SD Slot broken, need to transfer image from SD card to USB Stick

maschine

Hi Folks,

The SD card slot on my Raspberry Pi 4 has ceased to function properly and, to my dismay, no longer recognizes any SD cards. Thankfully, given the Pi4's compatibility with USB booting, I'm optimistic about finding an alternative solution.

I'm looking to transfer the contents from the SD card to a bootable USB stick and would greatly appreciate a step-by-step guide or any pointers that will assist me in navigating through this process.

Thank you!

retropieuser555

Use pi baker or a similar application on a computer to create a copy of your sd card.
Then use pi baker or raspberry pi installer to flash that .img copy to your USB device.

maschine

@retropieuser555 Thanks. Will do so.

maschine

@retropieuser555 Unfortunately, it did not work. I created an image from my SD card using Etcher and copied it to an USB Stick. Upon Booting I get this error message: Any other ideas? Thanks

sleve_mcdichael

@maschine

start4.elf: is not compatible
USB-MSD boot requires newer software

this looks similar to what was happening with the RetroPie 4.7 image and the new-revision Pi 4 boards early last year. The solution then was, to use the latest weekly image at:

https://files.retropie.org.uk/images/weekly/

If you can boot from that image on the USB, then you can use 7zip to access your backup image and extract the roms and BIOS, and transfer them back onto the new system using the method of your choice.

https://retropie.org.uk/docs/Transferring-Roms/

maschine

@sleve_mcdichael Thank you for your suggestion which does seem like a viable solution. However, the task involves more than merely transferring the ROMs; it necessitates starting from scratch and reconfiguring the entire build. Is there a method to make the old image boot from a USB stick?"

mitu

Copy the latest .dat and .elf files from https://github.com/raspberrypi/firmware/tree/oldstable/boot (make sure you download the files and not the web page !) and put them on the BOOT partition of the USB drive.
If the system boots, then make sure you update your system to get the latest kernel/firmware.

What image did you use to install and when it was last updated ?

maschine

Thanks mitu, your help is much appreciated. The system seems to boot now from the USB drive. However, the screen keeps being black for over an hour. Maybe I need to wait longer?

What image did you use to install and when it was last updated ?

Actually I don't recall, which Retropie version was initally installed, I guess 4.7 or so. A week ago I updated the system, incl. the underyling kernel.

mitu

@maschine said in SD Slot broken, need to transfer image from SD card to USB Stick:

The system seems to boot now from the USB drive. However, the screen keeps being black for over an hour.

That doesn't look like it started completely. If you can reach your system over SSH you can check if there are any errors by checking the dmesg output.

A week ago I updated the system, incl. the underyling kernel.

That's strange, since that would have updated the files in question, which would have enabled booting from USB. If you use a fresh RetroPie 4.8 image, does it boot correctly from the USB ?

maschine

OMG, I used the wrong HDMI port - that‘s why the screen was black ;(

Anyhow, thanks a lot for your support and sorry for wasting your time!