Queries Regarding Restoring SysNand and Updating to exFat

[MegaBit]

Hi newcomer to the scene,

Just wanted to start off by stating I have read pages and pages worth of tutorials, questions and tried to study up as much as I could about the exploits. Didn't want to waste anyone's time with rehashed questions.

I have a SX OS Pro Lisence activated Switch on 2.5.2, using the Dongle and Jig gear. So the steps I took was:

1. Bought a new Switch (untouched) with 3.0.2 FW
2. Downloaded SX OS 2.5.2 and also hekate
3. Loaded up the SX OS and immediately went into Hekate to create a NAND Dump (copied the file in two place)
4. Loaded up SX OS for a second time and made another NAND Dump using the SX OS NAND Dump tool (copied in two places)
6. Stupidly didn't know how to activate my lisence and booted up the SX OS Custom FW, thus rendering my sysNAND unclean. Exited before I did anything else.
7. Activated my license by uploading it (OFFLINE method)
5. Created an emuNAND hidden partition on my 128GB SD CARD
6. Loaded up ChoiDujourNX and selected the non-exFAT option to update my emuNAND firmware to 6.2.0
NOTE: however I updated it with autoRCM mode to avoid burning fuses which I guess didn't make sense since on the emuNAND)

So everything is good, I have dual boot, OFW is on 3.0.2 and emuNAND on 6.2.0

Questions

1. I want to format my SDCARD to exFAT. Reason I used FAT32 was because that's what all the tutorials stated. So can I just update my 90GB non-emunand partition to exFAT on my PC, run ChoiDujourNX again and select exFAT when installing the 6.2.0 FW?

2. Because I selected 'autoRCM enabled' on ChoiDujourNX does that mean its set like that? How do I turn it off. I uninstalled AutoRCM on the SX OS boot menu but I'm guessing that didn't do anything. I left my Switch powered off and turned it back on (without Dongle) and it went into OFW still on 3.0.2 and battery didn't drain. Good sign?

3. Since I am updating my emuNAND using ChoiDujourNX its safe to disable autoRCM mode as the option is already selected. I'm guessing the warning is if those are doing the update on sysNAND only, that if they loaded up their OFW it will burn their fuses.

4. Even though I won't go online, I still want my sysNAND to be clean, so I want to restore it through Hekate. If before doing step 1, I want to restore sysNAND with my clean dump, what would happen to the emuNAND partition? Should I disable emuNAND on the SX OS and then load up Hekate, and then restore NAND?

At this point, I was thinking of:

1. just delete everything on the SDCARD (except Liscence.dat and boot.dat. Delete emuNintendo, Nintendo folder, emuNAND partition everything)
2. format the entire 128gb sd card to exFAT
3. Joining my NAND dump files from Hekate
4. Placing the Hekate payload and loading it up using SX OS
5. Restoring NAND dump
6. Create emuNAND hidden partition again, use Choi to update FW and finally selecting exFAT this time

 

[imprezgc8]

1. You can just run Choi again and select exfat for the same FW version.
2. If you booted without the dongle and it booted to OFW then autoRCM is not enabled.
3. Correct, since you are not updating your sysnand with Choi you do not really need autoRCM. Just make sure that when you go to run the update again to get exfat support you are booted to emunand.
4. Emunand will not be affected by restoring you sysnand.

Looks like your on the right path. You will need the exfat driver though before you can boot to emunand on an exfat card. I am not honestly sure the best way to do that since you are using the partition emunand and it is hidden. Which makes it more challenging to move over to another card once you create it.

 

[MegaBit]

1. You can just run Choi again and select exfat for the same FW version.
2. If you booted without the dongle and it booted to OFW then autoRCM is not enabled.
3. Correct, since you are not updating your sysnand with Choi you do not really need autoRCM. Just make sure that when you go to run the update again to get exfat support you are booted to emunand.
4. Emunand will not be affected by restoring you sysnand.

Looks like your on the right path. You will need the exfat driver though before you can boot to emunand on an exfat card. I am not honestly sure the best way to do that since you are using the partition emunand and it is hidden. Which makes it more challenging to move over to another card once you create it.

Hey thanks for the reply.

So what I ended up doing was, as you stated,

1. loaded up Choi,
2. installed the 6.2.0 FW again on my EmuNAND this time selecting (exFat), it showed the current firmware was '6.2.0' and the target firmware as '6.2.0 (exFat)'.
3. copied files from SD Card, formatted it to exFat, then copied all files back

Haven't booted up my Switch yet, but I assumed that now that I have exFat support on 6.2.0 FW on my emuNAND, that my SD Card (now exFat) will still boot into SX OS and run .XCI/.NSP files larger than 4GB. However, you are saying I need the exfat driver for any of this to work? Or should I just go ahead and test what I have done now?

 

[imprezgc8]

As long as you boot to CFW that has the 6.2 exfat install then you are good. Since it sounds like your OFW did not have the exfat driver installed, if you boot to OFW it will most likely prompt to format the card.