DC-SWAT Forum

Dear SWAT team!

First of all I am totally noob in dreamcast modding, so please be patient with me. I downloaded the Dreamshell RC1 + boot loader from this site, burnt the loader onto a disk and put the DS file into the root of the sd card.
When I start the dreamcast with sd plugged in, at the screen where I can select “boot from sd card” I got a massage below: Cant init file system. What does it mean? I tried to format the sd card to Fat32 and ntfs, but got the same massage, and can not go further. Is there any solution for that?

Thanks in advance.

Hello. Just try another SD Card... Or check your SD adapter.

(06.05.2014 20:00)SWAT писал(а): [ -> ]Hello. Just try another SD Card... Or check your SD adapter.

Thanks for the tip. Unfortunately do not have spare of it so i have to buy one. Can you please let me know what micro sd card shoulf i get? I mean which brand, capacity and class do you recommend to use?

Kingston/Transcend/SanDisk, 6-10 Class, 4-16 GB.
If you want to use new SD only on DC, buy full sized card, not micro, because microSD -> SD adapters are not reliable.
When formatting to FAT, make the cluster size is not less than 32 KB, for more optimize reading.

(07.05.2014 05:33)SWAT писал(а): [ -> ]Kingston/Transcend/SanDisk, 6-10 Class, 4-16 GB.
If you want to use new SD only on DC, buy full sized card, not micro, because microSD -> SD adapters are not reliable.
When formatting to FAT, make the cluster size is not less than 32 KB, for more optimize reading.

Thank you again. I just made the built in sd card reader; instruction was taken fromhttp://www.dallaslive.de/vdr/projects/retro-consoles/dreamcast/index-en.php where they said its working/ tested with micro sd card without adapter. But it seems its not?! Fortunately i did not remove the sd slot from the adapter so i can test with a full sd card.

Doesn't matter, use SD card size as your socket size. Just not use additional microSD->SD, miniSD->SD adapters.

(07.05.2014 13:39)SWAT писал(а): [ -> ]Doesn't matter, use SD card size as your socket size. Just not use additional microSD->SD, miniSD->SD adapters.

Hello SWAT! First of all thanks for the help and for your patience. I just saw there are two topics open with simular problem. It seems the adapter causing the problem as i tried two different dreamshell and three different cards and got the same results. Now i am going to try the strip board version of sd adapter or build the external one. But do not know which one should be better.

Better one that has the smallest wire length

(07.05.2014 05:33)SWAT писал(а): [ -> ]Kingston/Transcend/SanDisk, 6-10 Class, 4-16 GB.
If you want to use new SD only on DC, buy full sized card, not micro, because microSD -> SD adapters are not reliable.
When formatting to FAT, make the cluster size is not less than 32 KB, for more optimize reading.

hi there.first of all i like to tks for all the work and great forum.and can you help me please?can you tell me if i can use this sd card:
https://www.radiopopular.pt/catalogo/det...8Qu8ygrKUl

Tks for all.

You can use any quality/branded SD/SDHC card. Your SD should works great.

(30.08.2016 08:22)SWAT писал(а): [ -> ]You can use any quality/branded SD/SDHC card. Your SD should works great.

tks.i cannot use the install whit the little pcb whit led and resistor to know if the card its use but i can managed to put it work whit the adapter connect directly to the serial,i now i can use micro sd cards.like this photo:

i make the speed test on dreamshell and this is the result:
Write speed:431.25Kb/s(3,37MB/s) time: 1,8996ms
Read speed:657.15Kb/s(5,15MB/s) time: 12466ms
Are this speed's good?