[SOLVED] Prep a 128GB Card on Mac

likethereindeer

[SOLVED]

TLDR: When using Etcher: Flash downloaded RetroPie installer to new SD card. Once finished insert into RaspberryPi. Boot and configure before adding any other data to it. OS will expand to useable space.

I have been working on this for a week now and have spent HOURS and HOURS trying everything that I could find on the internet. ApplePi-Baker, Etcher, DiskUtility, I purchased extFS (from Paragon Software), Carbon Copy Cloner, etc.

I got a Raspberry Pie from a guy on FaceBook - it came with a 128GB SD card full of goodies. Ok great. Now that I've learned what I'm doing I wanted to create multiple drives for different installs. (My new one is supposed to be my DOS game collection.

Problems:

When Etcher is used the RETROPIE partition only uses 2.36GB (not the full remaining 127.6GB on the disk. DiskUtility shows that 107GB are unused in the partition map. I did try an older version and a newer version of Etcher. I tried with a 16GB card to make sure I wasn't insane. That worked.
I tried using ApplePi-Baker. I used it to try both just putting the downloaded retropie image to the freshly formatted SD card (both prepped for NOOBS and just a fresh FAT32 format). The disk finishes with unreadable and will not boot on my Raspberry. I also tried backing up the 128GB card that I already have (the one that I received with my Pi). This does not work either.
Through extFS I formatted the SD card with a BOOT FAT32 and a RETROPIE extFS 3 partition and then copying the files from the downloaded retropie file and my original SD card received with the Pi. The Raspberry starts with the 3 raspberry icons on top and does not go any further.
I installed NOOBS and ran the install through my Pi. The installation worked fine. After installation the SD drive shows 4 partitions. ???
I tried to follow the instructions on the internet with running the "sudo dd" command. After taking a while the SD drive just remounts with 1 partition that is unreadable. (At this point my Mac does read extFS because I purchased and installed extFS from Paragon Software).

I have formatted, reformatted, downloaded, and re-downloaded. I have no idea what else to try.

I'm VERY frustrated. PLEASE help!

If this can be figured out I would like to create a fresh install for a 128GB card and clone it to be used for future installs.

I appreciate any help or direction!

jdepp

@likethereindeer

Apologies if I misunderstand what you’re trying to do but I don’t think you’re going to get support here for an image with all the goodies. If you want support you will likely have to erase the card, install a fresh / official retropie image and then go from there.

mitu

We don't support 3rd party images, especially the ones sold with RetroPie - https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/3/read-this-first. Selling RetroPie is illegal and against the project's license.

jamesnj

@likethereindeer said in Prep a 128GB Card on Mac:

I wanted to create multiple drives for different installs.

It is not very clear what you are trying to accomplish, and if it even relates specifically to retropie. It sounds to me like you are either trying to set up a multi-boot SD card, or trying to clone an existing 128g card.

I tried the multi-boot thing a while ago and didn't get very far. My impression is that you can do this in some limited degree using Noobs, but it usually doesn't result in exactly what you want if you are trying to be very particular about partition sizes, etc. I believe it is possible to hand craft any OS/partition layout you want, but I never dug up the formula as to how to do this from the boot sequence.

If you are trying to clone a card on your mac then 'dd' will likely do it for you, but you only get an exact bitmap of one to the other. Since 128g is pretty big, you are better off connecting both devices to your mac and dd'ing one device to the other. Given the size and speed of the devices, you can expect this to take a few hours to complete. I did this with a 64g card, and I think it was over 2hrs.

likethereindeer

@jdepp I don’t need help with any “goodies”. I simply cannot create a fresh retropie install on a 128gb card. I have tried cloning a preexisting and creating a new one in all of the above ways. I cannot get a fully useable 128gb as card to work. I have tried all of the things.

likethereindeer

@mitu I am not asking for support on any non retropie image. I am merely stating that I have both tried to install a fresh retropie image onto a 128gb card - this did not work as the second partition (retropie) only used a little over 2gb and not the full 127gb. And I have also tried to clone a preexisting image (just to say I’ve tried all of the things) and that didn’t work either.

likethereindeer

@jamesnj said in Prep a 128GB Card on Mac:

It is not very clear what you are trying to accomplish, and if it even relates specifically to retropie. It sounds to me like you are either trying to set up a multi-boot SD card, or trying to clone an existing 128g card.

I want to create a NEW retropie install on a 128gb microsd card. I would like to have a number of fresh installs on a few 128GB micro sd cards that I have. However, I cannot even get one created and I have tried “all of the things”, as stated above.

I don’t want help with roms, adding new software, where to get them, etc.

I just want to know why I cannot create a brand new retropie install on a 128GB card while using my Mac.

That’s all.

jamesnj

I haven't done 128g card, but I recently did 64g card, and I don't think it should be much different than that.

Try just loading the raspbian stretch lite distro to your card. I used etcher and it worked fine. If I recall, the default install just makes a small partition with the necessary files, and then when you boot it up it will increase the partition size to the maximum. It's been a while since I did that. Once raspian is where you want it, just load up the necessary packages from there (like emulationstation and dependencies) and should should be ready to go.

likethereindeer

@jamesnj said in Prep a 128GB Card on Mac:

I haven't done 128g card, but I recently did 64g card, and I don't think it should be much different than that.

Thanks for the reply but all of the things I have read have said this “I haven’t tried a 128gb but...” I’ve tried the recommended things and am unable to use the 128gb. I do know that it can work because I was given a 128gb that works. I have tried cloning it but that doesn’t work either.

Thanks!

Clyde

So just to be sure, you're trying to install the official Retropie image from https://retropie.org.uk/download/ ? I'm asking because that's the only one supported here.

@likethereindeer said in Prep a 128GB Card on Mac:

When Etcher is used the RETROPIE partition only uses 2.36GB

That's normal. Retropie should expand the system partition to the card's size at first boot. Did you try to boot the card?

Did you check the download's checksum that's listed under the download button?

Through extFS I formatted the SD card with a BOOT FAT32 and a RETROPIE extFS 3 partition and then copying the files from the downloaded retropie file and my original SD card received with the Pi.

The downloaded .gz file should only contain one single .img file. You can't just copy that to an formatted partition, because it's a disk image that contains two partitions itself. You have to use an imager to write it to the card. (Well, you could mount the image in your Mac system to access its contents, but that would be a whole separate issue, and I only know how to do that in Linux.)

I installed NOOBS and ran the install through my Pi. The installation worked fine. After installation the SD drive shows 4 partitions. ???

I think NOOBS does that to install different Pi operating systems next to each other. But I don't use NOOBS myself, so I don't know any details.

I tried to follow the instructions on the internet with running the "sudo dd" command.

Which command from which instructions exactly?

likethereindeer

@clyde said in Prep a 128GB Card on Mac:

Retropie should expand the system partition to the card's size at first boot. Did you try to boot the card?
Did you check the download's checksum that's listed under the download button?

Thank you!

In summary - TLDR: When using Etcher: Flash downloaded RetroPie installer to new SD card. Once finished insert into RaspberryPi. Boot and configure before adding any other data to it. OS will expand to useable space.

Clyde

@likethereindeer So, your problem is solved? Then please add a "[SOLVED]" at the start of this thread's title by editing your opening post.

likethereindeer

@clyde Done. Thank you all again.

Clyde

@likethereindeer Thanks, but I meant at the beginning of the title so that it reads "[SOLVED] Prep a 128GB Card on Mac". So everyone can see in the topic list that the thread has already been solved. Potential helpers can then look for other problems to solve, and people with the same problem as yours know there may be a solution to be found here. :)