on an a9lh enabled 3DS above 9.2?

[escherbach]

Hi, great achievement by the community with a9lh, I previously hacked an old archos system and that was kindergarten in comparison to this. But my question is, while it is currently safe to upgrade sysnand beyond 9.2 once you have a9lh (and CFW like luma3ds), is it worth doing nand backups of 11.1.0.34 etc? I don't want to keep storing an extra GB on my SD card every time nintendo releases a new update, so what's the recommended strategy for keeping (sys)NAND dump versions?

 

[nechigawara]

1. It's safe to update SysNAND to lastest version if you have A9LH + Luma3DS, because Luma3DS provide firm protection which prevent mostly anything from A9LH removing. Beware if you're GateWay User, GW mode on A9LH doesn't have firm protection like Luma3DS. If you do system update/Download Play on GW mode, your console may brick or losing A9LH.
2. You should do a NAND back up every once in a while. Cause they always a chance of getting problem when

• You further modify your console, and your NAND become broken
• System Updating Fail, and your NAND become broken
• Etc.

The NAND Back Up can help you recover from this. My suggestion is Keep 9.2 Back up like the guide told, Keep it in many safe places (Google Drive, Dropbox, Etc.), and do another back up before you do anything related to you NAND (System Updating, modify your console, Etc.). I think it should be enough to keep you safe.

 

[escherbach]

Ok cheers, I've got a good 9.2 backup, and the latest 11.1-0.34. I can switch between them fine using decrypt9 sysnand restore, although somethings like youtube won't work when I restore the earlier 9.2 sysnand (Luckily I also kept a backup of my FULL working SD card on 9.2, so I can always go back to a clean 9.2 state if required)

I just wondered if it's considered worthwhile to dump EVERY working sysnand update from now on, probably just worth keeping the last confirmed "safe" one

 

[Quantumcat]

Always make a backup before doing anything that could potentially break your NAND. Updates, GodMode9, etc. Don't want to lose activity log, saves, things like that. (If you don't care about Mii Plaza, friends and activity log then keeping your saves backed up is good enough)

Personally I like to make a backup every few weeks. I keep them on a portable hard drive.

 

[StormEye]

Is there a way to figure out if a backup NAND.bin is 9.2 or 11.0 or 11.1?

I had some trial and error thing going on a long time ago when doing A9LH setup for the first time, and probably have some of them mixed up. Would appreciate if I can get some help in identifying which is the 9.2, so that I can file it away properly & safely.

 

[AecdArmy]

Is there a way to figure out if a backup NAND.bin is 9.2 or 11.0 or 11.1?

I had some trial and error thing going on a long time ago when doing A9LH setup for the first time, and probably have some of them mixed up. Would appreciate if I can get some help in identifying which is the 9.2, so that I can file it away properly & safely.

You could just make a new emunand on another sd card and put them on that to see (I did that)

 

[AecdArmy]

I would recommend doing NAND dumps every 2 weeks or so just to make sure you have a NAND with all your things and to make sure you don't have a bad time. (Undertale reference intended)

 

[StormEye]

You could just make a new emunand on another sd card and put them on that to see (I did that)

Thank you very much for suggestion.

If you don't mind, would you mind giving me pointers to how I should go about creating an EmuNAND? I only have experience following "the guide" and use SysNAND exclusively.

 

[el_gonz87]

I would throw in to backup your sdmc:/Nintedo 3DS folder as well, this will save you a lot of time in the future as you will have a snapshot of the system at that time with a NAND + sdmc:/Nintendo 3DS

Meaning if you ever mess anything up with that folder, you won't have to start from scratch with a NAND backup.

 

[dudemo]

I would throw in to backup your sdmc:/Nintedo 3DS folder as well, this will save you a lot of time in the future as you will have a snapshot of the system at that time with a NAND + sdmc:/Nintendo 3DS

Meaning if you ever mess anything up with that folder, you won't have to start from scratch with a NAND backup.

You really should absolutely do this. I had neglected to put a copy on my laptop because of SSD size constraints. I also neglected to keep a copy in my SD card or in any online storage, which is stupid because MEGA gives you 50Gb for free.

Later on, earlier this year, I was in an vehicle accident that left me hospitalized for many months. (I leave in 5 days!!) Bored one day, I messed up my NAND (home menu mods) and needed to restore a backup. But guess what? I couldn't, because my stupid ass didn't leave myself any options other than my external hard drive. That option was completely off the table because I was 200+ miles away from my external hard drive stuck in a friggin hospital in podunk Indiana.

So yeah, make a copy of your NAND using Hourglass9. It will store the copy in sdmc: /files9. LEAVE IT THERE FOR GODS SAKE!

Please? And thanks!

 

[nl255]

Don't forget to backup your movable.sed and secureinfo_A while you are at it. That should allow you to transfer everything including save data to a new system should your current one break.

 

[Autz]

I made a NAND backup on 11.1 before installing a custom keyboard. I'm afraid that the keyboard would be an issue when updating the system.

 

[Aletron9000]

Don't forget to backup your movable.sed and secureinfo_A while you are at it. That should allow you to transfer everything including save data to a new system should your current one break.

what I did was create a CTRNAND xorpad and a TWLNAND xorpad so if I do get another system, I can open the old system's backups and transfer the files I need to the new system. that includes SecureInfo_A and movable.sed.

 

[Quantumcat]

@escherbach BTW like your username, are you a fan of the book the golden braid??

 

[RemixDeluxe]

Not making a backup of your NAND is like driving a car without insurance. No one needs car insurance until they need it.

 

[escherbach]

@escherbach BTW like your username, are you a fan of the book the golden braid??

OF COURSE!

More seriously, are people sayin' that, for 100% confidence, a full backup of sysNAND + SDCARD is required after every update?

 

[nechigawara]

OF COURSE!

More seriously, are people sayin' that, for 100% confidence, a full backup of sysNAND + SDCARD is required after every update?

I would say before every update or before you do something with you system, since system update can also breck your NAND too.

 

[Quantumcat]

OF COURSE!

More seriously, are people sayin' that, for 100% confidence, a full backup of sysNAND + SDCARD is required after every update?

You can delete old ones. I just have a 9.2 backup (NAND only) and my two previous regular backups + SD card backup (second in case there was something wrong with the newest that I didn't notice at the time) and delete the oldest regular one.
You don't have to do this if course, it just depends how much you care about your data. If something happened, would you be happy going back to how your console was at the time of your most recent backup? If not, then make a newer one.

 

[bahamut920]

Thank you very much for suggestion.

If you don't mind, would you mind giving me pointers to how I should go about creating an EmuNAND? I only have experience following "the guide" and use SysNAND exclusively.

Just use EmuNAND9. I recently used it to set up an EmuNAND for my o3DS on a spare SD I had lying around. I had previously only used one for about 15 minutes following an older version of Plailect's guide and literally the only thing I remembered about it was that I used EmuNAND9 to set it up. It's one-click easy. Use a spare SD card, though; EmuNAND9 formats the one in the console to set up partitions properly (it will prompt you to change SD cards beforehand, though).