This won't work.
The vfat boot partition should contain only boot files, and the linux OS has to run on a linux FS type. Period.

What you could do is shrinking the ext partition, then create a new one, format it VFAT and mount it on /home/pi/roms, but this would cause issues with simlink ans so, and it's really FAR from being straightforward.

SMB and USB should not be so slow, especially if you only need 2Gb, and I would recommand to use them.

@blonqe apologies if I sounded accusatory with my link - thanks for the info. Most posts that mention 128gb images are downloaded etc. Cheers

@herb_fargus said in Make backup image:

@inunotaishou sharing ROMs is against the forum rules. And even if your image didn't have ROMs it's incredibly reckless to share an image with all your configs which likely include your credentials for wifi access among other things.

Follow the available guides. Having other people do things for you does nobody any good.

So..... Where are the working guides you talk about?

Tried this one, and failed
Tried this one first, failed
I really wanted this one to work, but it kept breaking at the end

It's a good thing there are no ROMs on that image. My wifi credentials might be on there. The only thing I did to that image was run my publically available PiStation 2 setup script and configure the PS2 controllers before I made the image. I think I use that password on some throw away email accounts and pokemon games that I don't even know the account names to.

@caver01 thanks for your suggestions, I did change the theme and it helped a bit, but the main issue was my overscan settings. Uncommenting and increasing the left and right values slightly made a huge difference. Feels much more official now, lol. Thanks again.

@sigmanutz Ideally you'd look at the dimension of the 64Gb drive with df and note the number of total blocks of the / partition, then compare to the df output from your 128Gb card (also in blocks) and note the number of blocks used.
But, just to make sure, just backup the biggest ROMs folder to your PC and you're sure to get a smaller image and the creation process will also be shorter. You can then move back the ROMs to the new system.

Looks like you are doing it wrong. Try it a different way, one that works

@MajorDangerNine Thanks - I'll check it out.

RetroPie will give you an LBS error trying to resize on boot with retropie 4.4 with berryboot. It will also not allow you to resize it from retropie raspi-config nor while you have retropie booted and using the command line.

If you are using berryboot with retropie you will need to reboot the pie and do this from berryboots terminal via the berry boot menu with ctrl + alt + F2. I was able to resize an image I took of a 16G SD card written to a 64G card and resize it to expand all available space to the SD.

Links~
https://raspberry-projects.com/pi/pi-operating-systems/raspbian/troubleshooting/expand-filesystem-issues
https://www.chrisnewland.com/resize-raspberry-pi-sd-card-partition-to-fill-32gb-card-from-a-running-raspberry-pi-245

I cannot take credit for this, but will link what helped me after I spent a few hours trying to figure it out. Back up your SD pay no attention to drive space numbers in the examples below.

Backup your SD card to an image file first!

Enter this to see the current partition usage:
df

E.g.
Filesystem 1K-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on
rootfs 3698504 3351472 146524 96% /
/dev/root 3698504 3351472 146524 96% /
devtmpfs 494800 0 494800 0% /dev
tmpfs 99820 240 99580 1% /run
tmpfs 5120 0 5120 0% /run/lock
tmpfs 199620 0 199620 0% /run/shm
/dev/mmcblk0p1 57288 19400 37888 34% /boot

The rootfs and /dev/root is the same thing, its just a debian thing the have them both appear as separate

Enter this:
sudo fdisk /dev/mmcblk0

Then press 'p' to see the current partitions on the disk. E.g.

Disk /dev/mmcblk0: 7860 MB, 7860125696 bytes
4 heads, 16 sectors/track, 239872 cylinders, total 15351808 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xa6202af7
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/mmcblk0p1 8192 122879 57344 c W95 FAT32 (LBA)
/dev/mmcblk0p2 122880 15351807 7614464 83 Linux

Now delete the 2nd partition (it won't actually delete the data on it)
Press 'd' > Enter
Press '2' > Enter

Now re-create it:
Press 'n' > Enter
Press 'p' > Enter
Press '2' > Enter

Enter the First sector and the same value as the original /dev/mmcblk0p2 partition (122880 from the above example).

For the Last sector just press enter to use the maximum value.

Now press 'p' > Enter to see the new partition setup.
Finally press 'w' > Enter to write it

Now reboot:
sudo shutdown -r now

Once its back do the resize:
sudo resize2fs /dev/mmcblk0p2

This may take a little while to complete…

Now enter the command
df

and hey presto, you've expanded to use all the space :-)

Filesystem 1K-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on
rootfs 7513804 3352360 3810208 47% /
/dev/root 7513804 3352360 3810208 47% /
devtmpfs 494800 0 494800 0% /dev
tmpfs 99820 240 99580 1% /run
tmpfs 5120 0 5120 0% /run/lock
tmpfs 199620 0 199620 0% /run/shm
/dev/mmcblk0p1 57288 19400 37888 34% /boot

@najkks there are tons of resources on the web for how to use gparted. not very difficult. you cannot expect to have someone travel to your house and do it for you. your options were laid out, but you didnt like any of them.

The best bet is to create your image on a small SD card (maybe 8GB, or even reduce the main partition size by .5GB just to ensure that the image will fit on any 8GB SD Card you throw at it), then you will be able to put it on any card you want; 8GB, 16GB, 32GB, etc. Then you can expand it once the image is written to the card.