GP32 Formating an SMC


crazeeplaya

That's the way I like it
Joined
Apr 26, 2003
Messages
740
I think a program that would allow you to use the GP32 to format your SMC back to standard (usable in SMC readers/writers) would be very useful for a lot of people.

I am not a programmer, so I can't do this myself, but I thought I would put the idea out there
 
I have just heard that the GP32 formats the SMCs to FAT12 (or FAT16), but most other devices use FAT32. Therefore all we need is a hacked version of the PClink software which formats in FAT32 (easier said than done), if not that the must be some way of making this possible
 
0.o

I just use my SMC linker and right-click format it to FAT 32...
GP32 does fine...

Also,
Delete GPSYS
and GPETC

You don't need them..
 
just get a SMC reader / writer, they're really cheap

MrT
 
can the Gamepark read FAT32!?

the problem i have with my SMC reader/writer is that it only seems to write FAT32,
(long filenames with creation date etc.), sometimes it works OK, but usually it just corrupts the SMC.
 
I believe the GP32 uses Fat 12

so FAT 32 would probably break things

MrT
 
Where's the problem, actually?

In my experience simply formatting the SMC with the GP32 works best. When I tried to format it with a card reader on Mac OS X (using "MS-DOS format") it worked fine but transfer speed went down, slow as molasses, apparently OS X can't handle the format it just created itself. Weird. Formatting it with Win98 worked fine as well, but then OS X couldn't read it at all. And at the end of it all I got a totally corrupted SMC, with the GP32 crashing when "getting smc size" as PCLink reported. I had to use the commandline tool (maclink format) to format it again, since that was the only tool that simply sent the "format" command to the GP32 without trying the lethal "get smc size" routine first.

Bottom line, use the GP32 to format an SMC, period. Even with FAT12 I can use long and mixed case filenames just fine, on both platforms (Mac/Win).
 
Do you mean "format with PC-Link" when you say "format using GP32"?

Otherwise how do you format using the GP32?
 
stickofjoy posted on May 16 2003 said:
Do you mean "format with PC-Link" when you say "format using GP32"?

Otherwise how do you format using the GP32?
Use either the Windows SW to format the SMC or flash Mr. Spiv's MultiFW, which is a good idea anyway, since then you could also use PacRom to format the SMC (without losing access to the original FW, that is).

The Windows SW (PC-Link) doesn't do much more than sending a format command to the GP and making directories, so there's no difference between the actual formatting, regardless of how actually you're doing it, as long as you let the GP make the dirty work ;)

Again, a GP32-formatted SMC works fine with the GP, Windows, and Mac OS X, so it's the best way to format.
 
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