Dumping NAND

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This page is for making a NAND backup, which is a copy of the data on the Nintendo DSi’s internal storage. It can be used to set up hiyaCFW, as well as no$gba and melonDS for DSi emulation.

It is highly recommended that you do this. A NAND backup can be used as a restore point in the future, in case of a brick.

Section I - SD card setup

Using a Windows, Linux or macOS device? Use Lazy DSi Downloader to automatically setup your SD card.

  1. Download the latest release of dumpTool
  2. Place dumpTool.nds anywhere on your SD card

Section II - Dumping the NAND

  1. Launch dumpTool through TWiLight Menu++
  2. Hit the A button on your Nintendo DSi to start dumping your NAND
    • A NAND backup typically takes around 7 minutes
  3. When the NAND backup is complete, hit the START button on your Nintendo DSi to exit dumpTool
  4. Power off your console and insert your SD card back into your device
  5. Store this backup somewhere safe, where you won’t lose it
    • If possible, make multiple backups across different storage devices
    • Once you’ve backed it up elsewhere, you can delete it from the SD card

The SHA1 hash of the nand.bin will not match the hash stored in nand.bin.sha1. This is because dumpTool adds additional data known as a no$gba footer to the nand.bin file after the SHA1 hash is calculated. You can use the hiyaCFW Helper to create a copy without the footer.

Continue to Installing Unlaunch (Optional)