Hacking nintendo switch external hard drive support

[TerraPhantm]

Because that is not how any of this works... If the the dock was just a USB hub that would be possible, but it has a proprietary board without support for USB mass storage, flashing the dock will not fix that, it will require a modchip to add that functionality you can't just flash the dock, the Switch can't just read/write anything you connect it to....

That's not how it works. The dock is basically a USB hub + a displayport to HDMI adapter. You can use stuff like the ethernet adapter connected directly to the Switch. For that matter, you're able to use USB hubs connected directly to the switch too.

 

[13_Switch_Hacker_37]

Would you really want this? Use a large SD card instead.

 

[DocAmes1980]

Would you really want this? Use a large SD card instead.

Of course. Who wouldn't want this? HDDs/SSDs are available in much larger capacities, are less expensive per gigabyte, and have better read/write times.

 

[JaRocker]

Would you really want this? Use a large SD card instead.

I don't see any 2tb or 1tb card out there and I don't know about but the price of any good size sd card is too much for more I can get a 4tb HDD for that price

 

[souler92]

main problem with the switch it only has 32GB storage on its own, how could they do that... come on.. they could atleast have made a pocket for a super mini ssd or something , or multiple sd cards... i got a 64 gb card now, but thatll fill up quick with the 32 gb emu nand, and then some minor games... sigh

 

[JaRocker]

main problem with the switch it only has 32GB storage on its own, how could they do that... come on.. they could atleast have made a pocket for a super mini ssd or something , or multiple sd cards... i got a 64 gb card now, but thatll fill up quick with the 32 gb emu nand, and then some minor games... sigh

32gb and 64gb is nothing my gf use that on pics games are way bigger than pic the last time I looked

 

[souler92]

32gb and 64gb is nothing my gf use that on pics games are way bigger than pic the last time I looked

yup i know.. thats why the switch , storage wise. sucks ass

 

[JaRocker]

yup i know.. thats why the switch , storage wise. sucks ass

I looking around to see if there any way to upgrade the NAND chip to 265gb and reflashing it

 

[souler92]

the nand IS removable , it could be possible , but it would recuire a specific chip, and i reckon thats gonna cost us

 

[Deleted User]

I would say eventually, yes, it'll be possible to use USB hdd's through the Dock, but likely not until A) Nintendo officially supports it and we can just piggy back off that, or 2) CFW gets a plugin that will somehow enable usb storage.

The complaint that it would ground the switch and make it unusable in portable mode, i would say the easy solution to that is the ability to move games/ saves/ dlc to and from the internal storage/sd card.

(incidentally, I hope that while we are in EmuNand, we can use SysNand games and saves. That would alleviate atleast some of the problems from losing 5 gigs for EmuNand).

 

[JaRocker]

the nand IS removable , it could be possible , but it would recuire a specific chip, and i reckon thats gonna cost us

not really but I was thinking about using a heat gun to remove it and replace it with something bigger after if become possible to rewrite the Nand

 

[Risingdawn]

This wouldn't benefit anyone but pirates.

Homebrew and emulators should all be small enough that SD card size is negligible for portability, and at the point you have the Switch locked to the dock for USB storage you may as well have homebrew and emulators on something else, like a Wii U where you can use any old external hard dive.

For piracy ofc USB storage becomes more beneficial as a large catalogue of games takes up massive amounts of space but I wouldn't fancy an external HD hanging out my Switch to play games, I'd rather just install games as I need them.

That's all personal opinion ofc, I'm sure others might want this for something other than piracy, and for me I'm not a fan of a docked Switch as then it really is just an underpowered console compared to a powerfull hand held. But different strokes and all that jizz.

 

[JaRocker]

This wouldn't benefit anyone but pirates.

Homebrew and emulators should all be small enough that SD card size is negligible for portability, and at the point you have the Switch locked to the dock for USB storage you may as well have homebrew and emulators on something else, like a Wii U where you can use any old external hard dive.

For piracy ofc USB storage becomes more beneficial as a large catalogue of games takes up massive amounts of space but I wouldn't fancy an external HD hanging out my Switch to play games, I'd rather just install games as I need them.

That's all personal opinion ofc, I'm sure others might want this for something other than piracy, and for me I'm not a fan of a docked Switch as then it really is just an underpowered console compared to a powerfull hand held. But different strokes and all that jizz.

please dont start no one was talking about pirates b4 you came in there I don't see how can 32gb hold GameCube rom just don't if you don't have anything good to say just don't say anything. pc emulation uses piracy if you didn't know

 

[Risingdawn]

please dont start no one was talking about pirates b4 you came in there I don't see how can 32gb hold GameCube rom just don't if you don't have anything good to say just don't say anything. pc emulation uses piracy if you didn't know

Wow hostility.

Just for your information this is a public discussion board and I'm fully entitled to share my opinion on any post I wish, I neither have to have your blessing or consent and I certainly am not going to be told what I can and can't say by some internet fascist.

If you cannot except differences of opinion then I suggest you follow your own advice.

 

[JaRocker]

Wow hostility.

Just for your information this is a public discussion board and I'm fully entitled to share my opinion on any post I wish, I neither have to have your blessing or consent and I certainly am not going to be told what I can and can't say by some internet fascist.

If you cannot except differences of opinion then I suggest you follow your own advice.

k

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anyways like I was saying I'm looking for a bigger nand if anyone can help https://www.arrow.com/en/products/thgbmhg8c2lbail/toshiba

 

[PuNKeMoN]

Samba shares?
Eliminates the need to buy another storage device.
FTP?
Could work as long as you're at a hotspot and your home network is running.

Serious question
You gonna carry around an HDD whenever you game on the go?
Honestly, the nand and/or an SD are large enough to hold the 1 game you can play at a time.

 

[TerraPhantm]

Samba shares?
Eliminates the need to buy another storage device.
FTP?
Could work as long as you're at a hotspot and your home network is running.

Serious question
You gonna carry around an HDD whenever you game on the go?
Honestly, the nand and/or an SD are large enough to hold the 1 game you can play at a time.

I mean there are definitely some games that I'm more likely to play on the couch rather than on the go. Such games also tend to be larger. So I think it'd make sense to allow us to manage storage between an HDD and the onboard storage / SD cards

 

[softwareengineer]

Samba shares?
Eliminates the need to buy another storage device.
FTP?
Could work as long as you're at a hotspot and your home network is running.

Serious question
You gonna carry around an HDD whenever you game on the go?
Honestly, the nand and/or an SD are large enough to hold the 1 game you can play at a time.

Yes USB hdd support is going to happen, and that will be pretty cool for home use (not on the go PuNKeMoN lol, that'd be kind of ridiculous unless it's complete setup is small and not too bulky but still no lol home use is better for usb hdd support)

However along with hdd support, you kind of sideswipped the idea I was going to suggest but not quite. Not samba or ftp, but how about implementing in the custom firmware like rajkosto elaborated on what's required to do...

A WiFi backup loader (similar to hdd backup loader), where whenever the system needs to read the game data (or next block or chunk of game data) for the game, it thinks it's reading it off the game card, but custom code hijacks that execution (probably through the hypervisor layer) and instead reads the data from your local computer or phone or tablet or whatever over WiFi (launch a hotspot on your phone on the go, or connected to your home network read from an hdd on your home computer) and transfers it to the switch where it is then loaded by the system and the game plays. The server written for computers phones and tablets and run on any practically any os where you have your owned game backups stored, and the client running natively on the switch with the hypervisor added wifi loading support! For convenience it can even have some thing where it automatically finds these servers running on the same network your on (probably would want some kind of authentication so if on a more public network for example only you can use it) so the inconvenience of manually specifying the local server ip will not have to be done most of the time.

It could be done! And would be still pretty fast (on a good network mind you) that you might not even notice it's running off of wifi rather than game card! This way you wouldn't have to tether a usb hdd to the switch or dock or whatever but you would still get basically the same functionality!

EDIT:

(currently it only supports HID class and the very specific wii/wii-u network adapter chipsets)

And if it already supports ethernet (I'm assuming through the very specific wii/wii-u network adapters mentioned here) then if it's implemented it would already work the same exact way it would just be wired connection instead of WiFi. Also if your home computer hosting the server is also ethernet connected, then it we be even faster loading and you for sure won't notice!

Who thinks it's a good idea? I think so!

 

[lordelan]

hdd support would mean the switch would have to be docked at all times.

Well that's the question.

What happens if you ...

• install eShop games on your sd card
• pull the card out
• play some internal memory games
• put the card back in

?

Will the card games still be in place and playable? If that's the case, the same "mechanics" could apply to an USB drive (like it is handeld on the Wii U). Of course we would have to completely (!) shut down the Switch everytime before we plug/pull the USB drive. At least that's what it's complaining about when you remove the SD while it's turned on.

 

[JaRocker]

Well that's the question.

What happens if you ...

• install eShop games on your sd card
• pull the card out
• play some internal memory games
• put the card back in

?

Will the card games still be in place and playable? If that's the case, the same "mechanics" could apply to an USB drive (like it is handeld on the Wii U). Of course we would have to completely (!) shut down the Switch everytime before we plug/pull the USB drive. At least that's what it's complaining about when you remove the SD while it's turned on.

if you mean when your running cfw I think that your saves well me on your internal memory and you won't be able to use it on your emunand you would have to boot normally to pick back up where you left off or maybe if something makes a save manager you can move your saves where ever you like