Hacking What is the difference between FAT16 and FAT32

[wezlyons]

This is probably a daft question but is there any advantage to formatting my micro sd to FAT32 when it is already formatted to FAT16 or should i just leave it as it works fine?

 

[gorenut]

Now, I don't know the exact differences but I see the majority of the forum members sticking to the 16 over 32. Works for me.. plus I'm a big advocate of "if it ain't broke, why fix it?"

 

[nintendofreak]

I doubt it would work under FAT32, go with gorenut, dont fix unless its broken

http://www.pcnineoneone.com/howto/filesystems1.html

that should clarify things a bit

 

[xler8]

FAT16 = fast.

"[FAT32] keeps its cluster size low, even on massive hard drives--but it's actually a little slower than FAT16. By using smaller clusters, FAT32 must keep track of more of them on a given partition than FAT16. Since FAT tables function basically as linked lists, more entries equates to slower overall performance."

from http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,1157849,00.asp

 

[wezlyons]

Thanks for the replies, ill just leave it as it is then

 

[IxthusTiger]

Wait, but why do I get less freezes on Portrait of Ruin with FAT32 than FAT16?

 

[tw8e60]

For me FAT 32 + cluster of 8192 is the only way of NO FREEZE on Castlevania PoR. 100% no Freeze. Hope it helps someone.

 

[SpaceJump]

For me FAT 32 + cluster of 8192 is the only way of NO FREEZE on Castlevania PoR. 100% no Freeze. Hope it helps someone.

Which MicroSD card do you have?

 

[tw8e60]

Kingstone 1 GB Japan Brand. But only Fat 32 worked for me.... not Fat 16. Again this is using cluster 8192. Only Fat 32 + cluster 8192 = NO FREEZE.

SanDisk (1Gb) didn't work with any combination.

 

[xler8]

Kingstone 1 GB Japan Brand. But only Fat 32 worked for me.... not Fat 16. Again this is using cluster 8192. Only Fat 32 + cluster 8192 = NO FREEZE.

SanDisk (1Gb) didn't work with any combination.

Thanks for the info. Any chance you could update the wiki with info on your card? There are a couple Kingston cards there that could be yours.

 

[IxthusTiger]

I got fewer freezes on my SanDisk 1G using FAT32 default rather than FAT16 64k

 

[Katalyst]

FAT32 with a Kingston 1GB (SD-C10G JAPAN). Haven't had any problems whatsoever. I didn't try FAT. As soon as I got it, I went with FAT32.

 

[jibaro]

For me FAT 32 + cluster of 8192 is the only way of NO FREEZE on Castlevania PoR. 100% no Freeze. Hope it helps someone.

This is really interesting information, but how do you apply the 8192 cluster. When I try to format my 1 GB Micro SD R-Data I only get the default allocaton size option. Did you use any special tools to format?

Thank you for your time.

 

[Destructobot]

When I try to format my 1 GB Micro SD R-Data I only get the default allocaton size option.

You have to format from the disk management thingy to get options for that option.

Start -> run -> diskmgmt.msc
or...
Control panel -> administrative tools -> computer management -> storage -> disk management

 

[Malleus]

or use Start -> run > cmd
to get command prompt and use the command FORMAT /L:8192 /FS:FAT32 X:
where X is your sd cards drive letter... also I have a Kingston 1GB (SD-C10G JAPAN) too and I didnt format it before using it and had random hangs in many games, going to try reformatting now and see if it helps..
(using 1.05, going to update to 1.06b while Im at it..)

 

[Firon]

FAT32 16k gave me no freezes with PoR (apart from 2 freezes because of actual bugs in the game).

 

[StuKeeler]

I have a Sandisk (Taiwan) 1GB card.

Out of curiousity, I benchmarked it's speed on different formats (FAT16/FAT32/different cluster sizes) and found no marked difference between them.

I now use FAT32, default cluster.