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

[hippy dave]

I haven't used much homebrew (homebrew launcher, checkpoint, nx-shell mostly). I haven't had any corruption so far.

My best tips for accessing the Switch's sd card from a mac (whether plugged directly in or via memloader):
Format the card on the Switch, not the Mac.
Copy files across using Terminal, not finder. Don't even go to the sd card in finder.
(Hopefully you know how to use Terminal, but if not you can google for guides I guess. You need to change directory to the sd card by doing "cd /Volumes/<name of disk>")
Listing files using the terminal command "ls -aOl" (capital o, lowercase L) will show you the extended attributes of files on the sd card. Expect to see "hidden" attribute for the . and .. directories and some of the shit the mac loves to put on there, that's fine. Everything else should just have a - dash, you don't want to see the "archive" attribute. (Except for somewhere inside the Nintendo directory, just leave the attributes of that the hell alone). You can remove the attribute from specific files & folders (not the Nintendo folder) with "chflags -R noarch <filename>"
Copying files to the sd card using "cp -XpR <src> <dest>" will 'preserve' attributes meaning that the files copied don't end up with the archive attribute set. The "R" flag is for recursion, for if you're copying directories, but it doesn't hurt (doesn't do anything) when you're copying files.
You can delete files/folders using "rm -r <filename>", don't need to do anything special for this.
Once you're done, you want to delete the Mac's annoying dot-files etc, and unmount the sd card before it does anything else annoying to it. My preferred way is an app called Hidden Cleaner, which sits in your dock and you can drag the sd card icon to it, it cleans up and then unmounts. I'm sure there are other apps that are equally good.

 

[Meriadoc]

Using exfat after repetivi using of an home brew botw save manager the switch has a problem reading the sd and I have to reboot. No problems after the reboot however. Happened 2 times until now.

 

[Myron49485]

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.

The issue you got isn't really corruption, it has to do with how Mac changes the archive bit on files and folders. You can use a Windows computer/VM to set the archive bits correctly (guide), or do what hippy dave said. For me, I keep a suspended Windows VM which I resume whenever I need to fix my files, which is quite convenient. Also, files transferred through FTP with Filezilla seem to work fine.

Except for somewhere inside the Nintendo directory, just leave the attributes of that the hell alone

You can actually clear the archive bit for some things in the Nintendo folder. The things that need archive bit to be set are the files and folders inside /Nintendo/Contents/registered (excluding the registered folder).

 

[TimeDevouncer]

Any new method to install big NSPs in FAT32? Any way to split them?

 

[Myron49485]

Any new to install big NSPs in FAT32? Any way to split them?

You can probably do it with Tinfoil's network install feature.

Another thing you can try doing (just an idea) is to copy your Nintendo folder to a separate exFAT formatted SD card, install your NSP there, then copy your Nintendo folder back to your FAT32 SD card. It should work as long as the installed NCA files in the Nintendo folder aren't bigger than 4gb.

 

[lordelan]

You can probably do it with Tinfoil's network install feature.

Another thing you can try doing (just an idea) is to copy your Nintendo folder to a separate exFAT formatted SD card, install your NSP there, then copy your Nintendo folder back to your FAT32 SD card. It should work as long as the installed NCA files in the Nintendo folder aren't bigger than 4gb.

Installed files are never bigger than 4 gb.

 

[Adran_Marit]

Homebrew/emulators = Fat32
"Backups" = exfat

 

[lordelan]

Homebrew/emulators = Fat32
"Backups" = exfat

No.

Easiest installation = exFAT
Everything else (including almost easy installation) = Fat32

 

[Adran_Marit]

No.

Easiest installation = exFAT
Everything else (including almost easy installation) = Fat32

That's my personal preference

 

[Rune]

So those that use exFAT, what are your thoughts on the possibility of file corruption?
Do you not care?
Do you not believe in it?
Are you not worried about it happening to you?

I'm on the fence right now but the thought of corruption leans me towards FAT32 because "its better to be safe than sorry". Are there any reasons for me to not care?

 

[Adran_Marit]

So those that use exFAT, what are your thoughts on the possibility of file corruption?
Do you not care?
Do you not believe in it?
Are you not worried about it happening to you?

I'm on the fence right now but the thought of corruption leans me towards FAT32 because "its better to be safe than sorry". Are there any reasons for me to not care?

Personally, I don't care/not worried about it, I just got everything I want/need backed up

 

[Skylinedeadline]

So those that use exFAT, what are your thoughts on the possibility of file corruption?
Do you not care?
Do you not believe in it?
Are you not worried about it happening to you?

I'm on the fence right now but the thought of corruption leans me towards FAT32 because "its better to be safe than sorry". Are there any reasons for me to not care?

I'm not especially concerned since I don't use a lot if any homebrew outside of ftp at the moment. and I've not experienced any issue there. but should it actually corrupt I'll format it as fat32 most likely just to be safe.

 

[Myron49485]

So those that use exFAT, what are your thoughts on the possibility of file corruption?
Do you not care?
Do you not believe in it?
Are you not worried about it happening to you?

I'm on the fence right now but the thought of corruption leans me towards FAT32 because "its better to be safe than sorry". Are there any reasons for me to not care?

All my games are installed on NAND so I it's not an issue to me. All files on the SD card can be easily replaced, so I never really bother to eject/ turn off my Switch when taking the card out. It got corrupted several times as a result of not ejecting, but never from using homebrew. As for the limited NAND space, I'm okay with it as I don't play many games at once, and archive the ones I don't need.

If you make backups once in a while, you should be fine.

 

[SeongGino]

If you'd just formatted in the first place, you wouldn't even need to worry about fragmentation or corruption happening at all.

We still won't support ExFAT users, no reason to use it, and there's literally nothing we can do about it.

 

[i4ybrid]

Of those on exFAT, did you guys install the exFAT drivers through the Nintendo update, or through the other offline update? https://gbatemp.net/threads/how-to-...tch-console-on-any-ofw-without-update.505182/

 

[Skylinedeadline]

Of those on exFAT, did you guys install the exFAT drivers through the Nintendo update, or through the other offline update? https://gbatemp.net/threads/how-to-...tch-console-on-any-ofw-without-update.505182/

I installed through nintendo's official update back before I hacked my switch. So far no problems.

 

[PSxed]

How do you guys format your SDXC card to fat32? I've tried Easeus and guiformat.exe which convert my 128gb samsung micro sd to fat32. But everytime i tried to inject the reinx payload i get "failed to init sd card". When i return to exfat my switch boots up normally..

 

[leonmagnus99]

Personally, I don't care/not worried about it, I just got everything I want/need backed up

I'm worried about saves i have everything else backed up, but i guess we could also make backups of saves every 2 weeks just in case right?

 

[OrGoN3]

I wish you added a few more options to the poll, such as if they use Homebrew + Games, or just one or the other. Just telling me if their exfat experience was positive or not, doesn't let me know if they used it in the same manner.

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

How do you guys format your SDXC card to fat32? I've tried Easeus and guiformat.exe which convert my 128gb samsung micro sd to fat32. But everytime i tried to inject the reinx payload i get "failed to init sd card". When i return to exfat my switch boots up normally..

guiformat also has some bug that doesn't work well with the Switch. I don't recall exactly what it was, but I've read others complaining about the same thing. From what I've read, people have resorted to booting into a Live USB Linux Environment and using gparted.

 

[Adran_Marit]

I'm worried about saves i have everything else backed up, but i guess we could also make backups of saves every 2 weeks just in case right?

afaik saves are on the console itself