Homebrew Question Retroarch + exFat = corruption?

[DonKilluminati23]

I would have preferred to use exfat for obvious reasons, and did so for about 4 months.. then it happened. I wasn't mad, I knew I had it coming. Haven't had any issues since converting to fat32, and I don't have that constant bit of worry in the back of my mind every time I go to run retroarch etc.

Use exfat if you want, just be prepared for the (virtually) inevitable, and try not to lose your cool and swallow your pride if / when it's your time to pay for dancing with the devil [emoji6]

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

 

[DarknessPlay3r]

Nobody said that they're safe from corruption, sd card corruption can happen whether you're on exfat and fat32.

I've got two switches (mine and my partners) both of which have 128gb Sandisk U3 SD cards formatted to exFAT and thus far have been problem free.

A friend of mine was using a cheap SD they bought online (fat32) and it did end up with corrupted files.

got many corruption on exFat , sometimes just files i used , like the save and rom after using retroarch , save exit , when i tried to launch the app cant , on pc only somes filed where un deletable or movable or usable , otheres where ok ,sometime full sd corruption .tried it like 10 times(more or less didnt count ) , could sometime play for 1h sometime 1day always ended up with corruption depending on the amount of use of homebrew/nro , more exits meaning more chance of corruptions .

each of those test were made on official sandisk , one 64Gb the other 128

did the same kind of test with fat32 (32Gb kingston ) never a corruption (even with many crash of homebrew/nro ) .

Though it's likely that's caused by the exFAT driver (it can cause data corruption) did you try those same cards formatted to fat32? Not being able to delete files using your PC sounds like something is either wrong with the card/sd reader. I know my old Adata SD card I used in my phone did that before it died completely.

 

[shano]

I recently swapped to FAT32. Was starting to experience very long boot times of GoldLeaf which fixed when i swapped to FAT32.

Maybe my EXFAT card was starting to corrupt. Just split the NSP's with a splitter if worried about not being able to install bigger NSP games/updates.

 

[Deleted member 361542]

I still use exfat since 2017 and nothing bad happend to me.
And i love the danger, thats my middle name
Stupid danger cunt

It cant hit anyone. Maybe not this day or next week but maybe it can me hit in 2 years

 

[cucholix]

I'm using exFAT, and no issues so far. Still keep an updated backup of my msd just in case.

 

[jme2712]

Always used exFAT and still no corruption. It's worth noting that I'm using a decent U3 Sandisk SD. If you use a cheap/counterfeit/shit SD card like Kingston, AData, Lexar, and any other budget line you can buy almost anyware. Expect issues regardless of file system. If you are going to use a shit card use fat32.

Using a Samsung evo I was not able to boot into ams. This was at the end of February this year. I just got a black screen. Switching to fat32 immediately remedied the situation.

 

[spotanjo3]

the thing about exfat corruption is, its definitely still there.
you can do a little to actively avoid it, like waiting a few seconds after homebrew wrote or loaded a file before using the home button, using official exit functions (which retroarch unfortunately doesn't have, at least not working), generally avoid homebrew that reads or writes excessively.

but the corruption is still there. you might not even notice at first, maybe it's just affecting a bunch of unneeded files here or there, a few nes or sega roms here you never start anyways, a savefile there you're not loading, a border file or a screenshot you took.
or an installed game you just hoard and never look at again.

but eventually, a game you're actively playing might not start, a homebrew you want to use might crash because of some file error or a savegame you backed up can't be recovered anymore.

and thats when you wish you just switched to fat32, which also has a chance for corruption, but it's significantly less likely to run into it than for exfat.


you can also still install nsps on fat32, using nsp splitters and installing from sd card, or just getting the zadig drivers, fluffy or a comparable usb install user interface.

or just stay away from homebrew.

You are correct but stay away from homebrew ? Not true. I have been used it for a long time with exFAT and no corruption so far.. NOT JUST YET anyway. I have a backup just in case. So far, everything is so good.

 

[stick267]

Just use FAT32 and USB install for NSPs. Problem solved.

 

[spotanjo3]

Just use FAT32 and USB install for NSPs. Problem solved.

LOL. Use exFAT and USB Installed method (Hate getting SD out every time) for NSPs since November 2018. Problem solved as well.

 

[Techjunky90]

I've been using exfat since homebrew came to the switch, never experienced corruption. I'm convinced corruption happens due to user error, such as not exiting homebrew correctly.

 

[KirovAir]

When was the last time you used exFat? Probably very long ago. I assure you that if you changed to exfat now, you would not leave it. This myth about exFat has been dragging from the beginning and it has only happened because homebrew was very underdeveloped, there were no libraries like today. Today exFat support is satisfactory. As I mentioned, I have been using Exfat for a very long time, zero problems or damage to files.

It is and never was a homebrew problem. It's in the Switch kernel. This problem is still here until Nintendo fixes it. Nintendo keeps an own FS table next to the exfat one to fix corruption of the table on every reboot because the kernel is fucked. Homebrew will never have a solution like this unless this is created within a CFW or within the homebrew itself, which is stupid.
Fat32 does not have this issue as it has a backup FS table from itself, which can recover without Horizon OS. (And is suitable for homebrew)

See here for a better explanation:
https://github.com/libretro/RetroArch/issues/7480#issuecomment-432700844
and here:
https://github.com/libretro/RetroArch/issues/7480#issuecomment-434262799

 

[Csmrcc]

Sd exfat for switch games, and another sd fat32 for Homebrew and movies.
Everything alright.

 

[subcon959]

Just wanted to add that I don't think there's anything magical about FAT32, you can get corruption no matter which you use.

 

[masagrator]

I use a 200gb card, I can't use fat32, But I have NO ISSUE

You can, just use guiformat on Windows

Just wanted to add that I don't think there's anything magical about FAT32, you can get corruption no matter which you use.

FAT32 has countermeasures for avoiding corruption of partition table. Exfat hasn't. So on Exfat you have better chance of corruption.
You can read it in Wikipedia.

I got one time corruption in "titles" of Wolfenstein New Colossus, so FAT32 isn't ideal, but better than exfat in terms of risk.

 

[ZachyCatGames]

It is and never was a homebrew problem. It's in the Switch kernel. This problem is still here until Nintendo fixes it. Nintendo keeps an own FS table next to the exfat one to fix corruption of the table on every reboot because the kernel is fucked. Homebrew will never have a solution like this unless this is created within a CFW or within the homebrew itself, which is stupid.
Fat32 does not have this issue as it has a backup FS table from itself, which can recover without Horizon OS. (And is suitable for homebrew)

See here for a better explanation:
https://github.com/libretro/RetroArch/issues/7480#issuecomment-432700844
and here:
https://github.com/libretro/RetroArch/issues/7480#issuecomment-434262799

It’s not an issue with the kernel (although that does have it’s own set of issues), it’s an issue with the FS sysmodule

 

[Deleted User]

This reminds me of jaded new yorkers its like one stranger goes to you hey dont go down there and other strangers walk by and are like hey it was fine. I said it before i will say it again. Anyone who has retroarch and exfat isnt really playing. Maybe some casual showing off. But no one is really putting hours into the old retro games. If they did they would notice corruption. So it causes confusion cause those people chime in and say hey i have retroarch everything is fine! Meanwhile they occassionally play game gear or something...

 

[botpiwi]

Hi I use exFat since day one and I can tell you this. My card got corrupted twice, once using nxmtp, the other one was saving a state of a game in retroarch. Im planning use two SDcard, one specific for retroarch

 

[cracker]

I use a 200gb card, I can't use fat32, But I have NO ISSUE

Yes, you can. You need to use a partition managing tool in Windows since MS thinks drives larger than 32GB shouldn't be allowed to use FAT32.

 

[Jan200101]

I use a 200gb card, I can't use fat32, But I have NO ISSUE

being unable to format 32GB+ drives is a limitation of Windows imposed by Microsoft to get you to adopt exFat, you know, the thing they managed you to do


to add to the discussion
when I first homebrewed my switch I used exFat as I saw that as Nintys prefered filesystem
but my files constantly corrupted
not just files I used e.g. roms ALL files
homebrew, hekate files, etc.

 

[chaxelos]

I formatted my exFAT SD 3x now in a week since i installed retroarch and started playing PSP games. now im switching to FAT32, and giving it a go! hope this will be the last time i will format my sd! transferring back files back and forth is one hell of a job!