Hacking Need to downsize n3ds sd card :-(

[spinal_cord]

OK, a couple of days ago, my n3ds micro sd died. Luckily I have a recent backup. The issue I have though, is that my old SD card was 32gb and I only have a 16gb spare to replace it. However, I have no idea which files I need to keep in order to have my 3DS boot correctly.

Here is what I have in my backup folder, can someone have a quick look and tell me what I need to get my n3ds working again? It has gm9 installed if that makes a difference...



Thanks.

 

[zoogie]

I would just check the size of the Nintendo 3ds folder (right click - properties) and see if that will fit.
Then also move over necessary small files like boot.3dsx, boot.firm, etc. and see if it boots up. It should.

Then add other stuff, piecemeal-style, that you want as space allows.

 

[TurdPooCharger]

I second @zoogie's piecewise idea.
If you have the space on your computer or external hard drive, back up your games as *.cia in GodMode9, and the saves + extdata using Checkpoint or JKSM. That way, when you can upgrade to bigger card again, you can latere reinstall and restore everything.

 

[spinal_cord]

Oh, I don't care about restoring everything, I just want it to boot up and be able to access the gm9 menu.

 

[zoogie]

Oh, I don't care about restoring everything, I just want it to boot up and be able to access the gm9 menu.

Then boot.firm and luma/* and gm9/* should be all you need.

 

[TurdPooCharger]

Oh, I don't care about restoring everything, I just want it to boot up and be able to access the gm9 menu.

Did you check that your total content size exceeds the 16 GB sd card's usable capacity? In other words, does your replacement card has the available space to hold everything as per zoogie's right-click property instruction?

Before the crash...
Were you using Luma3DS v7.0.5 or older / arm9loaderhax (A9LH)?
Or were you using Luma3DS v7.1 to v9.1 / boot9strap (B9S)?

Also, was your n3DS setup using SysNAND, EmuNAND, or both?

Last questions
Are you absolutely certain you don't want to backup any of your 3DS games and saves+extdata? If you reduce your library collection, do you care about losing or permanently deleting games and save progress? What are the things you wish to keep?

 

[ThoD]

If you don't really care about restoring do what the others told you, but I'll add a little bit. Format the SD card to FAT with cluster size of 32KBs, then put it in the 3DS once and as soon as it loads up to the home menu, turn it off and put the card in your computer. Now move everything as is to the SD card except for the "Nintendo 3DS folder" (unless it actually fits of course in which case you wouldn't be bothering to post on here to begin with), overwriting anything in the process if it asks for it. Now, go to the "Nintendo 3DS" folder on the SD card that was created when you initialized it and to the same folder in the backup. The 32 character long string in one of a folders will be the same, but leave that for now, just move the "Private" and "EBNTR" (second one is kinda outdated but you may have it) folders from the backup to the SD card. Then open both the 32 character long folders of the SD card and backup. This time the 32 characters inside won't be the same, every SD card has a different one, so go a level deeper to where you will find folders such as "title", "extdata", etc. in the backup. Move all of them to the SD card except for "title" for now. Then make a "title" folder on the SD card and go yet another level deeper in there, where in the backup you will see 4 folders most likely. The ones that are most important are the one that ends in "0" (installed games) and the one that ends in "e" (update data) and inside games are in their separate folders according to their low IDs (use this for reference for IDs of each game), so just move to the SD card any games you want to keep that can fit in your SD card, no need to reinstall anything. Otherwise to keep things simpler, just move everything I told you but skip the installed games and update data

 

[spinal_cord]

It was a9lh upgraded to gm9 I think.as for sys vs emu, I'm not sure anymore.before installing gm9 I was using emunand. Backing up games and saves isnt an issue, I didn't really play any of them.
I'll start with boot.firm and luma/* and gm9/* and see how I do. Can't right now thou, at work.

 

[TurdPooCharger]

It was a9lh upgraded to gm9 I think.as for sys vs emu, I'm not sure anymore.before installing gm9 I was using emunand. Backing up games and saves isnt an issue, I didn't really play any of them.
I'll start with boot.firm and luma/* and gm9/* and see how I do. Can't right now thou, at work.

Here's a cheat guide on creating a replacement boot9strap CFW starter setup. Do this first without using any of your old files. This is to quickly check if you're using modern custom firmware.

• 3ds CFW: Restoring functionality on a new SD card [post #2]

If that doesn't work, look into trying this:

• A9LH to B9S

 

[spinal_cord]

Thanks everyone! I got it back up and running again.