Hacking O3DS drowned, got a new one. What can I do to restore my emunand/sysnand backup?

[MissingNO123]

Seems like unless you either get the thing to turn on, or de-solder the NAND and CPU and re-solder it on to another system, you're pretty screwed.

 

[Urbanshadow]

Seems like unless you either get the thing to turn on, or de-solder the NAND and CPU and re-solder it on to another system, you're pretty screwed.

I'm not trying to sound offensive or anything but...
You haven't seen the nand chip irl, do you?

I don't think it's actually posible for a human without out-of-natural solding skills and master-tier gear to do that.

He can, perhaps, try to get a hard mod. The nand chip is powered by the SD clk, isn't it?

 

[MissingNO123]

I'm not trying to sound offensive or anything but...
You haven't seen the nand chip irl, do you?

I don't think it's actually posible for a human without out-of-natural solding skills and master-tier gear to do that.

He can, perhaps, try to get a hard mod. The nand chip is powered by the SD clk, isn't it?

I was joking. There's absolutely no way to do it. (unless you're this guy)
Also, even with a hardmod you'd still need to use the CPU to do anything with it as OP has no xorpads.

 

[Apache Thunder]

Yeah you need xorpads if you ever want to retrieve the movable.sed seed. Had you had that you could manually transfer over the movable.sed and system save data so you can get your save games and installed games to transfer over (after you had called Nintendo to unlink the NNID and relink it to your new console first, then NNID transfer too!). But even if you could get past the encryption, you can't get another emunand/sysnand dump from a different console to work on another. The encryption is console unique and there are files on CTR NAND that are console unique too, so even if you could get past encryption it still won't boot it anyways.

 

[Selver]

...After a week in a rice jar... I have a nand backup ... still water behind the screen.

Two ideas. Neither one is optimal, and each has its own risks.

Spoiler: Improved method to remove trace water

You could try to remove the last bits of water. Risk here includes possibility that the alcohol could damage some things, although you're not going to soak the unit. The goal is to allow the 3ds to boot "enough" to dump the XorPads, which would allow you to decrypt your nand backup.

First (obviously) remove the battery.
Get some isopropyl alcohol (rubbing alcohol) from the drugstore.
Dip the now electricity-free 3ds in, shake it around in the alcohol for a few seconds.
(The goal is to replace the water with the alcohol, as the alcohol evaporates much more quickly.)
Place 3DS in warm location (preferably ~100F/28C) to evaporate the alcohol.
Next day, visually check for any leftover liquid.

Spoiler: Mainboard swap into new unit

It's possible the mainboard (with the NAND and processor on it) are still OK. The unit might be failing to boot because of a failure in a daughter card, or failure in shoulder buttons, or ... anything, really.
If this is the case, you could try to swap the old mainboard into the new unit.

The difficulty depends heavily on the model you have (O3DS, O3DS XL, N3DS XL, N3DS), but is absolutely possible with only one uncommon tool (JIS Driver set).
Example guides:

• New 3DS XL 2015
• New 3DS 2015
• Old 3DS XL
• Old 3DS

PAY ATTENTION -- Most flat cables are friction-fit, only a few have flaps. Popping the flaps of the friction-fit ones will damage the mainboard.

I also recommend using a silver Sharpie marker to mark the cables, to help ensure you replace them right-side-up. This is especially true for the two cables under the mainboard's top right corner on the N3DSXL.

Otherwise, it's just a matter of being careful and being able to contort your fingers into tiny places.

 

[lefthandsword]

Yeah you need xorpads if you ever want to retrieve the movable.sed seed. Had you had that you could manually transfer over the movable.sed and system save data so you can get your save games and installed games to transfer over (after you had called Nintendo to unlink the NNID and relink it to your new console first, then NNID transfer too!). But even if you could get past the encryption, you can't get another emunand/sysnand dump from a different console to work on another. The encryption is console unique and there are files on CTR NAND that are console unique too, so even if you could get past encryption it still won't boot it anyways.

I believe the SD data normal key is generated from KeyY stored in movable.sed and KeyX initialised by the bootrom using the OTP, so he's screwed unless his 3DS was still working somehow (even with NAND xorpads, we can retrieve KeyY from the NAND but not KeyX).

 

[Apache Thunder]

I've moved a movable.sed from one console to another before. (I did this to manually transfer my games/saves/friend code from a 3DS that was bricked) After moving the movable.sed and the system save data tied to it, my games/saves worked on my new console without any modification.


So, you don't need to worry about bootrom stuff. It is confirmed possible to move a movable.sed from one console to another. This has been know for awhile now.

 

[lostreverie]

Thanks for all of the ideas everyone. It does seem pretty dire, but who knows, maybe it will boot?

I'm still leaving it for now. It has the battery out, of course, I won't even consider trying to boot it with that thing in. But as many of you brought up, it's still doing a lot of things even when it is "off." The water has dried out under the screen, though, so I'm planning on test-driving it soon...