Homebrew Discussion [POLL] FAT32 vs. exFAT | issue discussion

[Deleted User]

No problems on exfat so far. Been using it with RetroNX for months and haven't encountered any of the reported issues. I'll continue to use it until something happens, just for research purposes.

 

[Duhasst0]

What fw are you uaimg? Did you update offically or their raj's method? Did you get the exfat update offically or thru Raj's method? That important info

 

[TimeDevouncer]

I change to fat32 beacuse two corruptions issues.

But...how can I split big NSPs files??

Thanks.

 

[lordelan]

But...how can I split big NSPs files??

That doesn't seem to be possible unfortunately. Waiting for that as well.
Or Tinfoil's promised net install feature, if that changes things.

 

[nyder]

If you understand how computers/electronics work and if you understand how software works, then understanding why exFat is a risk waiting to happen isn't surprising.

Just because you haven't had a problem doesn't mean one won't happen in the future. And the chances of having a problem is way greater with exFat then Fat32 just by the way they are programmed to run.

I personally don't care what anyone runs, but when it was pointed out to me and I went and did some research, I saw why using Fat32 was better in the long run. You can do the same research yourself if you want, or you can keep believing that because it hasn't happened to you yet, you are safe.

 

[hellionz]

3 times corrupt sd with exfat.....now im migrating to fat32....so i have to wait until this would be fixed

I dont want to change of micro SD with Lakka anytime i want to play emulators...and i dont use so much backups

Greetings

 

[Localhorst86]

128Gb Sandisk exFAT. No issues, but not a huge homebrew user. Mainly just

-tinfoil
-ReiNX Tookit
-NX Shell
-sys-ftpd

 

[xdpirate]

exFAT on 5.1.0, because it's 2018, not 1996 (no joke, fat32 was introduced in 1996, 22 years ago). If a homebrew application corrupts an exFAT card, the fault lies either with a) the homebrew or b) the libraries the homebrew uses. I've mainly been playing backups and doing the odd Checkpoint save backup, and there's no sign of corruption thus far.

 

[Localhorst86]

If a homebrew application corrupts an exFAT card, the fault lies either with a) the homebrew or b) the libraries the homebrew uses.

That's not entirely true. exFAT only has a single FAT which can corrupt when, for example, a writing process gets interrupted. There could be various reasons why this happens. It could be caused by a crash mid-write but also by actions of the user (battery runs dry mid-write, killing homebrew applications mid write etc.)

FAT32 does not have this issue, as it always has 2 FAT, one serves as a backup to the other. That said: I am not worried about killing a process mid-write myself, so I'll stick with exFAT.

 

[RitchieRitchie]

If on a 200gb micr sd card on FAT32 would you be able to use emunand if/when it is released?

 

[Skylinedeadline]

128gb sandisk exfat so far no issues though I only used sx's nsp installed/ftp and haven't tried other stuff. it came on exfat and got the support update when I updated my switch to 5.1

 

[Deleted member 456320]

Can anyone confirm getting the corruption issues on 5.1.0?

RetroNX corrupted my exfat card on 5.1.0

 

[Cubuss]

RetroNX corrupted my exfat card on 5.1.0

How did you format the sd card? on windows or on mac?

 

[Deleted member 456320]

How did you format the sd card? on windows or on mac?

Don't remember but probably Mac.

 

[Cubuss]

Pretty sure if you format with mac it will corrupt the sd card ,

If you format with windows you should be fine (exfat taht is )

 

[mranonymous]

if you use fat32 for anything other than lakka you need to be slapped

Do you think fat32 should be used for RetroNX too, or just lakka? I'm on the fence about trying it with RetroNX, just looking for some extra courage to try it

 

[jakkal]

Do you think fat32 should be used for RetroNX too, or just lakka? I'm on the fence about trying it with RetroNX, just looking for some extra courage to try it

Yeah retronx doesn't like exfat

 

[snk4ever]

Switch on 5.1.0
Exfat card, formated by the Switch.

No corruption problems, I didn't use RetroNX more than 4 or 5 times so far. Used NX Shell, Tinfoil, ftpd a lot with ftpd crashes.

 

[jfmherokiller]

my own experiences with my switch on 5.1.0 using exfat and a mac osx system:

copying folder over memloader mounted sdcard: folder is a zero byte file when seen through nxshell even tho the contents of the folder are visible when seen in finder and terminal.

Copying folder over sdcard reader: same issue as above.

current fix i employed: loading up lubuntu in virtualbox and copying the folder using memloader.

The best answer i can give is that there is a difference between how windows and osx write files to an exfat partition. Windows probably accounts for the differences thanks to either lots of user issue reports or their own collaboration with apple. This difference at least from my own observation seems to be that on osx the folders have a chance of being written in such a way they cannot be read correctly by the exfat driver of the switch.

I believe it might be because of a magic number in the driver that is used to check if an entry is a file or directory. On windows directories always have this magic number. However, on osx it has a different yet still valid number. But thanks to this difference the switch falls back to calling the directory a file and attempts to identify the size of said file. This of course fails so it defaults to a file-size of 0.

This is probably a corner case in the exfat driver of the switch and might be patched in a later fw version.

 

[McBing]

I use exfat had one small issue with hbappstore (apps wont install/Crash when installing) and retronx (saves corrupted) i dont know if those errors are related to exfat