Hacking Should you get 128GB mSD for 3DS??? [WARNING: MATHS & MAGNETS]

[Osmosis]

Okay folks, let's do some basic maths. Then we'll learn about magnets... 'cause, magnets man, how do they work?

So I get a lot of trolls and naysayers out there who only recommend 64GB mSD/SD cards for your 3DS' system storage.


So here's the maths:

128GB mSD formatted to FAT32 actually results in 117GB. In fact, it doesn't matter what format it is in. It will only give you 117GB to actually work with. Why? Go f--- yourself. That's why.

With A9LH COMPLETED
+
ALL FREE AVAIALABLE eShop updates
+
ALL FREE AVAIALABLE eShop Apps
+
ALL Homebrew tools installed
+
3-4 actual games you might own from eShop
=
Only uses up to about 9.5GB. So we'll be nice and just round it out to 10GB.

Next I'll give my mSD the grace of 7GB to work with. This means room for savedata, dumps, NAND backups, etc. Just some working space. (actually, that's a lot of working space, but I like condoms, because your parents didn't use one)

So we have an average of 800MB - 4.0GB for a single game. So let's be gracious and say the average .CIA game is 1.0GB (which compensates for the big/small games, unlike what's between your legs)

117 GB - SD/mSD usable space (no matter what format type)
-10 GB - Rounded up A9LH as noted at beginning -VERY GRACIOUS-
======
107 GB - Left on SD/mSD After a nice backup of A9LH installed
- 07 GB - Free working space for savedata, dumps, etc.
======
100 GB - Left for games. Our "Average" rounded up being 1.0GB per game, means you get...
-100 GB - 100 games.
=======
000 GB = FULL BUT FUNCTIONAL SD/mSD

Even if games rounded down to half (0.5GB), that's only 200 games.

So for all of you out there using 32GB, yes, 1/3 of your SD will dissapear to A9LH. And that's being gracious. It's probably more like 5GB at max with -JUST- A9LH, no updates, no games, nada.

So:

32GB SD/mSD = 29.8GB usable.

29.8 GB - SD/mSD usable space (no matter what format type)
-10.0 GB - Rounded up A9LH as noted at beginning -VERY GRACIOUS-
=======
19.8 GB - Left on SD/mSD After a nice backup of A9LH installed
-0.8 GB - Free working space for savedata, dumps, etc.
=======
19.0 GB - Left for games. Our "Average" rounded up being 1.0GB per game, means you get...
-19.0 GB - 19 Games, roughly.
=======
00.0 GB = FULL BUT FUNCTIONAL SD/mSD

Now, how many 3DS games exist?

Wikipedia - List of Nintendo 3DS Games
"There are currently 905 games on this list. Below is last updated as of August 1, 2016:

At retail = 546
Download-only = 317
By region = 30
Demo only = 5
To be announced = 10 "​

So even if there is a game limit of 300 games to Luma3DS, even if you went nuts and got a 256GB mSD and formatted it in FAT32, guess what?

THERE IS NO F---ING WAY IN HELL YOU'LL EVER HIT THE 300 GAME LIMIT AND GET "ALL THE GAMES" ON 128GB mSD.

So go ahead, get your 128GB mSD. Fill it. Then use your GW RedCart to store the rest of your garbage on another 128GB if you'd like.

And even if we were mean, and said the average game was only 500MB (half a GB), that still wouldn't cut it on a 128GB. The 256GB? Maybe. But they'd be some small games. Prolly bad ones too. 512GB? Now we're talking... so let's go drop $500 on that bad boy... yeah, I thought so.

Only when you start talking 512GB do we even scratch being able to store all the games, but then the game limit will kick in at 300. Although I'm sure eventually that will be patched as well.

Currently the general market only offers up to 256GB mSD. So it'll be another dead president before we start seeing 1TB hit the market. But soon... 512GB? Yeah, you can find 'em. Wouldn't want to pay for 'em...

It will happen. HTC (and others) are already selling the A10 with a 2TB mSD reader. At this point, the phone will be useless before the 2TB mSD exists. So yeah... dream big.

Fin.

As for "how well" does a 128GB mSD work? Well... it works. But there's some things you don't want to do with that amount of space:

• DO NOT TRY TO INSTALL A9LH WITH YOUR 128GB mSD. Use a 32GB. THEN you can copy over the mSD files and use your 128GB.
• DO NOT USE DEVMENU/BIGBLUEMENU WITH 128GB, even FBI has some quirks...
• DO NOT BE SHOCKED THAT THINGS TAKE LONGER TO LOAD (especially icons and rom file lists that aren't subfoldered). YOU WILL WAIT 1-3 MINS BEFORE IT IS DONE, DEPENDING ON HOW MANY FILES IT NEEDS TO READ

 

[CeeDee]

• DO NOT TRY TO INSTALL A9LH WITH YOUR 128GB mSD. Use a 32GB. THEN you can copy over the mSD files and use your 128GB.
• DO NOT USE DEVMENU/BIGBLUEMENU WITH 128GB, even FBI has some quirks...

Just curious, why does 128GB have issues that 64GB doesn't?

 

[Townsperson]

Just curious, why does 128GB have issues that 64GB doesn't?

At least for point two, it's not an issue with a 128GB card. Instead, DevMenu/BBM can't function (They literally crash) when you have more than 100 GB free on your SD card.

As for the why, eh... Ask Nintendo?

 

[ih8ih8sn0w]

You forgot about homebrew and dev apps btw.

 

[Alex658]

At least for point two, it's not an issue with a 128GB card. Instead, DevMenu/BBM can't function (They literally crash) when you have more than 100 GB free on your SD card.

As for the why, eh... Ask Nintendo?

Because it was not designed to go anything after 32gb officially by nintendo.

You could still bypass that by filling the msd with random cias/videos/data while you install them, then after you have less than 99gigs excluding the random data, delete those.

Also, not all of those 905 games are playable, same region (dual english releases for eur/usa), or playable at all if you can't work your way around japanese.

There's also the option to keep your backups in a safe folder at a HDD on your computer, you do know that right?

 

[ih8ih8sn0w]

Because it was not designed to go anything after 32gb officially by nintendo.

You could still bypass that by filling the msd with random cias/videos/data while you install them, then after you have less than 99gigs excluding the random data, delete those.

Why bother doing that though when you can just use a cia installer that isn't old/leaked

 

[astrangeone]

I'm one of those users who bought a 128 gb SD card for all the random junk. It's about 75% full now.

I find that it loads a bit slower than my n3DS XL.

 

[Logan Pockrus]

OP, have you been drinking today?

 

[DKB]

64GB for 3DS/128GB for Wii U. That's how I see it.

 

[Temptress Cerise]

So for all of you out there using 32GB, yes, 1/3 of your SD will dissapear to A9LH. And that's being gracious. It's probably more like 5GB at max with -JUST- A9LH, no updates, no games, nada.

What? What on earth does "-JUST- A9LH, no updates, no games, nada." even mean. Just with the bear minimum of stuff needed to boot Corbenik, and no games installed, it comes out to about 100~MB of stuff. I mean, the only thing I can think of taking up 5GB in regards to A9LH is NAND backups... but it's pretty bad practice to keep those on your SD Card, since you know... your SD Card could corrupt on you, which would result in those NAND backups being useless...

As for the 128GB being 117GB that probably has to do with advertised vs actual.
Link: http://www.ussscctv.com/harddrivesizecapacitiescalculator.aspx

 

[aos10]

Edit: i don't get it why OP looks super excited to write all this.

 

[Halvorsen]

What the heck? I've filled up my 64 gig card completely with JUST games and reached the 300 app limit. 50 of them were VCs and half of those were custom VC. The other 250 was retail apps, 3DSWare, and like ten homebrew .cias. That's before roms and other homebrew; my Nintendo 3DS folder was literally 59 gigs with 300 games downloaded.

Not much shovelware.

Unless I'm not understanding the post right.

 

[sweis12]

64 in my 3DS, 64 in my gateway.
Overkill? Yes
Worried about space? No
Was I worried with a 32? Yeah it was almost full

 

[Columbo2811]

Op what a load a shite. I have more than 300 games on a 128gb card using 3 nands. vc games and eshop games are not that big and the sd card is still not full.

 

[zezzo]

Was I supposed to laugh?

 

[Temptress Cerise]

What the heck? I've filled up my 64 gig card completely with JUST games. That's before roms and other homebrew; my Nintendo 3DS folder was literally 59 gigs with 300 games downloaded.

Not much shovelware.

Unless I'm not understanding the post right.

Yeah, I am not sure how A9LH alone would take up 5-10GBs... Just the homebrew starter pack, Luma and the a9lh.bin payloads of Decrypt9, Hourglass9 and EmuNAND9, shouldn't take more than 12MB tops. On a completely clean and fresh a9lh install, people shouldn't be over 100MB-200MB~.

 

[aos10]

Was I supposed to laugh?

No,it's just "ok" as all this facts he wrote is cool stuff.

 

[Exaltys]

Well duh, if you want to fill you quota of 300 icons with 9mb VC injects of course you'll hit the limit before you fill even a 64gb card. As the emulators get better it is smarter to just use an icon for an emulator and have a folder of just every title in each systems library. Use the rest of the icons for legit 3ds games.

 

[MelonGx]

128GB is not enough for self-converted videos
Such as p___s

 

[migles]

128GB is not enough for self-converted videos
Such as p___s

such as what?
i am thinking you meant porn but it ends on a s