Hacking Hardware Recover user save data from another console

[maximusmp]

Hi everyone,

I have a dead Switch with important save data, and I would like to restore them to another working Switch. Here I can run Hekate, and I already backed up the user partition from the eMMC of the dead Switch by installing it in the working one.

My question is: would I be able to restore the user partition of the dead Switch to the eMMC of the working one and restore my saves, or will it brick the console?

Thank you so much!

 

[petspeed]

That would probably be a very bad idea. However, you can use this guide to extract the saves from the old Switch and then install them on the new Switch with JKSV or another save tool

Tutorial  Thread 'Recovering Games Saves from *NAND using NXNandManager and JKSV'

Oct 22, 2022

This gets asked often enough that I figured I'd show how I do it.

Open to constructive feedback...if there are better ways to do this, pleae let me know. This is just what works for me.

Here is my current installation of Cuphead.


I have a “special” 200% save that is about to have an unfortunate “accident”*

*(I’m going to delete both of my current saves for the purpose of this demonstration.)

Let's also simulate destruction of my game saves from Tunic as well (they are a little bit different content so it's worth it for demonstration sake.)

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• binkinator
• Replies: 65
• Forum: Nintendo Switch

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[maximusmp]

That would probably be a very bad idea. However, you can use this guide to extract the saves from the old Switch and then install them on the new Switch with JKSV or another save tool

Tutorial  Thread 'Recovering Games Saves from *NAND using NXNandManager and JKSV'

Oct 22, 2022

This gets asked often enough that I figured I'd show how I do it.

Open to constructive feedback...if there are better ways to do this, pleae let me know. This is just what works for me.

Here is my current installation of Cuphead.


I have a “special” 200% save that is about to have an unfortunate “accident”*

*(I’m going to delete both of my current saves for the purpose of this demonstration.)

Let's also simulate destruction of my game saves from Tunic as well (they are a little bit different content so it's worth it for demonstration sake.)

...

• binkinator
• Replies: 65
• Forum: Nintendo Switch

• 
• 
• 

Thanks for the answer! The problem is that I cannot extract the prod.keys file from the dead switch, since it does not turn on and, most important, it is patched… and I don’t think I can extract them by placing the dead Switch eMMC in the working one.

Am I cooked?

 

[thesjaakspoiler]

The user partition contains more than just the save games so that will break your new switch completely.
You can mount the dead switch's user partition on a PC, grab only the save games and put those back on your other Switch.

 

[maximusmp]

This sounds good, and I can do it without having the keys of the dead console? And transfer the saves from one sysNAND to the other one?

 

[petspeed]

This sounds good, and I can do it without having the keys of the dead console? And transfer the saves from one sysNAND to the other one?

No you can't. Without the keys, AFAIK, you are f***ked

 

[maximusmp]

That’s what I suspected and anyway, even if I managed to make the dead console start in some way, given that it is patched I doubt it would be possible to extract keys.

The console had a faulty M92T36 recharge chip, I tried a DIY replacement but it did not went well… now it won’t turn on, I think something may be shorted but I don’t know how to check it.

 

[l7777]

That’s what I suspected and anyway, even if I managed to make the dead console start in some way, given that it is patched I doubt it would be possible to extract keys.

The console had a faulty M92T36 recharge chip, I tried a DIY replacement but it did not went well… now it won’t turn on, I think something may be shorted but I don’t know how to check it.

Your only solution is to restore the switch to a somewhat working condition, mod chip it, extract the keys, decrypt the user partition, extract the save(s). Without the keys though you can't get anything form the encrypted data on the emmc.