Hacking Fat 32 or 16 on r4ds which is best and how ?

[BoneMonkey]

im on windows ME yeah i know its old and i dont have the option to format it to 32 or 16 anyone know how i can also how should if ormat it 16 or 32 which is best ?

 

[sp00n]

I believe it comes in FAT16. You shouldn't need to format it to FAT32 unless the microSD card is greater than 1GB.

 

[5uck3rpunch]

FAT is FAT16. All Windows OS's do it....

 

[Costello]

You can safely use FAT32.

You'll need it anyway if you have a large microsd card.

 

[imgod22222]

Yeah, as a matter of fact, I think that only the R4 supports FAT32.
(Oh yeah, and the M3 Simply, but you knew that.)

 

[R0YB0T]

I believe it comes in FAT16. You shouldn't need to format it to FAT32 unless the microSD card is greater than 1GB.



According to the FAQ you only need to use FAT32 if your card is over 2GB.

QUOTEQ) Do I format my MicroSD to FAT16 or FAT32?
A) The preferred option is FAT16 (just called FAT under Windows). FAT16 will run quicker than FAT32. FAT32 allows for larger capacity (over 2Gbytes), but since the largest MicroSD card is currently 2GByte, this isn't a problem.

 

[dafatkid27]

I have a 2GB "Sandisk Ultra II" microSD card. I currently have it formatted as FAT16. Should I reformat to FAT32? And if so, why?

EDIT: NVM, the post above answered it.

 

[Azimuth]

the max for fat16 is 4gb anything under is ok, i dont think micro sd cards have reached that capacity though.

 

[Comedor]

I format my MicroSD 1GB with FAT 16 and couldn't listen to a music on MoonShell...Then I format to Fat 32 and everything worked perfectly

.

 

[darksavior]

FAT16 64K clusters works fine for me. no skipping in mp3's in Moonshell

 

[HaaTa]

In linux kernal 2.4 I found that the MicroSD card was unreadible in Fat32 so I changed it to Fat16 on a whim and it worked.

 

[dan0f3]

It seems to me that there is nothing to loose by formatting the card in FAT(16) with a 64? cluster size. It is the walk around for the infamous freezing problem that nearly all (especially slower) micro SD Cards suffer from. The game of course is Castlevania Portrait of Sorrow.

This information can also be found at scorpei wiki.
http://wiki.scorpei.com/index.php/M3_DS_Si...patibility_list
***“NOTE: A lot of the Castlevania Portrait of Ruin problems can be fixed automatically for many of the Micro SD cards by formatting the Micro SD cards with FAT 16 with 32K Clusters. If it still traps, there are several ROM dumps of the game. One of them does not work even with the 32K cluster fix. You will need to get a different ROM dump of the game. You may need to restart the game and create a new save with the new ROM dump to make it run. Many of these cards should not have problems after formatting with Fat 16 with 32K clusters”***

darksavior Posted Feb 8 2007, 10:35 AM
FAT16 64K clusters works fine for me. no skipping in mp3's in Moonshell .

Hey Darksavior, have you tried this gameCastlevania: Portrait of Ruin) with your FAT16 64K cluster configuration? If so, how well does it play(any freezing)? The wiki page says that its best to use a 32K cluster size. ANy reason you chose 64?


For formating just right click on the micro crad in My Computer. Go to the properties and then click on the formatting one. Choose your format configuration annnnnnnnnd, your off!


Hope this helped somebody.

 

[Ad_Enuff]

The definitive answer is as follows:

FAT (or FAT16 as its called) was created for MS-DOS 3.31 and has a maximum file size of 2Gb. It also only has a maximum volume size of 2Gb so your microSD cards under FAT cannot exceed 2Gb in size.

FAT32 on the other hand which was introduced in Windows 95 version b in 1996 has a maximum file size of 4Gb and has a maximum volume size of 8 TiB (Tebibytes).

With that in mind, both File Systems will deal with ANY DS rom with regards to file size, but if you move to a microSD card greater than 2Gb i.e. 4Gb, you HAVE to move to FAT32.

It's my opinion that if you have a 2Gb card and its a fast one like Sandisk's ULTRA II series, then FAT32 is a more sensible solution/option.

I assume that if microSD cards exceed 4Gb or greater, SLOT1/2 flash carts will add NTFS compatibility in the future to their kernals/firmware as well.

 

[ZAFDeltaForce]

In my opinion, a card formatted to FAT16 with 64KB clusters and defragmented works wonders. No skipping and stuff on Moon Shell.

 

[dan0f3]

The definitive answer is as follows:

FAT (or FAT16 as its called) was created for MS-DOS 3.31 and has a maximum file size of 2Gb. It also only has a maximum volume size of 2Gb so your microSD cards under FAT cannot exceed 2Gb in size.

FAT32 on the other hand which was introduced in Windows 95 version b in 1996 has a maximum file size of 4Gb and has a maximum volume size of 8 TiB (Tebibytes).

With that in mind, both File Systems will deal with ANY DS rom with regards to file size, but if you move to a microSD card greater than 2Gb i.e. 4Gb, you HAVE to move to FAT32.

It's my opinion that if you have a 2Gb card and its a fast one like Sandisk's ULTRA II series, then FAT32 is a more sensible solution/option.

I assume that if microSD cards exceed 4Gb or greater, SLOT1/2 flash carts will add NTFS compatibility in the future to their kernals/firmware as well.

Whoa, thats a lot of good info! Unfortunately, I believe that the SD i am using is not high end. I have a 2GB on and i must say it did freeze quite a bit with FAT32, while running infamously problematic roms. When I researched this problem (with certain games that experienced frequent slow downs or freezes), the answers seemed to be unanimous in suggesting the FAT file system with larger cluster sizes.

Table sizes for the FAT file system are much smaller. This is one theory as to why it improves speed or compatibility with the DS. I can't say exactly why it works but the results are definate. I have tested both ways. So... as it seems that my 2GB SD card will not become a >2GB card anytime in its future, i think that i will keep this configuration.

That being said, Ad_Enuff is absolutely correct with his info regarding the file system options that are available for various sized flash cards. Cards greater than 2GB will not have this option, so be aware. As of R4ds 1.10 and M3DS's current FW, the slowing and freezing issue of a few games (very few), have not yet been solved.

In summation: For those with cards 2GB and under... i would have to recommend the FAT16(32KB or 64KB cluster sizes) over the FAT32. This configuration offers the greatest performance with those few problem games now and to come.

I am still not sure which cluster size offers the greatest compatibility. 64KB or 32KB. ANYBODY??? I have heard of only success from both. Either one is good. But which one is BEST!?

I swear, i love perfecting all of this stuff and researching more than i like the frigg'n games!

 

[ujoewong]

how to format it to FAT with clusters size? im all confuse...

 

[Lukeage]

I assume that if microSD cards exceed 4Gb or greater, SLOT1/2 flash carts will add NTFS compatibility in the future to their kernals/firmware as well.

Highly unlikely they'll ever implement NTFS. Even under Linux, NTFS drivers are reversed engineered because to get 'official' access to the NTFS specifications requires a licenses from Microsoft. NTFS is a complex beast and would be ridiculous to try and support on any 'simple' device. (On a side note, Microsoft holds the Patents for FAT/FAT32 but they have never required any licensing for them). UDF will likely be the next step as it is an ISO standard, utilised by many operating systems (at least in part) and is already utilised on larger cross platform media (primarily DVD Video discs). It also appears to be much simpler than other file systems (ie EXT2/3, ReiserFS, ZFS, etc..). That said, FAT32 has a lot of life left in it until flash media gets to a point where >4GB files are common place, they start to clear 8TiB or we require support for more than 240million files.

@ujoewong, Cluster sizes aren't selectable as they are decided by the size of the disk you are trying to format.

 

[ujoewong]

ic.. i checked mine was FAT 16KB cluster size.. what does it mean? sorry i just want to make sure of it to perfect my NDS gameplay

 

[Ad_Enuff]

Highly unlikely they'll ever implement NTFS. Even under Linux, NTFS drivers are reversed engineered because to get 'official' access to the NTFS specifications requires a licenses from Microsoft.

I don't think the R4 dev team is going to care about licenses when your making a product that plays pirate Nintendo DS commercial roms....that's the least of their worries!

File Systems are an essential part of any OS and without them they don't work. I can't see Microsoft issuing any law suits with regards to that.

Now if their new file system information got out, then I can see heads rolling!

 

[xabier]

Yeah, as a matter of fact, I think that only the R4 supports FAT32.
(Oh yeah, and the M3 Simply, but you knew that.)

supercard ds one also supports fat32

I think that almost every slot1 solution supports it