For context, I am flashing the extended storage Vue After Free onto a drive marketed as “256GB”, but it’s actually a few GB short for some reason. (guide for context: https://github.com/Vuemony/vue-after-free#extended-storage-setup)

The drive I have has 234.3 GiB (~252GB), while the image of Vue After Free is 258 GiB (~256GB), so it cannot flash. Tried both KDE ISO image writer and balenaetcher. Is there any way to force the image to be written, as far as I understand, most of that 256GB is actually empty and it’s only because the PS4 requires a 256GB drive to register an external drive.

The way I see it, it looks like I could either a) spoof the drive into reporting as 256GB (it’s nearly there anyways), and undo that once I need to use it normally again or b) force the image to be flashed despite the storage on the drive being just short, and hoping the PS4 agrees with it given it’s not exactly 256GB

edit: Attempting to use dd to write the image to the drive, if that doesn’t work I’ll just get a later (but slower) drive

  • sudo@programming.dev
    20·
    3 days ago

    Storage devices are frequently smaller than advertised just as 2"x4" boards are.

    You cannot flash an image onto a device smaller than the image’s size. Your only options are to get a larger device or shrink the image. Shrinking the image is possible but not without understanding how the image is created. It should be possible by taking the published image and somehow editing it. Or by simply rebuilding the image yourself from source. Either way you’ll want to start by reading .github/workflows/build.yml from that repo.

    Also, because this is doing some PS4 exploits, its possible that the exploits depend on the 256GB size. Unlikely by conceivable.

      • sbeak@sopuli.xyzOPEnglish
        52·
        3 days ago

        It’s not that, the amount in GB is less than 256! Comparing GiB to GiB is easier on Linux since it doesn’t do the Windows thing and obfuscate the unit to all be GB. I just got the short end of the stick in terms of silicon (this was a drive by Asus, sooooo)

        • Uli@sopuli.xyz
          3·
          3 days ago

          To be fair, 256! is about 8.5781777534 × 10⁵⁰⁶. Lots of numbers are less than that.