Homebrew [Release] TinyFormat

[Diego788]

and, yesterday i just downgraded my sysnand to 4.2, formatted, updated to 10.3 to avoid all possibilities of brick, downgraded to 9.2, installed menuhax....

 

[DjoeN]

So basicly, it's just pressing "Y" and the system reboots into sysnand and setup everything again?

 

[ihaveahax]

So basicly, it's just pressing "Y" and the system reboots into sysnand and setup everything again?

it formats whichever NAND you use it on the same way if you formatted using System Settings. the difference is it won't delete anything from the SD card (good if formatting sysnand to unlink), nor will it mess with NNID.

 

[ArmoredGuns1]

The usage of this tool should be added to every CFW/Emunand setup tutorial. It's incredibly useful because it unlinks the NANDs without messing with the NNID, which means that apps that require the use of NNID (like the eshop, PokeBank, etc) will function fine on an unlinked Emunand.

 

[Walo]

What's the easiest way to use this to unlink the nands? Would formatting the sysnand make me lose my eshop games and stuff? I'm worried about doing something wrong and losing my games. Would it be best to just format the emunand so you can unlink the system?

 

[NekoMichi]

What's the easiest way to use this to unlink the nands? Would formatting the sysnand make me lose my eshop games and stuff? I'm worried about doing something wrong and losing my games. Would it be best to just format the emunand so you can unlink the system?

Whichever NAND gets formatted will be reset as new, so any games and saves on it will be lost. If your sysNAND has games installed on it and you cloned it over to emuNAND, then formatting sysNAND will make it so you can't access those games from sysNAND, but they will still be there in emuNAND.

Before formatting anything, it's strongly recommended that you use emuNAND9 to dump sysNAND to NAND.bin and emuNAND to emuNAND.bin, then save the two files to someplace safe on your PC. Then take a complete backup of the contents of your SD card.

 

[Walo]

Whichever NAND gets formatted will be reset as new, so any games and saves on it will be lost. If your sysNAND has games installed on it and you cloned it over to emuNAND, then formatting sysNAND will make it so you can't access those games from sysNAND, but they will still be there in emuNAND.

Before formatting anything, it's strongly recommended that you use emuNAND9 to dump sysNAND to NAND.bin and emuNAND to emuNAND.bin, then save the two files to someplace safe on your PC. Then take a complete backup of the contents of your SD card.

Thanks! Yeah I already have a back up of the sysNAND as one of the first thing a I did. I'll back up emunand just in case.
So maybe it would be best to reformat the emunand, so that way I still have everything nice and clean separately on my sysNAND just in case, only disadvantage would be not being able to pay those games on my emunand?

Despite having the back up I'm super anxious about formatting the sysNAND and leaving the emuNAND as the main thing going forward.

Also a semi related question. If my nands are still linked and I update the emunand, would that also update my sysnand?

 

[NekoMichi]

Thanks! Yeah I already have a back up of the sysNAND as one of the first thing a I did. I'll back up emunand just in case.
So maybe it would be best to reformat the emunand, so that way I still have everything nice and clean separately on my sysNAND just in case, only disadvantage would be not being able to pay those games on my emunand?

Despite having the back up I'm super anxious about formatting the sysNAND and leaving the emuNAND as the main thing going forward.

Also a semi related question. If my nands are still linked and I update the emunand, would that also update my sysnand?

Personally I formatted sysNAND and set everything up so that the 3DS would always boot into the emuNAND which is where I do everything. sysNAND would be rarely used after unlinking and if emuNAND somehow gets bricked then it can be easily restored through emuNAND9 (because a bricked sysNAND requires a hard-mod to restore whereas a bricked emuNAND doesn't). If somehow emuNAND isn't working out, then there should be a way to transfer the contents of emuNAND back to sysNAND and erasing the emuNAND partition completely. Not sure about updating linked NANDs though.

 

[Stecker8]

Can someone explain how to unlink nand using this in emunand ? Without log out nnid on sysnand and without touch anything on sysnand

 

[NekoMichi]

Can someone explain how to unlink nand using this in emunand ? Without log out nnid on sysnand and without touch anything on sysnand

The following instructions will format and unlink emuNAND without altering the contents of sysNAND:
First, make sure you backup the content of both NANDs by using the dump option in emuNAND9, and then also make a backup of the entire SD card. Then, boot into emuNAND (and verify that you are indeed in emuNAND and not sysNAND) and enter the Homebrew Launcher. Open TinyFormat and then use it to unlink NANDs. This will format emuNAND and cause it to become unlinked from your sysNAND without erasing anything from sysNAND.

Note: This will completely reset emuNAND, you will lose any tools used to install legit .cia files on emuNAND until FBI or BBM is installed.

 

[wurstpistole]

Does TinyFormat by any chance delete anything from microSD, such as formatting system in system settings does?

 

[daxtsu]

Does TinyFormat by any chance delete anything from microSD, such as formatting system in system settings does?

No, that's the entire point.

TinyFormat is a small utility to format Sys/EmuNAND using FS:InitializeCtrFileSystem but without formating your SD card.

 

[Shubshub]

Excellent application more people should know about it

 

[Heran Bago]

it formats whichever NAND you use it on the same way if you formatted using System Settings. the difference is it won't delete anything from the SD card (good if formatting sysnand to unlink), nor will it mess with NNID.

The usage of this tool should be added to every CFW/Emunand setup tutorial. It's incredibly useful because it unlinks the NANDs without messing with the NNID, which means that apps that require the use of NNID (like the eshop, PokeBank, etc) will function fine on an unlinked Emunand.

After using Tinyformat the system is not signed into NNID anymore, and previous eshop purchases on the SD card no longer appear on the menu.

 

[ihaveahax]

After using Tinyformat the system is not signed into NNID anymore, and previous eshop purchases on the SD card no longer appear on the menu.

a system format still resets things like the key used for installed digital content.

TinyFormat just skips the internet connection bit for formatting and also won't delete anything from the SD card, which is what you want when unlinking your sysnand and emunand.

 

[Heran Bago]

a system format still resets things like the key used for installed digital content.

TinyFormat just skips the internet connection bit for formatting and also won't delete anything from the SD card, which is what you want when unlinking your sysnand and emunand.

Good to know. I'm downgrading a system for a friend and I am hoping that when I re-link their nnid to the newly tinyformatted system their eshop purchases and saves on the SD card will work again. I think I misinterpreted our comment about it not affecting nnid.

 

[ihaveahax]

Good to know. I'm downgrading a system for a friend and I am hoping that when I re-link their nnid to the newly tinyformatted system their eshop purchases and saves on the SD card will work again. I think I misinterpreted our comment about it not affecting nnid.

I hate to break it to you but digital saves and games are encrypted and the key used is reset when you format. you can re-download purchases though once you re-link NNID, but the saves could effectively be gone

 

[Heran Bago]

I hate to break it to you but digital saves and games are encrypted and the key used is reset when you format. you can re-download purchases though once you re-link NNID, but the saves could effectively be gone

Haha my friend is going to kill me over their animal crossing town. There's that and a pokemon game where everything they didn't have in the pokemon bank box service could be gone.
At least homebrew.

 

[serving]

any got another link as this one is down

 

[javiMaD]

any got another link as this one is down

Github is up, check now