Safely transfer the contents of my SD card to a larger one?

[bribri]

I'm thinking of upgrading the SD card I'm using on my Switch, as well as moving my emuNAND from my system NAND to a partition on this new SD card.

However, I'd like to avoid having to reinstall all of my NSPs, roms, and homebrew apps. Is there a good way I can safely copy the contents of my old card's fat32 partition on to the new one (also fat32) in a manner that doesn't cause errors or corruption?

 

[imprezgc8]

Most of the files you can just backup from one card to the other in windows or whatever OS you use. As for the emunand, there is a migrate options built into the SX bootloader. I believe that is how most people did it.

 

[bribri]

Most of the files you can just backup from one card to the other in windows or whatever OS you use.

Yes, but in my experience that's not good enough for the Nintendo folder, and in some cases doesn't work for some homebrew apps either. I've fixed it a few times by recursively clearing the archive flag on all files on the SD card, but in the case of the Nintendo folder I've gotten it into states where everything is broken (e.g. cannot install, uninstall or play any NSPs) and the only way I've found to fix it is delete it and start over. So something about doing normal file copies causes the structure or data of the Nintendo folder to become corrupted, though I've never been able to figure out why. I've had this happen using both Windows in macOS, though macOS tends to be a lot worse.

edit: I misremembered, I've never corrupted the Nintendo folder using Windows. Copying over the files in Windows might work just fine, provided you preserve file attributes (like the archive flag)

As for the emunand, there is a migrate options built into the SX bootloader. I believe that is how most people did it.

Right, I'm figuring I'll migrate it to the SD card once I have the new one.

 

[imprezgc8]

Not really sure the best way to not have to install games again, but you can use checkpoint to back your saves up at least just to make sure. I would of course not wipe the old SD card till everything is working either.

Windows would be a better option for copying files. Like you said the Mac tends to cause issues.

I would personally just back up your saves and start fresh on the new card, but that's just me. When copying or migrating data like that you there is almost always some issue somewhere that you will end up needing to troubleshoot. Just my preference.

 

[bribri]

I should mention I misremembered -- copying the files in Windows might work fine, especially if file attributes are preserved. I may just give that a try.

 

[210Modz]

I've just used copy and paste from one sd card to the other several times in windows. I'm not sure why its a issue for you.

 

[imprezgc8]

I've just used copy and paste from one sd card to the other several times in windows. I'm not sure why its a issue for you.

He's not using Windows. He's using a Mac and the mac creates an archive bit on files that seem to cause issues. There are apps to remove the bit, but it seems that does not always remove issues.