Long story short, I sent my 3DS in for repair. Water damage. They couldn't repair it so they sent me a new system. I was reading through the papers that came back with it while setting it up. I got to the page that says as follows:
"IMPORTANT!!!!!!
To avoid losing save data on your SD card, you MUST first link your Nintendo Network ID to your system before accessing the Nintendo eShop. if you access the Nintendo eShop before linking your ID, content on your SD card will be erased.
For step-by-step instructions on linking an existing Nintendo Network ID to a Nintendo 3DS family system, please visit our support site at the following address:"
and then it links this page. Which I went to, read through, and attempted to begin the process. Seeing as I had to send my old console in to Nintendo, I no longer had it, and they DO link to a method to handle it that way, but the page does not exist. :/
Ideas?