Which files/directories should I restore after doing a fresh image install?

[valabrax]

Yesterday I updated my retropie after not having done so for a couple of years. I didn't realize it at the time, but the OS I was on (raspbian stretch) no longer had binaries, so it installed everything from source, which took many, many hours. In retrospect I wish I hadn't done that, but I don't remember seeing a warning about binaries not being available, but maybe I missed something.

Now when I go to the retropie setup script I do get a warning about my OS not being supported and that I should install from a new image.

I had a couple of questions about doing this:

1. Looking at the backup methods on https://retropie.org.uk/docs/Updating-RetroPie/ I think the best one for me in this situation is to backup the bios, configs, and roms directories via the samba shares. However, assuming the update works perfectly, which of these directories should I copy back over to preserve my roms, save states/files, and configurations (like controller configs and core-level configs). I'm assuming just the roms and configs directory and that I should not copy bios back over to the new image, but I wanted to check and be sure.
2. By installing from source and now doing a new image install, am I nuking my micro-sd card with writes? I have no idea how many writes an install from source does, but it took hours to finish.

[sleve_mcdichael]

If there's anything in the BIOS folder, you'll need to preserve it too.

[dankcushions]

@valabrax said in Which files/directories should I restore after doing a fresh image install?:

Looking at the backup methods on https://retropie.org.uk/docs/Updating-RetroPie/ I think the best one for me in this situation is to backup the bios, configs, and roms directories via the samba shares. However, assuming the update works perfectly, which of these directories should I copy back over to preserve my roms, save states/files, and configurations (like controller configs and core-level configs). I'm assuming just the roms and configs directory and that I should not copy bios back over to the new image, but I wanted to check and be sure.

as the docs says, you'll want to backup all 3 https://retropie.org.uk/docs/Updating-RetroPie/#backup-option-2

By installing from source and now doing a new image install, am I nuking my micro-sd card with writes? I have no idea how many writes an install from source does, but it took hours to finish.

it's not ideal but during development i do many days worth of rebuilds and my SD cards tend to last years before crapping out.