Hey folks!

So I recently got a 128GB SD Card to replace my old 64GB, which was setup with atmosphere and EmuMMC. However I soon found a problem: Since I set up EmuMMC with a partition, I couldn't figure out an easy way to transfer that hidden partition to my new SD Card. It's not that hard but I figured I'll write a quick tutorial on how to do this, for the next one looking to do this.

Please read carefully when doing this, as a wrong turn can end up in you wiping out a hard drive or partition. Always double check the size of what you are about to use and unplug any USB storage devices to minimize the possibility of error. Oh! and always keep track of which SD card you are using! My 128 and 64GB SDs looked bloody the same and I almost wiped the original one with all my savegames.

What you needCloning the old SD Card to a new oneAdjusting the partitions on the new SD Card

1. 
   
   • Computer with Windows capable of reading MicroSD cards.
     
   • The new SD Card you want to use will be wiped during the process, make a copy of everything.
     
   • Free space on your computer, as much as your original SD Card. So if you are going to migrate from a 64GB SD Card, you'll need 64GB free. If you can read two SD cards on your computer at the same time, you don't need this.
     
   • HDD Raw Copy Tool. I used the portable version but you do you, they're both the same thing.
   • Mini Tool Partition Wizard.
   • I will reffer to the sd card currently on your switch as the old one, and the one you want to change to, as the new one.
     
   • A bunch of patience, this is going to take a while.
2. 
   
   1. Turn off your Switch, remove the old SD Card and insert it into your computer. Open HDD Raw Copy Tool. We are goint to make a full image of this card.
      
   2. This tool is very simple to use, you choose a source, you choose a destination, a copy gets made. So our source is the SD Card.
      
   3. HDD Raw Copy Tool is going to show you a list of all your hard drives and removable storage (USBs will show up here too, so be careful!). Pick your SD Card, if the name doesn't help you you can look at the size to guide you, then click Continue>>>
      
   4. And for our destination, it's going to be a file. So we double click where it says "FILE", browse where we want to put the image. Keep in mind you need to put it in a place with as much free space as your SD Card. Once you press Continue>>> again, a summary window will appear, check everything is correct, specially check if you havent chosen another hard drive as destination instead of FILE, as this WILL WIPE OUT said hard drive. Once checked press Start. This is going to take a while, about and hour and a half for my 64GB card with the shitiest card reader in the whole vast world.
   5. Once it's done, close HDD Raw Copy Tool. Extract the SD Card and insert the new one. Open HDD Raw Copy Tool again.
   6. Our source is now a file, so double click on file, browse to where you dumped your SD Card and select it. Our Destination is the new SD Card. A message will pop up telling you that this will wipe out data, double check you are copying to where you want to and hit START again. And wait for two whiles once again.
   
   If you have a way to read both SD Cards at the same time it's possible to make this quicker, although personally I don't recommend it, you could choose as Source the old SD card and the new SD card as Destination and skip the need of saving the old SD card image on your computer.
   
   If all you want to do is swap SD Cards of the same size, then you are donezo! You can put the new SD Card on the switch, turn it on with your evil homebrew method of choice and it should work! If your new SD card is larger, we are going to have to adjust the partition table, so come along to the next fascinating step!
   
   
3. 
   If everything works correctly, your new SD Card boots on the switch, but if you are a smart guy you'll have figured out that the switch recognizes exactly the same size as your previous SD Card. That's because we made a clone and a lot of the free space is not asigned to a partition. That's why we need Mini Tool Partition Wizard.
   
   1. Make sure you insert the new SD Card onto the computer and start Mini Tool Partition Wizard. Choose Disk Partition & Management. Look for your SD Card on the list below (Pay attention to the size)
      
   2. You will see something like this (Please don't mind the actual sizes shown in the picture, as I did this with and old 32GB SD Card just for the pic.):
      
      . Depending on your SD Card, you will probably see the first 16MB as unallocated, you can ignore that, it's normal.
      
   3. If what you see is the opposite, first unformatted, then FAT32, then you can just resize the FAT32 area and be done with it. Skip to step 12
      
   4. The FAT32 area (Or perharps it shows up as exFAT) is where your homebrew, atmosphere, etc... folders are located, the Unformatted is the hiddden partition where you have your EmuMMC, which will be 29.1GB (Or around that). We want to increase the size of the FAT32 area to use the gray area (Unallocated). The problem is, we can't do that because the stupid unformatted thing is in the middle of everything!
      
   5. Right click on the Unformatted partition and choose "Copy".
      
   6. A Window will show up to let you choose where you want to copy the partition. Go to your SD Card and select the unallocated space. Hit Next.
   7. We need to copy this partition to THE END of the SD card. Always keeping the size as 29.1GB, move it around until it's the last thing on the SD Card.
   8. Hit Finish.
   9. Once it's done, apply changes. (Upper left corner)
   10. You will now have two 29.1GB partitions, delete the one that we had from the beginning, that was in the middle of everything: Right click, Delete. Apply changes.
   11. You should have your original FAT32 partition, a bunch of unallocated space and at the end, the last 29.1GB of the SD Card, a partition marked as "Unformatted". We are almost done!
   12. Right click on your FAT32 partition and choose "Move/Resize". Use the arrows to enlarge the partition and make it occupy all the space on the SD Card.
   13. Apply changes. That's it! Done. You SD Card should boot your Switch as normal and you should see all the space of your SD card available. Enjoy! If that's not the case, recheck all the steps and feel free to ask me any question.

 

[gizmomelb]

yup.. I literally used ETCHER to make an image of my 128 SD card, saved it to my PC hard drive - then swapped over to a 400GB SD card and wrote the same image back to the 400GB card. I then booted into ubuntu and used the disk partition tool to expand the partition to the full size of the 400GB and it just works.

 

[pOOB73]

Worked great here. Thanks!

 

[Baoh]

Sigh I have exFat partition and it doesen't works ;(((

 

[TariqSoftDev]

Do this:
DD the EmuMMC partition to a img.
Create a new partition for EmuMMC(get the size from the img dump) after doing FAT32 on new SD.
Write the DD'd img of the EmuMMC partition to said new partition.
Adjust the EmuMMC config to ensure it matches with new EmuMMC partition sector.

(If using DD for windows, set a letter to the hidden partition in any wacky way you can; if you can't then just use a live usb linux and DD the file to your HDD)

 

[Spinsz]

Quick question. What happens to the 16mb unallocated part? When I do this, that 16mb disappears. When I load the cfw emmunand it just reboots back into hekate. Also, my hidden partition says unallocated, not unformatted.

 

[bird333]

Can't you just move the emunand partition to the end? Is it absolutely necessary that you copy it?

 

[Sotriuj]

Quick question. What happens to the 16mb unallocated part? When I do this, that 16mb disappears. When I load the cfw emmunand it just reboots back into hekate. Also, my hidden partition says unallocated, not unformatted.

Its not required, but when you make the fat32 partition, you could ask the software to leave 16mb before the partition.

Can't you just move the emunand partition to the end? Is it absolutely necessary that you copy it?

The reason I copy it is becasue the software I used (MiniTool Partition Wizard) didn't let me move it. I'm not sure exactly why is like that but if you are given the option to just move it do it that way then.

 

[NDSAK2]

Do this:
DD the EmuMMC partition to a img.
Create a new partition for EmuMMC(get the size from the img dump) after doing FAT32 on new SD.
Write the DD'd img of the EmuMMC partition to said new partition.

I have done this procedure several times now, and it works. If you run linux or Mac probably the easiest way.

Instead of the last step

Adjust the EmuMMC config to ensure it matches with new EmuMMC partition sector.

you can just boot hekate and run the "Migrate EmuMMC" command instead, and it will fix the config for you.

 

[Daniel Ramkissoon]

Quick question. What happens to the 16mb unallocated part? When I do this, that 16mb disappears. When I load the cfw emmunand it just reboots back into hekate. Also, my hidden partition says unallocated, not unformatted.

Did you ever fix the issue when you load cfw emunand it reboots back into hekate? I'm having the same issue after installing an nsp

 

[Volkaru]

Thank you for the guide, it is exactly what I'm looking for!
I've been having an issue, though. The initial image of my old SD card is made properly, and everything on that card works fine. However every time I want to use HDD Raw Copy Tool to move it to my new, larger SD card. It throws out an error about 40% through saying the image is corrupt. It looks as though the files and partition make it on there alright, but I can't change anything afterward in MiniTool, because of the same error. Both cards are FAT32, and I've made the backup twice now. Any help would be appreciated, thanks.

EDIT: Not sure what the cause was, but restarting my PC and then trying again had it move properly.

EDIT EDIT: Now I'm having issues with the switch not reading or launching my emuMMC. Hecate says there isn't even one on there. The data is still on the SD card, though.

 

[Kingbob387]

Thank you for the guide, it is exactly what I'm looking for!
I've been having an issue, though. The initial image of my old SD card is made properly, and everything on that card works fine. However every time I want to use HDD Raw Copy Tool to move it to my new, larger SD card. It throws out an error about 40% through saying the image is corrupt. It looks as though the files and partition make it on there alright, but I can't change anything afterward in MiniTool, because of the same error. Both cards are FAT32, and I've made the backup twice now. Any help would be appreciated, thanks.

EDIT: Not sure what the cause was, but restarting my PC and then trying again had it move properly.

EDIT EDIT: Now I'm having issues with the switch not reading or launching my emuMMC. Hecate says there isn't even one on there. The data is still on the SD card, though.

Just signed up to say I had the same issue with your second edit, but I found the solution for it.
I am using Minitool partition wizard, once the copying is done, the partition where the emuMMC is in is labeled to be logical, right click it and switch it to primary and apply, once that's done go back to hekate and use the migrate emuMMC option to repair it, once all that is done it should be working again!

 

[Frostbite189]

my sd is exfat so it´s not working, any more ideas???

 

[dzodzo]

I am preparing myself to buy a new bigger SD card. I'm using AMS.
I would like to buy 256 or even 400GB SD card. Could anyone please confirm if it will be working on 400GB? How big partition can be set up as FAT32?

Is such a card okay?
https://allegro.pl/oferta/sandisk-ultra-micro-400gb-100mb-s-sdxc-a1-fv23-7133836107

 

[pOOB73]

I am preparing myself to buy a new bigger SD card. I'm using AMS.
I would like to buy 256 or even 400GB SD card. Could anyone please confirm if it will be working on 400GB? How big partition can be set up as FAT32?

Is such a card okay?
https://allegro.pl/oferta/sandisk-ultra-micro-400gb-100mb-s-sdxc-a1-fv23-7133836107

I'm already having problems with a 128GB card. 64GB works fine, but when installing nsp on the 128GB the emummc raw partition randomly gets FUBAR.

 

[xxxamazexxx]

How would I do this on a Mac?

 

[Frostbite189]

I change my 64gb sd card to and 400gb exFat sd card. And it was all matter of copy paste all the content and everything is working just fine

 

[valp]

I followed the guide and, at first, it worked perfectly. However, after a while using my switch, It got one of those atmosphere errors and I rebooted. Now the emuMMC doesn't work anymore, it boots back to hekate.
The "migrate emummc" option (often mentioned when it comes to fixing the emummc info) in hekate says "no emummc or foreign emunand found".

 

[chris11111]

I have done exactly as you said, but formatted the 'd' to fat 32... and put that as my first partition and put the F at the very end at 29.2gb.
(a 256 sd card)
And now it's stuck on applying what do i do?

 

[rafamatsuda]

Hi everyone, I just bought a 512gb SD Card to my Switch. I've successfully backed up my old 128gb SD Card to a file using HDD Raw Copy and restore it, on the restoring, it stopped on 43%, which I though it was ok, as my old SD card is smaller than the new one.

However I've got my new SD in this order on MiniTool Partition Wizard:

1 - Unallocated 29.1 GB
2 - E: (ExFAT) 90.0 GB
3 - Unallocated 343.7 GB

I've tried to resize the ExFat partition but the MiniTool Partition Wizard does not allow me to do that.

Do you guys have any sugestions?

Kindly regards!!