Homebrew [Release] NTM - NAND Title Manager for DSi

[TheSegaKid]

mhh, likely some file on NAND got corrupted... I'm not sure what it would be, you may be able to fix it by restoring an old NAND backup or making a new one, checking for any seemingly broken files, testing in no$gba, and if fixed restoring that.

Whatever you do, assuming you have it, do not uninstall Unlaunch. I had that happen on one DSi and it bricked on uninstalling Unlaunch. I happened to have a NAND backup from shortly before uninstalling and the brick was 100% consistent in no$gba so it's very likely your console would brick without Unlaunch atm.

If you don't have a good NAND backup I can try testing on my backup to see if I can find the cause of the positions not saving, I haven't really messed with it much. It's possible it's caused by the first few hundred bytes of the DSi Menu's title.tmd getting 0'd out, that's what caused mine to brick. Not sure how it happened, but by uninstalling Unlaunch it exposed an issue already present but previously kept safe by having Unlaunch.

Can you look on your backup to see what could be causing the problem please?

 

[TheSegaKid]

I formatted my DSi but the positions still won't save

 

[TheSegaKid]

What am I supposed to do now? I've formatted my DSi but the positions in the dsi menu are still broken

 

[RocketRobz]

What am I supposed to do now? I've formatted my DSi but the positions in the dsi menu are still broken

Did you ever make a NAND backup before this happened?

 

[Pk11]

What am I supposed to do now? I've formatted my DSi but the positions in the dsi menu are still broken

Oh sorry hadn't gotten around to checking on this... The issue for me is that the DSi Menu's save file was somehow missing. I've attached a blank sav file of the correct size, if you use ninfs to put that at nand:/title/00030017/484e41##/data/private.sav (## are region specific, there will only be one folder), assuming either the data folder doesn't exist or there isn't a private.sav within it that should fix it.

If there's already a data/private.sav I don't know why it would be broken, possibly a corrupted save. Make sure to test that it's working in no$gba before even considering flashing the backup, if it is, then follow this page on the guide.

 

[TheSegaKid]

Ok, I'll have to say things here. I'm actually 14 years old and never been aware with NAND fiddling stuff, I thought this would be a simple nand dump then use an app and just copy and paste the .sav and restore the nand, but reading about it I'm needing things like python script and stuff which I've never done and I'm afraid of messing everything up and end up with another NAND mess up. So I'm wanting to make a deal here, I'll dump the nand, share it here, you do the copy private.sav things, (if needed test nand with no$gba), send the new NAND back to me, I'll restore the nand and everything will be fixed. Are you happy enough to accept this deal? Or possibly answer somthing about it? Thanks!

 

[Pk11]

Ok, I'll have to say things here. I'm actually 14 years old and never been aware with NAND fiddling stuff, I thought this would be a simple nand dump then use an app and just copy and paste the .sav and restore the nand, but reading about it I'm needing things like python script and stuff which I've never done and I'm afraid of messing everything up and end up with another NAND mess up. So I'm wanting to make a deal here, I'll dump the nand, share it here, you do the copy private.sav things, (if needed test nand with no$gba), send the new NAND back to me, I'll restore the nand and everything will be fixed. Are you happy enough to accept this deal? Or possibly answer somthing about it? Thanks!

Unfortunately that's against the rules as the NAND backup contains copyrighted files, thus warez. It's not all that complicated, you don't actually need to know any Python or anything like that.

I'll assume you're on Windows, but this works on macOS and Linux as well.

1. Download and install ninfs and OSFMount
2. Open ninfs
3. Click New mount
4. Select Nintendo DSi NAND backup ("nand_dsi.bin") and click Next
5. Select your NAND backup (nand.bin), tick the Allow writing checkbox, and click Next (Console ID is not needed)
6. Select the folder to mount to, this can be any folder though it's probably best if it's empty so just make a new folder somewhere, and click Mount
7. Open OSFMount
8. Select Mount new...
9. Select the twl_main.img file from where you mounted your NAND backup and click Next
10. Click Next to mount the entire disk
11. Uncheck the Read-only drive checkbox and click next
12. Click Mount
13. In the newly mounted drive, go to the title -> 00030017 -> 484e41## (## are region specific) folder
14. Enter the data folder, if it doesn't exist then create it
15. Extract the private.sav from the zip attached to my previous post and copy it here – if one already exists then make a backup of it first (just copy to desktop or so)
16. Dismount the drive in OSFMount and close it
17. Select the drive and unmount it in ninfs and close it
18. You should now be good, follow dsi.cfw.guide's page to test your backup in no$gba and if and only if it's fixed restore it with Safe NAND Manager

It's a lot of steps, but it's really not that hard, I was just very thorough.

 

[TheSegaKid]

Ok I'll try, but if I run through some issues while doing this I would need a faster way of getting help on what I'm stuck on, do you have any other social media I can add you on like Discord, Instagram or Reddit? Or just keep the helping here?

 

[jeffyTheHomebrewer]

Ok I'll try, but if I run through some issues while doing this I would need a faster way of getting help on what I'm stuck on, do you have any other social media I can add you on like Discord, Instagram or Reddit? Or just keep the helping here?

Just keep the helping here! Putting it on IG or Discord is what kills the knowledge and makes it harder for other people that have the same problem as you to find the solution.

 

[TheSegaKid]

Ok, but I have a question before I do this. Should I have unlaunch installed before restoring nand even though it will be tested Just in case somthing goes wrong during transfer?

 

[Pk11]

Ok, but I have a question before I do this. Should I have unlaunch installed before restoring nand even though it will be tested Just in case somthing goes wrong during transfer?

It doesn't matter much if Unlaunch is installed beforehand or not, it does matter if Unlaunch is installed on the backup as if it's not flashing will uninstall it (or vise versa)

It shouldn't matter too much if you have it or not, I would personally always recommend having Unlaunch, but if you don't want it probably best to remove it now as the best way to uninstall is to flash a NAND backup anyways.

 

[TheSegaKid]

One more question before I do this. Is the Save File Region Free or locked?

 

[RocketRobz]

One more question before I do this. Is the Save File Region Free or locked?

It may depend on the game.

 

[TheSegaKid]

Wait what???

 

[TheSegaKid]

I meant the DSi Menu save file PK11 gave me XD

 

[TheSegaKid]

@Pk11 Do you have a european version of that private.sav or is it like...region free?

 

[Pk11]

@Pk11 Do you have a european version of that private.sav or is it like...region free?

It's literally blank, just needs to exist and be that size

 

[TheSegaKid]

Ok, I'm at the part where I go into the new mounted drive and then went into, title/00030017/484e4150 (484e4150 is I think my regions version of 484e41##) And I see that there wasn't a "data" folder, I now know why my dsi menu positions were not saving. Should I make a folder named data? "EDIT: I can't read xD I'm sorry lol"

 

[TheSegaKid]

Ok, so I have finished everything, but I'm stuck on step 18, I dont know how to run the backup on no$gba because it says i need dsi bios files and other stuff that was not mentioned at all. How do I run the nand.bin on any dsi emulator?

 

[Pk11]

Ok, so I have finished everything, but I'm stuck on step 18, I dont know how to run the backup on no$gba because it says i need dsi bios files and other stuff that was not mentioned at all. How do I run the nand.bin on any dsi emulator?

It's on the restoring a backup page: https://dsi.cfw.guide/restoring-nand.html#dumping-the-bios-for-use-in-no-gba

You just need to run the BIOS dumper program.