Homebrew Question File corruption on FAT32

Jellykrop

Well-Known Member
OP
Newcomer
Joined
Dec 28, 2015
Messages
84
Trophies
0
Age
27
XP
208
Country
United States
Hi,

I'm having troubles with my beloved Switch lately. Firstly, I switched from using SX OS to using Atmosphère. My 256 GB (legit) microSD card was formatted to exFAT.

This summer, I started noticing that a lot of games I installed as NSPs and that were working perfectly were now refusing to launch. About half of the storage was taken, so there was a lot of available space. I linked that problem to file corruption as I was using RetroArch at the time.

I then decided to reformat my microSD to FAT32 (using a window program called FAT32 Format) since FAT32 is less prone to corruption (I've read multiple threads on the subject on this forum). I reinstalled some games' NSP files (very slowly since FAT32 is limited to 4GB files). A day later, some games were again refusing to launch.

I am using the latest release of Atmosphère (0.14.1) on the latest Switch firmware update (10.1.0) and with the latest sigpatches. I'm very desperate at this point and don't know what to do. Can you people please provide me with an explanation to my problem as well as a solution? Thanks in advance
 

GatoFiestero

Well-Known Member
Member
Joined
Jan 21, 2020
Messages
348
Trophies
0
Age
36
XP
1,619
Country
Costa Rica
Well this is unusual. What should be happening is that, overall, you have a better experience, as fat32 is ideal for Switch homebrew.
Maybe the quality of your SD card is bad. If it isn't, it may be damaged. You might consider running some tests on it.
Also, make sure your NSP's are okay. That they're not half-downloaded torrents and things like that.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Jellykrop

Jellykrop

Well-Known Member
OP
Newcomer
Joined
Dec 28, 2015
Messages
84
Trophies
0
Age
27
XP
208
Country
United States
Well this is unusual. What should be happening is that, overall, you have a better experience, as fat32 is ideal for Switch homebrew.
Maybe the quality of your SD card is bad. If it isn't, it may be damaged. You might consider running some tests on it.
Also, make sure your NSP's are okay. That they're not half-downloaded torrents and things like that.
Thanks for your answer. My microSD card is a Samsung EVO bought from Amazon (sold and shipped by Amazon) so it's a legit card (I was very careful when I bought it) and its read-write speeds were sufficient. I almost never get it out of the Switch so I doubt that it could be physically damaged :unsure:
Another hypothesis of mine is that the program I used to format it to FAT32 is faulty and maybe it screwed up the file system, but I don't even know if it's possible.
I installed the NSPs in question using Goldleaf over USB (Quark) and for all the games it told me "this NSP seems official". What's even weirder is that the games used to work for months and months and are know getting corrupted upon re-install :wacko:

How can I run tests on my card to see if it's damaged?
 
  • Like
Reactions: Supreme23

TheCasualties

Just trying to be helpful
Member
Joined
May 11, 2020
Messages
440
Trophies
0
Location
The Bardo Islands
XP
494
Country
Netherlands
You can try using hekate's "archive bit fixer". It's not guaranteed to fix your corrupted games but it might work.

IIRC load into Hekate, click tools, then there is a line on the bottom right that says something like "archive bit.." and some other stuff. Click that line then run that bit fixer and you might get lucky!

Good luck.

You could also try a different installer like Awoo, but if they were working at first that is probably not the issue.

PS: H2TestW is good for checking for card errors. But it can take a very long time if it's a large GB card. So try the archive bit thing first.
 
Last edited by TheCasualties,
  • Like
Reactions: Jellykrop

Jellykrop

Well-Known Member
OP
Newcomer
Joined
Dec 28, 2015
Messages
84
Trophies
0
Age
27
XP
208
Country
United States
You can try using hekate's "archive bit fixer". It's not guaranteed to fix your corrupted games but it might work.

IIRC load into Hekate, click tools, then there is a line on the bottom right that says something like "archive bit.." and some other stuff. Click that line then run that bit fixer and you might get lucky!

Good luck.

You could also try a different installer like Awoo, but if they were working at first that is probably not the issue.

PS: H2TestW is good for checking for card errors. But it can take a very long time if it's a large GB card. So try the archive bit thing first.
Thanks for the tip ^_^ I don't mind having to re-install my games, I don't really need to recover the files since I have them on my hard drive. I would just like my games to stop corrupting on their own, and maybe checking the integrity of the file system is the first step. This corruption happens right after the installation. In system settings I used the tool provided by Nintendo under "Data Management" to check for corrupted files and indeed it tells me that some data is corrupted, even if the game has never been ran before and that no homebrew besides Goldleaf has ever been used. Weird. :wacko:
 

TheCasualties

Just trying to be helpful
Member
Joined
May 11, 2020
Messages
440
Trophies
0
Location
The Bardo Islands
XP
494
Country
Netherlands
Well in that case, I'd still try the archive bit fixer first. You wouldn't have to reinstall if that works.

If it doesn't work try reinstalling them with a different installer. Goldleaf is great for many things, but it's installer isn't the most reliable.

Just to make sure, you aren't using homebrew 'Applet Mode' are you? Installers sometimes mess up w/o the full RAM access.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Jellykrop

Jellykrop

Well-Known Member
OP
Newcomer
Joined
Dec 28, 2015
Messages
84
Trophies
0
Age
27
XP
208
Country
United States
Well in that case, I'd still try the archive bit fixer first. You wouldn't have to reinstall if that works.

If it doesn't work try reinstalling them with a different installer. Goldleaf is great for many things, but it's installer isn't the most reliable.

Just to make sure, you aren't using homebrew 'Applet Mode' are you? Installers sometimes mess up w/o the full RAM access.
OMG you're right, I completely forgot about Applet Mode! Thanks a lot! But if no game is installed, I can't press R on a game to give Goldleaf full RAM access...
 
Last edited by Jellykrop,
  • Like
Reactions: TheCasualties

TheCasualties

Just trying to be helpful
Member
Joined
May 11, 2020
Messages
440
Trophies
0
Location
The Bardo Islands
XP
494
Country
Netherlands
  • Like
Reactions: Jellykrop

Hayato213

Newcomer
Member
Joined
Dec 26, 2015
Messages
19,731
Trophies
1
XP
20,609
Country
United States
Hi,

I'm having troubles with my beloved Switch lately. Firstly, I switched from using SX OS to using Atmosphère. My 256 GB (legit) microSD card was formatted to exFAT.

This summer, I started noticing that a lot of games I installed as NSPs and that were working perfectly were now refusing to launch. About half of the storage was taken, so there was a lot of available space. I linked that problem to file corruption as I was using RetroArch at the time.

I then decided to reformat my microSD to FAT32 (using a window program called FAT32 Format) since FAT32 is less prone to corruption (I've read multiple threads on the subject on this forum). I reinstalled some games' NSP files (very slowly since FAT32 is limited to 4GB files). A day later, some games were again refusing to launch.

I am using the latest release of Atmosphère (0.14.1) on the latest Switch firmware update (10.1.0) and with the latest sigpatches. I'm very desperate at this point and don't know what to do. Can you people please provide me with an explanation to my problem as well as a solution? Thanks in advance

Have you done a H2testw test on the card?
 

Jellykrop

Well-Known Member
OP
Newcomer
Joined
Dec 28, 2015
Messages
84
Trophies
0
Age
27
XP
208
Country
United States
Have you done a H2testw test on the card?
Not yet, I don't have access to the Switch right now, but I'll try when I get back home.

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

Oof I never thought about that.. So it won't launch homebrew menu if you try to launch with a corrupt game?

Maybe this thread can help. It's a HBmenu launcher as an NSP. Maybe you can install that in applet mode.
https://gbatemp.net/threads/homebrew-menu-loader-legal-nsp.518433/
Thank you so much! I'll give it a try ^_^
 
  • Like
Reactions: TheCasualties

Jellykrop

Well-Known Member
OP
Newcomer
Joined
Dec 28, 2015
Messages
84
Trophies
0
Age
27
XP
208
Country
United States
Copy all the data off to a computer and run a H2testw test on the card with no data on it, it will tell you if the card is legit or not.
Ok thanks, I'll do it. I doubt it isn't legit though, it's sold and shipped by Amazon. They probably don't sell the type of junk you find on Wish lol :rofl2:
 
  • Like
Reactions: hammer300

Jellykrop

Well-Known Member
OP
Newcomer
Joined
Dec 28, 2015
Messages
84
Trophies
0
Age
27
XP
208
Country
United States
Amazon shares inventory, including stuff with FBA from what I understand. So you could still get a fake card even through them.
I didn't know that. But if it were a fake one I would suspect it to perform very badly. Yet read and write speeds are fast and I filled half the card already (120 GB out of 256) before getting into trouble.
 

jesterscourt

Not Brad.
Member
Joined
Jan 3, 2007
Messages
2,356
Trophies
1
XP
1,294
Country
United States
I didn't know that. But if it were a fake one I would suspect it to perform very badly. Yet read and write speeds are fast and I filled half the card already (120 GB out of 256) before getting into trouble.

I mean I hope it's not fake, but the best way to tell is to use a program like H2testw to confirm.
 

Jellykrop

Well-Known Member
OP
Newcomer
Joined
Dec 28, 2015
Messages
84
Trophies
0
Age
27
XP
208
Country
United States
I mean I hope it's not fake, but the best way to tell is to use a program like H2testw to confirm.
Here are the test results:

Warning: Only 244203 of 244204 MByte tested.
Test finished without errors.
You can now delete the test files *.h2w or verify them again.
Writing speed: 17.3 MByte/s
Reading speed: 18.0 MByte/s
H2testw v1.4

Also I joined a screenshot of the tool I used to format my microSD to FAT32 (which I did after the test finished).
 

Attachments

  • FAT32 Format Screenshot.png
    FAT32 Format Screenshot.png
    24.4 KB · Views: 219

Site & Scene News

Popular threads in this forum

General chit-chat
Help Users
  • No one is chatting at the moment.
    SylverReZ @ SylverReZ: @salazarcosplay, Morning