Hi Clyde,

Thanks for the reply. I've decided to test a few things out and see if I can get it going on my own. If I do, I'll post how I did it here. If not, I'll post the specific info you asked for above.

Thanks again.

@pandasan said in Official SD card not good ?:

But to be sure, a single partition FAT32 is enough right ?

Yes, it's enough.

For information, I formatted my root partition with F2FS more than a year ago, and never had a corruption since.
The main drawback is that it's more difficult to resize ATM than ext4 or xfs.

@qu9ke RetropPie will not use the FAT32 formatted partition to store the data. It doesn't matter if your SD card is formatted or not. If you write the RetroPie image on the card, you'll see that will create 2 partitions

a small Fat32 partition to hold the boot files and boot configuration a larger Linux partition that will actually hold the system, including the ROMs, emulators, etc. This partition will be automatically expanded on 1st boot to fill in the rest of your SD card.

So yes, you're overthinking it. Just write the RetroPie image on the SD card and start your Raspberry Pi.

@mitu @spaceman Yeah, it just gets in the way. If you want Raspbian, write that image. NOOBS is a waste of space and a PITA.

@kaz69 No, only one OS boots at a time. Nothing additional is running in the background from the other installations. Not sure if PINN asks or allows you to set the partition sizes but obviously it would be handy to have larger partitions for those OSes that need it.

@cbob72 no probs dude, glad I helped.

If it was in fact a Sony card, it should be compatible. I have to admit, bought it off eBay, probably fake, like BuZz suggested.

I haven't tested it, but apparently if you use the command
sudo apt-get install ntfs-3g
it'll install NTFS read/write support onto the Pi.
(from https://devtidbits.com/2013/03/21/using-usb-external-hard-disk-flash-drives-with-to-your-raspberry-pi/)

That said, I think this is already included in RetroPie, as my NTFS formatted 32GB USB drive is read fine by RetroPie.

I'd format the SD card to NTFS, add the RetroPie folder to it, plug it into the Pi, and see if the Pi populates the folder. If it doesn't try that command to install NTFS support.

@djaay Like the issue says, you could configure it to unzip them in /tmpor in a memory backed folder. In Debian, /tmp is written in memory, so there is no writing to the disk.
As for the other aspect - RAM - I don't think it makes any difference: unzipping an archive to obtain the original ROM file would lead to the same memory used by the uncompressed ROM. The only - extra - memory would be taken by the internal unzipping routine, which should be easily reclaimed by the process once is finished.

I don't want to start any arguments so if a mod can delete this whole topic please?

@herb_fargus Thanks herb. I just jumped into it. I forget about expanding the file system now that raspbian takes over and does it on install.

@gameguru see the wiki and follow the backup options Wiki

yes....Great stuff.....Will have to try this out tomorrow night. I'll let you know how i get on. Cheers peeps

@retrofreak89 so i use putty to ssh in. However if you are using your samsung evo card i wouldnt worry. I got tons of card corruptions with kingston and sandisk, but not once with either of my systems i use now with my samsung cards. I have reset them tons of times.

I found that thread I mentioned in my previous post.

https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/4288/sd-card-experience-requested-fastest-128-gb-card/27

Thanks for the reply.

I did notice something else. Before I flash the image file to the SD card, the format of the SD card is in fact FAT32. After the image is written, it is FAT (not 32). Could this be an issue?

@s1naloa10 said in Retropie shutdown:

how can i safely shutdown retropie to avoid corrupting my sd card?

The most famous/traditional/naive method is doing what @edmaul69 suggested:
press start, scroll down to quit, and then choose shutdown system.

Isn't it enough for you? In the OP you don't say anything about butons and GPIO.