Revert Micro SD card

IceChes1

Hi. I tried to install RetroPie for my new 0 W with an Android app but it installed NOOBS instead. I don't know why. Now I am trying to revert my SD card. My Windows computer doesn't see it, and my Chromebook has it locked on read only. The physical write-protection tab is off, and there are FIVE partitions on the card! Help!

IceChes1

I should probably mention that I don't have a digital camera. I've heard they do the trick.

mitu

Try the SD card formatter on Windows to re-format the card and then use Win32DiskImager or Ether (from Windows) to write the RetroPie image.

IceChes1

Tried this. As a test, I wrote Raspbian to my 4B 1GB (for manual install) and it didn't work. Got the four green flashes which I now know means "what the heck did you put on this thing?" Looked on my Chromebook. I have: boot, SD Card 1, SD Card 2, UNTITLED all as partitions. UNTITLED doesn't even have a format, which I didn't even know was possible.

IceChes1

I can't try this on the Zero because I have a driver-dependent GPIO touch screen and no HDMI adapter.

IceChes1

Oh, and should I mention that there's some stupid glitch where when I extract a .zip file on the Windows Vista computer, it tells me that the computer needs 734 PETABYTES to store the file. Just to be clear, the human brain can store a maximum of 2.5 petabytes. Or, if that isn't enough, 1 PB=1000 TB.

IceChes1

@mitu Sorry for the salvo there.

Daistaar

My thought is that Windows doesn't see the ext partition on the SD card. Hopefully this is the case as this could potentially be an easy fix with diskpart. Should only take about 30 seconds to complete the list below.

Open a command prompt and type: diskpart (click yes on any UAC).
Find the SD card number by typing: list disk
Choose the SD card by typing: select disk #
Type clean to remove everything on the SD card.
Create a primary partition by typing: cre par pri
Type format fs=exfat quick
Done

Now just image your card again and get back to whatever you were up to.

IceChes1

Windows had no idea that the card was even in the computer when I tried diskpart/list disk. It only saw the OS partition on the hard disk drive and the recovery partition on the hard disk drive. Then again this is a 2009 computer with a 30 minute battery life. I don't even think micro SD cards existed when the computer came out.

IceChes1

I extracted the file on my Chromebook to transfer through USB.

Daistaar

@IceChes1 ohh wow LOL! I'm glad you at least got it squared away through the chrome book lol. Love this communities ingenuity. 😊

IceChes1

Yeah, I know, but anyways I think that Win32DiskImager was screwing up because I was trying to write a file that wasn't extracted. Hah!

IceChes1

Also, what's Ether? Never heard of it. I used Win32DiskImager only because Etcher doesn't work on Windows Vista. I hate Win32. I need some sort of easy alternative like Etcher.