@Parabolaralus Yeah I'll either figure it out or install linux (what is a good distro for dell laptops?). This pc I found at a garbage dump, the hard drive was failing, the battery shot, and it was a little beaten up from being discarded. I restored it with a ssd, and a new battery. I think it came with windows 7, but there was no sticker on the back. I downloaded the USB Windows 10 upgrade from microsoft, these were free upgrades some time ago. I had assumed Education postulating that it would activate for free, but I have no qualifications for those terms. Back on topic: ExFat has been working great with allocation unit size 8192b. NTFS-3g may have been a problem in particular with dosbox because of the write syncs.

@mitu The device setup I was thinking would be like this on the raspberry pi USB1: Usb image boot, raspbian? smaller. Micro-SDslot: unformatted new microsd (the target of the image write) USB2: Usb microsd adapter (the source of the image write) rpi-clone; and I thought I made it sound confusing.

@Krytern That's a good question. The configuration exists. I read that the sd_overclock has to be a multiple of the core_freq, otherwise it will choose the next highest factor.

@taiJones00 So does the wireless work on the game girl? It would be cool to write a script to easily disable and enable it to save power. Is the hdmi port still accessible? and then you might be able to sync a wireless controller and play on a tv. The RPI3b+ can get hotter than any of the other models, I wonder if installing a fan would be possible. Of course that would use more power, depending on the emulations you want to use, it would be easy to down_clock the cpu and benefit as well.

@ByteThis I thought about hooking up a lan cable but i’m too lazy to run one from my router behind my furniture and to the pie.

I used the automatic way of doing it by just making the retropie-mount folder in the root of the drive and plugging it in to the pi and just let it do its thing. Thanks.

I first used Putty, but far too slow due to encryption. I then tried FileZilla, much much faster, but still use Putty to access the PI and run or edit some thinga via Putty through a console on the Windows desktop. N ever used wireless, far too slow and problems with connections as you've found out https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/remote-access/ssh/windows.md Transferring ROMs via FileZilla is about as fast as you will get over an thernet cable, which is what I use but I use cat6 cables https://www.dexterindustries.com/howto/how-to-transfer-files-to-your-raspberry-pi-from-a-pc-computer/

@clyde That's it! The KISS principle. I like that one. @sub_atomic I hope we did not "scare you away" from setting up a remote connection. Just take your time, read up on how to do it properly and you'll be fine. But doing it together with your nephew is a thing that I can 100% second. Passing on the love for and knowledge of tinkering and a little coding and IT stuff is always something good. :) Cheers!

@mediamogul Wonderful.

You need to copy the ROM folders contents to your PC or a USB stick, then transfer them over to the new image as you did initially. You might have to write your backup image back to the card in order to copy the ROMs.

I would say that with today's technology yes, though it would be near impossible to do so without connecting the game cartridge to the computer :). So unless you have some sort of GBA-2-USB adapter, I would say no.

@redbatman right, maybe a ghost did those two bumps on your account above? that seems the most likely explanation. it is my sworn duty to keep this forum ghost-free; i will have to issue a temporary ban to any possessed accounts if the rules are broken again.

@backstander 2012

@markyh444 There have been one or two occasions I thought I might be able to save a hard working developer/mod a couple of minutes, but I'm way too nervous to do it!! Believe me, plenty of play and learning to do yet;))

@Whitesnake Sometimes there's just no substitute for sneakernet.

I learnt loads! Thanks again :)

I would recommend using the network to copy large amounts of data. Or use a tool like mc to copy roms manually (don't make the retropie folder, so the usbromservice to copy them triggers). Network is easiest though.