SD Card with exFAT

localbus

Member
Jul 13, 2007
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Anyway Galaxy Tab S2 can read and write file more than 4GB in the SD Card ?

I have no problem with the internal storage....

thanks
 

jazzmachine

Senior Member
Jan 9, 2013
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Chicago
I've always been under the impression that it's preferable to format cards to FAT32 as long as the file size limit isn't an issue. I imagine that the benefit wouldn't be terribly significant, but I'm in the habit of reformatting new cards to FAT32 due to my impression that there's at least some benefit towards performance (I use FolderMount heavily, mostly for huge games and I've never noticed decreased performance from keeping the obb files on external storage).

I'd be curious to hear your take @ashyx in any case, but I actually just got a new 128 GB card yesterday that I was opening up to reformat it with GParted when I read this post :laugh: I've been debating setting up a MultiSystem setup on my Note 4 (I'd actually prefer to use my S2 for that... All of the listed "supported devices" happen to be the variants with Qualcomm chips. Another element that they share is that they are all supported by ROMs other than stock... So I suppose that my 817T is "less than ideal" for that purpose!) I think I'm going to include a small ext4 partition anyway in case I do end up using my phone to multiboot. It's pretty likely that I will at some point, and having the partition scheme set up already and just swapping cards sure beats adding a partition to a populated disk... Here's the MultiSystem thread in case you're not familiar. Looks like an awesome tool... http://forum.xda-developers.com/android/software-hacking/tool-multirom-recovery-replacement-t3102395
@Phurkus Most cards come already formatted as exfat, at least those on the higher end of the storage spectrum. If you need to reformat it depends which OS you're using. Windows supports exfat natively, so all you need to do is right click on the disk, select "format", then just make sure that the dialog box that pops up has exfat selected (it should, NTFS is the only other option), you can leave "quick format" checked, type in a name if you want, then just hit start. If you want to format a filesystem to FAT32 though, there are a few small free utilities that you can use. The only one I've used myself is called Rufus. This isn't really necessary for formatting an entire device to a single partition of a common filesystem type, but I almost always use a Linux system for disk partitioning. The tools available are (generally) far more powerful, but the learning curve is a bit steeper depending on how/what you're doing and there can be a greater risk of data loss if your disk isn't blank (or if you're spacing out and wipe a local partition need for your OS installation)! Anyway, the free Windows utilities are just fine for simply reformatting a disk :)
 

Betachip

New member
Mar 17, 2016
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how can you reformat the sd card to exfat?
READ THIS REPLY FULLY, THEN DO YOUR FORMATTING AS POSTED IN THE MIDDLE SECTION OF THIS POST.

Windows 7,
Click Start
In the search type in "CMD" (without quotes)
In the results, top of search window, CMD will appear Don't click enter...right click CMD and "Run as administrator ". CMD window opens (black background).

Type:
diskpart (hit enter)
List disk (hit enter)
...you will now see a list of hard drives, thumb drives, and memory cards in this result of list disk . Pay attention to the size of the sd card your working with. Results may be...
Disk 0 500 GB. (PC hard drive)
Disk 1 64 GB (64 GB micro SD card)
500 might show 480 something.. same with 64 showing 58.. you got the idea.
The disk 0 will be your 500 GB hard drive for the PC. You will NOT chose disk 0.
This above is an example. The size I said is an example. It is easy to do. Dont get scared :)
Again,
diskpart ( hit enter )
List disk ( hit enter )
Select disc 1 ( if one is your sd card, from example above )
clean ( hit enter, time to wait you won't be able to type a letter if PC is still doing this ' work' just wait / for a deep clean you can type ' clean all ' (longer, like an hr )
create partition primary /or.. creat part prim ( hit enter )
active ( hit enter )
format quick fs=exfat ( hit enter ) (this is your type of format, exfat or you can fat32 or.. if you want a In depth format type ' format fs=exfat ' notice 'quick' was removed.
exit ( hit enter )
exit ( hit enter )
You can now remove the sd card from PC and put in your device. It is now erased and formatted to exFAT.
-------------

ONCE AGAIN,

CMD right click run as administrator, important to be admin.

diskpart
list disk
select disk #
clean
creat prim part
active
format fs=exfat
exit
exit

EXACTLY AS I HAVE TYPED.
You can
format quick fs=exfat

Diskpart is a program to do work on disks.

list disk is listing disks connected to the PC.

select disk, is chosing a disk to only work on in this diskpart program.

clean, is erasing get the disk and cleaning it.

creat prim part ( short for create primary partition) making the disk a partition for primary use. Since no specific custom size was typed, the whole disk is being marked as a primary partition.

active, is activating the disk (personally don't know if NEEDED but I think it can be a key factor to make it work. I'm just posting what I read from a master)

format fs=exfat, is formatting get the disk to exFAT. You can chose .. format fs=fat32 if you want FAT32 format.

exit, is exiting the diskpart

exit is exiting the CMD.

Dont add or miss spaces in the commands.
When choosing a mistake disk like the windows 7 main disk, it won't work. Your using Windows and running CMD from the Windows folder , since the PC is not going to erase itself you will probably get an error :). IF you chose another none Windows Disk, it will work and erase and format that chosen disk. Chose carefully.
If all fails ( hard to mess up if you simply follow my directions ) just type exit to exit diskpart, and exit again out of CMD.
It is real simple and it is the way to erase, activate and format a sd card / micro SD card. I just did this on mine yesterday.

-------
MICRO SD CARD SPEEDS ON SAMSUNG GALAXY TAB S2......

As far as speeds go, my Samsung PRO+ 32 GB micro SD card class 10, U3, UHS-I is showing get speeds of:
Read 60
Write 30

Read 63
Write 35
Tests done on an empty card at home.

With the card used, 15 GB left, I'm showing, my results were
Read 61
Write 26.

Keep in mind my WiFi is cable, @ 60 down 7 up.

In BestBuy
I got
Read 60
Write 47
When I was in best buy complaining to Samsung, using there WiFi.

I bought a 64 GB micro SD card SanDisk ULTRA Plus, class 10, U1, UHS-I
The format out the box was, ( exFAT with a 16mb unallocated partition on the 64GB micro SD card.)
16mb of the space was not formatted and separate from the rest of the size. I'm not sure why? For self device cache? For ' alignment '?
I formatted using the above method. The entire space is now exFAT.

The card SanDisk ULTRA PLUS, came with exFAT format being 64gb.. the Samsung PRO+ 32GB was FAT32.
Results of the SanDisk ULTRA PLUS is,
Read 55
Write 15-18

The Samsung PRO+ is a Read 95, Write 90 card...4k video card.
The SanDisk ULTRA PLUS card is supposed to be 80/80 on bestbuy.com but on SanDisk website 80/40-50 (?) I forgot.

Either way, This testing get was done with the app suggested in the earlier posts in this thread and used the (full test) where you reboot the device. As mentioned.

I see a discrepancy in the test results differing from different WiFi. BestBuy's WiFi showed more Write in the public Store WiFi then my house.

I don't believe this app is fully correct, also, adds are running using the app, one can turn off the adds for "3 hrs". The fact the different Write speeds from location to location concerns me about this way of testing. No disrespect to the poster. I appreciate your input.

It is too bad I don't see a better app?

If anyone else would test, please use this app and the full test results. You have to change the settings of the app to show advanced test options or there is just one 'normal' test.

In my conclusion sofar, if you use the 'best', or 'most expensive ' card, your test scores ( Write speed ) will be more. A difference from SanDisk ULTRA PLUS Write 15, to Samsung PRO+ Write 30, is a difference for me to make a decision.
Currently prices (on sale at BestBuy )
SanDisk ULTRA PLUS 64GB= 24.99
Samsung PRO+ 64GB= 49.99
Double the price. FYI the SanDisk EXTREME PLUS 64GB is 49.99.
 
Last edited:

ashyx

Recognized Contributor
Oct 14, 2012
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Why is it necessary to go through all that when all that is required is to right click, select format then choose exFAT?
Or let TWRP format it.
 
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jazzmachine

Senior Member
Jan 9, 2013
577
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Chicago
Why is it necessary to go through all that when all that is required is to right click, select format then choose exFAT?
Or let TWRP format it.
Wondered the same after posting exactly that directly above... partitioning via command line introduces too much potential for error when simply reformatting an entire disk to a single partition IMO.