1.5 or 2tb SDXC card constant corruption

[00diabolic]

So for over 3yrs Ive had a 1TB sdxc card sandisk if it matters in my v1 swich formatted in exfat. Now I finally upgraded to a 2tb SDXC card and what a nightmare so far. I'm constantly getting corruption and I know its a legit card (so no need to mention that issue, i confirmed its real). So my issue is most likely the exFAT format. But why on the 2tb and never on my 1tb card have i seen this issue? Can anymore explain that to me? Or is there perhaps a fix coming in atmoshere that is in development. I cant make heads or tails of this, If I must go to fat32 fine, but it really seems like its something else.

 

[anon730]

So for over 3yrs Ive had a 1TB sdxc card sandisk if it matters in my v1 swich formatted in exfat. Now I finally upgraded to a 2tb SDXC card and what a nightmare so far. I'm constantly getting corruption and I know its a legit card (so no need to mention that issue, i confirmed its real). So my issue is most likely the exFAT format. But why on the 2tb and never on my 1tb card have i seen this issue? Can anymore explain that to me? Or is there perhaps a fix coming in atmoshere that is in development. I cant make heads or tails of this, If I must go to fat32 fine, but it really seems like its something else.

You need to format it in FAT32. Exfat has that problem,always does. Run a search on FAT32 corruption.

 

[tbgtbg]

You need to format it in FAT32. Exfat has that problem,always does. Run a search on FAT32 corruption.

I've been using exfat forever on all sorts of capacities and it's never caused any of these "always does" problems. Oh, I've had problems but never due to the SD card being exfat.

Sounds like this is just a bad card. Maybe even fake (where/who was it bought from? ever run h2testw on it?)

 

[Hayato213]

So for over 3yrs Ive had a 1TB sdxc card sandisk if it matters in my v1 swich formatted in exfat. Now I finally upgraded to a 2tb SDXC card and what a nightmare so far. I'm constantly getting corruption and I know its a legit card (so no need to mention that issue, i confirmed its real). So my issue is most likely the exFAT format. But why on the 2tb and never on my 1tb card have i seen this issue? Can anymore explain that to me? Or is there perhaps a fix coming in atmoshere that is in development. I cant make heads or tails of this, If I must go to fat32 fine, but it really seems like its something else.

exFAT is your problem.

 

[M7L7NK7]

I've been using exfat forever on all sorts of capacities and it's never caused any of these "always does" problems. Oh, I've had problems but never due to the SD card being exfat.

Sounds like this is just a bad card. Maybe even fake (where/who was it bought from? ever run h2testw on it?)

Yoi just haven't noticed

 

[The Real Jdbye]

I've been using exfat forever on all sorts of capacities and it's never caused any of these "always does" problems. Oh, I've had problems but never due to the SD card being exfat.

Sounds like this is just a bad card. Maybe even fake (where/who was it bought from? ever run h2testw on it?)

The corruption occurs when you experience crashes for any reason, specifically during writes to the SD card. If you never experience crashes, maybe you never ran dodgy/outdated homebrew/sysmodules, that would explain why exFAT never caused you issues. But sometimes crashes are out of your control, maybe a badly coded game is crashing, such as Pokemon.
I picked that example for a reason, by the way. Despite games not saving savegames to the SD card, Pokemon Sword/Shield were shown to corrupt exFAT formatted SD cards when the games would crash during autosave, even on OFW. This did not happen on FAT32. So yet another nail in the coffin for exFAT and more proof of Nintendo's dodgy implementation.
Even if you haven't had any issues yet, sticking with exFAT is a risk as it's only a matter of time until you experience a crash at exactly the wrong time and all data on the SD card is lost.

 

[SHaydXD]

2 Possible reasons:

1.exFAT is notorious for this. I just automatically use Fat32 of NTFS at this point (dont judge lol, ik i'm an NTFS loser XD)
2. They don't exist...? I heard briefly that Sandisk made them, but I've never heard of anyone actually using it? Also searching for it, it isn't giving any helpful results other than people reporting scams : P. So I believe you got scammed like I did before. Let me explain real fast.

When I was 14, I was broke and bought a cheapo 256 GB SD card (Specifically a SuperDuoDuo card I believe). Come to find out they did a simple trick that makes it appear like it's capacity is 256 GB, but it was really, if I remember correctly, it was 128 GB. Whenever I passed that amount, it would appear corrupted to the Switch. I believe it's possible you fell for the same stupid thing I did, but idk for sure. Google for fake SD card testers and test it if you want to be sure, or just mess around with it on a PC (I figured out what happened through Window's Partition Manager, although I can't remember exactly how I figured it out, I', sorry.)

I hope you figure this out, good luck.

 

[Deleted member 731084]

This happens because FAT32 has two copies of the file allocation table, and exFAT only has one (because that's faster). This is not usually a problem on modern operating systems because the OS handles/buffers all your writes and it's extremely unlikely to corrupt the FAT. But on systems like the switch the second table can become crucial if there's a bad write to the FAT table without these safeguards, because it means you did just blow up an entire sector without any way to recover the mapping of where those files are on the SD card. And with FAT32 you always have a good copy - either from before the write or directly after when the second table is updated.

Post automatically merged: Dec 27, 2024

NTFS at this point (dont judge lol, ik i'm an NTFS loser XD)

NTFS, just like APFS/HFS/ext4 and essentially every other filesystem is vastly superior (especially due to journaling), but more complex to implement. That's why "embedded" devices use a variant of FAT. exFAT actually has a journaling variant, but it only ships on some obscure Windows Embedded SKUs.

 

[almmiron]

I've tought 2tb sd cards didnt exists (yet)

 

[WiseDan]

talking about microsd cards, what maximum capacity ns supports? 4 tb?
readed somewhere that ns2 will support 8 tb cards...

 

[SHaydXD]

I've tought 2tb sd cards didnt exists (yet)

Supposedly they do...? There's too many scams though, so it's hard to say for sure, unless someone here has successfully got one and tried it. Ima just stick with my 512 GB cards lol.

talking about microsd cards, what maximum capacity ns supports? 4 tb?
readed somewhere that ns2 will support 8 tb cards...

Nintendo Switch supports up to 2TB cards (source: https://www.pcmag.com/news/nintendo-switch-supports-2tb-micro-sdxc-memory-cards-when-they-exist)

I have absolutely no idea where the 8TB idea came from though... Even 2230 NVME SSDs don't have 8TB varients yet, they just go to 2TB in that size becuase of the lack of size. Whoever said that came from the year 2030 lol.

 

[l7777]

I've tought 2tb sd cards didnt exists (yet)

Sandisk makes one. On sale right now for Amazon US customers.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DFX1XFFH

 

[cucholix]

I have a SanDisk Extreme 2T fat32 format, no issues so far

 

[zxr750j]

Running exFat since day 1, my latest is a 400GB, mostly pokemon, hardly any exotic modules/homebrew. Not saying exfat is not your problem. Just try fat32 and you'll know. And then tell us please...

 

[00diabolic]

This happens because FAT32 has two copies of the file allocation table, and exFAT only has one (because that's faster). This is not usually a problem on modern operating systems because the OS handles/buffers all your writes and it's extremely unlikely to corrupt the FAT. But on systems like the switch the second table can become crucial if there's a bad write to the FAT table without these safeguards, because it means you did just blow up an entire sector without any way to recover the mapping of where those files are on the SD card. And with FAT32 you always have a good copy - either from before the write or directly after when the second table is updated.

Post automatically merged: Dec 27, 2024

NTFS, just like APFS/HFS/ext4 and essentially every other filesystem is vastly superior (especially due to journaling), but more complex to implement. That's why "embedded" devices use a variant of FAT. exFAT actually has a journaling variant, but it only ships on some obscure Windows Embedded SKUs.

This is the kind of explanation I was looking for. Its odd how all the way up switching sd cards, from 128 to 256 to 512 and then to 1tb Ive never had an issue with exfat and now with a sandisk 2tb extreme pro bought direct from sandisk I'm getting constant corruption. I just ran an overnight test on the card with h2testw and it passed. I guess exfat either has some kinda of horrible issue with all that available storage space or the switch itself has a bad drivers for handling the largest sdxc cards (im leaning on this being the issue more then anything, just makes sense). I know a lot of people here have said the switch exfat implementation is bad but what does that really mean? Is it drivers, if it is drivers wont it eventually work its way out. I know nintendo has had updates to handles larger capacity cards in the past. So maybe a update is coming in v20 to handle 2tb cards in exfat. I guess its to much to hope for and ill just have to switch to fat32 and its 4tb limit. Sucks so many games are over 4gb and what a pain to split them just to install the large nsp/xci.

I have a SanDisk Extreme 2T fat32 format, no issues so far

You dont find the 4gb limit an issue?

Running exFat since day 1, my latest is a 400GB, mostly pokemon, hardly any exotic modules/homebrew. Not saying exfat is not your problem. Just try fat32 and you'll know. And then tell us please...

Yeah see me to, ive had a lot of cards Ive switched to over the years since owning the switch and no issues with exfat till now.

 

[l7777]

You dont find the 4gb limit an issue?

You're overthinking. The installers know how to break up the packages for fat32. Only time you would have an issue was if you tried to simply copy a large file to the card.

Post automatically merged: Dec 28, 2024

I have a SanDisk Extreme 2T fat32 format, no issues so far

Good to hear, i have one ordered.

 

[rave420]

I have a SanDisk Extreme 2T fat32 format, no issues so far

Out of curiosity, what tool did you format your card with, and what cluster size did you pick? I'm assuming GUIFormat, 65536 byte cluster size? I'm about to switch to a bigger card myself.

 

[Aftershock]

2 Possible reasons:

1.exFAT is notorious for this. I just automatically use Fat32 of NTFS at this point (dont judge lol, ik i'm an NTFS loser XD)
2. They don't exist...? I heard briefly that Sandisk made them, but I've never heard of anyone actually using it? Also searching for it, it isn't giving any helpful results other than people reporting scams : P. So I believe you got scammed like I did before. Let me explain real fast.

When I was 14, I was broke and bought a cheapo 256 GB SD card (Specifically a SuperDuoDuo card I believe). Come to find out they did a simple trick that makes it appear like it's capacity is 256 GB, but it was really, if I remember correctly, it was 128 GB. Whenever I passed that amount, it would appear corrupted to the Switch. I believe it's possible you fell for the same stupid thing I did, but idk for sure. Google for fake SD card testers and test it if you want to be sure, or just mess around with it on a PC (I figured out what happened through Window's Partition Manager, although I can't remember exactly how I figured it out, I', sorry.)

I hope you figure this out, good luck.

2TB Micro SD's are out. I bought mine direct from the Western Digital website

 

[remlei]

unfortunately as it sounds, switch doesnt really know how to properly handle a exFAT filesystem leading to filesystem corruption.

FAT32 on other hand works great on switch, with a big caveat. It cause slow down. Its a well known drawback of FAT32 on larger capacity drives. You may not notice this on Switch that much but very noticeable on systems like PSP with duostick to sd adapter and Nintendo 3DS.

its also a good idea to check the SD card first if its fake or not. The quickest way to validate it is using Validrive application from grc which is the same maker of spinwrite.

 

[BigOnYa]

Sucks so many games are over 4gb and what a pain to split them just to install the large nsp/xci.

Use a installer like DBI or Awoo with a USB cable from PC to Switch and you don't have to worry about splitting files.