Why would I use emunand?

[l7777]

If I:

1. Have a backup of the sysnand saved in multiple places
2. Don't play online
3. Don't care if I'm banned by Nintendo
4. Don't plan to do any significant modifications to the system files

I have a modded v2 switch and am running everything in emunand but I'm not sure I see why I need to do this given the above. Other than trying to hide from Nintendo or try out experimental system mods. Is there something else I'm missing?

 

[Draxzelex]

If I:

1. Have a backup of the sysnand saved in multiple places
2. Don't play online
3. Don't care if I'm banned by Nintendo
4. Don't plan to do any significant modifications to the system files

I have a modded v2 switch and am running everything in emunand but I'm not sure I see why I need to do this given the above. Other than trying to hide from Nintendo or try out experimental system mods. Is there something else I'm missing?

Try asking in the Switch Noobs Paradise.

 

[hippy dave]

So many people manage to lose their backups that I'd find it hard to recommend not using emunand.

 

[Raugo]

So many people manage to lose their backups that I'd find it hard to recommend not using emunand.

Is more probable to lost the emummc than lost a backup well saved.

 

[hippy dave]

Is more probable to lost the emummc than lost a backup well saved.

Idk, but if so, the sys is still safe.

 

[sley]

It's still worth it in your case because why get the system unnecessarily banned and decrease it's value.
Also when something breaks you can start over faster without the need to go through a long recovery process.

 

[Raugo]

Is a wasted of space if you don'tuse it.

It's still worth it in your case because why get the system unnecessarily banned and decrease it's value.
Also when something breaks you can start over faster without the need to go through a long recovery process.

You need to lost exactly yhe same amount of time making the emummc and resturing the emmc from the backup. And alos having a clean backup of the emmc and protectiing the sys to connect to nintendo server you can't be banned too.

 

[M7L7NK7]

No one is making you use it

 

[kidkat210]

It's still worth it in your case because why get the system unnecessarily banned and decrease it's value.
Also when something breaks you can start over faster without the need to go through a long recovery process.

I'll say, the console being banned doesn't really decrease the value. At least for v1 unpatched it doesn't. I've seen tons of unpatched v1s that were banned go for retail price. Same could be said for markio and alula units since they require modchips that cost roughly $100

 

[pinbi7]

my question is why wouldn't you?

i feel the benefits of using emummc outweighs the benefits of using sysnand

 

[Takokeshi]

my question is why wouldn't you?

i feel the benefits of using emummc outweighs the benefits of using sysnand

And I feel the benefits of using syscfw outweighs the benefits of using emummc.

The extra 32GB of space is quite nice, and having your save data on emmc instead of SD adds one extra layer of protection against SD card corruption.

3-2-1. Three places, two types of storage, one copy stored off-site, and you're good. In the worst case scenario, even if your emmc goes bad and you somehow lose all backups, it's always possible to restore back to a working state using data from a donor console.

It made sense in the 3DS days, when we needed to keep our system firmware low and unbricking wasn't yet possible without a hardmod, but on the Switch this has never really been a concern.

 

[The Real Jdbye]

And I feel the benefits of using syscfw outweighs the benefits of using emummc.

The extra 32GB of space is quite nice, and having your save data on emmc instead of SD adds one extra layer of protection against SD card corruption.

3-2-1. Three places, two types of storage, one copy stored off-site, and you're good. In the worst case scenario, even if your emmc goes bad and you somehow lose all backups, it's always possible to restore back to a working state using data from a donor console.

It made sense in the 3DS days, when we needed to keep our system firmware low and unbricking wasn't yet possible without a hardmod, but on the Switch this has never really been a concern.

emuNAND only uses about 2.5 GB for the OS.
The rest of it is usable by installing games to "internal" storage (which is your emuNAND)
2.5 GB is not a great loss and you won't even notice it on a decently sized SD card.

The eMMC isn't inherently more resistant to corruption than a SD card. And using an emuNAND means the eMMC isn't being written to, so it won't wear out, instead the SD card is written to more, which is easier to replace in case it fails.
And in case of corruption, you can simply flash sysNAND onto emuNAND again and good as new, no backup needed.
And in the unlikely event the sysNAND gets bricked, you can even flash emuNAND onto sysNAND if you have no backups.

Most of your pros for sysNAND are actually pros for emuNAND.

If I:

1. Have a backup of the sysnand saved in multiple places
2. Don't play online
3. Don't care if I'm banned by Nintendo
4. Don't plan to do any significant modifications to the system files

I have a modded v2 switch and am running everything in emunand but I'm not sure I see why I need to do this given the above. Other than trying to hide from Nintendo or try out experimental system mods. Is there something else I'm missing?

You should always care if you're banned as it lowers the resale value if you ever decide to sell the Switch.
It's also good as a layer of protection against brickers (which do exist)

 

[Takokeshi]

emuNAND only uses about 2.5 GB for the OS.
The rest of it is usable by installing games to "internal" storage (which is your emuNAND)
2.5 GB is not a great loss and you won't even notice it on a decently sized SD card.

The eMMC isn't inherently more resistant to corruption than a SD card. And using an emuNAND means the eMMC isn't being written to, so it won't wear out, instead the SD card is written to more, which is easier to replace in case it fails.
And in case of corruption, you can simply flash sysNAND onto emuNAND again and good as new, no backup needed.
And in the unlikely event the sysNAND gets bricked, you can even flash emuNAND onto sysNAND if you have no backups.

Most of your pros for sysNAND are actually pros for emuNAND.

You lose like 25GB of emmc space. That space is useable on syscfw.

I'm not sure how you got from "SD card corruption" to "corruption in general", that was not the point I was making. SD has a lot more ways in which it could go bad compared to emmc (the latter should only get written to by the OS itself, SD card you're most likely going to be plugging that into your PC and who knows what happens there.) Then there's the SD card lottery where even good brands could be defective and go bad quite quickly, and sure the onboard emmc could be subject to the same lottery, but then why trust or rely on anything?

It is true that using SD instead of emmc prevents the wearing out of emmc, I don't find that to be too big of a concern personally because should the emmc ever wear out and stop working, I can just get a new one and restore my data to it. The advantage of a SD card here is that you don't need to take apart the console to get to the internals, I like tinkering with that kind of stuff though so that's a plus in my book.

"No backup needed" being a plus I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree on. The benefits of syscfw for me are greater than the benefits of not needing a backup. If you end up flashing emummc to sysmmc then you might as well just have been using syscfw anyway?

For save data I just make regular backups to SD. If SD corrupts then my data is still safe on emmc and I can just back it up again after recovering. If emmc goes bad then my save data is on SD and I can restore it after fixing emmc. The chances of both going bad at the same time are very low, emummc adds the additional step of needing to copy backed up save data off the SD card after making a backup, and it's not a big deal but it's an additional step, and avoiding additional steps is always nice. If you wanted to be extra safe you'd copy it off the SD card every time regardless, but I consider this to be acceptable risk, for the convenience that it brings.

 

[l7777]

Thanks for the input everyone. My thoughts on using the sysnand were for primarily performance oriented, secondarily resistance to corruption/failure, and finally reduction in complexity. Even the best MicroSD storage is slow in comparison to the emmc and there is no end to stories of failed MicroSD cards even among more expensive units.

I certainly see the value in using emunand if one is worried about bans or wants to multi boot between an untouched system, modified system and perhaps even Android. If I end up traveling down that road I would certainly play using emunand.

Resale value is not on my mind. The only consoles I've ever sold were back when I was a broke teenager and the PS2 was released. I happened to be in a position to purchase them and resell on ebay before people were doing that for a living. My pair of 4 year olds will likely get the switch once they are old enough to respect it as I also have an OLED with modchip in route.

Backups are not a problem either, I have a number of terabytes all on mirrored disks locally and life cycle the disks as they age. Will likely be looking into some archive/cold storage level cloud solutions in the future as well. I find backups of backups from 10 year old Android devices I no longer own sometimes.

 

[hippy dave]

And I feel the benefits of using syscfw outweighs the benefits of using emummc.

The extra 32GB of space is quite nice, and having your save data on emmc instead of SD adds one extra layer of protection against SD card corruption.

3-2-1. Three places, two types of storage, one copy stored off-site, and you're good. In the worst case scenario, even if your emmc goes bad and you somehow lose all backups, it's always possible to restore back to a working state using data from a donor console.

It made sense in the 3DS days, when we needed to keep our system firmware low and unbricking wasn't yet possible without a hardmod, but on the Switch this has never really been a concern.

For your own use, this makes sense. For making recommendations to others, experience will show that you can't trust random users to keep working backups.

 

[Takokeshi]

For your own use, this makes sense. For making recommendations to others, experience will show that you can't trust random users to keep working backups.

Oh, for sure. I like to let people make their own decisions though.

 

[hippy dave]

Oh, for sure. I like to let people make their own decisions though.

I get that. It just makes me sad to see, eg, the number of permanently damaged Switches because people lost their incognito backup. It's effectively no worse than a banned Switch, but if they were using incognito to avoid a ban, then it was counterproductive. So I'll only recommend the safe options.

 

[Takokeshi]

I get that. It just makes me sad to see, eg, the number of permanently damaged Switches because people lost their incognito backup. It's effectively no worse than a banned Switch, but if they were using incognito to avoid a ban, then it was counterproductive. So I'll only recommend the safe options.

You should always be making backups, either way. I don't believe emummc should remove or reduce the need for a backup. The amount of people who have accidentally restored their dirty emummc to sysmmc...

 

[hippy dave]

You should always be making backups, either way. I don't believe emummc should remove or reduce the need for a backup. The amount of people who have accidentally restored their dirty emummc to sysmmc...

Of course you should always be making backups. I just don't trust other people with them

 

[MacBlaster]

If I:

1. Have a backup of the sysnand saved in multiple places
2. Don't play online
3. Don't care if I'm banned by Nintendo
4. Don't plan to do any significant modifications to the system files

I have a modded v2 switch and am running everything in emunand but I'm not sure I see why I need to do this given the above. Other than trying to hide from Nintendo or try out experimental system mods. Is there something else I'm missing?

you need just one big mistake on sysNand to brick your switch. Emunand is like a sandbox.

TLDR; its safer.