exFAT to FAT32

aarontxc

Junior Member
Feb 6, 2019
16
3
Prague
I've searched for this and didn't find anything, but apologies if I missed it.

My question is: If I have a card formatted in exFAT, is there a "best procedure" for going back to FAT32?

I set up my Switch using SX OS, taking a NAND backup of the fresh system before booting the OS. Then I upgraded the system to have ExFAT support (using ChoiDujourNX's "install the same OS, but with exFAT" option). Then, using an exFAT-formatted memory card, I created an EmuNAND on a hidden partition and booted to that, upgrading SysNAND's OS to v6.2.

I haven't had any issues with exFAT yet, but I've seen many threads discussing issues with it, and I think it'll be safer to go back to FAT32.

As I understand it, I could just restore that original NAND (with no exFAT), reformat the entire memory card to FAT32, and start from scratch, but I'd obviously lose all my data.

If the hidden partition happens to be formatted in FAT32, then (again, as I understand it) I should just be able to copy off the data from the exFAT partition to my computer, reformat the visible partition to FAT32, and then re-copy the data back to the (reformatted) FAT32 partition. But I'm not sure if that'll work, or if that'd introduce other problems.

Thoughts on how I should proceed?