Hacking Swapped cards and now everything is twice as slow.

[Lopz0r]

Hello fellas, how's yall doing?

I have two SD cards that were misplaced. I was using a brand new 128gb Samsung SD for my R4i, and my 16gb old Sandisk SD for the 3DS. Which doesnt make sense, as i'd be better off using the extra space on the 3DS and not the cart.

Anyways, i decided to swap them. What i did was i copied both content from both cards to my computer, then i ran GM9 on both carts and formatted them on the 3DS as FAT-32 following a guide i found here (Launching GM, then choosing format, clusters auto). Then i copied the 3DS files to the 128gb cart and the R4 contents to the 16gb one. They're both functional.

But what i noticed is that with the 128gb card my DS is taking twice, or even three times the time it used to before: Booting, Launching VC, Launching Games, even turning off. Simultaneously, the R4 is also taking longer to load games and save cheat changes. On this second cart i'd have expected to have an increased lag since it's a lot less space than it was before, but i can't figure out why the 3DS is running slower with the 128gb.

The 128gb is also 3.0 ready and it copies/pastes content on my computer wayyyy faster than the 16gb one.

Any ideas?

 

[Clydefrosch]

larger capacity carts have a habit of loading slower on most consoles.

not sure why the r4i one is going slow though. maybe cluster size should be something else than whatever gm9 made it.
also, in the past, it felt like putting on the r41 firmware files on the cart first was kinda helpful, but no idea if that's really a thing

 

[Lopz0r]

larger capacity carts have a habit of loading slower on most consoles.

not sure why the r4i one is going slow though. maybe cluster size should be something else than whatever gm9 made it.
also, in the past, it felt like putting on the r41 firmware files on the cart first was kinda helpful, but no idea if that's really a thing

Ahh gotcha, i'm gonna try reformating the 16gb one with a different cluster and see how that goes.
Is there anything i can do to speed up loading on the 3DS besides using fastboot.firm?
And do you mean ditching the r4 card completely and running a DS emulator CIA on the 3DS directly?
Thanks bro.

 

[Clydefrosch]

Ahh gotcha, i'm gonna try reformating the 16gb one with a different cluster and see how that goes.
Is there anything i can do to speed up loading on the 3DS besides using fastboot.firm?
And do you mean ditching the r4 card completely and running a DS emulator CIA on the 3DS directly?
Thanks bro.

I don't think you can do a lot, if you have loads of badges on the homescreen, you could remove some of those, as they too need to be loaded before the home menu is fully responsive. If a larger sd card just adds like a 10th or even a 20th of a second of access time per icon, that gets noticeable very fast.

That said, in-game, you shouldn't really notice much difference and the increased capacity for games is well worth the trade off in boot time.

I also think a dedicated r4 card is always better than the ds loader with it's limited compability and whatnot, don't get rid of it

 

[TurdPooCharger]

@Lopz0r,

1. Quadruple reformat.
2. For the 128 GB card, try using 64 KB cluster size.
   • References regarding GBA VC graphical glitch bug, etc.

 

[Lopz0r]

@Lopz0r,

1. Quadruple reformat.
2. For the 128 GB card, try using 64 KB cluster size.
   • References regarding GBA VC graphical glitch bug, etc.

Sorry for taking a bit of time to get back to you.
I have just performed all 4 steps on both SD cards. Currently copying back the contents into the cards.
One question: In step 2 (windows explorer format) you say i should use NTFS if the card is bigger than 32gb. I did that. Then when i get to step 4 (Minitool) do i set the partition as NTFS and 64k clusters, or at this point should i set as FAT32 64k cluster?

And on the 16gb (Only used on the R4i) SD card, am i better off using 32 or 64 clusters?

 

[TurdPooCharger]

Sorry for taking a bit of time to get back to you.
I have just performed all 4 steps on both SD cards. Currently copying back the contents into the cards.
One question: In step 2 (windows explorer format) you say i should use NTFS if the card is bigger than 32gb. I did that. Then when i get to step 4 (Minitool) do i set the partition as NTFS and 64k clusters, or at this point should i set as FAT32 64k cluster?

And on the 16gb (Only used on the R4i) SD card, am i better off using 32 or 64 clusters?

Opps, I was away on a grocery run. Ran out of hot cocoa.

Windows File Explorer does not format cards bigger than 32 GB in FAT32, thus the substitution with NTFS.

You ultimately want your 128 GB card to be in [ FAT32 format | 64 KB cluster size (depending if it works from GBA VC and theme shuffle tests) | MBR disk | primary partition ].

***

Use 32 KB cluster for cards that are 64 GB and smaller.

 

[Lopz0r]

Opps, I was away on a grocery run. Ran out of hot cocoa.

Windows File Explorer does not format cards bigger than 32 GB in FAT32, thus the substitution with NTFS.

You ultimately want your 128 GB card to be in [ FAT32 format | 64 KB cluster size (depending if it works from GBA VC and theme shuffle tests) | MBR disk | primary partition ].

***

Use 32 KB cluster for cards that are 64 GB and smaller.

Alright, that's what i did then. Got the 128gb to FAT32 with 64kb clusters, copied over all the files and it's working. The loading speed is still long, but i've accepted that's how it's gonna be with a larger card. All good.

Also, got the smaller one on FAT32 with 32kb clusters, currently copying the R4 contents back to it. Since it's an old card it takes considerably longer to copy (Not 3.0 ready).

Thank you very much for all the help, enjoy your hot cocoa