Homebrew Question Boot.dat in 256GB SSDs

[DonRamon]

Hello people from GBATemp! I´m having an issue here

Just updated the SD card of my modded switch (SXOS user here because of the XCI games and external drive read) to a 256GB Sd, but, as soon I get the dongle set to start SXOS, it gets the "boot.dat?" screen error

Two things that I´ve found is that, the boot still works on the old SDCard (a 64GB one) and, I tried both getting a copy from it in the new SD card as also get the original boot from the SXOS site, but none of those got a different result, still stuck in the "boot.dat?" error

Does the switch or SXOS has a problem with 256GB card? How can I get this working?

Thank you all for reading and helping it out!

 

[lordelan]

I'm confused about the fact that you're mentioning an "SSD" instead of a SD in the title and your post. Guess that's a typo and you "just" meant "SD"?
In that case I'd recommend you to use the Tegra Explorer payload to format the card while it's in your Switch.
Then copy over the boot.dat (and license if available) from your other card and it should work.

 

[DonRamon]

I'm confused about the fact that you're mentioning an "SSD" instead of a SD in the title and your post. Guess that's a typo and you "just" meant "SD"?
In that case I'd recommend you to use the Tegra Explorer payload to format the card while it's in your Switch.
Then copy over the boot.dat (and license if available) from your other card and it should work.

Thanks for the tip, also, yeah, it was a mistake of fine, thought it would be "SSD" in english

So, the matter for what I understand is the SD format type that needs to be done via Switch? right?

If so, I have an alternate Switch here with an original firmware and updated... wouldn´t be an option to format the SD card with him and then put the files for the other one that is hacked?

Let me know if this is a similar option but, anyways, this one with Tegra is something that I´m gonna try to do here!

 

[Blavla]

Thanks for the tip, also, yeah, it was a mistake of fine, thought it would be "SSD" in english

So, the matter for what I understand is the SD format type that needs to be done via Switch? right?

If so, I have an alternate Switch here with an original firmware and updated... wouldn´t be an option to format the SD card with him and then put the files for the other one that is hacked?

Let me know if this is a similar option but, anyways, this one with Tegra is something that I´m gonna try to do here!

Format your new 256gb SD card to fat32 and try again. Or what format was your old SD card?

 

[DonRamon]

Format your new 256gb SD card to fat32 and try again. Or what format was your old SD card?

It was ExFat just as well, the only difference in fact, was the whole size of the card (64), even the cluster size for both (128) is the same

 

[lordelan]

Never use exFAT on the Switch.

 

[subcon959]

Never use exFAT on the Switch.

This is a terrible thing to tell someone. It's like telling a teenager not to do something "just because I said so". It's way more effective to give some neutral information and then let them find out for themselves if they choose to ignore it.

 

[lordelan]

This is a terrible thing to tell someone. It's like telling a teenager not to do something "just because I said so". It's way more effective to give some neutral information and then let them find out for themselves if they choose to ignore it.

I agree that someone should create a thread collecting all the info given in the last 4 years why exFAT is so bad so we can link it in all cases like this.
However, to make things short as I'm too lazy to search for those statements from multiple devs right now:
Nintendo's exFAT driver is pretty shitty and can lead to corrupted sectors or even complete data loss of everything on your SD especially if you use homebrew.
It's like a hidden law/rule: Never use CFW/homebrew with exFAT on a Nintendo Switch.

 

[DonRamon]

I´m kinda busy these last days but I´m gonna try to make the conversion of the SD into Fat32, to see if it works and send a feedback here

But for the exFat issue, as subcon mentioned, what´s the main problem of the format specifically? (is not that the original Switch don´t use the same format even in original firmware). I saw that some homebrew emulators can only work if the SD is on ExFat format and, if this is a fake news of some sort, would like to be corrected in this case (is the only reason why I left my SD on Exfat in the first place, cause I wanted to try a Dreamcast emulator back in the day to play MVC2, but still couldn´t get it working properly, so, it´s something I can give up if needed)

 

[Hayato213]

I´m kinda busy these last days but I´m gonna try to make the conversion of the SD into Fat32, to see if it works and send a feedback here

But for the exFat issue, as subcon mentioned, what´s the main problem of the format specifically? (is not that the original Switch don´t use the same format even in original firmware). I saw that some homebrew emulators can only work if the SD is on ExFat format and, if this is a fake news of some sort, would like to be corrected in this case (is the only reason why I left my SD on Exfat in the first place, cause I wanted to try a Dreamcast emulator back in the day to play MVC2, but still couldn´t get it working properly, so, it´s something I can give up if needed)

exFAT has file corruption problem, there is no journaling, so there is higher chance of file corruption, so any interruption during data transfer often results in corruption and data loss.

 

[DonRamon]

exFAT has file corruption problem, there is no journaling, so there is higher chance of file corruption, so any interruption during data transfer often results in corruption and data loss.

Thanks for clarifying that up, will try the FAT32 option here with my SD card and see if it gets any results!

 

[lordelan]

I saw that some homebrew emulators can only work if the SD is on ExFat format

Umm lol?! Definitely not. The absolute opposite is the case. As I wrote above, especially for homebrew just never use exFAT!

 

[DonRamon]

Ok guys, just noticed that, for the reason I want, seems FAT32 doesn´t work, I want to include some XCI games directly into the SD card for being easier than just installing them all, since I can quickly trade those as needed without much hassle

Gonna try the first idea sent by lordelan here, using the Tegra Explorer to see if it works!

 

[lordelan]

Ok guys, just noticed that, for the reason I want, seems FAT32 doesn´t work, I want to include some XCI games directly into the SD card for being easier than just installing them all, since I can quickly trade those as needed without much hassle

That's absolutely no reason to go with exFAT! In fact there's never a reason to go with exFAT.
Either put those XCIs on an external drive that you attach to the Switch (works in handheld mode as well). Ironically for an external drive for SX OS, exFAT is recommended (still not for SD cards)
or
just use one of the many ways to actually split XCIs so they match the 4 GB limit of FAT32. SX OS can mount splitted XCIs just fine.

 

[subcon959]

exFAT has file corruption problem, there is no journaling, so there is higher chance of file corruption, so any interruption during data transfer often results in corruption and data loss.

Er, FAT32 isn't a journaling system either. In fact, I've had corruption with both so it's silly how much people on this forum proselytize when it comes to FAT32. Nobody seems to remember it all started as an anti-TX thing. If all he's using is SXOS to play XCI backups then he might as well stick with exFAT. It's only a bigger issue when it comes to other homebrew like RetroArch.

 

[Hayato213]

Er, FAT32 isn't a journaling system either. In fact, I've had corruption with both so it's silly how much people on this forum proselytize when it comes to FAT32. Nobody seems to remember it all started as an anti-TX thing. If all he's using is SXOS to play XCI backups then he might as well stick with exFAT. It's only a bigger issue when it comes to other homebrew like RetroArch.

I didn't say if he should use it or not, Im just pointing out the problem with exFAT, out of the two you are more likely to get file corruption with exFAT, content inside the Nintendo folders are under 4GB, if someone really wants to play XCI they could use a HDD and mount the game with SX OS or split the above 4GB XCI.

 

[subcon959]

more likely to get file corruption with exFAT

The problem is that everyone has been stating this as fact for years and no one has ever (correct me if I'm wrong) done any proper controlled experiment for real evidence. It's all anecdotal and spread like gospel because enough people have repeated it that it's believed to be true. I wish someone would just do the research and publish it.

 

[Blavla]

I´m kinda busy these last days but I´m gonna try to make the conversion of the SD into Fat32, to see if it works and send a feedback here

But for the exFat issue, as subcon mentioned, what´s the main problem of the format specifically? (is not that the original Switch don´t use the same format even in original firmware). I saw that some homebrew emulators can only work if the SD is on ExFat format and, if this is a fake news of some sort, would like to be corrected in this case (is the only reason why I left my SD on Exfat in the first place, cause I wanted to try a Dreamcast emulator back in the day to play MVC2, but still couldn´t get it working properly, so, it´s something I can give up if needed)

the format does not doing anything. Even on exfat the Switch saves the files not bigger than 2 gb.

 

[lordelan]

the format does not doing anything. Even on exfat the Switch saves the files not bigger than 2 gb.

He's not talking about installed games (which indeed are splitted automatically into small chunks) but putting XCIs on his SD card to mount them with SX OS.
However, as already stated multiple times, even XCIs can be splitted by multiple tools and work with SX OS pretty fine so no need for exFAT.

 

[DonRamon]

Finally got some time here and yeah, had no luck here! =Z

I could get the SD working using the Tegra Explorer (for some reason, just by entering on it made the SD recognizable for the "boot.dat" issue but, the problem got into the main games later on

Got some games into the "sxos" folder as usual, and, when accessing it on the Sxos image album menu, it just locks it up, not getting anywhere else from there, forcing me to reset the switch

Maybe it´s a problem with the card´s size (256 GB), don´t know if that´s too big for sxos (which is curious, cause it reads the external drives just fine)