Hacking Question ExFAT Vs. FAT32 Where When and Why?? SXOS centric but I would like to know about the ither CFWs too

Ghassen-ga

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As long as you don't give any other info/sources, this is pretty irrelevant.
Who are you and why are you arguing with a dev? The dude is behind retroarch.. Are you implying you know better? I'm honestly surprised that he takes you seriously, also stop spreading misinformations, you are doing more harm than you think.
 

NoIdeaofAnything

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I am on exFat and want to switch to Fat.
Can I just copy everything onto my PC before formating or do I have then to reinstall everything again?
Do I have to save the Game Saves before or nto?
 

m4xw

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I am on exFat and want to switch to Fat.
Can I just copy everything onto my PC before formating or do I have then to reinstall everything again?
Do I have to save the Game Saves before or nto?
FAT32 is the preferred filesystem for your SD card.
To format your card to FAT32, download this software : http://www.ridgecrop.demon.co.uk/index.htm?guiformat.htm
Select your drive, then 32768 as Allocation unit size, then click the Start button.
You will lose everything on your SD card, be careful to backup anything important before !
and yes, just copy them over.
 

gohan123

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I'm going to switch form exfat to fat32 also. my hekate backup is done on exfat. is this a problem for the future? if I will ever need it, I would need to reformat again or find another sd card for that?
 

Sm0k3r83

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i used to use exfat, always safely removed sd card from pc, always turn switch off b4 removing sd card. then one day i was adding a few thing to my sd with my pc, removed my sd card and put it in the switch, boom cant boot any version of cfw. put card back in pc, was force to format because of *get this* corruption. After the 3rd time in one day of having that happen i switch to fat32 havent had any issues since

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I'm going to switch form exfat to fat32 also. my hekate backup is done on exfat. is this a problem for the future? if I will ever need it, I would need to reformat again or find another sd card for that?
if u have another sd card u can format that one to exfat and use it for backup purposes
 
Last edited by Sm0k3r83,

chippy

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Fake or "seconds" sd cards are more prone to corruption by default and if it's bigger then 32gig it's formatted to exfat

Because it's defaulted to exfat there is more users on exfat then fat32 so should be % of users on each side having issues then the amount of issues reported
 
Last edited by chippy,

ZachyCatGames

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It is not misinformation. If you do what you are supposed to do, there would never be any problems. Or tell me, why just someone experiences it if it is known information that it happens?
And I am still waiting for sources.
But hey. Maybe that I am the only guy with no problems of exfat.
I use to have exfat, I had lots of corruption, and I pretty much had to reinstall CFW and homebrew apps every 2-4 weeks because they became corrupt, I also had to backup all my screenshots and stuff because they would also get corrupt. Ever since I switched to fat32 I haven't had a single corruption issue...
 
Last edited by ZachyCatGames,
D

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There is no proper way of using exFAT
Just out of curiosity, what part did Nintendo screw up in regards to drive support for exfat? And what challenges stem from supporting exfat?
Edit: did a quick look up. So exFAT in general does not have Journaling which keeps track of changes in the file system, which is why it's more prone to corruption... Any other reasons? (I'm aware that Nintendo didn't specifically screw up/cause that as that's just one of the filesystem quirks)
 
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smf

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Edit: did a quick look up. So exFAT in general does not have Journaling which keeps track of changes in the file system, which is why it's more prone to corruption... Any other reasons? (I'm aware that Nintendo didn't specifically screw up/cause that as that's just one of the filesystem quirks)

FAT32 has two copies of the file allocation table, exFAT only has one. FAT32 can notice something is wrong with one of the tables and switch to the other. The way exFAT allocates blocks has also changed, there is a bitmap as well as the file allocation table (http://www.ntfs.com/exfat-allocation-bitmap.htm).

Neither has journalling & according to https://github.com/libretro/RetroArch/issues/7480#issuecomment-434262799

Nintendo have added some layer that helps protect against corruption but homebrew doesn't use it.

The second file allocation table in FAT32 doesn't really protect against corruption either, but you may not notice.
 
Last edited by smf,

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