Filesystem Not Found - microSD combatility

[Greg2600]

Receiving a "Filesystem Not Found" error on the below SanDisk 256MB cards.  Tried formatting in FAT and FAT32.  The Apacer 1GM card in FAT32 works.  I tried blank, putting the 7800GD.ini file on it, and also upgraded firmware to 23.08.0858, won't work.  This is quite aggravating as I want to use the smaller capacity microSD's as the bigger ones I've got are for other uses. 

 

[SainT]

Not sure to be honest, that message usually means they’re formatted to exFAT, but in this case it doesn’t sound like the case. They can also have multiple partitions causing this.

 

And are you saying you have upgraded to the latest firmware and this didn’t help, or are you saying you couldn’t upgrade to the latest firmware? There have been no changes in the way memory cards are handled, so updating firmware won’t help in this case.

 

If you want to post me a memory card which doesn’t work I can investigate, but failing that I don’t really get much call for people using old tiny cards when new decent memory cards are so cheap. And I suspect posting a memory card to me would be quite a lot more expensive than buying a couple of new memory cards.

Edited August 13, 2023 by SainT

[+-^CrossBow^-]

6 hours ago, SainT said:

If you want to post me a memory card which doesn’t work I can investigate, but failing that I don’t really get much call for people using old tiny cards when new decent memory cards are so cheap. And I suspect posting a memory card to me would be quite a lot more expensive than buying a couple of new memory cards.

This is quite accurate as I just purchased about 2 weeks ago, a pack of 3 32GB micros SD made by Lexar that work fine in both my Dragonfly and the 7800GD. I think that pack of 3 was like $14 through Amazon shipped and I got them in just a few days. I only needed one to use with my 7800GD but figured I might have uses for the other two in the future.

 

Point is, it isn't that expensive to purchase 16 or 32GB microSDs to use and while 90% of that space is likely to NEVER get used with these cartridges, it does work or seems to and is about the smallest you can buy for cheap these days. 

 

Maybe if more games can be made to take advantage of the streamining audio ability of the 7800GD, we might start to get more complex sound tracks for games and those audio files would require much more space over time.

 

 

[Greg2600]

8 hours ago, SainT said:

Not sure to be honest, that message usually means they’re formatted to exFAT, but in this case it doesn’t sound like the case. They can also have multiple partitions causing this.

 

And are you saying you have upgraded to the latest firmware and this didn’t help, or are you saying you couldn’t upgrade to the latest firmware? There have been no changes in the way memory cards are handled, so updating firmware won’t help in this case.

 

If you want to post me a memory card which doesn’t work I can investigate, but failing that I don’t really get much call for people using old tiny cards when new decent memory cards are so cheap. And I suspect posting a memory card to me would be quite a lot more expensive than buying a couple of new memory cards.

First, sending the card isn't worth the postage!  Unless you were desperate to research it.  LOL. 

 

Second, interestingly enough, all over older 1/4/8GB micros seem okay in there.  And the problematic 256MB seem to both work on your Lynx and Jaguar GD's so go figure!  I suspect they'll work on my NGPC GD too, if the handheld worked.  Decided today it doesn't want to turn on, so I have to poke around at it.  In any case, I'll just one the smaller capacity ones on the hand helds.

[SainT]

27 minutes ago, Greg2600 said:

Second, interestingly enough, all over older 1/4/8GB micros seem okay in there.  And the problematic 256MB seem to both work on your Lynx and Jaguar GD's so go figure!  I suspect they'll work on my NGPC GD too, if the handheld worked.  Decided today it doesn't want to turn on, so I have to poke around at it.  In any case, I'll just one the smaller capacity ones on the hand helds.

The 7800GD uses a different access method for the memory cards, so it wouldn’t surprise me that they differ.  I did try the small memory cards I had, but I’m not sure I had less than 1GB. I used to have lots of the really old small ones, but they’ve long since gone.

 

I have a feeling your small cards are not the HC variety. I think even the smallest cards I had were HC, so there will have been some older style cards I have not tested.

[Greg2600]

1 hour ago, SainT said:

The 7800GD uses a different access method for the memory cards, so it wouldn’t surprise me that they differ.  I did try the small memory cards I had, but I’m not sure I had less than 1GB. I used to have lots of the really old small ones, but they’ve long since gone.

 

I have a feeling your small cards are not the HC variety. I think even the smallest cards I had were HC, so there will have been some older style cards I have not tested.

I see.  HC is I believe 4GB and higher, whereas standard was 2GB and below, so the 1GB cards are not HC yet they work. 

PS: I tested the 256's on another NGPC I had to dig up, and they worked.  They did not work in my unmodded 7800 either, so it's definitely a 7800GD deal.  As I said, I'll use them for something else.

[esmith13]

Haven't got my 7800GD yet from SAG to test myself, but having older/tiny cards I use for other reasons (265MB & 512MB in my case) I can tell you that your computer likely formats them as FAT16 with a 8kb-16kb cluster size (smaller cluster sizes used for lower volume cards) whereas 1GB and larger cards usually get formatted as FAT32 with a 1kbb-32kb cluster size with 32kb being the most common used for 8GB and larger cards.

I wonder if you use a partitioning tool and force format the tiny card to FAT32 at a larger cluster size if it would work for you? 

[SainT]

FAT16 should also work, I believe, I don’t think I disabled support for it. 🤔

[Greg2600]

7 hours ago, esmith13 said:

Haven't got my 7800GD yet from SAG to test myself, but having older/tiny cards I use for other reasons (265MB & 512MB in my case) I can tell you that your computer likely formats them as FAT16 with a 8kb-16kb cluster size (smaller cluster sizes used for lower volume cards) whereas 1GB and larger cards usually get formatted as FAT32 with a 1kbb-32kb cluster size with 32kb being the most common used for 8GB and larger cards.

I wonder if you use a partitioning tool and force format the tiny card to FAT32 at a larger cluster size if it would work for you? 

I tried FAT32 at the time, and wouldn't work either.  I do not recall the allocation size, but I think it was 4096 bytes.

[Dark Descent]

I just received my gamedrive and I'm having the same issues.  The card is 128 mb.  It was default formatted at exFAT.  Only other formatting option on this card is NTFS.  Do I have to purchase a new card or can I format this one to what is needed to get the filesystem to be recognized?

Edited November 20, 2023 by Dark Descent

[SainT]

You need FAT or FAT32. And I’m assuming you mean 128GB? It should be possible to format to FAT32 with a program, but 32GB or less is recommended due to this issue.

[Dark Descent]

Ok thanks. That explains it.