Tutorial  Updated

A9LH Users: Recover From Formatted/Deleted SD Card

With the way arm9loaderhax works right now, a formatted, dead, or otherwise deleted SD/microSD prevents you from booting the 3DS at all. Does that mean you have a brick? Not in the least! It is quite possible, even easy, to recover the ability to boot your 3DS, as long as you have a functioning SD/microSD. The purpose of this guide is to help you get your 3DS back into working order after you've lost the data on the system's SD/microSD (hereafter referred to as "SD card" or "SD"). It assumes you have no SD backups and no files saved locally to your PC. This tutorial will work for all 3DS models, including the 2DS.

This guide will not recover save data, previously installed applications, StreetPass/Mii data, custom themes, or Home Menu configurations! If you don't have a SD card backup, you will have to start from scratch!

Step 1 - Recover Boot Capability
  1. Download version 7.1 of Luma3DS. Version 8.0 (and higher) are exclusive to boot9strap, and will not work on A9LH.
  2. Extract the "3ds" folder and "arm9loaderhax.bin" to the root of your SD card.
  3. Boot your 3DS, which will boot into Luma settings automatically. Configure Luma, then press Start to save and boot into the Home Menu.
...That's it! Your 3DS will now boot normally. Easy, right? But you didn't install a9lh just to have a normal 3DS that doesn't boot without an SD, did you? Well, then, let's get to work on getting all of that delicious homebrew back. You might have noticed that all of your installed CIAs are gone. A temporary setback.

Step 2 - FBI Inject
  1. Download the latest version of Hourglass9.
  2. Download the latest version of Universal Inject Generator (click "Clone or Download", then click "Download Zip").
  3. Download the latest version of FBI.
  4. Create a folder on the root of the SD card called "luma". If you've booted your system after completing Step 1 and configured Luma, you can skip this step as there should already be a luma folder on your SD card.
  5. Create a folder called "payloads" in the luma folder on your SD card.
  6. Extract "Hourglass9.bin" into the payloads folder and rename it "start_Hourglass9.bin".
  7. Create a folder called "cias" on the root of your SD card.
  8. Extract "FBI.cia" to the cias folder.
  9. Create a folder called "Universal Inject Generator" on your PC (it doesn't matter where, so pick a place you can find easily).
  10. Extract the contents of the Universal Inject Generator zip file to the folder you created.
  11. Extract "FBI.cia" to the "input" folder in your Universal Inject Generator folder.
  12. Eject the SD card from your computer and place it in your 3DS.
  13. Press and hold the Start button while turning the power on. This should boot Hourglass9.
  14. Select the first option, "SysNAND Backup/Restore".
  15. Select the third option, "Health & Safety Dump".
  16. Use Left and Right on the D-Pad to select a name for the dump file ("hs.app" is the default), then press A to start the dump. If (!) appears after the file name, that means that file already exists on your SD card. Pick another name, just to be certain.
  17. Press B to return to the SysNAND Backup/Restore menu, then press Select to unmount your SD card.
  18. Remove your SD card from your 3DS and connect it to your PC. You do not have to power off your 3DS to do this.
  19. There should now be a "files9" folder on the root of your SD card. Browse to it, and find the Health & Safety dump you just made (file name should be whatever you selected).
  20. Move hs.app (or whatever your dump is called) to the input folder in Universal Inject Generator.
  21. Run Universal Inject Generator by running "go.bat" (Windows), "go.sh" (Linux/Unix), or "Mac_Script_Launcher.applescript" (Mac).
  22. When it's finished, place "FBI_inject_with_banner.app" in the files9 folder on your SD card.
  23. Eject your SD card from your PC and insert it into your 3DS.
  24. Press B to return to the SysNAND Backup/Restore menu in Hourglass9.
  25. Select the fourth option, "Health & Safety Inject".
  26. Enter the key combination Hourglass9 asks for, which should be "Left, Up, Right, Up, A".
  27. Select FBI_inject_with_banner.app using Left and Right on the D-Pad and press A to inject.
  28. Wait for the inject to finish, then press Start to reboot into the Home Menu.
You will now have an app called FBI in place of the Health and Safety app on your Home Menu. The FBI icon (a blue square with the letters "FBI" inside) should now show up on your Home Menu, but if it doesn't, check the Health & Safety icon. If FBI was properly injected, the FBI banner should show up in place of the normal Health & Safety banner. This is a bit "dirty", though, so let's actually install FBI.

Step 3 - Install FBI
  1. Start your Health & Safety FBI.
  2. Select "SD".
  3. Select "cias".
  4. Select "FBI.cia".
  5. Select "Install".
And now you have a "legit" installation of FBI on your 3DS. This version can be updated without risk. You can now install other homebrew apps on your 3DS through this "legit" FBI. I recommend at least installing Homebr3w (an installer and manager for homebrew apps) and lumaupdate (an automated updater for Luma 3DS), but as you know, there's a whole world out there for you to explore.

Step 4 - Re-inject Health & Safety
This step is completely optional. Some people like keeping their Health & Safety FBI around as insurance against something like this ever happening again, especially since H&S is pretty useless. This is fine, but there's also a risk that a future OFW update might make that version of FBI unuseable, which would require you to re-inject FBI anyways, because I'm pretty sure Health & Safety injected FBI cannot update. If you want to put your Health & Safety app back to what it should be, follow the steps below from a completely powered-off 3DS:
  1. Press and hold start while pressing the power button to boot into Hourglass9.
  2. Select SysNAND backup/restore.
  3. Select Health & Safety Inject.
  4. Enter the key combination.
  5. Select your Health & Safety dump using Left and Right, then press A to start the inject.
  6. Wait until the inject is finished, then press Start to reboot into the Home Menu.
And now you should have your normal Health & Safety app back.
 
Last edited by bahamut920,

Cratty

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Well, I have a problem where the O3DS won't start if the SD card was inserted. Is there any help for that?
 

Mizzeti

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Hi there! I have a problem... The 7z file from AuroraWright's page does not contain any folders. Only three files. Can you help me please?
 

Cratty

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Hi there! I have a problem... The 7z file from AuroraWright's page does not contain any folders. Only three files. Can you help me please?
You should get 7.0.5, instead of what's listed on the first post. That's why there's only 3 folders, also, those 3 files are for boot9strap. If you have A9LH, 7.0.5 and below will be of use, however, just get 7.0.5 if you have AL9H. If you have boot9strap, get the latest one.
 
D

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Could somebody help me out please?
The mini sd for N3ds broke down today. I tried setting a new one up with the tutorial.
I got to the point where the 3ds boots into the menu again. Luma is also working. I´m stuck now at step 2, FBI inject. I downloaded all the nececary files and put them in order. I renamed Hourglass9 to start_Hourglass9. I hold start while turning the 3ds but it´s not working.
I´m on 11.4. Thanks in advance.
 

bahamut920

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Did you create the proper folders (luma\payloads)? Is your start_hourglass9.bin file in the payloads folder? is the full name of your Hourglass9 file "start_hourglass9.bin"?

If none of those are the problem, try assigning your Hourglass9 to a different button, like X or Y, and see if that works. It's possible that Luma might have changed button settings around since I wrote this tutorial, and Start might no longer be available for use.
 
D

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Did you create the proper folders (luma\payloads)? Is your start_hourglass9.bin file in the payloads folder? is the full name of your Hourglass9 file "start_hourglass9.bin"?

If none of those are the problem, try assigning your Hourglass9 to a different button, like X or Y, and see if that works. It's possible that Luma might have changed button settings around since I wrote this tutorial, and Start might no longer be available for use.
Yes, i created the above mentionted folders. I tried start,x,y,b,a for the hourglass9 bin. It still won´t work.
 

KunoichiZ

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Did you create the proper folders (luma\payloads)? Is your start_hourglass9.bin file in the payloads folder? is the full name of your Hourglass9 file "start_hourglass9.bin"?

If none of those are the problem, try assigning your Hourglass9 to a different button, like X or Y, and see if that works. It's possible that Luma might have changed button settings around since I wrote this tutorial, and Start might no longer be available for use.
The bottom of what you said is true in newer versions of Luma. As of v7.0, Luma introduced a chainloader, which loads a chainloader menu upon pressing and holding start when you boot your system. From there, you could select your payloads. All payloads with the "start_" prefix are now launched with L+Start. Also, you need to edit your first post to say download Luma v7.0.5 as that's the latest version to support A9LH. Luma v7.1+ is for b9s only.
Yes, i created the above mentionted folders. I tried start,x,y,b,a for the hourglass9 bin. It still won´t work.
Have you tried using a different SD card? It could be possible your current card is going bad if none of the button combinations work.
 
Last edited by KunoichiZ,
D

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The bottom of what you said is true in newer versions of Luma. As of v7.0, Luma introduced a chainloader, which loads a chainloader menu upon pressing and holding start when you boot your system. From there, you could select your payloads. All payloads with the "start_" prefix are now launched with L+Start.

Have you tried using a different SD card? It could be possible your current card is going bad if none of the button combinations work.
I use two different sandisk mini sd card with each having 32 gb space.

Update: I installed the FBI Injector again. I renamed hourglass.firm to boot.firm and put it on to the root of the sd card. Thank you all for your help. :grog:
 
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6rofty

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Hey i can't remember what version I was on of luma
I remember going through sound hax installing homebrew Luma and FBI
But my sd broke
Is there any hope for my 3ds
Itbwas like 6 months ago I did it
My little one only uses it
Many thanks
 

bahamut920

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When you say "my SD broke", do you mean your SD card, or the SD card reader on the 3DS? The former should be recoverable, the latter involves replacing hardware in the 3DS and might not be worthwhile, especially if your mechanical skills aren't up to snuff.

If you went through the Plailect guide six months ago, you're most likely on Boot9Strap or whatever it's called; the latest hax for the 3DS. This guide was written for Arm9LoaderHax, which was the previous one. Assuming the SD card is the problem, you could try following this tutorial, and it may well fix the problem, but I don't know enough about Boot9Strap to say anything for certain; both of my 3DS systems are on a9lh. At the very least, I don't think it will do any damage to your system.
 

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