Homebrew Is there a way to transfer a nand backup from one 3ds to another?

[HudU_]

Hi! This is my first post, and its going to make me seem like an absolute idiot (i'm sorry haha) but I was wondering, is it possible for you to take a valid nand backup from one system and load it onto another? A have a friend with a bricked 3ds but has a NAND backup before the system was bricked, theoretically is it possible that I could backup my NAND, upload his/her NAND onto my 3ds and retrieve any data they had like 3ds titles?

Sorry if this is a super dumb question. Ive been in the hacking scene for a while but haven't really tampered with stuff to this level. Thanks!

 

[HudU_]

Quick note: im not looking for alternatives like 3ds system transfer and other stuff, I don't have access to the physical 3ds in question. Just curious if it was possible to do anything with the NAND backup.

 

[skullkeeper94]

No.

 

[Quantumcat]

No, but you should tell him to come on here and we can help him troubleshoot the brick.

 

[KleinesSinchen]

As long as essentials.exefs is embedded into the backup, recovering data may be still possible. In this case the NAND backup can be mounted with ninfs (formerly fuse-3ds). The same goes for the content of the SD (using movable.sed from the NAND backup).

I second @Quantumcat's idea. As long as your friends console is not hard bricked like… ran over by a steamroller… troubleshooting may be possible.

There are possibilities to use the CTR partition on a second 3DS, but

Do not simply restore a full NAND image on a different console!

This also will fully brick the second device (maybe requiring ntrboot and a good NAND image to recover). This requires a good amount of reading (as I understand the procedure, retrieving ctrnand_full.bin from the backup is also possible with ninfs – in case the source console is totally busted)
https://gbatemp.net/threads/ctrtransfer-keeps-messing-up.523965/page-2#post-8400174

 

[HudU_]

Thanks so much for the responses! Quick question- Would a NAND backup include any titles on the 3ds though? Is there a way I could Pull any specific files like games he did have on that 3ds? (i.e if he had a specific app file on the 3ds, could I find, extract, and convert that into a playable game)

Also, I would try to get them on here to un brick the system but as of now, they aren't too fond of that idea. Especially when they think its an error with one of the chips on the board. They even stated it might be broken beyond repair.

(FYI for context- I don't know this person in real life, I just got in contact with them because they have a broken dev system with an un dumped 3ds title on it. They haven't given me the NAND dump they did prior to the system breaking or anything, I was just curious that if they did, would it be possible for me to find that file used for the undumped game, and somehow get it to run on my 3ds.)

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No, but you should tell him to come on here and we can help him troubleshoot the brick.

I would, but based on the whole situation, they say the brick is beyond repair.

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As long as essentials.exefs is embedded into the backup, recovering data may be still possible. In this case the NAND backup can be mounted with (link). The same goes for the content of the SD (using movable.sed from the NAND backup).

I second @Quantumcat's idea. As long as your friends console is not hard bricked like… ran over by a steamroller… troubleshooting may be possible.

There are possibilities to use the CTR partition on a second 3DS, but

Do not simply restore a full NAND image on a different console!

This also will fully brick the second device (maybe requiring ntrboot and a good NAND image to recover). This requires a good amount of reading (as I understand the procedure, retrieving ctrnand_full.bin from the backup is also possible with ninfs – in case the source console is totally busted)

Just replied^^

 

[Quantumcat]

I would, but based on the whole situation, they say the brick is beyond repair.

What specifically happened to it? As long as it isn't too badly physically damaged, it might be fixable

 

[HudU_]

What specifically happened to it? As long as it isn't too badly physically damaged, it might be fixable

What they said from an old thread (prior to me contacting them) can be summed up as-

"the Data 0 Point ripped of the board and now there is no connection anymore so the 3ds always bluescreens"

They attached a photo later on in the thread of the issuevvv

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I would link the thread, but I just joined yesterday so it won't let me link anything, sorry.

 

[Quantumcat]

What they said from an old thread (prior to me contacting them) can be summed up as-

"the Data 0 Point ripped of the board and now there is no connection anymore so the 3ds always bluescreens"

They attached a photo later on in the thread of the issuevvv

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I would link the thread, but I just joined yesterday so it won't let me link anything, sorry.

Oh yeah that sounds pretty bad -- though maybe he could post it to someone knowledgeable about 3DS hardware, maybe they can take the NAND off and put it on another board? (Disclaimer - I know nothing about 3DS hardware)

 

[TurdPooCharger]

What they said from an old thread (prior to me contacting them) can be summed up as-

"the Data 0 Point ripped of the board and now there is no connection anymore so the 3ds always bluescreens"

They attached a photo later on in the thread of the issuevvv

I would link the thread, but I just joined yesterday so it won't let me link anything, sorry.

Failed hardmod. He might be able to rebridge the contacts with UV light Bondic glue (for sheathing), silver paste, conductive ink, and/or copper foil tape.

There's a chance switching over to an EmuNAND might work if he has a backed up NAND *.bin image.

 

[HudU_]

Failed hardmod. He might be able to rebridge the contacts with --

There's a chance switching over to an EmuNAND might work if he has a backed up NAND *.bin image.

Hopefully something like that would work. But because im only looking for one title, do you think it would be stored in a NAND backup?

In an old thread he/she said that they backed up the NAND before corruption.

 

[TurdPooCharger]

Hopefully something like that would work. But because im only looking for one title, do you think it would be stored in a NAND backup?

In an old thread he/she said that they backed up the NAND before corruption.

It depends if it's an SD title found in Nintendo 3DS folder, CTRNAND system title, or TWLNAND DSiWare title.

If all this person wants to do is decrypt and recover the save, extdata, and possibly backup the title(s) into CIAs, they should be able to image mount the NAND *.bin image with ninfs (fuse-3ds), mount the Nintendo 3DS with the movable.sed from the essential.exefs in that NAND (if it was implanted), pull the decrypted versions of whatever contents, rebuild CIAs with GodMode9, and drop the (decrypted) 00000001.sav / extdata into the [A:] SYSNAND SD drive at correct game directory. Backup and restore with save manager may be required to bypass the anti-cheat save protection.

 

[HudU_]

It depends if it's an SD title found in Nintendo 3DS folder, CTRNAND system title, or TWLNAND DSiWare title.

If all this person wants to do is decrypt and recover the save, extdata, and possibly backup the title(s) into CIAs, they should be able to image mount the NAND *.bin image with ninfs (fuse-3ds), mount the Nintendo 3DS with the movable.sed from the essential.exefs in that NAND (if it was implanted), pull the decrypted versions of whatever contents, rebuild CIAs with GodMode9, and drop the (decrypted) 00000001.sav / extdata into the [A:] SYSNAND SD drive at correct game directory. Backup and restore with save manager may be required to bypass the anti-cheat save protection.

Wait, so the 3ds the nand came from has to be working for the nand to decrypt?