retropie vs. retropie-mount directory in USB drivers

Tango

I'm trying to clarify the difference of the directories /media/usb0/retropie on a USB drive and /media/usb0/retropie-mount.

I see the first, retropie, referenced here, and I see the second, retropie-mount, referenced here. I'm just trying to make sure I understand the difference:

The retropie directory: This is used to copy ROMs from the USB drive to the RetroPie directories on the SD card (or hard drive, if RetroPie is on something other than a Raspberry Pi). If you create this directory on your USB drive, then put it in the RetroPie system, RetroPie will create the directory tree in it automatically, but will not copy any ROMs to it. Then, when you umount it and take it out, you can copy ROMs into the right folders in the retropie subdirectories. When you put the USB drive into your RetroPie setup, those ROMs will then be copied over to the system drive (which is usually the SD card.)

The retropie-mount directory is used to both copy ROMs from the system drive (usually an SD card) to the USB drive and to keep the ROM files on full time, so the files on the USB drive are used by RetroPie instead of using files on the SD card.

As I understand it, if I have a retropie in the root directory of a USB drive, RetroPie copies ROMS from that drive and if I have retropie-mount, RetroPie copies ROMS to that USB drive.

Am I describing what's going on correctly?

mitu

@Tango said in retropie vs. retropie-mount directory in USB drivers:

Am I describing what's going on correctly?

Not quite, but it's explained in the Docs here and here.

If you want to transfer ROMs to your SD card with an USB driver, then you create the retropie folder. If you want your ROMs to be read from the USB, instead of being stored on the sdcard, then your create the retropie-mount folder.

Tango

Okay, straight on most of it - one question left to be sure I have it.

@mitu said in retropie vs. retropie-mount directory in USB drivers:
...

If you want to transfer ROMs to your SD card with an USB driver, then you create the retropie folder. If you want your ROMs to be read from the USB, instead of being stored on the sdcard, then your create the retropie-mount folder.

With the retropie-mount folder present, from what I understand on those pages, RetroPie will automatically copy ROMs stored in the proper place on the SD card to the USB drive. (Although it may be necessary to reboot to make that happen.)

Is that part correct?

mitu

The copying part takes place only the first time you insert the USB stick, just to set-up the folder structure.

Tango

@mitu said in retropie vs. retropie-mount directory in USB drivers:

The copying part takes place only the first time you insert the USB stick, just to set-up the folder structure.

I had figured that, but had not explicitly stated it. Thank you for clarifying it!