run an image from external hard drive instead of sd card.

moonston333

hi all
ive got retrpie 4.2 installed on a 16gb sd card on my raspberry pi3. and all my roms on a 2tb external hard drive and all works fine.

im wanting to know how do i put an 128gb or 64gb image onto external hard drive and boot it from there instead of buying an expensive 128gb sd card.

is it possible to put this preconfigured 128gb on external and run it from there and also can i keep my roms what i have on the same drive or not.

if this can be done do i still need the basic retropie 4.2 image left on the 16gb sd card and leave it in the pie or can this sd card be taken out.

thanks in advance

DarkWolf

@moonston333 If you use this method you won't need a sd card anymore!

I did this for myself some months ago, I found this somewhere on the internet and wanted to test it... So here you go:

Pros:

More storage for same/lower price
More write cycles (lasts longer)
Easy to install
Take it with you, only a pi3 required somewhere else

Cons:

Consuming more space
Partition not accessable on windows (usb thumbdrive only)

Some important notes before starting:

Backup your sd card first
Have some spare time, this takes some time
Make sure SSH is enabled and working (if you want to do it remotely, you don't have to)
Make sure the pi can handle the usb drive (e.g. power consumption, detecting etc)
The usb device you want to install it on has to be connected all the time
Only plug in the usb drive and a keyboard, nothing else
This only works with images allready installed on the rpi (you can expand it later and get an image of it and put it onto another device)

So let's beginn:

Update the pi:

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade && sudo apt-get install rpi-update

Update boot/config.txt

echo program_usb_boot_mode=1 | sudo tee -a /boot/config.txt

Reboot

sudo reboot

Check if your usb device is compatible;
This should return 17:3020000a

vcgencmd otp_dump | grep 17:

Start to create the partitions on the usb device (Be carefull now!)
Explanations: (in command order)
Open parted,
Create a new partition table,
Create the boot partition,
Create the "data" partition,
Print the partition table (should contain 2 partitions now),
Quit parted

sudo parted /dev/sda
mktable msdos
mkpart primary fat32 0% 100M
mkpart primary ext4 100M 100%
print
quit

Create some folders and mount the usb device to it (to be exact: mount the partitions to folders) (one command)
You will install rsync which helps transfering/syncing the data with the usb device and will start rsync (copying the files could take some time, depends on the amount and size of files)

sudo mkfs.vfat -n BOOT -F 32 /dev/sda1 && sudo mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda2 && sudo mkdir /mnt/target && sudo mount /dev/sda2 /mnt/target/ && sudo mkdir /mnt/target/boot && sudo mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/target/boot/ && sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install rsync && sudo rsync -ax --progress / /boot /mnt/target

Bind some folders to setup SSH (on the usb device) next (otherwise it wasn't working anymore for me) (One command)

cd /mnt/target && sudo mount --bind /dev dev && sudo mount --bind /sys sys && sudo mount --bind /proc proc

Reconfigure SSH

sudo chroot /mnt/target rm /etc/ssh/ssh_host* dpkg-reconfigure openssh-server exit

Unmount the previous mounted folders (one command)

sudo umount dev && sudo umount sys && sudo umount proc

Setup partitions/files so it boots from them (one command each)

sudo sed -i "s,root=/dev/mmcblk0p2,root=/dev/sda2," /mnt/target/boot/cmdline.txt

sudo sed -i "s,/dev/mmcblk0p,/dev/sda," /mnt/target/etc/fstab

Unmount usb device (one command)

cd ~ && sudo umount /mnt/target/boot && sudo umount /mnt/target

Power off the pi

sudo poweroff

This should be it!
Take out your sd card and reconnect the pi with the power supply and see if it works!

moonston333

@DarkWolf brilliant thanks very much

DarkWolf

@moonston333 Updated my post with the instructions

moonston333

@DarkWolf thanks very much for this appreciate it.
i think i watched the video on this yesterday it looks like the same instructions but it put me off as thought it might not work as the guy was saying id need a y splitter cable to power the external drive and it only worked on certain drive but he didnt say what drive.

did u get this from the video dont think i can post a link on it but it was a guy with a beard and red t shirt on is it the same one.

also what external drive are u using.

ive got a seagate expansion portable 2tb.

do i actually burn the 128gb image to the external with Win32DiskImager
after i have done all the above.

or do i just drag and drop it onto the drive then plug drive into pi then switch on

thanks

DarkWolf

@moonston333

did u get this from the video dont think i can post a link on it but it was a guy with a beard and red t shirt on is it the same one.

I don't know to be honest, sadly

also what external drive are u using.

Uh, some 500gb seagate drive, I don't really now which one as it isn't here right now

do i actually burn the 128gb image to the external

No, that wouldn't work... You have to set it up on the sd card and then it gets copied over... after you did this once you can take a image of the usb drive and burn it onto another one

moonston333

@DarkWolf so i still need to buy a 128gb sd card to burn the 128gb preconfigured image onto then it transfers over to the usb when pi is powered up.

also did u have a powered external usb drive

thanks again

DarkWolf

@moonston333

so i still need to buy a 128gb sd card to burn the 128gb preconfigured image onto

I assume you mean an image someone created and shared to download... If this is the case: We don't support unofficial images
Also: I would recommend setting it up by yourself, learn how you do it yourself

also did u have a powered external usb drive

Yes, the raspberry pi can't handle external usb drives (usb thumbdrives are fine though)

moonston333

@DarkWolf no i mean an image that me and afew others are makeing. say if my friend finishes an image can i use his on mine. if so then i would need to buy an 128gb sd card to transfer it to my external.

but i understand i can just get the retropie 4.2 image (which is on my 16gb sd card now im using) then when i power on it will transfer this to my external then do i just add my own stuff to the external drag and drop connect it to my pc ie games art video n that.

when u say yes hard drive needs to be powered do u mean powered if im going to be running retropie image from hard drive instead of sd card.

as ive got all my games on external now and its not powered

so more power is needed for the image booting form ex HDD
and no power is needed for just loading games from ex HDD

DarkWolf

@moonston333 If the pi can handle your current external hard drive it will be fine :-)

moonston333

@DarkWolf true thats what i thought. is it also possible to put game boxart and videos on external drive instead of on sd card

DarkWolf

@moonston333 with the os on a hard drive?

moonston333

@DarkWolf with os on sd card or on hard drive wanting to know with os on sd card for now

moonston333

there will probably be alot of work to have the boxart and videos on the external wont there