Cloned SD card with hidden emunand doesn't boot SX OS

[Zefrem23]

I've had a 128gb SD card since I bought my Switch, and I finally had some spare cash so I got a 256gb card today. I've now tried twice to clone the 128gb to the 256gb and resize the non-hidden partition (once with AOMEI and once with Easeus) and despite the clone being apparently successful both times, I get a brief flash of the SX OS logo when I turn the Switch on with the RCM jig and dongle connected, then a black screen, then it boots into the normal sysnand without going into SX OS at all.

Am I doing something wrong? Have later versions of SX OS become more finicky about the exact SD card they're on? If anyone can help me get SX OS working on my new SD card I'd hugely appreciate it.

 

[Blaze Uchiha]

I'm actually curious about this too. I recently upgraded to a 512GB sd card and made a new emunand. I want to bring my other emunand to this sd card but since it's just a hidden partition I'm not sure how to do this. Is it even possible?

 

[Zefrem23]

So I guess I'm answering my own question. I used Easeus Partition Master to do a 1-to-1 clone of the 128gb SD to the 256gb SD. I tested it in the Switch and the emunand booted fine. I resized the partition using Easeus and at that point it refused to boot anymore.

So I deleted the visible partition in Easeus and created a new FAT32 partition, making sure to leave 30gb free in the beginning of the card so as not to overwrite the hidden emunand partition, and I put the boot.dat and license.dat files on as a test. The card booted fine, so I copied the contents of the visible partition from the 128gb SD card to the fresh partition on the 256gb card and it's been working fine since.

 

[Blaze Uchiha]

I read somewhere that it is possible to migrate an already existing emunand using a hex editor, but the process is pretty damn complicated.

 

[Zefrem23]

I read somewhere that it is possible to migrate an already existing emunand using a hex editor, but the process is pretty damn complicated.

As I mentioned in my previous post, the emunand was actually the easy part. Cloning the card using Easeus Partition Master or Aomei Partition Assistant resulted in a successful emunand copy. The only issue was that the FAT32 partition (ie. not the emunand) becomes unbootable when it's resized for some reason, but recreating the partition and copying the files from the old FAT32 partition to the new card worked fine.

 

[Blaze Uchiha]

As I mentioned in my previous post, the emunand was actually the easy part. Cloning the card using Easeus Partition Master or Aomei Partition Assistant resulted in a successful emunand copy. The only issue was that the FAT32 partition (ie. not the emunand) becomes unbootable when it's resized for some reason, but recreating the partition and copying the files from the old FAT32 partition to the new card worked fine.

That worked for you? I couldn't figure out how to resize the exfat partition on mine using those exact same programs. I kinda wish that TX would streamline a way to migrate emunand and data from one sd card to another sd of a bigger size

 

[Zefrem23]

The partition worked fine before I resized it. After resizing, the card refused to boot. Creating a pristine new FAT32 or Exfat partition on the card, leaving 30gb in the front for the emumand not to be overwritten, and then copying the files from the old card onto the new one finally did the trick.

 

[Blaze Uchiha]

The partition worked fine before I resized it. After resizing, the card refused to boot. Creating a pristine new FAT32 or Exfat partition on the card, leaving 30gb in the front for the emumand not to be overwritten, and then copying the files from the old card onto the new one finally did the trick.

That almost worked perfectly for me. The only issue I had was previously installed games saying they weren't installed when I tried to launch them. Shouldn't they be there too since this is technically a clone of the original? I suppose unistalling the software then re-installing it could fix this though. Did you have this issue?

 

[Zefrem23]

Yes I did, though only for some games. I just set up nut.exe on my comp with the USB drivers and dumped the installs over again, and the saves were all still there.