Hardware fat32 or exfat, that is the question?

hankarlo · May 17, 2019

Hi all,
I currently have a 128gb micro sd, formatted to fat32, I've just bought a 256gb card which came preformatted exFat. I want to transfer all my games etc over to my new 256gb card, should I reformat it to fat32 before I do so? which is better in yous guys opinion? any issues with cfw, game compatibility etc on exfat?

Cheers guys

EmulateLife · May 17, 2019

There's no debate here except for hard headed people that refuse to convert. Fat32 is the way to go. If you want to do any homebrew (Retroarch etc..) Exfat puts you in danger of corrupting your entire sd card. Yep 256 gb of games down the drain unless you kept them backed up.

rafaelia · May 17, 2019

I used exfat for quite a while, then suddenly one day it corrupted, use FAT32 to avoid future headaches.

hankarlo · May 17, 2019

Thanks guys for the swift heads up, fat32 it is so! Cheers

stitchxd · May 17, 2019

rafaelia said:
I used exfat for quite a while, then suddenly one day it corrupted, use FAT32 to avoid future headaches.

Same here! I was even one of the "I've used exfat for so long with no issues!" guys, then one night playing some Need for Speed in RA and boom game locked up, switch locked up and when I rebooted it wouldn't get past the sept boot, backed up what was good, redownloaded Atmosphere, reformatted (using Format GUI, not windows built in tools) and then tried again, no issues.

Paulsar99 · May 17, 2019

Been using exfat since last year with no issues but I agree that if you're going to go heavy on homebrew use go with fat32.

spotanjo3 · May 17, 2019

Been using exfat since last year with no issues even for homebrew without a problem. However, I go ahead with fat32 because it is not worth to stay with exfat anyway. If you want to transfer more than 4gb of game then tinfoil usb installed method is your best way and I am happy with that.

AlexMCS · May 17, 2019

Used exfat for more than an year with 0 issues, but swapped to FAT32 last night just to make sure it wouldn't suddenly crash on me.
Works just as good.

pyrotechnicmonkey · May 17, 2019

Also on fat32 if you need to install nsp over 4gb you can use Dividensp bat file to split them up very easily. I prefer it over installing over usb.

spotanjo3 · May 17, 2019

pyrotechnicmonkey said:
Also on fat32 if you need to install nsp over 4gb you can use Dividensp bat file to split them up very easily. I prefer it over installing over usb.

Split them up is so outdated to my opinion. And I don't liked it. As you said just installing over usb called tinfoil usb installed method is really awesome.

Mythical · May 17, 2019

tbh the only headache is a simple conversion process for your files if they happen to be over 4gb. fat32 is the way to go

pyrotechnicmonkey · May 17, 2019

azoreseuropa said:
Split them up is so outdated to my opinion. And I don't liked it. As you said just installing over usb called tinfoil usb installed method is really awesome.

I thought Transfer over usb is really slow right now. Last time I tried it it was limited to 5mb/s. Instead of the 70 mb/s if you use a good micro sd card. Is install over USB different from the UBS mounting tool used in tegrarcmsmash for mounting sd card?

spotanjo3 · May 17, 2019

pyrotechnicmonkey said:
I thought Transfer over usb is really slow right now. Last time I tried it it was limited to 5mb/s. Instead of the 70 mb/s if you use a good micro sd card. Is install over USB different from the UBS mounting tool used in tegrarcmsmash for mounting sd card?

Nah. Mine is fine. Run 70mb/s since I use a good micro sd card.

EmulateLife · May 17, 2019

pyrotechnicmonkey said:
I thought Transfer over usb is really slow right now. Last time I tried it it was limited to 5mb/s. Instead of the 70 mb/s if you use a good micro sd card. Is install over USB different from the UBS mounting tool used in tegrarcmsmash for mounting sd card?

I get 14-20 mb through my usb type c cable. Slower than 70 but who cares it saves me trouble of removing the sd card, putting the nsp on there running the payload installing the nsp removing the sd card again to remove the nsp then reinserting the sd card and resending the payload. All of that takes more times than the slower pace. Also you can ruin your sd card reader by removing the sd card over and over and then you have a way bigger problem than just waiting a few more minutes for an install.

stitchxd · May 18, 2019

How many people would actually enjoy an application that can convert your card to FAT32 from exfat while keeping a backup and moving the files around automatically?

pyrotechnicmonkey · May 18, 2019

EmulateLife said:
I get 14-20 mb through my usb type c cable. Slower than 70 but who cares it saves me trouble of removing the sd card, putting the nsp on there running the payload installing the nsp removing the sd card again to remove the nsp then reinserting the sd card and resending the payload. All of that takes more times than the slower pace. Also you can ruin your sd card reader by removing the sd card over and over and then you have a way bigger problem than just waiting a few more minutes for an install.

I like to use nxshell. Lets me delete the nsp straight from my switch.

EmulateLife · May 18, 2019

Still removing your sd card a lot if you have a lot of games. It's just a lack of patience to just wait for the usb method to finish. Not worth the risk of ruining your sd card reader.

But it's not my switch so not my problem.

I use NX Shell to put any files or roms on my switch and remove them with it too, and usb install so I never have to remove my sd card at all.

AlexMCS · May 18, 2019

pyrotechnicmonkey said:
I thought Transfer over usb is really slow right now. Last time I tried it it was limited to 5mb/s. Instead of the 70 mb/s if you use a good micro sd card. Is install over USB different from the UBS mounting tool used in tegrarcmsmash for mounting sd card?

The Tegra mount tool, which is actually rajkosto's memloader, is a lot slower (locked to a bit under 5MB/s) than the other usb transfer methods, like nxmtp or usb installation using tinfoil, goldtree etc. But it has no file size limitation, so it can transfer large files (> 4GB) to an exfat formatted card, which nxmtp can't.

Since FAT32 is the best option, there's really no reason to use memloader anymore, other than soft bricks.

EmulateLife said:
I get 14-20 mb through my usb type c cable. Slower than 70 but who cares it saves me trouble of removing the sd card, putting the nsp on there running the payload installing the nsp removing the sd card again to remove the nsp then reinserting the sd card and resending the payload. All of that takes more times than the slower pace. Also you can ruin your sd card reader by removing the sd card over and over and then you have a way bigger problem than just waiting a few more minutes for an install.

I never removed my SD after inserting, due to the aforementioned memloader, and, recently, using nxmtp.
I've tried USB installation a few times. Most of the times it worked fine, but in some cases the games never finished installing, which is why I've given up on it for now, as long as I can (with enough free space) just send the NSP and install from the SD itself, but it is indeed the best way to install games atm.

stitchxd said:
How many people would actually enjoy an application that can convert your card to FAT32 from exfat while keeping a backup and moving the files around automatically?

Quite a bit, I'd guess. But it's simply copying everything to a folder, formatting, then copying back.
Using memloader, on my Samsung 128GB microSDXC U1 with ~75GB used, it took me around 7 hours (2.7h copying to PC, 1 minute formatting, 4.2h copying back to the SD), since it's so slow, but should be a lot faster if you use an actual microSDXC USB reader.

Joxy · May 20, 2019

I need a little help here.

I did a stupid thing and now I can’t get it to work?

I had micro sd card 64 gb expat and did have Emunand on it?
But know it doesn’t work to get it again? I must have fat32?
But if I do that I can’t have mods on Smash because it must be exfat?
So what should I do?

Why I did remove that I did have was because i did buy a bigger sd card 128 gb.
But it doesn’t work to install Emunand hidden anymore with exfat?
So how could it be done before?

NoNAND · May 20, 2019

I've had my fair share of SD card corruptions and data loss due to Nintendo's ridiculously coded exFAT driver. Three months ago(if my memory serves me rightfully) I unfortunately los over 14 installed NSPs that were installed on my 64GB SD card. thereof, I lost my homebrew emulators ROMs(and their respective save files.) Fortunately enough, the switch saves game save data to the NAND's internal memory and good grief am I grateful for not loosing 370 hours of Zelda and my other 450 hours put into xenoblade. and so on I formatted my SD card to fat 32 thanks to this nifty tool called guiformat(which for obvious reasons would recommend to anyone who uses their switch for homebrew stuff).
Back up anything beforehand and format your SD card to fat32. or you'll regret it later. Saves you the trouble of unpredictable bugs and errors which might happen by using homebrew on exFAT filesystem.

Hardware fat32 or exfat, that is the question?

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Human

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Human

Well-Known Member

Give me back my legions!

Similar threads

Popular threads in this forum