How do I use an external Hard Drive?

Moco

Like the topic says, I have a seagate with an AC adaptor and would like the Retropi 3 to use it. I already have a 32gb micro sd card with 3.6 installed. Any help would be appreciated.

zerojay

Plug it in, choose a place that you would like to mount it (mount /dev/[yourdevicehere] [your mount point here]), edit /etc/fstab to add it if you want it to automount and you should be good. If you need more help with it, just about any sort of Linux tutorial on mounting a hard drive should work fine for doing the above.

Moco

can you be more specific please, give me an example besides [your device here] (not being a smart ass btw), just give me what someone's command would be including their mount name.

Like:
/mount/dev/fblk0q/dont know what to point it at/

Also, every time I plug in the external drive and have it connected to the pie, I take it out of RP and put it back into the PC and it doesn't recognize it anymore. I can reformat it and it goes back to normal.

Speaking of formatting, do I choose NTFS or Fat16?

zerojay

I can't really give you better examples because that means I would have to predict your device names. Likely /dev/sda1 but it's entirely dependent upon how your drive shows up. Again, you should instead look up a tutorial on mounting for Linux as it will give you all the info you will need.

robertybob

I always follow this guide:
http://www.htpcguides.com/properly-mount-usb-storage-raspberry-pi/

dankcushions

that guide pretty much covers it. i mount my usb stick to the /home/pi/RetroPie folder, so all my roms, bios, etc, are on the drive, yet i don't have to remap anything in ES or whatever. you need to copy the existing folder contents to your usb drive initially.

Moco

Thanks alot for the guide, after a few tries I got it to work. Before I continue, do the files automatically go into your list? I set my folder to be /usbstorage2 instead of just /usbstorage.

Do I have to do anything to make the file appear? Like make a system folder.

Also, if I wanted everything to be in the same place, what would I create? (directory, etc.)

Thank You.