# Two is One and One is None – Nintendo 3DS Edition It is I, the Ghost of Corrupt Data Past and I have [[Two is One and One is None|returned]] to warn thee of SD card failures and the importance of backing up data. Yesterday, I turned on my 3DS to check how it boots without the SD card installed (I'm shipping the console out this week for [a mod](https://youtu.be/F23h90RRqfo?si=3zS7IQi7uCzXER-u) 👀). I popped out the card and confirmed my suspicion that it would be best to keep the micro SD card with the system. Before though, I thought it wise to back up the SD card in case anything happened in transit. I plopped the card in my MacBook Pro and another in a dock. Opened Disk Utility to format the latter and suddenly, the 3DS console's micro SD card vanished—the "no longer mounted or visible to the system" kind of vanished. After staring [[blink.gif|like this]] at my monitor for a spell, I tried mounting the card on any of the other Mac computers on my desk (a shockingly high grand total of three these days), I had come to the conclusion that the card was, as they say, borked. My immediate concern was for all the saves I lost. Games can be redownloaded, but the saves cannot. I'm no stranger to [[How to Backup and Play Your Games and Saves on Delta for iPhone (or any Emulator)#Dual Screens? Dual Methods.|backing up my DS and 3DS games]], but the last time I did so was five years ago in January 2021. To be fair, I haven't played a ton of digital 3DS games since then, but there were a couple of notable titles—*[[S7E2 - Metroid Prime - Federation Force|Metroid Prime: Federation Force]]* and *[[S6E8 - Pokémon X and Y|Pokémon X]]*. Yes, I lost [my *Pokémon X* team](https://youtube.com/watch?v=bF8sMzhY3R8) before I could make the great migration to Pokémon Home for [[Last Year's Pokémon Battle Series is Out in Full|the overtime match with Logan]].  After nursing my depression with a hot cup of coffee, I settled in to make a new SD card and get back as much data as I could. This part was surprisingly easy. I hoped in the Nintendo Homebrew Discord to ask what the procedure is to format an SD card and restore the Homebrew on it. A bot interpreted my question and immediately gave me [the appropriate link to the guide](https://3ds.hacks.guide/restoring-updating-cfw.html). I was kinda shocked. Pro tip: The SD *must* be formatted as FAT32. That hung me up for a sec. There's even a script now that installs vital apps like FBI and Checkpoint, making the whole process even smoother. After following the instructions, the SD card was rebuilt and I began the time consuming process of redownloading my games from the defunct eShop. That took a while. Although, I did skip the games I have since bought physically. Once everything was installed, I **backed up the card to another SD card**. Then I went to my external drive and copied over the saves I had from 2021 and restored them on device. They did work—including my original launch save of *Pokémon X* (not the save I used for [[S6 - Pokémon|Chapter Select Season 6]]), which was just before the eighth gym. This gave me hope to rebuild my team and it not be *as much* of a grind. This experience also served as a great reminder to me why physical games are my preferred format. I didn't lose my *Ultra Sun* or *Alpha Sapphire* saves. I didn't lose *A Link Between Worlds* or *Mario Kart 7* or *Samus Returns*. And even if one of those carts bit the dust, my other games and their saves would not be impacted. When you go all digital, you are putting all your save eggs in the basket of drives or SD cards—and when you don't make redundant backups, that basket can be risky business for those eggs. Let my loss be a lesson to you all. Backup your saves! Off the SD card! Backup the backup! Remember, two is one and one is none.