Unallocated partition on SD Card

[Dragonfire665]

So my old sd card was going bad. I bough a new one which was about 100gb bigger. I used a program called AOMEI Partition Assistant to help with copying and partitioning my new SD card identical to my old one. It worked. Everything copied and my switch loaded like it used it. All my games were there in the new one along with my saved. But I noticed that it left a 100gb unallocated partition unused. And I would like to merge it with the game partition not the emummc. Is that possible? You can see it. It's the orange colored partition.

 

[Hayato213]

You should have converted the hidden partition to file based, move it and the converted it back to hidden.

 

[Dragonfire665]

You should have converted the hidden partition to file based, move it and the converted it back to hidden.

I literally use the program above AOMEI to do all the work. It formatted the new hard drive for me and then just copied the old to the new one. So I did not know how to create partitions for the switch. Found that to be much easier. And I did not know the outcome would have been leaving an 100 GB of unallocated space. So, I take it, there is nothing I cant do now?

 

[Hayato213]

I literally use the program above AOMEI to do all the work. It formatted the new hard drive for me and then just copied the old to the new one. So I did not know how to create partitions for the switch. Found that to be much easier. And I did not know the outcome would have been leaving an 100 GB of unallocated space. So, I take it, there is nothing I cant do now?

You can probably use AOMEI but you probably need paid version for what you need, it is easier if you still have the old card and just move your emunand. I mean you can repartition your FAT32/exFAT partition if you want but you would have to backup your data and then delete the FAT32/exFAT partition and then re-partition the 100GB with the rest of the FAT32/exFAT partition that you just unallocated.

ROM Hack RELEASE  Thread 'EmuTool - Move partition Emu on another SD, Switch Emu type on SXOS and more'

Oct 23, 2019

EmuTool
Move, Copy, Convert, Backup and Restore your SXOS and Atmosphere Emunand/emuMMC.

(Art by @CrazyKing93)​

(Emunand or emuMMC are the same concept, below will be referred to simply as Emu)

Italian language guide here
For support in Italian or a little bit of English you can reach me on Telegram group http://t.me/gamesandconsoleschat

Warning!
Antivirus program can block and delete EmuTools.
EmuTool uses these functions of Windows Kernel32: CreateFile, CloseHandle, DeviceIoControl, SetFilePointer, ReadFile, GetFileSize, WriteFile...

• TheyKilledKenny
• Replies: 473
• Forum: Nintendo Switch

• 

 

[Dragonfire665]

You can probably use AOMEI but you probably need paid version for what you need, it is easier if you still have the old card and just move your emunand. I mean you can repartition your FAT32/exFAT partition if you want but you would have to backup your data and then delete the FAT32/exFAT partition and then re-partition the 100GB with the rest of the FAT32/exFAT partition that you just unallocated.

ROM Hack RELEASE  Thread 'EmuTool - Move partition Emu on another SD, Switch Emu type on SXOS and more'

Oct 23, 2019

EmuTool
Move, Copy, Convert, Backup and Restore your SXOS and Atmosphere Emunand/emuMMC.

(Art by @CrazyKing93)​

(Emunand or emuMMC are the same concept, below will be referred to simply as Emu)

Italian language guide here
For support in Italian or a little bit of English you can reach me on Telegram group http://t.me/gamesandconsoleschat

Warning!
Antivirus program can block and delete EmuTools.
EmuTool uses these functions of Windows Kernel32: CreateFile, CloseHandle, DeviceIoControl, SetFilePointer, ReadFile, GetFileSize, WriteFile...

• TheyKilledKenny
• Replies: 473
• Forum: Nintendo Switch

• 

The only reason I use AOMEI was because it was easy. I have a hard time understanding what you have me doing with the same option of moving my emunand. I still have the old card. And the new card literally has everything the old card has. It looks identical and its loading just fine. Heck much faster. It just that it has the extra unallocated space that I would like to add to use for addition game space.

 

[Hayato213]

The only reason I use AOMEI was because it was easy. I have a hard time understanding what you have me doing with the same option of moving my emunand. I still have the old card. And the new card literally has everything the old card has. It looks identical and its loading just fine. Heck much faster. It just that it has the extra unallocated space that I would like to add to use for addition game space.

Sound like you used AOMEI just to clone the old SD card to the new one, that why you are having the missing 100GB, because when it does that it leave the 100GB space, so on your SD card on your computer what you want to do is to to backup your data and delete the current FAT32/exFAT partition and then repartiion the rest of the space together, to get the 100GB back.

 

[Dragonfire665]

Sound like you used AOMEI just to clone the old SD card to the new one, that why you are having the missing 100GB, because when it does that it leave the 100GB space, so on your SD card on your computer what you want to do is to to backup your data and delete the current FAT32/exFAT partition and then repartiion the rest of the space together, to get the 100GB back.

You mean delete everything after back up in my 337 GB partition? not touch the 29GB partition that belongs to the emummc. and also partition the 100GB unused space, merge them and readd everything that I deleted to the new as it should be 447 GB partition?

 

[Hayato213]

You mean delete everything after back up in my 337 GB partition? not touch the 29GB partition that belongs to the emummc. and also partition the 100GB unused space, merge them and readd everything that I deleted to the new as it should be 447 GB partition?

Yes that is correct, you have delete the 337GB parititon to allow you to combine the 100GB with the 337GB unallocated space together to create a new 437GB paritition.

 

[Dragonfire665]

Yes that is correct, you have to combine the 100GB with the 337 together.

And another question, by doing that, would I have any problems when putting the SD card back into the switch? should it load up as it did before? If im not touching the Emummc, it should work as it has, correct?

 

[Hayato213]

And another question, by doing that, would I have any problems when putting the SD card back into the switch? should it load up as it did before? If im not touching the Emummc, it should work as it has, correct?

As long you don't delete the emunand and still have your files you should be fine.

 

[Dragonfire665]

As long you don't delete the emunand and still have your files you should be fine.

So one last time (lol) I attached a photo, as you will see 337Gb is where all the files such as atmosphere, config, hekate and so on are located. (V) 29.17GB is where emunand is located (or so I think), I should not touch this one. And lastly, the 109.89GB is the unallocated partition that I want to add to the 337GB.

 

[Hayato213]

So one last time (lol) I attached a photo, as you will see 337Gb is where all the files such as atmosphere, config, hekate and so on are located. (V) 29.17GB is where emunand is located (or so I think), I should not touch this one. And lastly, the 109.89GB is the unallocated partition that I want to add to the 337GB. View attachment 535733

Sound like you can't follow instructions

 

[Dragonfire665]

Sound like you can't follow instructions

Not that I can't follow. Just scare that I would mess things up. When it comes to the switch. I have read how simple errors can brick the system. I just don't want that to happen or damage the new SD card. Sorry for asking so much and sounding incompetent.

 

[Hayato213]

Not that I can't follow. Just scare that I would mess things up. When it comes to the switch. I have read how simple errors can brick the system. I just don't want that to happen or damage the new SD card. Sorry for asking so much and sounding incompetent.

You just have to backup your data and then delete the 377 gb partition so it becomes 377 gb unallocated space allows you to combine the 377 with the 100 gb to create a 477 partition. Leave the 29gb unformatted alone.

 

[Nephiel]

You just have to backup your data and then delete the 377 gb partition so it becomes 377 gb unallocated space allows you to combine the 377 with the 100 gb to create a 477 partition. Leave the 29gb unformatted alone.

But they can't do that... the 29GB (emuMMC) is right in the middle, so the 337 GB and 109 GB are not contiguous to combine. Have to move the 29GB partition to the end first... right? And that can be risky.

I would do this:
- back up all files from the 337GB to somewhere safe,
- use Hekate to make a backup of the 29GB emuMMC as well, put it somewhere safe too,
- then reformat the card using Hekate,
- restore emuMMC from backup using Hekate,
- and restore files from backup.

 

[Hayato213]

But they can't do that... the 29GB (emuMMC) is right in the middle, so the 337 GB and 109 GB are not contiguous to combine. Have to move the 29GB partition to the end first... right? And that can be risky.

I would do this:
- back up all files from the 337GB to somewhere safe,
- use Hekate to make a backup of the 29GB emuMMC as well, put it somewhere safe too,
- then reformat the card using Hekate,
- restore emuMMC from backup using Hekate,
- and restore files from backup.

I guess he can do the method you mention or use the emutool to convert it to file based and then move it to the new card and convert it back to hidden based, I assumed he used a free version of Aomei, I mean unless he paid for a premium version not like he can do it since Aomei has the option to merge partition.

 

[Nephiel]

Aomei has the option to merge partition.

Aomei can merge when both partitions are right next to each other, but in this case they aren't, the emuMMC is in between. Even if it could merge because the second is just unallocated space (I don't really know if it can, haven't tried it), it will probably move the emuMMC all the way to the end anyway.

I guess he can do the method you mention or use the emutool to convert it to file based and then move it to the new card and convert it back to hidden based

Yeah, converting it to file-based and back should also work. I'd still make backups, just in case.