Moving from SD Card to SSD (open discussion)

Ashpool

@Retro-Arcade-Fan I guess the Image you made (and wrote back) are sector-by-sector ones. You can reduce the write-back time by using pi-shrink (In my experience images made with dd are best to be used with PiShrink, as I had some troubles with images made by other means (for instance sd-card imager under windows)), it will reduce the image size down to the actual used block size by getting rid of the empty ones (which in itself is a process that takes some time).
On the other hand, there are Tools that are reading images filewise if possible and fall-back to sector-by-sector if not.
Like e.g. Acronis TrueImage [1] as a comercial solution, but most of the freely provided DiscWizardTools or whatever they may be called from HDD-Manufacturers to be used with their product are a feature-reduced version of that programm. Another Free and Open Source one would be Clonezilla.
Though I haven't used any of the two with SD-Cards so far but just with regular HDDs and SSDs.

1: Rescue-/Live-Media to be prefered (The Full Windows install is simply overkill, but may be needed to create the rescue media).

windg

*Not a answer to your question. To have the roms in a external storage and the OS in a sdcard (16gb is enough) it will save you a lot of time and troubles.

George Spiggott

@windg I was thinking along similar lines. Cheap SSDs are getting to the point where they are comparable in price with SDcards.

Retro Arcade Fan

@George-Spiggott @windg Isn't the process of adding a SSD to the RP difficult and clunky? And is there a speed sacrifice?

Retro Arcade Fan

@Ashpool This is very interesting! I'll have to research pishrink more. Thank you for this.

windg

@Retro-Arcade-Fan I don't know about ssd, i have my roms in a usb stick 128gb, i am using this method for years without any issue. I follow this guide(automatic mount) : https://retropie.org.uk/docs/Running-ROMs-from-a-USB-drive/ . i am sure you can use an ssd as exernal disk, if you put it to a case, like i did with the usb stick.

WhiteT982

@windg
Maybe more than you’re looking for but I have an M.2 256gb in an argon one case and I have had much faster boot times as well as read and write speeds. The M.2 card was only $25 too if I remember right. Much nicer than the SD card and easy to set up too.

Retro Arcade Fan

@windg I would assume SSD is faster and more reliable than a USB stick?

Retro Arcade Fan

@WhiteT982 This is good to hear. I might have to pursue this. A few questions please:

Does the SSD replace the SD card entirely? Or the OS is on the SD card and the roms are on the SSD?
Can you recommend a good argon case? I know there's a lot out there. The last one someone recommended had a huge fan and I want a quiet setup for my arcade cabinet.
Can you recommend a good guide to assist me in the entire process?

Thank you.

WhiteT982

@Retro-Arcade-Fan
Yeah that was part of my reasoning for springing for the argon case and M.2. I’ve had issues with SD cards corrupting before

The OS and everything is on the SSD. No sd needed for anything. You can flash to the SSD using raspberry pi imager like you would an sd card. Just have to choose the right option

Not sure if there is an argon case without the fan. Mine has it and is quiet. I can’t hear it when sitting on the couch playing for sure. It also doesn’t cut on very often because it does have good passive cooling. Mines overclocked to 2000 and it still doesn’t heat up much.

As far as guides go it’s not any different than setting up with the sd. Just when you flash it with the imager make sure it’s set to a usb. Pi4 s can boot from usb but if you have a 3 I think you had to change something?

windg

@Retro-Arcade-Fan
Yes, SSD is faster .

Retro Arcade Fan

@WhiteT982 I have a RP4 so good there. What case/fan do you recommend?

WhiteT982

@Retro-Arcade-Fan
https://www.amazon.com/Argon-Raspberry-Support-B-Key-Compatible/dp/B08MJ3CSW7

Fan already comes with it. There are some that don’t have M.2 capability so if you see one for $25 it’s probably the wrong one. It says it only supports B-key SSDs too so make sure you get a compatible one.

Retro Arcade Fan

@WhiteT982 Thank you for this. I appreciate the time and input you're giving me. Can I ask you to please recommend a 512 and/or larger SSD?

WhiteT982

@Retro-Arcade-Fan
https://www.amazon.com/Silicon-Power-512GB-Gen3x4-SP512GBP34A60M28/dp/B07ZGJYLNL

Retro Arcade Fan

@WhiteT982 But the description for the case says it doesn't support NVMe?

WhiteT982

@Retro-Arcade-Fan
Guess I missed that.
This is the one I bought. Maybe you can find a 512 version?
https://www.amazon.com/Kingston-A400-240G-SATA-Internal/dp/B07P22RK1G?dplnkId=ccdd2f93-a9a0-400a-8041-fdcef4b32022&nodl=1

Retro Arcade Fan

@WhiteT982 I'll look. Seems real difficult to find one that isn't NVMe. Might have to get this as well.

https://www.argon40.com/products/argon-one-m-2-expansion-board-nvme?pr_prod_strat=copurchase&pr_rec_id=c3bbbefdf&pr_rec_pid=6824727707713&pr_ref_pid=6734580285505&pr_seq=uniform

George Spiggott

@Retro-Arcade-Fan Yes, you're right there is. There's a trade off with speed and reliability against size and ease of installation.

Lolonois

@Retro-Arcade-Fan as you stated you have a arcade and a Rpi4. I assume space is not a premium, but you prefer a fanless cooling for you PI? Head over to this thread [1], if you did not already. In the thread there are also some fanless solutions.

The Argon extension with NVMe bus speed is a overkill IMHO, SATA3 bus is sufficient. There is also a SATA Argon case extension [2], which is even cheaper. And M.2 SATA3 SSD are also cheaper.

At the end of the day a decent USB to SATA adapter with UASP will do [3] as the RPI4 does not even yield the 600MB/s throughput of SATA3. [4]

Word of warning: Don't pick a USB to SATA adapter with JMicron chipset/firmware [5], those most likely do not support UASP properly. Which ruins the performance gain from the SSD and you have to use USB quirks to get it running [6]

While USB flash drives may be as reliable as an SSD they are in general slower (as they implement the bulk-only transfer, BOT), unless you search some up with UASP.

I left the boot (/boot) partition (less than 200MB) on the SD card and the root filesystem (/) on the SSD, as described there [7]. This way I don't had to change the boot order via raspi-config. You can also find a few recommendations for SSDs at the same site [8].

HTH

[1] https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/25913/good-cases-for-the-pi4
[2] https://www.argon40.com/products/argon-one-m-2-expansion-board
[3] https://retropie.org.uk/forum/post/274528
[4] https://www.jeffgeerling.com/blog/2020/uasp-makes-raspberry-pi-4-disk-io-50-faster
[5] https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/27921/ssd-causing-lag
[6] https://forums.raspberrypi.com/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=245931
[7] https://jamesachambers.com/raspberry-pi-4-usb-boot-config-guide-for-ssd-flash-drives/
[8] https://jamesachambers.com/2020s-fastest-raspberry-pi-4-storage-sd-ssd-benchmarks/