Running roms off usb drive

stevep

@felleg I'm back....just wanted to say thank you for your patience with me...I am new and just a novice. Anyway as I stated I followed the instructions on the retropie site as stated:

Automatic Mount (Easiest Method)

As of December 30, 2016 a simple automated method was added to run roms from a USB drive.
1.First Update the RetroPie Setup Script
2.Re-Enable the USB ROM Transfer Service
3.Format your USB drive to FAT32 per directions above
4.Create a folder called retropie-mount on the USB drive
5.Plug into Raspberry Pi
6.It will proceed to automatically copy the RetroPie folder AND all of its contents (you may need to reboot to start the copying)

NOTE if you have a large ROM collection already on the SD card it will copy all of the ROMs too so make sure your USB is large enough. It is easiest if you haven't added any roms yet.

Once the folder structure is copied over the USB will be mounted over the RetroPie folder so any ROMs you add to your pi will be run off of the USB.

I followed this to the letter but when rebooting the pi , Emulationstation told me that no systems were loaded and to check the .cfg file. After I posted my first post regarding this I removed the usb drive and rebooted the pi. Everything was as it was before I attempted this procedure. I did however check the usb on my pc and it showed this:
0_1496891577973_retropie usb.PNG
so apparently it had copied some files off the pi but why does ES lock me out when I reboot and tell me there are no systems found? Again I'm running retropie 4.2.
Thanks Again....pardon my ignorance as I am just a novice..
Steve P.

E

mattrixk

@stevep This may be a silly question, but do you actually have any roms in the game folders? A System won't show up if there are no games in the folder.

stevep

Of course.I have over 300 games in various systems.

dankcushions

@stevep said in Running roms off usb drive:

Of course.I have over 300 games in various systems.

but have they been copied to your USB stick? try having a look via windows in the sub folders of the 'roms' folder.

stevep

I did check the sub folders and they are all empty. I had forgotten to mention that in my previous post.but why does ES tell me that "no systems found...check the path..etc....The USB stick was plugged in for a good 10 minutes. It should have copied something besides empty sub folders. As I mentioned before,when the stick is removed and I reboot ...all is back to normal..

backstander

@stevep

but why does ES tell me that "no systems found...check the path..etc....

Can you take a picture of this error and post it here? I don't think I've ever seen this error while only having a USB stick plugged in. Maybe it will give us an idea on how to best assist you.

obsidianspider

I found that when I tried to do it, nothing copied over aside from the base BIOS files. Not even the RetroPie "system" which essentially has all of those setup items in it. To get things working I manually copied the contents of the /RetroPie folder to the USB stick in the /retropiemount directory. I found that the script is copying the file structure over, but not the files inside the folders. Once I copied them over, then rebooted, I was good. I hope that helps.

lilbud

@AlexMurphy
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felleg

@obsidianspider said in Running roms off usb drive:

I found that when I tried to do it, nothing copied over aside from the base BIOS files. Not even the RetroPie "system" which essentially has all of those setup items in it. To get things working I manually copied the contents of the /RetroPie folder to the USB stick in the /retropiemount directory. I found that the script is copying the file structure over, but not the files inside the folders. Once I copied them over, then rebooted, I was good. I hope that helps.

@stevep In case you're unfamiliar with linux, the following command should to this for you:
cp -r -v ~/RetroPie/ /media/usb/retropie-mount

cp: copy command
-r: option to copy files in folders (probably what was missing from the automatic script)
-v: verbose, shows you which files have been copied as the command is executed

A Former User

And now, a moment of silence for Alexander Murphy the 27th.

caver01

I guess I missed this thread. Been a week of silence. Who is going to tease me now that AM is gone?

I am curious about @stevep and the USB ROMs outcome. I have considered moving to USB myself for easier management, upgrades and. . . Is there a performance bump? But I often see threads like this that make me second guess my attempt.

dankcushions

@caver01 the performance improvements aren't noticeable really because the files we deal with are so small, and the pi has kind of crappy IO regardless.

there are other advantages though - https://github.com/RetroPie/RetroPie-Setup/wiki/Running-ROMs-from-a-USB-drive

felleg

@caver01 When it works correctly, the only downside I can think of is that it uses one of the USB ports (makes you need a USB hub to play 4 player games). Other than that, it's totally worth it in my opinion. I recommend using a USB like this one, which is small enough to always leave it on your pi: http://www.lexar.com/products/usb-flash-drives/Lexar-JumpDrive-S45-USB-3-flash-drive.html#SKU=LJDS45-128ABNL

tony_retrogamer

I can't no longer run roms off the usb storage either since doing a clean install of retropie 4.2. Nothing works. Even using this guys hack [link text]

(link url) and following these instructions [link text]

(link url) no longer work.

Emulation station was updated which broke a lot of things even my controllers were messed up I was able to fix them but the last two days made me want to trash my PI and just stay with playing games on my PC.

The only workaround was I had to get a bigger SD card and run the roms off of there, nothing else worked.