Pi Drive Setup / Add Roms to USB device

dita

Hello, after spending the day trying to get this up and running, I`ve finally caved and decided to post a cry for help!
First the details
pi3
4GB SD card with retropie 4.2 installed, fresh image from the retropie.org website
USB wireless keyboard
USB wired mouse
USB generic "snes style" controller
USB WD Pidrive 340GB

Trying to install the roms onto the Pi Drive. I`ve followed various instructions, used various web sites and your tube goods to assist in, what I thought, would be a relatively simple task.
I've followed the guide here https://retropie.org.uk/docs/Running-ROMs-from-a-USB-drive/ but the "automatic" method caused me a problem as the drive cannot be FAT32, its too big. Or that's my understanding. I then followed the manual method, which seemed ok, but using the ROM web based manager it became apparent that I wasn't adding the roms to the USB drive as there was no room left.

Basically, I`m looking to some guidance to get the relevant directory and then roms onto the hard drive? Should the drive be partitioned for example?

If I need to start from scratch then that's not a problem, but knowing where I should be starting from obviously seems a problem for me :)

Thanks in advance anyone who can assist.

Edit: slight change to subject title was "Roms for"

dankcushions

340GB should be fine for fat32 as far as i know.

dita

Hmm, so I must have done something wrong. Connecting the drive to PC shows it shows it as 0 bytes free of 62.8mb. Trying to format, from with a windows PC only gives me options of FAT, ExFAT and NTFS no FAT32. Interestingly It does show some of the file structure which I had tried to create earlier, ie. BIOS Retropiemenu, Roms and Splashscreens. I'm guessing I`ve formatted the drive to a smaller size perhaps?

From https://retropie.org.uk/docs/Running-ROMs-from-a-USB-drive/ and editing the fstab I used Vfat (as shown about half way down page. Is that where I went wrong I wonder?

dankcushions

@dita said in Pi Drive Setup / Add Roms to USB device:

Hmm, so I must have done something wrong. Connecting the drive to PC shows it shows it as 0 bytes free of 62.8mb. Trying to format, from with a windows PC only gives me options of FAT, ExFAT and NTFS no FAT32. Interestingly It does show some of the file structure which I had tried to create earlier, ie. BIOS Retropiemenu, Roms and Splashscreens. I'm guessing I`ve formatted the drive to a smaller size perhaps?

i'm confused. connecting what drive to your pc? only your sd card should have the 62mb boot partition, and that's after you've written the retropie image to it. the only thing you need to do to your usb hard drive is format it to fat32. you shouldn't have written the retropie image to it.

dita

Hi, thanks for the assistance. When I connect the hard drive to the pc in an attempt to format it, it cannot format it fats32. Perhaps the question I should be asking is how do I format the hard drive into fat32?

dankcushions

@dita said in Pi Drive Setup / Add Roms to USB device:

Hi, thanks for the assistance. When I connect the hard drive to the pc in an attempt to format it, it cannot format it fats32. Perhaps the question I should be asking is how do I format the hard drive into fat32?

i don't personally use windows but this seems like it covers it: http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/format-large-hard-drive-fat-fat32/

dita

Thanks for the link, I'll give it a go later today. I don't mind using the console on the pie, if you think that's an easier method? But I think that's where I may have messed it up previously, not knowing what the right commands are/using too many different Web site for reference

dita

Thanks for your assistance. From the link you gave I used FAT32formatter, it appears to have worked. I got some error messages from the program, but it seems to be working ok.