cloning sd card please help

day11 · 2 Jan 2018, 03:18

I am trying to clone sd card to use on another sd card for retropie on raspberry pi I followed this video and did not work

when inserting the new sd card into my raspberry pi it shows 4 raspberry pi logos and some writing then says 1-2-3-4 etc and keeps going and it does not load the same as my other card it has not worked what do i do and my card has the boot partition and the other one is with the roms on it. it is 2 different partitions I want to copy from 32gb sandisk sd card to a 128gb Samsung evo red xc sd card.

BobHarris · 1 Feb 2018, 22:16

It's maybe easier to use Win32diskimager. Put the sd in your computer. Use this program to create an image of your sd contents and write the image to your new sd card (using the same program).

rbaker · 2 Jan 2018, 16:58

@day11 You need to make sure that the version you are cloning is going in the same hardware but you can't "copy" bits here and there. You just need to clone the card exactly but you will need large areas of storage to write from the card in the first place.

KN4THX · 2 Jan 2018, 19:41

I second @BobHarris. Using Win32DIskImager has been my go-to program to back up any of my cards for my various Pis.

day11 · 3 Jan 2018, 21:35

i have followed the video and it did not work with windows 32 disk imager i read from a sandisk ultra 32gb and wrote to a samsung evo 128gb is it because it is not the same brand. on the pi it showed 4 raspberry pi icons and some writing i think i have a fake card.

day11 · 3 Jan 2018, 21:39

@rbaker can you give me instructions what to use and do i have to use the same branded card.

jonnykesh · 3 Jan 2018, 21:47

@day11 You do not need to use the same brand card.
If you tell us what you are doing then maybe someone can help. I'm not watching that video to see if the method is correct.
It's better if you explain in your own words what it is you are actually doing.

retroprogrammer · 1 Apr 2018, 05:46

@day11 Here are some videos that might help

[How To Backup Retropie 4.1 SD Card Setup from Raspberry Pi ... TechWizTime](

Hope this helps

jonnykesh · 3 Jan 2018, 21:54

@retroprogrammer The first one is the same video he posted. I really don't see how this can help. As I said, If he actually explains what he is doing then maybe someone can see where he is going wrong.

rbaker · 3 Jan 2018, 21:56

@day11 Yeah, I just put my SD Card in and launch Win32 Disk Imager and save an image to my HDD. I get another card of any type and then write it to that. What I am saying is that the image has to be compatible with the hardware. SO are you creating an image of a Pi 1 or 0 and trying to boot it on a pi3? or 2? Thats what I meant. The process is painless but as others have said - write exactly what you are doing.

jonnykesh · 4 Jan 2018, 00:22

@retroprogrammer Can you remove that last video link please , at the very least. It is a link to a YouTuber who promotes images of RetroPie distributed with ROMs. The very trash who will kill this project. I can't believe you linked to that AH's channel.

retroprogrammer · 4 Jan 2018, 05:46

@jonnykesh okay, sorry was in a rush

EctoOne · 4 Jan 2018, 08:27

You can try to use the SD Card Copier that is now available in Raspbian. I don't know if it's available in Jessie tho, so I'm not sure if you could install Raspbian within Retropie and copy your running SD to an SD connected via USB.
Otherwise you need to set up an extra Card just with Raspbian and use two card readers to clone your card. The tool will clone your card to smaller/bigger cards and shrink/expand the filesystem automatically.
I only tried it with my OSMC card and got an error message on the new card, but OSMC is not suppose to have the filesystem size changed afterwards and i was using an older Noobs version. So I'm not sure if it would work with Retropie flawlessly and i don't have spare cards to test it.