Homebrew Discussion [POLL] FAT32 vs. exFAT | issue discussion
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SX OS has it's own bugs, sure, but since Retroarch isn't crashing the console - just back to the system menu with a message telling me that the game has crashed, I'm inclined to place responsibility for bugs on the developer of the homebrew rather than the environment. If SXOS crashed to a black screen, or the console restarted, that would at least have implied error handling issues with SXOS. Rather, it seemed to me that the devs just aren't testing on SXOS and given your statements, that opinion has been reaffirmed.
Nope. I had absolutely no issues with corruption until immediately after messing around with retroArch. I was able to dump dozens of games, and dump and restore NAND and emuNAND several times, and install NSP files and game updates all without any corruption. Additionally, I find it hard to believe that any of the issues I had while using retroarch could be caused by exFAT. Especially since NONE of the files used by retroarch were corrupted at all when I checked my files.
If the point of this thread is to identify the CAUSES of exFAT corruption, as the poll on top suggests, you shouldn't get so defensive when a user chimes in to identify exactly what is happening with them.
I strongly disagree. Again, absolutely no issues with exFAT and SXOS.
I prefer making my own game backups, rather than pirating. Sure, I can convert an XCI to NSP, but then I don't have the freedom to as quickly and easily swap files. Additionally, I like their emuNAND options. As such, SXOS is the better option for me. It's not a matter of being happy with or unhappy with, it is the only option for what I personally prefer. This statement applies for all consoles actually: I have always preferred disc backups over installers and rather than focusing on open source vs closed source, I'd focus on the features I need and/or want.
A few reasons, actually:
1.) I had a final exam yesterday and have a final exam tomorrow. I simply don't have time to check all of my files and make sure the ones that need splitting are split. I was more interested in verifying the source of the issue and seeing what files are and are not corrupt.
2.) I read from people who had issues loading some split XCI files. While I am sure I can work around those issues, that also takes time I do not have right now.
3.) Retroarch doesn't appear to support my PSX memory cards or saves yet, and I'd rather not start games over without saving and loading certainty. Additionally, having to take the time to convert all my image files from ISO is a problem. More so, because most game discs I did convert were also unreadable by Retroarch. So far, only the game discs that were created as BIN/CUE worked, so I'd have to mount each game disc one at a time and rip them fresh which takes even more time. Since I have the overall perception that Retroarch isn't stable and that it doesn't support what I need or want, I am inclined to shelve it until it does support what I need or want - like any other Homebrew. If everything worked I'd be more inclined to take the extra time.
4.) These types of responses, honestly, make me one to use exFAT even more. Not because I'm crazy or anything, and not because I am specifically attached to exFAT, but because there must be a reason why the vast majority of users in your poll report no problem with exFAT. There must be a reason for that. I'm reminded of the time that everyone kept saying there's no way to get more than 32 GB to work on the Wii (and posted a video to prove otherwise), or that there's no way to get drives larger than 2 TB in FAT32 on the Wii (and figured out how to do just that, hunting down an old sector style hdd that had 4 TB to do my tests, though didn't have time to get that perfect, but I did get far enough so that DIOS MIOS was able to read from it and others continued what I started). When someone says something is impossible, that just makes me want to do it more.
That all being said, I am willing to format another microSD card to FAT32 and load everything onto it after final exams to see if the types of bugs I observed also appear in FAT32 and report back with those results. If the devs believe the bugs are caused by exFAT that is reason enough to double check, either to identify why or to show why not. If the most critical bugs (other than file corruption) doesn't go away on FAT32 I'd likely switch back to exFAT - not because I have to, but because if people really believe that SXOS itself will corrupt exFAT then the question in my mind would be "Why?" and "How long will it take?" and "What can I do to either demonstrate this to be true or subject it to falsification?". A better comparison for me would be, "Which file system, if any, has a better loading time and/or formatted capacity". If, however, it did go away, I would conceded that there are larger issues than I realize.
Not really. I maintain complete backups of everything I do every time I change or do anything. It takes, at most, 3 hours to do a complete format on a 256 GB microSD card and I also have plenty of extra microSD cards lying around.
Piece of advice: If you are going to create a thread asking people to report in exactly what issues they have on what situations, well, these types of responses just don't seem appropriate for that.
I totally get that there probably some serious insurmountable issues with exFAT and the way you have chosen to or have to implement retroArch, but that doesn't mean every reported bug has to be because of exFAT. For example, the frame rate counting up to infinity. No way that's an exFAT issue. Bugs in retroarch exist, it's no big deal. In fact, I'm impressed that there aren't more bugs. What works does work amazingly well. What is a big deal is pretending that all the bugs are bugs in the OS and/or file system. Even if the bug is related to the OS and/or file-system that doesn't necessarily mean it's to blame. For example, if I compiled a C application made for Windows to Linux it probably wouldn't work so well if I used Windows specific information. I'd have to write a check for the environment.
Bottom line: I responded to a thread asking for specific information with specific information. It's up to those asking for that information if they will actually put reports to use or not.
Last edited by Elliander,
Let me just take these two quotes as the answers to them are all I need to say (especially the first one).
This has been explained around gbatemp countless times now. You might have no issues >but< it's a ticking timebomb.
I say this once and for all: You have been warned. You'll remember these words when your data is gone or your SD card is damaged.
You're fine with creating backups every now and then and taking the risk? Good. You could save yourself a lot of trouble by just going for FAT32 though.
By the time I created this thread and asked people, my state of knowledge was obviously at a different point than it is now. I thought of exFAT issues as something we would have to find out when they appear and eventually to give those reports to a dev so he can fix it.
It's what most new people think of and ask about here (and in the RetroArch thread).
However it soon turned out that it can't be fixed but is an issue by the way the exFAT filesystem itself is designed. @m4xw can explain this way better than I can but I guess he's tired as well as he did it on almost every 10th page in the RetroArch thread.
And that leads to the reason that I updated the first post in this thread. Look it up. It's written in red and can't be missed. I also told everyone about it.
I don't wanna offend you. Actually I'm just trying to help you.
Use FAT32 over exFAT and live an (almost) riskless life. XCIs can be splitted as well and if you love XCIs and SX OS that much you can even use an exFAT USB drive for your Switch games and keep your internal mSD card on FAT32 for RetroArch and other homebrew. At least I have to admit it's one of the two cool features from SX OS (beside emuNAND) that Atmosphère are still missing.
This has been explained around gbatemp countless times now. You might have no issues >but< it's a ticking timebomb.
I say this once and for all: You have been warned. You'll remember these words when your data is gone or your SD card is damaged.
You're fine with creating backups every now and then and taking the risk? Good. You could save yourself a lot of trouble by just going for FAT32 though.
By the time I created this thread and asked people, my state of knowledge was obviously at a different point than it is now. I thought of exFAT issues as something we would have to find out when they appear and eventually to give those reports to a dev so he can fix it.
It's what most new people think of and ask about here (and in the RetroArch thread).
However it soon turned out that it can't be fixed but is an issue by the way the exFAT filesystem itself is designed. @m4xw can explain this way better than I can but I guess he's tired as well as he did it on almost every 10th page in the RetroArch thread.
And that leads to the reason that I updated the first post in this thread. Look it up. It's written in red and can't be missed. I also told everyone about it.
I don't wanna offend you. Actually I'm just trying to help you.
Use FAT32 over exFAT and live an (almost) riskless life. XCIs can be splitted as well and if you love XCIs and SX OS that much you can even use an exFAT USB drive for your Switch games and keep your internal mSD card on FAT32 for RetroArch and other homebrew. At least I have to admit it's one of the two cool features from SX OS (beside emuNAND) that Atmosphère are still missing.
I would like to switch from exFat to Fat32
what files do I need to move from the current exFat formatted sd card to a fat32 sd card
plus do I have to reinstall all my nsp files again
what files do I need to move from the current exFat formatted sd card to a fat32 sd card
plus do I have to reinstall all my nsp files again
Just backup the SD card, format, and put everything back.
what about the files that are over 4gb?
I don't think it will let me transfer them to the fat32 sd card.
Any games installed to the SD card are split into <4 GB chunks regardless if you're using exFAT or FAT32 because that's simply how the Switch works. You shouldn't have any .NSP files lying around on your SD card anyways. But if you have any .XCI files larger than 4 GB on your SD card, you will have to either split them or convert them to .NSP files
D
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Still don't believe it? Here, I'll offer proof that exFAT will corrupt your data.
I purchased Super Mario Odyssey when I purchased my Switch. I used homebrew to create a backup, then converted that backup to NSP for ease of use. I tossed a spare 32Gb exFAT formatted SD card into the Switch, then used Tinfoil to install it to the SD card. I loaded the card with homebrew and purposely excluded Retroarch. I then played Odyssey for about an hour and it worked great. Then, I started using homebrew (Xash3D, ioQuake3, and NXShell).
Not an hour after playing ioQuake3, I get this when trying to play Odyssey:
https://imgur.com/XydHufi
Yeah, it corrupted the WHOLE card. Not just Odyssey data, but the whole card. I can no longer use Xash3D, ioQuake3, or NXShell. I now have to format that card from exFAT to FAT32. Even worse, I cannot copy the contents from the card to my PC. So keep using exFAT. But please do NOT come bitching here when eventual data corruption happens and you have to waste 3 hours copying your data back to your card (because obviously your time is precious, too precious to take some simple precautionary measures in the first place). It isn't a Retroarch specific corruption.
Last edited by ,
having some smaller ROM file corrupted, leading to loss of a ROM file, is minor. windows repaired, all was good.
having my custom theme ResidentMenu.szs corrupted, causing my system to crash on boot, is major. also windows wouldn't repair it, left it overnight just in case i was being impatient. had no choice but to format to recover the file system, which i opted for fat32.
im not implying retroarch was the cause, im implying that exFAT is the cause with retroarch being the last application used prior to the corruption.
more likely than not, its because i use SXOS that caused the corruption
Despite the scary red text, I'll stick to exFAT. So what if the card gets corrupted? I'll just reformat and copy the files back over. What are people storing on their Switch microSD cards that are so precious? Photos of your first born? This would have to be a much more common occurrence to make fucking around with splitting files worth the time.
Maybe it makes sense for you. But for somebody that has all their NSPs, XCIs, and backups on another storage media it's much ado about nothing.
Maybe it makes sense for you. But for somebody that has all their NSPs, XCIs, and backups on another storage media it's much ado about nothing.
Windows won't fix *any* of these corruptions.having some smaller ROM file corrupted, leading to loss of a ROM file, is minor. windows repaired, all was good.
having my custom theme ResidentMenu.szs corrupted, causing my system to crash on boot, is major. also windows wouldn't repair it, left it overnight just in case i was being impatient. had no choice but to format to recover the file system, which i opted for fat32.
im not implying retroarch was the cause, im implying that exFAT is the cause with retroarch being the last application used prior to the corruption.
more likely than not, its because i use SXOS that caused the corruption
You only fool yourself.
Sure because losing hundreds of hours of progress doesn't hurt?
I wanted to copy all my SD card to my pc.. One file is corrupt and I can't copy it.. Chkdsk and other repair software don't work, freeze whole time (exfat) ..
Now I move to fat32 and SD card is fine without errors.. glad I only lose one file (from a game)
Thank you for warning us about exfat .
Now I move to fat32 and SD card is fine without errors.. glad I only lose one file (from a game)
Thank you for warning us about exfat .
Touché. I don't have RetroArch installed but if/when I do that is something to consider.
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