Pi4 and 2TB Hdd boot problem.

[soulfunkdjx]

Hi, I am using retropie pi4 (4GB model) and also i am using the nespi case.
I finished an image of mine on an 256GB sd card and i backed it up on a single file .img. Then i installed that backup image file to a 2TB mechanical HDD (2.5inches) using Win32DiskImager and after it finished, i plugged my hdd on pi and booted it up (without the sd card). It booted and i received a message saying "checking in progress on 1 disk (0.2% complete)" and it is counting....

.

When it reaches 4.8% it says that i am in emergency mode and i have an option to press enter on keyborad to continue.

I am pressing it and it is working perfect from there and booting to emulationstation.
I read somewhere that this has to do something with the file fstab inside etc folder. i managed to copy the file to my PC and open it with notepad++ but i don't know what to edit here (i don't have the knowledge). If this is the problem can anyone help me to fix it? I don't want everytime plugging the keyboard to press enter. See also the images. Thanks in advance.

[soulfunkdjx]

Anyone please???

[Crush]

@soulfunkdjx are you powering the hdd just trough the usb on the pi?

[soulfunkdjx]

@crush yes and is a 2TB Mechanical drive.

[Crush]

@soulfunkdjx it's not getting enough power.

[soulfunkdjx]

@crush hmmm.... I don't know if that's the reason because if i press enter it's booting normally and is working great. But i will give it a try with external power as i have the tools to do it.

[Folly]

@soulfunkdjx

I have also a mechanical 2,5 inch hdd on the pi4 but it's just a 150Gb.
It depends a bit on what hdd you have but I think it power should be no problem.

But you can have trouble if you add more power hungry usb-devices.
Two mechanical hhd's without external power is a problem on the pi4, it doesn't work.
Doing such a thing can lead to a problem getting bad sectors.

You can also get bad sectors when using a a hdd and an sd that both contain an Operating System, at least that is my experience.
Many times I did this because I wanted to copy files from an old OS to a new OS.
I think OS'es they get corrupt because the both contain the same soft-links.

I fixed this a few times just typing "journalctl -xb" after the disk was checked then scrolling trough the massive log, after that using "systemctl reboot"

If it doesn't work then your hdd is corrupted too much or the problem is something else.

The problem can also be too little space somewhere.
I have seen that problem also once.
With that problem I had to remove some old cache.
But I can tell you anymore what I did exactly.

BTW.
Good choice using a mechanical hdd, my setup works already more that a year.
My sd-card setups didn't last that long and sd-cards break fast.
Hdd's on USB3 work also faster is my experience and can hold much more data.

Did you resize your 2TB after cloning with "raspi-config" ?

[soulfunkdjx]

@folly yes i resized the hdd. That is happening even if i write a new image of retropie. Not only by transfering the old one.
The hdd is a new one.
This has nothing to do with the power supply.
I am 100% that i must change something to the code so when i am booting up raspberry to bypass that disc check and the emergency mode.

[Folly]

@soulfunkdjx

Just for the record.
My experience with making a clone is that it's very time consuming.
Making a new OS and copying back the stuff is much faster.

Ok, if creating a new one is also a problem then it probably has something to do with how you write the image or maybe your hdd isn't properly detected by the rpi firmware.

You should update the rpi firmware for booting from the hdd to the latest firmware possible. (in raspi-config)
Though, I read somewhere that not all hard-drives are supported.
So it could be that you have a bad match.

Did you use rpi-imager to write a new hard-drive ?
I would suggest you use that.

[soulfunkdjx]

@folly said in Pi4 and 2TB Hdd boot problem.:

rpi-imager

Yes i am using the rpi-imager and also i have tried to write and build a new image from the beggining and i get again the same result.
Some people have the same problem and they bypass it by changing something in the code of the file fstab which is inside etc folder. They never said what they changed...
If i open that file with notepad++ i see those lines...

proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
PARTUUID=c6636128-01 /boot vfat defaults 0 2
PARTUUID=c6636128-02 / ext4 defaults,noatime 0 1

a swapfile is not a swap partition, no line here

use dphys-swapfile swap[on|off] for that

[Folly]

@soulfunkdjx said in Pi4 and 2TB Hdd boot problem.:

by changing something in the code of the file fstab

I read something about that here :
https://jamesachambers.com/raspberry-pi-4-usb-boot-config-guide-for-ssd-flash-drives/
It's used to force loading from a particular partition.
I doubt if it's necessary if you use the whole hard-drive.

Perhaps you can find some useful information in that link.

Btw.
Have you tried connecting the hard-drive to the USB2 port, fust to see if it works or not.
Perhaps it can give you an indication of your problem.

What brand/type hard-drive do you use ?

[soulfunkdjx]

@folly i tried a new image again but with another hdd adapter and is working great. Then i changed it with the one from nespi case and is working again excellent. So now my next step is to write a new clean retropie image to my 2tb hdd and test it again. Maybe i missed something the last time. I'll report back to you.

[soulfunkdjx]

@folly Seagate Barracuda 2.5inch 2tb mechanical hdd.

[Folly]

@soulfunkdjx said in Pi4 and 2TB Hdd boot problem.:

@folly Seagate Barracuda 2.5inch 2tb mechanical hdd.

Good choice !

[Folly]

@soulfunkdjx said in Pi4 and 2TB Hdd boot problem.:

Maybe i missed something the last time.

Perhaps it was a bad connection that is ok now after swapping.

[soulfunkdjx]

@folly So i wrote a new fresh image to my 2TB hdd and now everything is working great. Now i am starting filling the empty 1.8TB with games!!!!! Thank you everyone!

[Folly]

@soulfunkdjx

Nice !

Good luck with building it up.