Hardware an internal nand upgrade looks to be impossible for right now

[Dominator211]

After watching a few teardown videos I see that the NAND that the switch uses is called embedded NAND. This type of NAND has the controller and other things right on the die. Looking on Samsungs website show me that there is not greater capacity right now other than 32gb so even if one could figure out how to program the chip to work with the motherboard and dump all the files from the old and chip there is still not a great capacity to go up to. So until 64gb and greater chips start to be produced we are stuck at the internal capacity of 32gb.

Some of you might be asking why to do this in the first place... I mean this for the people that want to get the most out their console and since micro sd technology doesn't seem to progress as fast as other computer technologies this might seem like a liable thing to do in the future.

Unless someone has heard of people attempting to change this or if any of my statements arent correct.

 

[FAST6191]

Any unpopulated headers or other internal buses you could attach something to? Stacking things not an option? We have had bankswitching for ages.

Also "want to get the most out their console"
For homebrew purposes? For commercial games then surely as long as it functions within acceptable parameters for games then what does it matter?

"since micro sd technology doesn't seem to progress as fast as other computer technologies"
Do what now? I can have hundreds of gigs on one card in the sub $100 range, it was not so long ago we had devices where phrases like "my dad's work paid hundreds for a 2 gigabyte card so I thought I would try it in my flash cart". Nothing else has increased so much in capacity or speed. Similar timeframe (2007 or so) I could buy a 1TB consumer hard drive, tip top enterprise today is 14TB ( http://www.techradar.com/news/this-is-the-worlds-biggest-hard-drive-and-it-can-store-14tb ) and most consumer things are slow (5400 or 5900 RPM) NAS/CCTV focused things at around 6TB.

 

[Apache Thunder]

As I recall dev units have 64gb nand boards....so you kinda wrong there. The nand crypto is specific to each unit though so you can't just swap them out from one obtained from a dev unit sadly. (they would be pin compatible though)

Nintendo probably used 32GB for cost reasons and/or wanted to make a greater profit on the console. Look at their dock for the Switch. It's way overpriced for what it does/contains. It's also possible the 64GB variants of the nand chip they chose had even worse supply issues then the 32GB one so they might have used that one instead in their production units.

 

[Wuigi]

Replacing it yourself will be not worth it and impossible until much later.
The nand is encrypted by a key that is console unique.
The switch would need to be hacked on a ARM9 level like on the 3DS to get all necessary keys to even decrypt it and those partitions of the nand can have static sizes that may not adjustable.
Only with the boot9 exploit ApacheThunder was able to change the twl emunand size for example.

But who would even have the tools to solder a nand flash onto the connector that plugs into the switch?
Pretty much impossible, there only was a guy who desoldered and soldered all nand chips from one 3DS to another but that took him a lot of time and he had the right equipment.
So we are at the mercy of nintendo.

 

[Dominator211]

Any unpopulated headers or other internal buses you could attach something to? Stacking things not an option? We have had bankswitching for ages.

Also "want to get the most out their console"
For homebrew purposes? For commercial games then surely as long as it functions within acceptable parameters for games then what does it matter?

"since micro sd technology doesn't seem to progress as fast as other computer technologies"
Do what now? I can have hundreds of gigs on one card in the sub $100 range, it was not so long ago we had devices where phrases like "my dad's work paid hundreds for a 2 gigabyte card so I thought I would try it in my flash cart". Nothing else has increased so much in capacity or speed. Similar timeframe (2007 or so) I could buy a 1TB consumer hard drive, tip top enterprise today is 14TB ( http://www.techradar.com/news/this-is-the-worlds-biggest-hard-drive-and-it-can-store-14tb ) and most consumer things are slow (5400 or 5900 RPM) NAS/CCTV focused things at around 6TB.

but the switch doesn't accept hdd's and 256gb has been the highest capacity until SanDisk came out with the 400gb one but that is 200$ and not many people want to put that much into a sd card. I never said the technology hadn't made advancements within the last few years i was saying it seems to have slowed down a bit.

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As I recall dev units have 64gb nand boards....so you kinda wrong there. The nand crypto is specific to each unit though so you can't just swap them out from one obtained from a dev unit sadly. (they would be pin compatible though)

Nintendo probably used 32GB for cost reasons and/or wanted to make a greater profit on the console. Look at their dock for the Switch. It's way overpriced for what it does/contains.

Yes, I have heard of people swapping nand modules this is why we would need a nand programmer of sorts. like what they use to upgrade iPhones internal storage

 

[Kioku]

Stuck my 256GB MSD in it. I SHOULD be good for now.

 

[Dominator211]

Replacing it yourself will be not worth it and impossible until much later.
The nand is encrypted by a key that is console unique.
The switch would need to be hacked on a ARM9 level like on the 3DS to get all necessary keys to even decrypt it and those partitions of the nand can have static sizes that may not adjustable.
Only with the boot9 exploit ApacheThunder was able to change the twl emunand size for example.

But who would even have the tools to solder a nand flash onto the connector that plugs into the switch?
Pretty much impossible, there only was a guy who desoldered and soldered all nand chips from one 3DS to another but that took him a lot of time and he had the right equipment.
So we are at the mercy of nintendo.

hence the title of the thread... it not being possible for right now.... and yes arm9 acces ECT but the soldering part is hard but i can be done like with the iphones

 

[Apache Thunder]

but the switch doesn't accept hdd's and 256gb has been the highest capacity until SanDisk came out with the 400gb one but that is 200$ and not many people want to put that much into a sd card. I never said the technology hadn't made advancements within the last few years i was saying it seems to have slowed down a bit.

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Yes, I have heard of people swapping nand modules this is why we would need a nand programmer of sorts. like what they use to upgrade iPhones internal storage

There's a serial number stored in the NAND chip that determines part of the encryption keys used for the nand file system. Plus you'd have to modify the partition tables and what not to actually make use of the extra space. Perhaps you could clone the nand id, but if the partition tables are RSA signed...you ain't doing that anytime soon. Only reason we can alter partition layouts on 3DS was due to a bootrom flaw. A flaw the Switch likely does not retain.

 

[Dominator211]

Stuck my 256GB MSD in it. I SHOULD be good for now.

yes but if you are like me and want to try out franchises and games you have nver tried before 256 isnt gonna last too long.

 

[Kioku]

yes but if you are like me and want to try out franchises and games you have nver tried before 256 isnt gonna last too long.

That's why I emphasized SHOULD. I've got my eye on quite a few games.

The switch doesn't support external HDDs, does it?

 

[Dominator211]

There's a serial number stored in the NAND chip that determines part of the encryption keys used for the nand file system. Plus you'd have to modify the partition tables and what not to actually make use of the extra space. Perhaps you could clone the nand id, but if the partition tables are RSA signed...you ain't doing that anytime soon. Only reason we can alter partition layouts on 3DS was due to a bootrom flaw. A flaw the Switch likely does not retain.

again hence the title of the thread not being possible for a while

 

[Apache Thunder]

again hence the title of the thread not being possible for a while

Well your reasoning on why it's impossible is what prompted my response. I do not disagree on the end result of it being impossible. Just how/why the consoles use the capacity chips that they use.

 

[Dominator211]

That's why I emphasized SHOULD. I've got my eye on quite a few games.

The switch doesn't support external HDDs, does it?

No it doesn't and how could it ever

 

[Kioku]

No it doesn't and how could it ever

What's the technical reason it can't? Must have missed that.

 

[Dominator211]

Well your reasoning on why it's impossible is what prompted my response. I do not disagree on the end result of it being impossible. Just how/why the consoles use the capacity chips that they use.

Yes, It is going to be a while if we even get anything on this topic

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What's the technical reason it can't? Must have missed that.

think about that for a second sir .... just think

 

[Kioku]

Yes, It is going to be a while if we even get anything on this topic

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think about that for a second.... just think

Nope. Not seeing it. Plugging an external HDD into the dock and having it read through USB C isn't impossible. So, please, explain.

 

[Sonic Angel Knight]

Don't forget Sd cards suck, easy to corrupt and only last so long. Wish people actually manage to get storage devices working without ever having to get such issues. That and batteries too. No more inflatable, leaking, exploding, charge degrading battery problems.

 

[Dominator211]

Don't forget Sd cards suck, easy to corrupt and only last so long. Wish people actually manage to get storage devices working without ever having to get such issues. That and batteries too. No more inflatable, leaking, exploding, charge degrading battery problems.

yes we know tech has flaws

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Nope. Not seeing it. Plugging an external HDD into the dock and having it read through USB C isn't impossible. So, please, explain.

one of the switches main selling points is it being a portable console... sure if you had your switch constantly in the dock I could see Nintendo doing something. But what about when you're in the car or on the go... please explain to me how Nintendo could possibly support HDD's

 

[Kioku]

yes we know tech has flaws

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one of the switches main selling points is it being a portable console... sure if you had your switch constantly in the dock I could see Nintendo doing something. But what about when you're in the car or on the go... please explain to me how Nintendo could possibly support HDD's

Exactly how I just stated. Having the games you play most on your SD to take with you on the go isn't exactly problematic. Having an external HDD to hold the extra games and apps doesn't seem like it's going pose an issue.

Or you could buy all your games physically and carry cases with you like crazy since the HDD seems impossible to you. Not seeing how or why Nintendo can't and won't support it.

 

[Sonic Angel Knight]

yes we know tech has flaws

I wish the people making the stuff knew about it, cause then instead of keep trying to sell us the same potential defective stuff they would focus on fixing it before they sell more.

Joking aside, I dunno much about NAND memory, except that is like a installed flashchip that is primarily used, while is probably not something for a noob like me really to understand technically, it seem to be rather complicated than just calling it a Internal flash storage device. I would assume nintendo and nvidia had to come up with a plan to make the system more "closed off" to anyone trying to modify it cause for all I know is based on android the most known modded system, that they would do well to protect it. At this point, i wish nvidia just make the shield portable 2 with the tegra X1 in it already or if there is a tegra x2 they planning that I be willing to pay 300 for.

 

[Dominator211]

Exactly how I just stated. Having the games you play most on your SD to take with you on the go isn't exactly problematic. Having an external HDD to hold the extra games and apps doesn't seem like it's going pose an issue.

Or you could buy all your games physically and carry cases with you like crazy since the HDD seems impossible to you. Not seeing how or why Nintendo can't and won't support it.

look it just wouldn't be practical either scenario you stated. if you had a hdd attached in handheld mode there could be a hard crash and other problems.... and if you kept your switch in the dock all the time not only would you be killing the battery you could be missing out on some parts of games like L.A Noire and hidden gems like voez

 

[Kioku]

look it just wouldn't be practical either scenario you stated. if you had a hdd attached in handheld mode there could be a hard crash and other problems.... and if you kept your switch in the dock all the time not only would you be killing the battery you could be missing out on some parts of games like L.A Noire and hidden gems like voez

So, yours is just personal preference. Nowhere did I state it being connected in handheld mode. You would be given the option to put certain games on the device itself. You don't think it's practical that's cool. Doesn't mean it's not an often requested feature.