Need a new SD card, any precautions to take to prevent console ban?

[PKM190]

View attachment 565331
Like this you need to see if you have a second partition, if you have a second partition then you have a hidden partition emunand, like mine it is 58 GB since I have an oled. But based on what you have you have no emunand as you have no emummc folder.

To get back to your opening question, as for new SD card you can copy and paste to a new card as long you format it correctly, I would recommend fat32 though, since I see you using an exfat format. You can use something like guiformat and format the new card to fat32

https://guiformat.io/

As for updating you can follow this

Homebrew Tutorial  Thread 'Ultimate guide to upgrade your firmware/Atmosphère'

Sep 22, 2024

ONLY UPDATE YOUR CONSOLE TO 21.x.x IF ALL THE HOMEBREW YOU USE IS UPGRADED

Sometimes you need to upgrade your console, upgrade the firmware or upgrade Atmosphère, using the @l7777 's guide (https://gbatemp.net/threads/updating-hekate-atmosphere-and-hos.631739/) as base I hope to create a list of necessary steps to successful upgrade your console.

This guide uses Hekate, if you don't want to use Hekate skip the steps about it. You may loose some features.

---

Make a backup.​

Always make a full backup of your console, so if...​

• impeeza
• Replies: 84
• Forum: Nintendo Switch

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The only thing I can see is Disk Part is the 16MB Unallocated and Healthy (Primary Partition). I assume that means I don't have any extra hidden partitions? I can't quite see the image you attached but I can see there is a 3rd partition there which mine does not have.

Is this SanDisk 64GB Ultra microSDXC UHS-I C10, U1, still a good SD card for Switch? Was looking at a Samsung for $2 cheaper but that sold out. I run my games off cartridges and prices for 128GB seems to be $40 or so currently. Seems like prices jumped by 2x since a few months ago.

 

[Hayato213]

The only thing I can see is Disk Part is the 16MB Unallocated and Healthy (Primary Partition). I assume that means I don't have any extra hidden partitions? I can't quite see the image you attached but I can see there is a 3rd partition there which mine does not have.

Is this SanDisk 64GB Ultra microSDXC UHS-I C10, U1, still a good SD card for Switch? Was looking at a Samsung for $2 cheaper but that sold out. I run my games off cartridges and prices for 128GB seems to be $40 or so currently.

No extra hidden partition for you, A1 card are slower compared to A2 card but switch 1 sd card reader are A1 speed inside horizon os, the only benefit is faster transfer speed when copying data from computer to sd and when backing up nand due to faster read and write speed. You can go with UHS-I / A1 128gb instead of UHS-I A2 card if you want to save some money since memory card are 50% more expensive than before.

Just some info, the Nintendo Switch (all models) uses a UHS-I interface, capping microSD card read speeds at roughly 60-95 MB/s. While faster cards (UHS-II or higher) work, they are limited by the Switch's hardware, meaning 100 MB/s+ cards provide no speed advantage inside Horizon os.

 

[PKM190]

No extra hidden partition for you, A1 card are slower compared to A2 card but switch 1 sd card reader are A1 speed inside horizon os, the only benefit is faster transfer speed when copying data from computer to sd and when backing up nand due to faster read and write speed. You can go with UHS-I / A1 128gb instead of UHS-I A2 card if you want to save some money since memory card are 50% more expensive than before.

Just some info, the Nintendo Switch (all models) uses a UHS-I interface, capping microSD card read speeds at roughly 60-95 MB/s. While faster cards (UHS-II or higher) work, they are limited by the Switch's hardware, meaning 100 MB/s+ cards provide no speed advantage inside Horizon os.

Thanks, looks like I should be good to just copy/paste to the new SD card. I will just get a UHS-1 A1 as the price has gone up a good bit. Was looking at a 128GB but the price seems to be $33+ or so currently. I think 64GB will be good enough for a while, but they seem to be selling out. Had a Samsung in the cart that sold out at Amazon.

 

[Hayato213]

Thanks, looks like I should be good to just copy/paste to the new SD card. I will just get a UHS-1 A1 as the price has gone up a good bit. Was looking at a 128GB but the price seems to be $33+ or so currently. I think 64GB will be good enough for a while, but they seem to be selling out. Had a Samsung in the cart that sold out at Amazon.

I would recommend using FAT32 though, exfat is corruption prone. Yea you can copy and paste as long the card is formatted correctly. You can use like guiformat suggested above for formatting, as for nintendo switch you want FAT32, 32kb cluster.

 

[PKM190]

I would recommend using FAT32 though, exfat is corruption prone. Yea you can copy and paste as long the card is formatted correctly. You can use like guiformat suggested above for formatting, as for nintendo switch you want FAT32, 32kb cluster.

Should I just format the new SD card in FAT32 32kb clusters and copy the contents from the old one to that? I'm assuming I can leave the old one as is without needing to format that one first.

Is this also an SD card good enough for the Switch?

PNY 128GB Elite-X Class 10 U3 V30 Class 10, U3, V30, A1

Similar in price to the Sandisk/Samsung models but 128GB instead of 64GB.

 

[Hayato213]

Should I just format the new SD card in FAT32 32kb clusters and copy the contents from the old one to that? I'm assuming I can leave the old one as is without needing to format that one first.

Is this also an SD card good enough for the Switch?

PNY 128GB Elite-X Class 10 U3 V30 Class 10, U3, V30, A1

Similar in price to the Sandisk/Samsung models but 128GB instead of 64GB.

I have only really used SanDisk and Samsung with Nintendo Switch, but then again any SanDisk or Samsung card would work, I never used any PNY. The thing you need to do is h2testw the sd card when you first get it. Yeah format the new card to FAT32, 32kb cluster.

 

[OrGoN3]

Should I just format the new SD card in FAT32 32kb clusters and copy the contents from the old one to that? I'm assuming I can leave the old one as is without needing to format that one first.

Is this also an SD card good enough for the Switch?

PNY 128GB Elite-X Class 10 U3 V30 Class 10, U3, V30, A1

Similar in price to the Sandisk/Samsung models but 128GB instead of 64GB.

Use hekate to format your SD card. You actually want fat32 with 64kb cluster size, not 32kb as you were previously told.

I highly recommend Samsung. If you don't have that available, then SanDisk. But I strongly recommend Samsung.

 

[Hayato213]

Hardware  Thread 'Switch Formatting'

Mar 17, 2020

should I format my switch's micro sd card to exfat (64KB allocation size)? it's a 1TB card, and I'm a legit user.

• godreborn
• Replies: 3
• Forum: Nintendo Switch

Keep in mind 64kb cluster waste more space compared to 32kb cluster even though there is 30% more performance.

A larger cluster size (64KB) means that even a 1KB file will take up 64KB of space, reducing total available storage if you have many tiny files.

Post automatically merged: Mar 30, 2026

Might want to avoid Samsung Evo though.

 

[OrGoN3]

Hardware  Thread 'Switch Formatting'

Mar 17, 2020

should I format my switch's micro sd card to exfat (64KB allocation size)? it's a 1TB card, and I'm a legit user.

• godreborn
• Replies: 3
• Forum: Nintendo Switch

Keep in mind 64kb cluster waste more space compared to 32kb cluster even though there is 30% more performance.

A larger cluster size (64KB) means that even a 1KB file will take up 64KB of space, reducing total available storage if you have many tiny files.

Post automatically merged: Mar 30, 2026

View attachment 565348

Might want to avoid Samsung Evo though.

Hekate will even format with 64kb cluster size. It'll take up a tad more space (you won't care about the difference) and it'll speed up operations.

You don't have many tiny files. And the real issue is that any file with a binary size not evenly divisible by 64kb, will take up more space. Again, these are kilobytes when we're talking on the scale of Giga->Terabytes.

As for Samsung Evo, they work perfectly fine. I recommend getting whichever Samsung is cheapest for you. Either Evo or Pro Plus. Pro Ultimate is fine but usually quite pricey. While you may notice a slight difference between current Evo and Pro Plus in games with extended load times, the difference is not worth more than a few bucks. Yes the Pro Plus will have higher IOPS.

Stop referencing old issues that have no bearing on current cards.

 

[Hayato213]

Hekate will even format with 64kb cluster size. It'll take up a tad more space (you won't care about the difference) and it'll speed up operations.

You don't have many tiny files. And the real issue is that any file with a binary size not evenly divisible by 64kb, will take up more space. Again, these are kilobytes when we're talking on the scale of Giga->Terabytes.

As for Samsung Evo, they work perfectly fine. I recommend getting whichever Samsung is cheapest for you. Either Evo or Pro Plus. Pro Ultimate is fine but usually quite pricey. While you may notice a slight difference between current Evo and Pro Plus in games with extended load times, the difference is not worth more than a few bucks. Yes the Pro Plus will have higher IOPS.

Stop referencing old issues that have no bearing on current cards.

I mean don't get mad the comment about "These Samsung Evo cards don't even care if you don't power cycle them and just hard init them." came from CTCaer.

https://github.com/CTCaer/hekate/issues/943
https://github.com/CTCaer/hekate/issues/567

 

[OrGoN3]

I mean don't get mad the comment about "These Samsung Evo cards don't even care if you don't power cycle them and just hard init them." came from CTCaer.

https://github.com/CTCaer/hekate/issues/943
https://github.com/CTCaer/hekate/issues/567

My whole reply just got erased by accident. Here's the tldr: you cherry picked and misunderstood.

The first link has nothing from ctc other than modchips are hungry. That's the entire point of that issue that was closed.

The second link, you shipped over ctcaer saying there's a 30% performance increase when using 64kb cluster size with fat32 vs with 32kb cluster size. He goes on to say if you are familiar with modern technology, you'd know the aforementioned already.

The only issue the Switch has was prior to 2018. Samsung Evo cards work great.

"Samsung EVO cards did not play nice with the Switch at all" ctcaer replies to this my dispelling it.

When he later says "These Samsung Evo cards don't even care if you don't power cycle them and just hard init them.
You should stop confusing improperly partitioned and formatted cards with actual hw issues." That's not a negative.

Post automatically merged: Mar 30, 2026

I mean don't get mad the comment about "These Samsung Evo cards don't even care if you don't power cycle them and just hard init them." came from CTCaer.

https://github.com/CTCaer/hekate/issues/943
https://github.com/CTCaer/hekate/issues/567

I'm not mad, I disliked your post since it contained only misinformation. And that's the only dislike option.

 

[PKM190]

You can use something like guiformat and format the new card to fat32

https://guiformat.io/

Ending up getting this PNY 128GB Elite-X Class 10 U3 V30 Class 10, U3, V30, A1 as it was cheaper than most 64GB models I could find. Class 10, U3, A1. I assume that should largely perform the same as a Sandisk Ultra or Samsung Evo Select in a Switch, both of which were $20-22 for 64GB. Seems like half the stores are sold out with Samsung/Sandisk lower end models right now. Unless there is something I missed and there is a reason I should get the more expensive Sandisk/Samsungs, then feel free to let me know.

For formatting I will probably use GUI Format. I thought leaving the default exfat would be ideal but I will do fat32. There is a Windows restriction on formatting fat32 over 32GB. Aside from that is there any reason why exfat can be problematic on the Switch? A quick google search shows exfat is more likely to result in corrupted data due to some driver/implementation Nintendo did with the Switch 1?

I assume going from a exfat formatted SD card to a fat32 would not require anything else. Just format the new SD card and copy/paste the data?

 

[Hayato213]

Ending up getting this PNY 128GB Elite-X Class 10 U3 V30 Class 10, U3, V30, A1 as it was cheaper than most 64GB models I could find. Class 10, U3, A1. I assume that should largely perform the same as a Sandisk Ultra or Samsung Evo Select in a Switch, both of which were $20-22 for 64GB. Seems like half the stores are sold out with Samsung/Sandisk lower end models right now. Unless there is something I missed and there is a reason I should get the more expensive Sandisk/Samsungs, then feel free to let me know.

For formatting I will probably use GUI Format. I thought leaving the default exfat would be ideal but I will do fat32. There is a Windows restriction on formatting fat32 over 32GB. Aside from that is there any reason why exfat can be problematic on the Switch? A quick google search shows exfat is more likely to result in corrupted data due to some driver/implementation Nintendo did with the Switch 1?

I assume going from a exfat formatted SD card to a fat32 would not require anything else. Just format the new SD card and copy/paste the data?

Correct