Anyway to copy ROMs btwn folders on (or from) your MicroSD?

MortalWombat

Hey there, I figured that this question may have been asked before, but I couldn't seem to find any previous discussions about as much after searching here (although if I missed them, please feel free to share them here):

So I made the boneheaded mistake of DL'ing a few ROMs from the site I frequent directly into the corresponding emulator folders located on the flashdrive I use to transfer things to my Pi... naturally, after these were automatically transferred from my flashdrive onto my microSD when I booted up my Pi & I'd determined which ones worked and which didn't, I mistakenly emptied those folders on my flashdrive to add new ones (lesson: never save directly to your flashdrive, or if you do, do so in a folder OUTSIDE of retropie/roms then copy them into there).

So as a result, while these roms are on my microSD, I don't have backups of them on my flashdrive/computer should the MSD fail. Also, it'd just be nice to be able to copy/transfer some of them into different emulator folders (so basically, try to move everything in the Arcade folder that runs on Final Burn into the FBA folder, or vice-versa). I know that I could probably just try to download them again, but that'd be a bit more time-consuming.

So: is there any method-- in the command line, or otherwise-- where I can transfer ROMs/zips from one emulator's folder to another?

Or better yet, any way to copy them from my MSD back onto my flashdrive? (because unless there are any specialized search functions I don't know about, when you insert your MSD into a computer, none of the content on it shows up on the Finder/desktop etc level).

Thank you.

dankcushions

@mortalwombat said in Anyway to copy ROMs btwn folders on (or from) your MicroSD?:

So: is there any method-- in the command line, or otherwise-- where I can transfer ROMs/zips from one emulator's folder to another?

if you have a computer on the same network as your pi, simple use
https://retropie.org.uk/docs/Transferring-Roms/#sftp
or
https://retropie.org.uk/docs/Transferring-Roms/#samba-shares
to access the file system.

you could also use the 'file manager' (midnightcommander) directly via the retropie menu.

MortalWombat

@dankcushions Oh, nice (granted, I'm just now realizing that I didn't put a space btwn. "any" and "way" in my subject line, which is kinda embarrassing, heh).

Yeah I did first try the File Manager route, thank you for suggesting that, would you happen to have any links listing a walkthrough/how-to of the commands though?? Because though it does seem very simple, the only button that seems to work (on my Logitech F310 controller at least) is the "B" button, and though I see the list of commands on the bottom of the screen-- like 5- Copy and 8- Delete, the two commands I would've most likely used for this purpose-- pressing those buttons on my keyboard doesn't seem to do anything(?). Is there another button on the keyboard I need to press in order to access/switch to that menu??

(I also did notice a pink "!.lr-atari800.cfg" file on the main menu though, prior to opening RetroPie, which by its color/the "!" would seem to imply an error, however I don't have any Atari games on my Pi and haven't tried to put any on it, so I'm not sure why I'd be getting that, if it's anything to be concerned about...)

But accessing the Retropie Server using Samba (or in my case Go) was SUPER convenient, thank you very much for that; I was certainly able to copy/backup all of the ROMs from it directly to my computer, and can likewise try to consolidate them into 1-2 folders for Arcade games (using that as a general blanket term for MAME, NeoGeo, and Final Burn games).

I guess that begs the greater question though-- perhaps I should save this for another post, not sure-- is if there's any difference, performance-wise between FBA the folder, and FinalBurn as an emulator??

Because ideally, I'd just have all of my arcade/NeoGeo games consolidated in the Arcade folder, and select the appropriate emulator/FinalBurn as needed via RunCommand (assuming they'd run just as well, that is...).

mitu

@mortalwombat said in Anyway to copy ROMs btwn folders on (or from) your MicroSD?:

Yeah I did first try the File Manager route, thank you for suggesting that, would you happen to have any links listing a walkthrough/how-to of the commands though?? Because though it does seem very simple, the only button that seems to work (on my Logitech F310 controller at least) is the "B" button, and though I see the list of commands on the bottom of the screen-- like 5- Copy and 8- Delete, the two commands I would've most likely used for this purpose-- pressing those buttons on my keyboard doesn't seem to do anything(?). Is there another button on the keyboard I need to press in order to access/switch to that menu??

The numbers represent the F keys, just like the old DOS Norton Commander or DOS Navigator.

dankcushions

@mortalwombat said in Anyway to copy ROMs btwn folders on (or from) your MicroSD?:

I guess that begs the greater question though-- perhaps I should save this for another post, not sure-- is if there's any difference, performance-wise between FBA the folder, and FinalBurn as an emulator??

i don't really understand the question, but if you mean performance difference for lr-fbneo via the fba folder, vs lr-fbneo via the arcade folder, then no there's not :)

MortalWombat

@mitu thank you for clarifying. Hmm, browsing through my Arcade roms, I'm noticing that some are colored magenta, the majority are greenish with an asterisk (*) in front of them (in the FBA folder, they're all green however).

Anything this might mean? It wouldn't have to do with which romset they belong to, or which default emulator they've been set to?

MortalWombat

@dankcushions that was actually exactly what I meant, thank you.

mitu

@mortalwombat said in Anyway to copy ROMs btwn folders on (or from) your MicroSD?:

Anything this might mean? It wouldn't have to do with which romset they belong to, or which default emulator they've been set to?

It doesn't mean anything related to the emulator/romset the files are associated with. It's just coloring based on the file type and the file's attribute (executable). Same colors you see when your run the ls --color command to list a folder.