[SOLVED]Still haven't had help on rom usb
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Original post:
So, I re formatted the usb drive that I had originally used after installing retropie.
Now, I do the same method of putting fresh retropie folder on usb fat 32 formatted, and it won't copy the starting folders this time.
And in file manager, all my roms from previous are still on retropie. I do not want to run roms on my sd. I want to run them from usb.
So how do I start all over and fresh file system? And also, how do I stop the retropie from copying all my roms over after I try to populate the emulation station of my roms on my usb?
Thank you
Also, I have read the "usb rom tutorial" on here for over 3 hours trying the steps over and over again.
Does retropie or can retropie copy the initial files to multiple usbs? Or is it only after the very first usb inserted after a fresh installation of retropie?
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And I guess I'm not understanding how to edit to auto mount usb for retropie to see my roms in emulation station every time I boot my retropie.
:( I'm so noob sorry
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@usarmyvet
Did you follow these steps:Automatic Mount (Easiest Method)
As of December 30, 2016 a simple automated method was added to run roms from a USB drive.First Update the RetroPie Setup Script
Re-Enable the USB ROM Transfer Service
Format your USB drive to FAT32 per directions above
Create a folder called retropie-mount on the USB drive
Plug into Raspberry Pi
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.
https://github.com/RetroPie/RetroPie-Setup/wiki/Running-ROMs-from-a-USB-drive
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Yes , I did that once, but 90% of my roms didn't show up in emulationstation, and through research was suggested that since I unzipped the roms, that would prevent them from showing up?
So, I decided to reformat my usb and try again. But when I plugged in my usb again, nothing happens. Plus, my directory from previous is still in the retropie..... I don't want any of that lol
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@usarmyvet From my experience using this method it takes a bit of time depending on the number of files/size. Are you waiting enough time for the files to be copied to the RPi?
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if you're following the linked guide (https://github.com/RetroPie/RetroPie-Setup/wiki/Running-ROMs-from-a-USB-drive) then anything on the USB should instantly appear after an emulationstation reboot - it won't tranfer anything.
the reason things don't show up in emulationstation on a default retropie setup is because the file extensions are wrong. @USArmyVet can you please give the full file path (including file extension) of a file on your USB that you think should be appearing, but isn't?
eg:
/retropie-mount/roms/n64/mario.n64 -
@USArmyVet
Howdy Friend....also a US Army CV. You may want to check out my channel (link in my sig) and look at the expand to external drive option. I am currently reworking my toolkit though to run much cleaner so you may want to hold off till this weekend.The HUGE difference between the retropie method and the one I wrote is that it does not copy the roms to the external drive. Because we are not copying roms over that saves you hours of waiting for them to move over.
It fudges to Retropie that the roms directory on the external drive and the roms on the sd card are the same directory.
Meaning you can unplug your external drive, go to a friends house with your pi and will still have the games that are on the SD card....come home, plug the external drive back up...boom you have your 1001 PSX titles that wont fit on an SD card.
Again I encourage you to wait until I release the new toolkit as the code is much cleaner....the old method does still work though and a lot of folks still use it :-) -
Do I have to do the fstab procedure if I am doing auto instead of manual?
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@usarmyvet nope
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So, I did it and no folders copied over
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Thanks, please let me know when you have a working fix and finish your program, I would love to use it
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I did it a third time and was able to get it to auto mount and found roms. However, since it's noobs it won't let me use scraper and crashes the system and puts me in terminal throwing "no space allowed". Is there any way to make retropie saving everything including game saves to my usb?
I went into file manager and deleted everything in retropie folders on the pi, and ran setup through terminal and installed all packages again. And updated. And then it read my usb finally.
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@usarmyvet said in [SOLVED]Still haven't had help on rom usb:
I did it a third time and was able to get it to auto mount and found roms. However, since it's noobs it won't let me use scraper and crashes the system and puts me in terminal throwing "no space allowed". Is there any way to make retropie saving everything including game saves to my usb?
I went into file manager and deleted everything in retropie folders on the pi, and ran setup through terminal and installed all packages again. And updated. And then it read my usb finally.
great! so all i fixed? i suspect what happened is previously it was just transferring all the files from the USB to your sd card, as per https://github.com/retropie/retropie-setup/wiki/Transferring-Roms#usb-stick - now you've changed it to use the USB drive as rom storage, it stopped doing that, but you still had the files there consuming all your space. now that you've got rid of them, everything should be good.
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@usarmyvet I am still working on the wiki but....
https://shakz76.github.io/Eazy-Hax-RetroPie-Toolkit/
Basically it will- Copy everything you have on your sd card to a different directory on the SD card...not on the External drive.
- Mount your external drive and make it mount perminently (even after reboots), and create a roms directory on it that mimics what is on your sd card (just empty directories)
- Make the pi think your sd card roms and anything you add to the external drive roms are one roms directory.
- Allow you to disconnect the external drive at any time and go mobile with the roms on your sd card....when you get back home...plug it up and you get the extended library on your External drive.
- Adds two seperate samba directories one for the SD card and one for the External drive so you can add roms where you want them.
- Because it does not actually copy anything...no need to wait for the roms to be copied to the external drive...plus it does not waste that space.
If you for whatever reason have the exact same copy of a game on the SD card and the External drive it will read what is on the SD card and ignore what is on the External Drive. The only rule is the external drive must be formatted to NTFS.
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@shakz wasn’t this procedure done by someone named “Forrest”? Just trying to keep my facts straight.
And I use this toolkit regularly if it is the same one, will have to check out the update... thanks
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@chuckyp I am Forrest ;-)
Thanks for looking out for me though...see the link in my sig. I'll be making a vid for it next week hopefully. Really wanted to bring the mac guys into the fold and running the scripts on the pi itself with a means to update them just makes more sense. The batch, curl, bash method has worked great for ages but its kinda clunky. The original kit will be left as is and marked as "Legacy" for image developers but I do not plan to expand on it anymore. With V2 it will still be there but only in a very limited capacity, login, reboot, shutdown, temp monitor, disk monitor....all that stuff you do really just for testing.
Forrest aka Eazy Hax aka Shakz -
@shakz thanks for the info. I just like to give credit where credit is due when I use someone’s work.
Keep it up, your videos have helped me learn a lot over the last couple years.
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