usb boot from 5tb hdd

korn16ftl3

Pi Model or other hardware: raspberry pi 4 8GB

Power Supply used: OEM ROG ally USB C charger

RetroPie Version Used : 4.8

Built From: pre-build from site filename: retropie-buster-4.8-rpi4_400.img.gz

USB Devices connected: 5TB WD passport ultra (boot device), Dell USB keyboard, onn brand USB mouse

Controller used: INNEXT clone snes controller

Error messages received: could not expand filesystem, please try raspi-config or rc_GUI. Root partition resize failed.

Guide used: did the normal install, updated bootloader via sd flash for USB boot, wrote retropie image to the USB HDD with raspberry pi imager

How to replicate the problem: simply write the retropie image to my hdd and try to load the OS, does not repeat on USB stick however so it leads me to believe i have some kind of problem with the hdd.

I'm trying to get retropie to boot from a 5TB usb HDD and i can write the image and it loads but the problem seems to be that when it first boots up its supposed to resize the partitoon to the full size of the drive, however it seems that for some reason this fails on the hdd.

I get a big grey and blue screen that comes up telling me it cant resize the partition, and asks me to try with raspi-config, however when I get into raspi-config (either threw cli or the retropie GUI) option 7 (where the resize option is supposed to be) is missing and unable to be selected. I have no idea what rc_GUI is and have not attempted this as of yet.

Is it even possible to boot from a 5TB hdd or am i missing, doing something wrong here?

mitu

I think for >4Tb drivers you need a GPT partition table, whereas the one provided with the RetroPie image is just MBR.

Is the current RaspiOS Lite version able to resize the partition ? You may want to install the RaspiOS first then do a manual install if it works.

korn16ftl3

@mitu said in usb boot from 5tb hdd:

I think for >4Tb drivers you need a GPT partition table, whereas the one provided with the RetroPie image is just MBR.

Is the current RaspiOS Lite version able to resize the partition ? You may want to install the RaspiOS first then do a manual install if it works.

i tried using gparted and manually resizing it anf that also failed.

i also installed raspian os on the hdd and it did everything in MBR, even split the drive into 2 partitions one was unallocated.

its not looking like this is a possibility

mitu

@korn16ftl3 said in usb boot from 5tb hdd:

its not looking like this is a possibility

I know users in the RPi forums have made this work, but you have to use gparted to convert the partition table to GPT (from MBR), from a separate/different system - a Linux system which can run gparted on the (unmounted) SSD disk. If you have a PC system you can use gparted from there (with a Live USB Linux - https://gparted.org/liveusb.php).

korn16ftl3

@mitu said in usb boot from 5tb hdd:

@korn16ftl3 said in usb boot from 5tb hdd:

its not looking like this is a possibility

I know users in the RPi forums have made this work, but you have to use gparted to convert the partition table to GPT (from MBR), from a separate/different system - a Linux system which can run gparted on the (unmounted) SSD disk. If you have a PC system you can use gparted from there (with a Live USB Linux - https://gparted.org/liveusb.php).

I have made a similar attempt like what you are mentioning (at least I think) by loading into raspberry pi os from as card installing gparted then plugging in the 5tb usb had (non-ssd) and using gparted to convert from MBR to GPT. After that I use a windows machine and the pi image writer to write retries (and I’ve even tried raspi os) to the usb hdd. The problem im finding is that it just turns the hdd back to MBR.

After some thought I do believe there is a way (with some of my windows hdd tools) to convert an MBR hdd to GPT with the OS installed and not destroying the data. I will have a look later on today. Not sure how this will fair however as after the image writer the hdd will be in Linux format (ext4 I think it is?) so maybe I’ll have a look with both windows tools an gparted after the image write and see what options I have.

mitu

@korn16ftl3 said in usb boot from 5tb hdd:

After that I use a windows machine and the pi image writer to write retries (and I’ve even tried raspi os) to the usb hdd. The problem im finding is that it just turns the hdd back to MBR.

You need to do the conversion after you write the image, otherwise writing the image again will just re-initialize the disk with a MBR boot signature.

korn16ftl3

@mitu said in usb boot from 5tb hdd:

@korn16ftl3 said in usb boot from 5tb hdd:

After that I use a windows machine and the pi image writer to write retries (and I’ve even tried raspi os) to the usb hdd. The problem im finding is that it just turns the hdd back to MBR.

You need to do the conversion after you write the image, otherwise writing the image again will just re-initialize the disk with a MBR boot signature.

So I've tried a couple things:

wrote retrope image to HDD then used MiniTool Partition Wizard (windows) to change the MBR to GPT try the first boot of retropie (where it resizes) and it stalls after post with the following 3 lines on screen

[ 1.494426] mmc1: controller never released inhabit bit(s)
[ 3.839951] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] no caching mode page found
[ 3.840041] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] assuming drive cache: write through

a. I've taken the previous results (just for fun) with a fresh image write of retropie on the hdd, wrote a pi OS 64 bit image to an sd card, installed gparted, to pi os changed the MBR to GPT with pi OS and got the same results from above.

b. I used gparted to play with the boot partition flags.
The boot partition flag WAS originally set to msftres so i obviously tried setting the boot flag first and still got the same 3 lines above. Ive also tried setting the boot partition flag to lba (just because) again same results as well with that.

wrote a fresh retropie image to the hdd booted it up to receive the unable to resize partition error loaded to controller settings hi F4 then used sudo shutdown now to shut the pi down. I then plugged the pi into a windows pc and again used MiniTool Partition Wizard to convert the hdd to GPT and tried to boot up the retropie hdd again but this time it entered some kind of boot loop at post (the pink screen) complaining about the hdd though it scrolled so quickly I didn't catch it all. Also note i have only attempted this particular method once so perhaps user error?

Anyhow I'm curious what those 3 lines mean? i know 3 lines show up on a successful boot at that portion as well then continues to boot but once again they go by so quickly I'm not sure what they say....like at all.

it seems I'm getting part of this correct somehow as its doing something it does on a normal boot but what am i missing here?

mitu

@korn16ftl3 said in usb boot from 5tb hdd:

Anyhow I'm curious what those 3 lines mean? i know 3 lines show up on a successful boot at that portion as well then continues to boot but once again they go by so quickly I'm not sure what they say....like at all.

The sda related messages means the disc has been read by the system and I would expect to see a list of partitions found on the disc in the following messages ( referring to sda1, sda2 since there are 2 partition).
Maybe there's not enough power supplied by the 'charger' you're using and the disc cannot be initialized ? Can you try with a RPI certified power source ?

korn16ftl3

@mitu said in usb boot from 5tb hdd:

@korn16ftl3 said in usb boot from 5tb hdd:

Anyhow I'm curious what those 3 lines mean? i know 3 lines show up on a successful boot at that portion as well then continues to boot but once again they go by so quickly I'm not sure what they say....like at all.

The sda related messages means the disc has been read by the system and I would expect to see a list of partitions found on the disc in the following messages ( referring to sda1, sda2 since there are 2 partition).
Maybe there's not enough power supplied by the 'charger' you're using and the disc cannot be initialized ? Can you try with a RPI certified power source ?

I do not have a certified rpi power source available to me however I find it hard to believe that there is insufficient power supplied as the ROG ally oem charger should be sufficient at the following specifications:

The ROG Ally OEM charger is a 65W USB Type C power adapter.
Here's a breakdown of its specifications:
Model: ADP-65JWY2A or ADP-65SDD2A.
Power: 65W.
Voltage: 20V.
Amperage: 3.25A.
Connector: USB-C.
Plug Type: US (American).

I did find a different link when googling some of those errors and found that it’s possible it is the data to usb chipset on the external hdd (source: https://forums.raspberrypi.com/viewtopic.php?t=330384 )

The above site does list a few things to try and to try to eliminate the still potential power problem an maybe the data to usb controller problem I ordered a different external enclosure that is independently powered as well ( this enclosure: https://a.co/d/fWlN5rW ). I already have a different sabernet data to usb adapter that is NOT independently powered that works ok with my (off brand and for some reason slow) 2.5 ssd hdd so hopefully the powered one solves my issues.

If I still have problems I will try some of the other remedies mentioned there as well as the way back machine link that is in that thread as well.

If you have any other feedback or ideas please feel free to post them and feel free to have a read on that thread as well.

Lolonois

@korn16ftl3 good you dug up some options.

Just to cross other issues out: The first Pi4 revision has an issue with some quality USB chargers. Check the output of cat /sys/firmware/devicetree/base/model, if it shows board revision 1.1 you may need an official Pi4 USB-C power supply. Otherwise you are on the safe side.

The mmc1 controller never released inhibit bits is most likely not related with the USB drive issue. Most likely you can mute it by inserting a blank sd card (no partition on it). [1]

The USB WD Drive has a custom chipset (see discussion in that thread [2]), which may cause the issue in context with the Raspberry Pi. You can try some USB quirks to mitigate the issue.
May be you can use t as flag (disables some UAS commands which may help already), but at least u should remediate the situation.
(add either to cmdline.txt) (see usb-storage.quirks in [3])

Last but not least you can detect which mode (Driver=uas or Driver=usb-storage) the drive uses with lsusb -t (look for the USB drive name in the output).

[1] https://forums.raspberrypi.com/viewtopic.php?t=351746#p2123679
[2] https://community.wd.com/t/5-tb-mypassport-drive-only/242638/2
[3] https://www.kernel.org/doc/Documentation/admin-guide/kernel-parameters.txt

korn16ftl3

@Lolonois
Thanks for some more directions to go, as yours seem WD targeted i will begin with them in my troubleshooting process.

I was unaware that there was a particular issue with some pi4 models that forced me to use an official pi4 power supply. Perhaps I should attempt this first to resolve my issues or start here to eliminate the possibility.

I have just received my external usb enclosure and have shucked the drive. To my disappointment the drive has no data interface and in fact has an integrated USB interface.

I suppose to proceed with even considering putting this in an external sata enclosure I would have to match this hdd model # with another that has the actual sata interface pcb to use as a donor for this drive. I’m not even sure how well this would work but in theory it should. Does anyone have any other possible work arounds for this issue? I don’t even know when they started doing this, it used to be buy an external shuck it and put it in whatever device you chose.

Does anyone else have any input thoughts or ideas with this?

This has quickly gotten way over my head….maybe I will just buy a different hdd and move on I don’t know yet.