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    Please do not post a support request without first reading and following the advice in https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/3/read-this-first

    Largest size micro sd card?

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    • K
      kabal82
      last edited by

      So I'm in the process of buying the needed parts to build a retropie console. I wondering what is the largest micro sd card that can be used? As I've seen several contradicting statements about 32 gb being the largest that can be formatted for RasberryPi.

      Any advice would be greatly appreciated, as I believe I may need more than 32 gb for the amount of intended ROMs I plan on installing onto the system.

      Thanks.

      CharcoC FinheadF C 3 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • CharcoC
        Charco @kabal82
        last edited by

        @kabal82 I am using a 64gb class 10 microsd card and it works fine.

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
        • FinheadF
          Finhead @kabal82
          last edited by

          @kabal82 Personally if I were going to use that many roms tot ake that much space , which I could only see if I was going to run PSX games. I would use a USB drive and store your roms on that since they are cheaper and far less likely to currupt. Just throwing another option out there.

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
          • RionR
            Rion
            last edited by

            @Finhead said in Largest size micro sd card?:

            @kabal82 Personally if I were going to use that many roms tot ake that much space , which I could only see if I was going to run PSX games. I would use a USB drive and store your roms on that since they are cheaper and far less likely to currupt. Just throwing another option out there.

            I'm going with @Finhead on this one.
            Buy a good SD card.

            For example Samsung Pro 16GB
            More into on why here

            Go for a large & fast USB Pen Drive from a reputable manufacturer, Sandisk for example. Preferable USB 3.0

            Load Retropie from the SD card and the rest from USB.

            FBNeo rom filtering
            Mame2003 Arcade Bezels
            Fba Arcade Bezels
            Fba NeoGeo Bezels

            K 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
            • D
              Drokkeh
              last edited by

              I am using a 64gb sandisk ultra class 10. Works great

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • K
                kabal82 @Rion
                last edited by kabal82

                @Rion

                Thanks for the suggestion. I'm new to this and wasn't aware this was a possibility. All the videos I've seen about how to set-up retropie, I was under the impression that Retropie automatically copies ROMs over from a USB thumb drive to the micro SD card after everything is setup. I didn't think it was a possibility to load and play the ROM's from the USB drive.

                RionR 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • RionR
                  Rion @kabal82
                  last edited by

                  @kabal82 said in Largest size micro sd card?:

                  @Rion

                  Thanks for the suggestion. I'm new to this and wasn't aware this was a possibility. All the videos I've seen about how to set-up retropie, I was under the impression that Retropie automatically copies ROMs over from a USB thumb drive to the micro SD card after everything is setup. I didn't think it was a possibility to load and play the ROM's from the USB drive.

                  That is partly true. But that's only if you have USB ROM service enabled.

                  What I have done is to mount the USB flashdrive permanently to a folder in /media and point to that location in es. More info here

                  FBNeo rom filtering
                  Mame2003 Arcade Bezels
                  Fba Arcade Bezels
                  Fba NeoGeo Bezels

                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • C
                    chavatar @kabal82
                    last edited by

                    @kabal82
                    Hi. There shouldn't be a problem with cards larger than 32GB, but those "contradicting statements" arise from larger cards being a newer specification that not all devices understand ( wikipedia ). (Not sure about the Pi specifically though)

                    You can look at http://elinux.org/RPi_SD_cards for, I think, the most authoritative list of tested cards.

                    As mentioned by others above, it's quite easy, cheaper (per GB) and often more convenient to house roms on external storage (usb stick, portable disk) and reference them from /home/pi/.emulationstation/es_systems.cfg by altering the rom paths.

                    As far as I know RetroPie automounts usb storage and if you only have one device in, it can be referenced by /media/usb/ . (It numbers them if you have more than one). So my psx roms are on /media/usb/roms/psx .

                    You can enable the USB rom service, plug in a stick (with "retropie" folder in root) to create a nice folder structure for you automatically, then disable it when you've populated it with gaming goodness (otherwise it will try to copy everything over to your card).

                    Cheers

                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • C
                      cparker74
                      last edited by

                      I have a 1tb hdd specifically for my pi3

                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                      • InsecureSpikeI
                        InsecureSpike
                        last edited by

                        yup I'd strongly suggest too, with @finhead & @Rion,
                        have RetroPie on your SD card, "Kingston 4gb - 8gb, would be good enough, make sure it's class 10, I use these and I've never had issues. and a good quality USB drive,
                        the reason we suggest this is so if your SD card corrupts or you edit something on your RetroPie, and basically it fucks up, you have your precious collection of roms safely upon your USB drive, and you will only have to set up your new/replacement SD card.
                        believe me, I learnt the hard way, many many versions ago.

                        there are no right or wrong ways of this particular issue, but personally I'd strongly suggest the roms on USB route

                        RPi 3 - RetroPie + 500gb HDD [consoles] + Razer Onza Tournament
                        RPi 3 - RetroPie + 32gb USB [computers] + Keyboard
                        both with AttractMode + FuzzBoxx Layout

                        mediamogulM 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                        • mediamogulM
                          mediamogul Global Moderator @InsecureSpike
                          last edited by mediamogul

                          There are three pieces of additional information that might come in handy if you use the highly recommended link provided by Rion. First, symbolic linking an external rom folder to where the system already expects to find it (/home/pi/RetroPie/roms) can save you a lot of work in the future due to the es config constantly being rewritten whenever an update is done, or an emulator is added. Also, if you plan to auto-mount a fat32 drive, make sure you add the "vfat" variable to your fstab. At the same time it's important to remember that .sh launch scripts won't function on a fat32 drive unless you add the "exec" variable as well.

                          So by the example given in that link, you would change:

                          UUID=18A9-9943 /media/usb auto,users,rw,uid=pi,gid=pi 0 0

                          to

                          UUID=18A9-9943 /media/usb vfat auto,users,rw,exec,uid=pi,gid=pi 0 0

                          Again, other than the symbolic linking, these additions are only if you plan to run your roms folder from an external fat32 formatted USB drive.

                          RetroPie v4.5 • RPi3 Model B • 5.1V 2.5A PSU • 16GB SanDisk microSD • 512GB External Drive

                          BenWlsonB 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                          • BenWlsonB
                            BenWlson @mediamogul
                            last edited by

                            @mediamogul what if you plan to use a NTFS formatted external HDD? maybe something like the 314GB WD PiDrive?

                            I AM ERROR.

                            mediamogulM 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                            • mediamogulM
                              mediamogul Global Moderator @BenWlson
                              last edited by mediamogul

                              @BenWlson

                              Someone please correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe you'll need to replace "vfat" from my example with "ntfs". According to that particular guide, you might also need to install:

                              sudo apt-get install ntfs-3g

                              As far as the exec command for .sh scripts, I don't really know. Just keep in mind that if you can't launch one of the Apple or Amiga emulators, then you will most likely need to add it as you would with fat32.

                              RetroPie v4.5 • RPi3 Model B • 5.1V 2.5A PSU • 16GB SanDisk microSD • 512GB External Drive

                              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                              • InsecureSpikeI
                                InsecureSpike
                                last edited by

                                maybe try ext4 it has a faster transfere rate. and is better suited for usage on rpi

                                RPi 3 - RetroPie + 500gb HDD [consoles] + Razer Onza Tournament
                                RPi 3 - RetroPie + 32gb USB [computers] + Keyboard
                                both with AttractMode + FuzzBoxx Layout

                                mediamogulM RionR 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                • C
                                  chavatar
                                  last edited by

                                  On 2nd thoughts, go with mediamogul et al.'s advice and ignore me :)

                                  I hadn't realised you can't run .sh scripts directly from some file systems. Is that why you explicitly need to mount the drive rather than let it automount? Mediamogul suggests this step may not be necessary for a non FAT32 drive (but I can see it would be easier to explicitly mount if not sure). Hoping someone will say if that's right/wrong, so I understand the issue.

                                  As a sidenote to es_systems.cfg alterations - the config I see is from /home/pi/.emulationstation/es_systems.cfg

                                  This seems to be different from /etc/emulationstation/es_systems.cfg - in my case? This latter one gets updated, while "my one" stays the same. I've been updating it manually - which suits me as mine is somewhat customised. So I haven't realy looked into it, but any thoughts would be appreciated (unless I'm OT ;)).

                                  mediamogulM 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                  • mediamogulM
                                    mediamogul Global Moderator @InsecureSpike
                                    last edited by

                                    @InsecureSpike said in Largest size micro sd card?:

                                    is better suited for usage on rpi

                                    Very true. It's also the path of least resistance. Auto-mount an external ext4 formatted drive, then symlink a roms folder and RetoPie will never know the difference.

                                    Some Pros & cons of the ones mentioned so far:

                                    ext4
                                    Pros: Fast transfer rate. No additional considerations or setup past the mounting process.
                                    Cons: Limited mostly to the Linux ecosystem, prohibiting general use in Mac/Win.

                                    fat32
                                    Pros: Highest compatibility between platforms. Great for sharing between most systems.
                                    Cons: 4GB limit on file sizes. Considerations must be made in setup to allow full compatibility with RetroPie.

                                    ntfs
                                    Pros: Excellent compatibility with Windows. Fast transfer rate.
                                    Cons: Considerations must be made in setup to allow full compatibility with RetroPie.

                                    RetroPie v4.5 • RPi3 Model B • 5.1V 2.5A PSU • 16GB SanDisk microSD • 512GB External Drive

                                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                    • InsecureSpikeI
                                      InsecureSpike
                                      last edited by

                                      /opt/retropie/configs/all/emulationstation

                                      RPi 3 - RetroPie + 500gb HDD [consoles] + Razer Onza Tournament
                                      RPi 3 - RetroPie + 32gb USB [computers] + Keyboard
                                      both with AttractMode + FuzzBoxx Layout

                                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                      • mediamogulM
                                        mediamogul Global Moderator @chavatar
                                        last edited by mediamogul

                                        @chavatar said in Largest size micro sd card?:

                                        I hadn't realised you can't run .sh scripts directly from some file systems. Is that why you explicitly need to mount the drive rather than let it automount?

                                        Auto-mounting will work, you just need to tell the system how to auto-mount it so as to gain the maximum level of compatibilty. The one thing it still will not allow is putting a symlink on the mounted fat32 drive. eDuke32 for example, tries to use a symlink in launching from it's "emulators.cfg" ES menu script. This can be fixed by altering the script to call out to the actual folder it needs (-j/opt/retropie/ports/eduke32/shareware) rather than the symlink that does not exist because it couldn't be created.

                                        ...seems to be different from /etc/emulationstation/es_systems.cfg ...I haven't realy looked into it, but any thoughts would be appreciated

                                        I was under the impression that one was a symlink of the other, but if you are customizing it without being affected by updates, then I guess they're different. That's interesting. I'll check it out tomorrow. Hah, or later today I guess. Although I've always subscribed to the notion that "the night belongs to the day before".

                                        RetroPie v4.5 • RPi3 Model B • 5.1V 2.5A PSU • 16GB SanDisk microSD • 512GB External Drive

                                        C InsecureSpikeI 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 1
                                        • C
                                          chavatar @mediamogul
                                          last edited by

                                          @mediamogul - much appreciated :)

                                          I was under the impression that one was a symlink of the other

                                          So was I, and I'm sure mine's odd in some way, but good to check.

                                          "the night belongs to the day before"

                                          Yang-yin baby! :)

                                          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                          • InsecureSpikeI
                                            InsecureSpike @mediamogul
                                            last edited by

                                            @mediamogul said in Largest size micro sd card?:

                                            @chavatar said in Largest size micro sd card?:

                                            I hadn't realised you can't run .sh scripts directly from some file systems. Is that why you explicitly need to mount the drive rather than let it automount?

                                            Auto-mounting will work, you just need to tell the system how to auto-mount it so as to gain the maximum level of compatibilty. The one thing it still will not allow is putting a symlink on the mounted fat32 drive. eDuke32 for example, tries to use a symlink in launching from it's "emulators.cfg" ES menu script. This can be fixed by altering the script to call out to the actual folder it needs (-j/opt/retropie/ports/eduke32/shareware) rather than the symlink that does not exist because it couldn't be created.

                                            ...seems to be different from /etc/emulationstation/es_systems.cfg ...I haven't realy looked into it, but any thoughts would be appreciated

                                            I was under the impression that one was a symlink of the other, but if you are customizing it without being affected by updates, then I guess they're different. That's interesting. I'll check it out tomorrow. Hah, or later today I guess. Although I've always subscribed to the notion that "the night belongs to the day before".

                                            @chavatar said in Largest size micro sd card?:

                                            @mediamogul - much appreciated :)

                                            I was under the impression that one was a symlink of the other

                                            So was I, and I'm sure mine's odd in some way, but good to check.

                                            "the night belongs to the day before"

                                            Yang-yin baby! :)

                                            the new location for custom es_systems.cfg etc

                                            /opt/retropie/configs/all/emulationstation

                                            the original is still at

                                            /etc/emulationstation

                                            RPi 3 - RetroPie + 500gb HDD [consoles] + Razer Onza Tournament
                                            RPi 3 - RetroPie + 32gb USB [computers] + Keyboard
                                            both with AttractMode + FuzzBoxx Layout

                                            mediamogulM C 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 1
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