Topic: Help please

My boyfriend copied the contents of his SD card to my laptop, formatted his 3DS XL and SD card. Copied the old SD card contents onto the newly formatted card, put back into XL and it is not reading the old information (prompting all of new start-up stuff.) We've tried setting up like new and it creates additional information on the card (duh) but we still can't seem to access the old info to restore his mii and info. Any suggestions?

If he formatted the 3DS, I don't think there's anything to do about it.
He pretty much killed his 3DS and revived it as a completely new entity.

I'm not 100% sure if the eshop content is completely lost, but I hope he hadn't downloaded too many games.

btw: why did he do that anyway? D:

I'm afraid Morphtroid is right. All saved data is tied to the system for piracy reasons (otherwise people could download titles and share them with friends). By formatting the system, he effectively reset the 3DS to factory conditions, removing any way for it to recognize the data was tied to the system. I hate to say it, but if he formatted it, it's gone for good.

Well I feel like a bag of garbage. He reset his in attempt to help me figure something out on mine, thinking it wouldn't matter since everything saves to the SD card anyway. Thanks, guys.

Might want to try contacting Nintendo and explain the situation to them.

Hmm... that's a thought. I mean, I doubt anything will come of it, but worth a shot. If they can transfer data manually, there's the possibility they can help get the data to work again... even if they could though, it would have to sent in to them.

I am sorry, unfortunately many of us have experienced loss of data and it isn't fun. I hope he's not too upset with you, accidents happen and most people don't consider this danger when reformatting hardware because it usually isn't a problem, it's the anti-piracy features that are getting in the way here.

Well now, that's a true gentleman.
You don't need to feel bad about it, it's not really your fault.

But next time, you should ask us before your boyfriend tries something like this again. We'll be glad to help!

I sent an email with a zip of his SD copy, thanks for the idea. I doubt anything will come of it, but its worth a shot. You guys have been so kind and helpful so I will definitely come here first in the future! I was honestly expecting a pile of "way to go, noob" replies and almost didnt post because of that lol You guys are super fantastic. Again, thank you so much