EDIT: all mentions of RedNAND and emuNAND have been changed to just emuNAND to avoid confusion until it is decided which term is the "proper" one to use. If a mod could please change the topic title to reflect this, that would be much appreciated
Hello again GBATemp!
With the release of Gateway 2.0b1 and its NAND redirection feature, I wanted to try getting all my content on the latest 6.3 firmware while still having an older firmware available to use Gateway.
But apparently the "emuNAND" is not compatible with the system transfer feature. But I had already have the ability to dump and restore NAND via hardware, so I tried a different approach, that is, by injecting it manually into the 3DS's SD's "emuNAND" partition that Gateway 2.0b1 uses.
Here is my little story through all this:
After grabbing the GW2.0b1 release, I decided to try to get my existing 6.3.0-12E NAND with all of my stuff associated with it running under Gateway 2.0 "emuNAND" on my new 3DS XL (4.4.0-10E). But this was all system-transferred from my launch 3DS though. However, I had modded my 3DS XL to be able to dump and write its NAND contents (as per the lovely "nand flash dump (3DS XL)" thread that I am sure everybody has seen by now ).
So I had my initial 4.4 dump, and then made my latest 6.3 dump.
I successfully managed to inject my 6.3 already-system-transferred NAND that I had backed up, using a hex editor that had support for editing a physical drive directly.
When I looked at the extra partition that Gateway created, I noticed that it is pretty much a 1:1 copy of the NAND on the 3DS at the time of being created by the "format emuNAND" option, and then just unused garbage at the end of the dump to pad out the partition (Since the actual NAND dump is not quite 1GB).
Only, it is NOT QUITE a 1:1 copy of the NAND. What they have done, is they have taken the first sector (was 512 bytes for me), put some sort of Gateway dummy sector at the beginning, where that first sector was, and then taken the original first sector of data, and tacked it onto the end of the NAND dump in the partition, before the garbage data starts.
So, after rearranging my 6.3 NAND dump I made by dumping via hardware, by putting that first sector at the end, I then inject this rearranged dump into the "emuNAND" partition using Hex Workshop starting at the 2nd sector (sector 1) instead of the first (sector 0), which is the Gateway dummy one.
Then booted up 3DS XL, then tried booting up Gateway to load up this NAND instead... and it worked! I was on GW3D 6.3.0-12E, with all my system transferred stuff just like I wanted
And here is a quick list to summarise what I did:
1. Installed internal NAND to SD/MMC interface into 4.4.0-10E firmare 3dS XL to dump/restore Real NAND.
2. Dumped the NAND with 4.4 firmware on it and backed it up.
3. Did system transfer from launch 3DS to 3DS XL's Real NAND (which required updating to latest 6.3.0-12E firmware).
4. Dumped the NAND again, with 6.3 firmware and all system transferred stuff in it.
5. Backed up the entire contents of my 3DS's SD card (with all system-transfer related content, like paid software and saves etc).
6. Reflashed back to 4.4 firmware dump to be able to use Gateway 3DS.
7. Updated Gateway 3DS to 2.0b1, and set up "emuNAND" on 3DS's card (formatting it all).
8. Used PC to rearrange that first sector of my hardware-dumped 6.3 NAND to the end of the dump with hex editor.
9. Injected rearranged dump into "emuNAND" partition using Hex Workshop overriding existing NAND there (I tried using hxd, but could not find a way to inject it with hxd)
10. Loaded up Gateway via DS profile, and my 6.3 NAND was loaded!
So, just to be clear:
I did not actually do a system transfer directly to the "emuNAND", I transferred to Real NAND and backed up my NAND via hardware, then injected the hardware backup into the SD card's "emuNAND" partition using Hex Workshop.
I hope that explains it well enough; I do not believe this is really good enough of a post to really be a full-blown, noob-friendly tutorial on this, just an explanation of what I did and how I did it, since the regular system transfer feature is apparently not working with Gateway 2.0's "emuNAND" mode.
...Now I suddenly wonder if anyone would be interested in making a PC app that automatically does this sector rearrangement and injecting process to make it easier for others...?
However, now...
I am going to reflash my 6.3 NAND dump back to real NAND and not really use "emuNAND" yet myself.
But why?
Because I found cannot play my existing save files on my newer game carts on it (like my pokaymanz and zelda saves and TBH I am too scared to even try my Zelda ABLW cart on "emuNAND", mainly due to one report of someone having their save file wiped from their retail cart!).
I read this thread and this thread and it seems to explain as to why the saves are incompatible, mainly a conflict regarding the different KeyY keys used by "emuNAND" firmware, and an actual up-to-date firmware on Real NAND (prolly explains that one reported case of zelda save wipe).
So, going by that, if you want to play newer games on Gateway "emuNAND" it would be best to either use the gateway cart+ROM, or start a new save on a legit cart that you use ONLY while in "emuNAND" mode (since said cart would then end up with saves not being recognised on actual Real NAND firmware, just like how a cart of a newer game used on Actual Real NAND fails on "emuNAND").
I hope this was an imformative and interesting read for you all
Enjoy!
Hello again GBATemp!
With the release of Gateway 2.0b1 and its NAND redirection feature, I wanted to try getting all my content on the latest 6.3 firmware while still having an older firmware available to use Gateway.
But apparently the "emuNAND" is not compatible with the system transfer feature. But I had already have the ability to dump and restore NAND via hardware, so I tried a different approach, that is, by injecting it manually into the 3DS's SD's "emuNAND" partition that Gateway 2.0b1 uses.
Here is my little story through all this:
After grabbing the GW2.0b1 release, I decided to try to get my existing 6.3.0-12E NAND with all of my stuff associated with it running under Gateway 2.0 "emuNAND" on my new 3DS XL (4.4.0-10E). But this was all system-transferred from my launch 3DS though. However, I had modded my 3DS XL to be able to dump and write its NAND contents (as per the lovely "nand flash dump (3DS XL)" thread that I am sure everybody has seen by now ).
So I had my initial 4.4 dump, and then made my latest 6.3 dump.
I successfully managed to inject my 6.3 already-system-transferred NAND that I had backed up, using a hex editor that had support for editing a physical drive directly.
When I looked at the extra partition that Gateway created, I noticed that it is pretty much a 1:1 copy of the NAND on the 3DS at the time of being created by the "format emuNAND" option, and then just unused garbage at the end of the dump to pad out the partition (Since the actual NAND dump is not quite 1GB).
Only, it is NOT QUITE a 1:1 copy of the NAND. What they have done, is they have taken the first sector (was 512 bytes for me), put some sort of Gateway dummy sector at the beginning, where that first sector was, and then taken the original first sector of data, and tacked it onto the end of the NAND dump in the partition, before the garbage data starts.
So, after rearranging my 6.3 NAND dump I made by dumping via hardware, by putting that first sector at the end, I then inject this rearranged dump into the "emuNAND" partition using Hex Workshop starting at the 2nd sector (sector 1) instead of the first (sector 0), which is the Gateway dummy one.
Then booted up 3DS XL, then tried booting up Gateway to load up this NAND instead... and it worked! I was on GW3D 6.3.0-12E, with all my system transferred stuff just like I wanted
And here is a quick list to summarise what I did:
1. Installed internal NAND to SD/MMC interface into 4.4.0-10E firmare 3dS XL to dump/restore Real NAND.
2. Dumped the NAND with 4.4 firmware on it and backed it up.
3. Did system transfer from launch 3DS to 3DS XL's Real NAND (which required updating to latest 6.3.0-12E firmware).
4. Dumped the NAND again, with 6.3 firmware and all system transferred stuff in it.
5. Backed up the entire contents of my 3DS's SD card (with all system-transfer related content, like paid software and saves etc).
6. Reflashed back to 4.4 firmware dump to be able to use Gateway 3DS.
7. Updated Gateway 3DS to 2.0b1, and set up "emuNAND" on 3DS's card (formatting it all).
8. Used PC to rearrange that first sector of my hardware-dumped 6.3 NAND to the end of the dump with hex editor.
9. Injected rearranged dump into "emuNAND" partition using Hex Workshop overriding existing NAND there (I tried using hxd, but could not find a way to inject it with hxd)
10. Loaded up Gateway via DS profile, and my 6.3 NAND was loaded!
So, just to be clear:
I did not actually do a system transfer directly to the "emuNAND", I transferred to Real NAND and backed up my NAND via hardware, then injected the hardware backup into the SD card's "emuNAND" partition using Hex Workshop.
I hope that explains it well enough; I do not believe this is really good enough of a post to really be a full-blown, noob-friendly tutorial on this, just an explanation of what I did and how I did it, since the regular system transfer feature is apparently not working with Gateway 2.0's "emuNAND" mode.
...Now I suddenly wonder if anyone would be interested in making a PC app that automatically does this sector rearrangement and injecting process to make it easier for others...?
However, now...
I am going to reflash my 6.3 NAND dump back to real NAND and not really use "emuNAND" yet myself.
But why?
Because I found cannot play my existing save files on my newer game carts on it (like my pokaymanz and zelda saves and TBH I am too scared to even try my Zelda ABLW cart on "emuNAND", mainly due to one report of someone having their save file wiped from their retail cart!).
I read this thread and this thread and it seems to explain as to why the saves are incompatible, mainly a conflict regarding the different KeyY keys used by "emuNAND" firmware, and an actual up-to-date firmware on Real NAND (prolly explains that one reported case of zelda save wipe).
So, going by that, if you want to play newer games on Gateway "emuNAND" it would be best to either use the gateway cart+ROM, or start a new save on a legit cart that you use ONLY while in "emuNAND" mode (since said cart would then end up with saves not being recognised on actual Real NAND firmware, just like how a cart of a newer game used on Actual Real NAND fails on "emuNAND").
I hope this was an imformative and interesting read for you all
Enjoy!