P2 Start from other SD formats

frank freedman

P2 only starts from an SD card formatted Fat32 per the datasheet. Seems windows (10 and 11) will only format cards larger than 32GB as NTFS or exFAT. I ask because I had some odd behavior where my stack of SD cards, including two brand new 32GB cards failed with invalid format messages. So I went looking for 16GB or smaller, and they seem to have transmuted to unobtainium outside of internet orders. Is there a plan for using other formats for larger SD cards in future releases of the P2 chip?

msrobots

All existing P2 driver just support FAT32 or raw sector, So on exFAT you still could put a signature into the Bootsector and the P2 will find it, but where to jump? And how to read exFAT?

So out of luck there. But you still can format the 32GB cards as FAT32, thanks to Microsoft they just get produced with exFAT, no actual need for.

You also could put 2 partitions on it FAT32 supports a lot of space...

Mike

pik33

But you still can format the 32GB cards as FAT32,

and while in Linux, you can even format a 128 GB card as FAT32. I have one connected to P2 Eval.

Wuerfel_21

@msrobots said:
All existing P2 driver just support FAT32 or raw sector, So on exFAT you still could put a signature into the Bootsector and the P2 will find it, but where to jump? And how to read exFAT?

Flexspin can build its SD card VFS driver with exFAT support. I think, anyways, haven't tried it.

Eitherhow, as noted, there is no need for exFAT. The only advantage it confers is having a larger maximum file size. exFAT is also more vulnerable to corruption.

frank freedman

@pik33 said:

But you still can format the 32GB cards as FAT32,

and while in Linux, you can even format a 128 GB card as FAT32. I have one connected to P2 Eval.

This was what I was looking for. Have not tried to do this from the linux box (doohhhhh, I should have known better), so much stuff runs Winedows. But good news because it is getting very hard to find SD cards in stores smaller than 64GB, sometimes 32's are there, but anything less is hard to find. Thanks to all, forum always comes through!

Wuerfel_21

Don't even need Linux, Windows can do it with a 3rd party tool: http://ridgecrop.co.uk/index.htm?guiformat.htm

ke4pjw

I just buy these.

https://www.amazon.com/Gigastone-32GB-U1-C10-Nintendo/dp/B07N73LB4T?th=1

$5 each, pack of 5.

If you need to format a larger card FAT32, I think TAQOZ can do that.

RichardB

For our huge crop of Microchip PM3s, I just partition the cards (Any ol card) for a small capacity. Then when I forget, or somebody else formats it it still come out right