Hacking Need help hex editing the secret sector

[Madridi]

Hi guys,

A few months back, I accidentally used the otp from my other 3ds on my first one to upgrade a9lh. Needless to say, that bricked the system.

According to @capito27 this resulted in secret sector corruption, and it's an easy fix with hex edit the NAND from the system provided that I have the proper OTP, which I do.

So now, I have a NAND image, and I have the OTP. Can anyone help me with the next step? I don't know what I should be doing (we didn't go that far into the convo at the time)

Thanks

 

[Zan']

Hi guys,

A few months back, I accidentally used the otp from my other 3ds on my first one to upgrade a9lh. Needless to say, that bricked the system.

According to @capito27 this resulted in secret sector corruption, and it's an easy fix with hex edit the NAND from the system provided that I have the proper OTP, which I do.

So now, I have a NAND image, and I have the OTP. Can anyone help me with the next step? I don't know what I should be doing (we didn't go that far into the convo at the time)

Thanks

You basically need to use the OTP file that bricked to get your secret sector back to normal. And then you could use the correct OTP to install a9lh properly.

However it's not as easy without having any clue. And I can't really walk you through it either.

 

[Madridi]

You basically need to use the OTP file that bricked to get your secret sector back to normal. And then you could use the correct OTP to install a9lh properly.

However it's not as easy without having any clue. And I can't really walk you through it either.

So I also need the OTP that bricked me? I'll need both?
I have both but I'm making sure that's the case.

Thanks for your reply, I hope I get some more help on this

 

[Zan']

So I also need the OTP that bricked me? I'll need both?
I have both but I'm making sure that's the case.

Thanks for your reply, I hope I get some more help on this

I am currently trying to find what he actually said.

But first of all. Do you not have a NAND backup BEFORE the secret sector got corrupted?

I think you could manually run the correct OTP over the default secret sector file and inject that into your NAND.
No old OTP needed then. (I forgot the fact that you have the secret_sector you want to install anyway. So you don't need to restore that part)

 

[Madridi]

I am currently trying to find what he actually said.

But first of all. Do you not have a NAND backup BEFORE the secret sector got corrupted?

I think you could manually run the correct OTP over the default secret sector file and inject that into your NAND.
No old OTP needed then. (I forgot the fact that you have the secret_sector you want to install anyway. So you don't need to restore that part)

I do have NAND backups from before and after a9lh was installed. I was not looking to install either as I progressed quite a bit later in terms of extdata, etc..

How would you manually proceed with what you mentioned?

 

[capito27]

I do have NAND backups from before and after a9lh was installed. I was not looking to install either as I progressed quite a bit later in terms of extdata, etc..

How would you manually proceed with what you mentioned?

you should have a hard mod, so simply plug it into your computer and wait for windows to detect it, then once it's mounted (the moment it asks you to format it) simply decline the format prompt and open an hex editor (HxD works perfectly fine for this, to open a drive with HxD, simply press "tools" and "open disk" (you need to run it as administrator for it to be able to do so)) then once it's open, simply go to location 0x00012C00 (with HxD , do CTRL+G) and you'll need to replace the next 0x200/512 bytes with a working secret sector (that is, the secret sector you get when you compile your a9lh from the old method with the right OTP, if you don't know how to, simply send me your otp.bin by PM and i'll send you the 0x200 bytes to replace with) once you've replaced the 0x200 bytes , simply save and close the application, and unplug the 3ds from the computer and it should boot just fine.

 

[Madridi]

Thanks to @gamesquest1 for the "unique" hardmod, @capito27 for the nand fix, and @Zan' for his suggestions. My 3DS is finally back alive following the steps above.