Hacking EZ-FLASH Junior TestFlight

[ilchymis7]

I've used a 256 and 128gb micro SD in my Junior and Omega, both worked fine as long as its formatted to FAT32. I switched to a 32gb when I got one, but they worked in the meantime. Amazon's got some good micro sd deals right now.

 

[Boomer_Newb]

I've used a 256 and 128gb micro SD in my Junior and Omega, both worked fine as long as its formatted to FAT32. I switched to a 32gb when I got one, but they worked in the meantime. Amazon's got some good micro sd deals right now.

Did you need to create a smaller partition, or will it just read the whole 128gb in Fat32 32K ?

Is there a performance penalty for smaller cards formated 16k ?

 

[ilchymis7]

Did you need to create a smaller partition, or will it just read the whole 128gb in Fat32 32K ?

Is there a performance penalty for smaller cards formated 16k ?

I dont know, I did 32k clusters. Idk if it runs slower or faster, I remember 32 being reccomended so I did that.

The only time I had an issue with cluster size was when I was formatting a modded 3DS. Flash carts seem fine.

 

[RAHelllord]

The 4GB Class 4 Toshiba MicroSD from the NN3DS systems work just fine for me on all firmware revisions so far. Formatted with GUIformat and 32k cluster size. It's not the fastest card I had use in it, but it's plenty fast for a <7s boot time until it's at the file selection.

 

[Bonnom]

Did you need to create a smaller partition, or will it just read the whole 128gb in Fat32 32K ?

Is there a performance penalty for smaller cards formated 16k ?

FAT32 can be used with disk sizes up to 2TB, individual files can't be bigger than 4GB. Usually devices like the Junior can't even work with an SD card that uses partitions or it will use the first partition only. I would just avoid it. So just format the entire drive with FAT32.

About speed, GBC roms are at maximum 8MB, with the fast majority of the ROMS 2MB or below. Even my old crappy 2GB nokia microSD card can do 20MB/s read and random 4k read 7MB/s. So you really don't have to worry about speed.

 

[Boomer_Newb]

Thanks for the headsup guys. What is the behind the recommendation by ezflash for the 32k , and for a 2GB card which can only be formated 16k , how does that impact the ezflash.

 

[EZ-Flash2]

Thanks for the headsup guys. What is the behind the recommendation by ezflash for the 32k , and for a 2GB card which can only be formated 16k , how does that impact the ezflash.

EZ-FLASH Junior does not support SD card below 4GB, it only support 4GB -32GB SD card, format with FAT32 and 32KB file allocation unit size.

 

[Bonnom]

EZ-FLASH Junior does not support SD card below 4GB, it only support 4GB -32GB SD card, format with FAT32 and 32KB file allocation unit size.

What do you mean by support? As in EZ-flash will not check for bugs on a 2GB card formatted with FAT16? Because I tried a 2GB card formatted with regular FAT with 32KB clustersize and it seems to work just as good as the 16GB card formatted to FAT32.

 

[ilchymis7]

Just because you can doesn't mean you should... might have issues down the road and get a corrupted save or something.

I used a 256gb card that came straight outta a cfw vita, so I think it can work with more than it advertises. Just not reccomended, so if it screws up, that's on you.

 

[Bonnom]

Just because you can doesn't mean you should... might have issues down the road and get a corrupted save or something.

I used a 256gb card that came straight outta a cfw vita, so I think it can work with more than it advertises. Just not reccomended, so if it screws up, that's on you.

Why do you think that I asked "As in EZ-flash will not check for bugs on a 2GB card formatted with FAT16?"? It obviously indicates what you are saying.

 

[ilchymis7]

Sounds like we're both on the same page! Just sharing my experience for other folks.

 

[WiLLiW]

What do you mean by support? As in EZ-flash will not check for bugs on a 2GB card formatted with FAT16? Because I tried a 2GB card formatted with regular FAT with 32KB clustersize and it seems to work just as good as the 16GB card formatted to FAT32.

"...EZ-FLASH Junior does not support SD card below 4GB" does not implies that does not WORKS with it ...

 

[Boomer_Newb]

Calm down guys, no need to attack each other over this.

 

[aaaaaa123456789]

The issue is that the FAT specification requires any FAT32 partition to have at least 65,526 allocation units (i.e., clusters). If the partition has less than that, it's FAT16. FAT16 and FAT32 have significantly different layouts in terms of the file allocation tables themselves and they have different ways of locating the root directory, so it's entirely possible that a driver will support one but not the other.

EDIT: needless to say, 65,526 allocation units times 32KB per allocation unit make just below 2GB. Since this doesn't account for the FATs themselves, in order to reach that number, you need slightly above 2GB — and this is not accounting for the fact that most flash storage devices have slightly less capacity than advertised. All in all, since a 2GB card will probably not be able to be formatted as FAT32 with 32KB clusters, and 4GB cards are the next step-up, I assume this is the reason why 4GB is the minimum supported.

 

[WiLLiW]

Someone knows how much allocations units Pocket Monsters: Midori requires? I don't want to lose my precious game sessions

 

[aaaaaa123456789]

Someone knows how much allocations units Pocket Monsters: Midori requires? I don't want to lose my precious game sessions

Allocation units refer to the division of the SD card itself (or really, any disk or partition). The number of allocation units a file will take up can easily be calculated by dividing its file size by the size of an allocation unit and rounding up.

Answering your particular question, that game (being 512 KB in size) would take up 16 allocation units if the card was formatted with 32KB clusters, and the savefile would only take up one allocation unit. GB/GBC games are very small, and that's probably what motivates people to attempt to use smaller SD cards in the first place. Realistically, your chance of running out of space is almost zero; the entire library of official (i.e., Nintendo-endorsed) GB/GBC games plus a savefile for each game only takes up a couple of gigabytes.

 

[Shadow#1]

Allocation units refer to the division of the SD card itself (or really, any disk or partition). The number of allocation units a file will take up can easily be calculated by dividing its file size by the size of an allocation unit and rounding up.

Answering your particular question, that game (being 512 KB in size) would take up 16 allocation units if the card was formatted with 32KB clusters, and the savefile would only take up one allocation unit. GB/GBC games are very small, and that's probably what motivates people to attempt to use smaller SD cards in the first place. Realistically, your chance of running out of space is almost zero; the entire library of official (i.e., Nintendo-endorsed) GB/GBC games plus a savefile for each game only takes up a couple of gigabytes.

U just got trolled LOL

 

[Boomer_Newb]

The issue is that the FAT specification requires any FAT32 partition to have at least 65,526 allocation units (i.e., clusters). If the partition has less than that, it's FAT16. FAT16 and FAT32 have significantly different layouts in terms of the file allocation tables themselves and they have different ways of locating the root directory, so it's entirely possible that a driver will support one but not the other.

EDIT: needless to say, 65,526 allocation units times 32KB per allocation unit make just below 2GB. Since this doesn't account for the FATs themselves, in order to reach that number, you need slightly above 2GB — and this is not accounting for the fact that most flash storage devices have slightly less capacity than advertised. All in all, since a 2GB card will probably not be able to be formatted as FAT32 with 32KB clusters, and 4GB cards are the next step-up, I assume this is the reason why 4GB is the minimum supported.

@ aaaaaa123456789, Is the consequence of a _non_ conformant file system corrupt saves or performance loss or both ?

What is the reason that people are reporting smaller cards working, and cards > 32gb Appearing to work as well, perhaps even smaller cluster sizes?

 

[aaaaaa123456789]

@ aaaaaa123456789, Is the consequence of a _non_ conformant file system corrupt saves or performance loss or both ?

What is the reason that people are reporting smaller cards working, and cards > 32gb Appearing to work as well, perhaps even smaller cluster sizes?

I wouldn't know, as I'm not making the product. I was just explaining the meaning of those apparently random size requirements.

 

[WiLLiW]

U just got trolled LOL

c'mon, don't be mean