Topic: SD card questions

My new 3DS XL should be here next week, but in the meantime I have a few questions.

1) When I save an original DS game, does it save to the SD card or the actual DS game card?
2) Can I swap different SD cards in and out at any time? For example, if I have 1 SD card that has a bunch of digital downloads and a 2nd SD card with an MP3 collection, can I switch those in and out without any problems?
3) Related to #2, if I purchase a digital download in the eShop and download it to an SD card, is it tied to that SD card only or could I also download it to another SD card on the same system?

1, To the DS card
2. Only 1 SD card can be tied to the system, and the files of other SD cards will not appear if you insert another. Without this limitation, people could make copies of files on their computer and distribute them to others to play games for free.
3. No repeated downloads, and it can only be downloaded to the SD card that is tied to your system.

Edit: You can transfer all the contents of your main SD card to a bigger one if you need more space in the future. I did that once, but I haven't needed to since then, so I forget the process. So the SD card you have isn't permanently fixed if you want more room, but you can only have 1 SD card at a time, and you need to perform the transfer to send your contents to the new one.

I don't think the SD card itself is tied to the system. You can use multiple SD cards for the same system, otherwise you wouldn't be able to move files from one to another. However, with that said, you cannot use the games from one system to another.

@DarkwingLz I'm pretty sure the transfer uses a computer with an SD card slot, so there is no need then to use multiple SD cards on a system.

When doing a transfer from 3DS to 3DS the tool asks if you were using any other SD cards with the system.
I'm sure you can use multiple SD cards, though I don't see why you would want to. I bought a 32GB one and never looked back, got tons of full retail and eshop games on it (up to a point where there is no space free on the home menu without using folders), and still 100.000 blocks free.

I'm still not quite clear how this works. What happens if I buy a bunch of games and then my SD card gets corrupted or stops working at some point and I have to use a new one. Do I lose the games that were installed on that SD card or will I be still be able to install them on the new card?

The SD card only functions as storage. If you lose it, or if goes corrupt (never saw this happening) you can replace it and download your games again on the eShop, provided you are doing this on the 3DS unit you bought them with. You can even remove the SD card, put it in a card reader and backup it up if you want.

@Intrepid
The SD cards are bound to the system, but you are allowed to have more than one at a time. I know for a fact because I had the 2GB card that came with the original 3DS and bought a 4GB card for extra storage. Both work fine for me.

2. Yes, you can have multiple SD Cards with different things on them. If you have one with games on it and another with music, you just won't be able to play your games on the music card unless you re-download them onto that card and vice-versa.

3. I'm not positive on this, but you should be able to download the game to multiple SD cards.

4. If your SD card gets corrupted, you'll lose all the data on that card, but since you purchased the games they're tied to your account / system and you could download them onto another card.

@CapnPancakes I had always assumed it was only one, but since you speak from personal experience, you are more qualified to answer this question than me. I guess since the only thing I did was upgrade to a bigger size, I assumed that the old SD card wouldn't work anymore, leading me to further assume only one could be used at a time.

@Intrepid
To be honest, the whole SD card thing is pretty confusing to me, even now. I just want to give @Sargon the right information since I know how confusing it is.

I appreciate all the responses. Now I understand that multiple SD cards can be used and they are each linked to the system. In other words, multiple SD cards can be used on the same system, but multiple systems cannot use the same SD card. Ultimately, it sounds like a 32 GB card is plenty big enough to store anything for the foreseeable future and in the event of a catastrophic SD card failure the eShop purchases won't be lost, so I will rest easier knowing that I can buy digital content without the chance (however small) of losing it.

@Sargon: Yeah your purchases will be fine if your card gets corrupted or lost or something along those lines. All you will have to do is get another card and redownload the games from the eShop on the original system you bought them on. Now you will probably lose the save files meaning you will have to start the games from the beginning but you wont have to rebuy the games.

Indeed, as I previously stated I have like 14 retail 3DS download games and TONS of eShop games on my 32GB card, up to a point I have hardly any space left on my home menu, and I still have 100.000 blocks left.

In the end a game card can fail as well, but I'm a bit more worried about my save games on SD card, so I regularly back-up it's entire contents. Copying back everything on to a new SD card should get me going again, though I never tested it.