Hacking USB Hard Drive for Portable Mode

[Nincompoopdo]

Some users here think that USB hard drive support is pointless for portable mode - you are wrong.

I play 99% in portable mode and this feature for SXOS is the best thing ever for CFW users:

You can use a USB-C adaptor (only a few dollars on Amazon) to connect your hard drive to your Switch and install games. It's faster than Wifi-FTP, also you don't need to remove the SDcard to copy those big retail games (14+gb). That means you won't have to reboot and do all those RCM, payload BS. After NXShell updated with USB support (or TX add a file manager), you can even copy XCI to your SDcard. This makes it so easy to swap games if you are low on SDcard space.

I personally will not play games with a hard drive attached to Switch's USB-C port, it will drained the battery. But using it to install/copy/swap files is so easy.

 

[larrypretty]

"After NXShell updated with USB support (or TX add a file manager), you can even copy XCI to your SDcard."
Now SX OS 2.2 doesn't support that, I suppose, yes?

 

[Nincompoopdo]

"After NXShell updated with USB support (or TX add a file manager), you can even copy XCI to your SDcard."
Now SX OS 2.2 doesn't support that, I suppose, yes?

I bet TX will add a file manager in the next release... the source code is free to grab on GitHub.

 

[mrdude]

I bet TX will add a file manager in the next release... the source code is free to grab on GitHub.

I hope so, also I would like to see directory browsing for installing games from usb - so all games/nsp files don't need to be in the root dir.

 

[NANASHI89]

What about the claims that external hard drives eat up more power in portable mode?

Sent from my SM-T280 using Tapatalk

 

[hippy dave]

I'm assuming so far you can only use TX's installer to install from hard drive? I don't suppose they've updated the installer to fix the issue of games showing as corrupted from system settings data management?

 

[mrdude]

What about the claims that external hard drives eat up more power in portable mode?

Sent from my SM-T280 using Tapatalk

Use some common sense, an external drive needs to be powered so it's pretty obvious that it's going to use more power. However if you're using the dock, the drive gets it's power from that. I'm not sure the switch battery can even power a usb device, because when you look at the circuit for the usb - there's a diode to prevent this from happening.

 

[ghjfdtg]

I would not recommend powering external HDDs from the Switch alone. The USB 3.1 spec allows so much power draw BUT we know how closely Nintendo follows spec (cough dock bricks cough). External SSDs are probably fine.

 

[Nincompoopdo]

I'm assuming so far you can only use TX's installer to install from hard drive? I don't suppose they've updated the installer to fix the issue of games showing as corrupted from system settings data management?

Currently none of the home-brew can see the USB drive, only SXOS native installer can see it. I don't really care about the corrupted install message, it plays fine - that's all that matters.

If emulators like Retroarch can see the USB drive, we can even load roms from it. Imagine - terabytes of roms!

 

[Nurrish]

SXOS really needs to redesign the way it displays XCI’s and NSP’s now.....

 

[jakkal]

"Some users here think that USB hard drive support is pointless for portable mode - you are wrong."

who said so?

 

[Nincompoopdo]

Use some common sense, an external drive needs to be powered so it's pretty obvious that it's going to use more power. However if you're using the dock, the drive gets it's power from that. I'm not sure the switch battery can even power a usb device, because when you look at the circuit for the usb - there's a diode to prevent this from happening.

It can power the hard drive running on battery.

Photo from the SXOS 2.2 thread:

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

"Some users here think that USB hard drive support is pointless for portable mode - you are wrong."

who said so?

A few people from the thread:
TX Announces SX OS v2.2 BETA with Docked USB Drive Support

 

[The Real Jdbye]

Use some common sense, an external drive needs to be powered so it's pretty obvious that it's going to use more power. However if you're using the dock, the drive gets it's power from that. I'm not sure the switch battery can even power a usb device, because when you look at the circuit for the usb - there's a diode to prevent this from happening.

It's able to power RCM dongles, so it'll probably power a HDD.

What about the claims that external hard drives eat up more power in portable mode?

Sent from my SM-T280 using Tapatalk

External HDDs do use quite a lot of power. But you wouldn't have it plugged in all the time, only when you want to transfer/install a game. Since you can't charge the Switch while you have a drive plugged into it like this, if you're transferring a lot of stuff, best use a powered hub or dock the Switch.

 

[jakkal]

Use some common sense, an external drive needs to be powered so it's pretty obvious that it's going to use more power. However if you're using the dock, the drive gets it's power from that. I'm not sure the switch battery can even power a usb device, because when you look at the circuit for the usb - there's a diode to prevent this from happening.

maybe you need to use some common sense

 

[soaresden]

What about Partitions ?
If i create a Exfat partition for Switch next to a NTFS, does it work ?
Maybe Exfat at first ?

Thanks !

 

[Arnold101]

now its possible with libusbhsfs ?

 

[Draxzelex]

now its possible with libusbhsfs ?

For homebrew applications, yes. For .XCI files, no.