MicroSD Card Troubleshooting

[Jomsloth]

I'll start off by putting it out there that I'm a noob when it comes to Raspberry Pi, so go easy on me if something flies over my head.

My problem currently is related to formatting my microSD card. Hopefully someone can tell me what I'm doing wrong, or generally give me any advice on how to proceed.

I purchased a CanaKit with the intention of using it for Retro Pi. The microSD card included in my purchase was pre-installed with noobs. I was unsure whether or not I needed to install Raspbian in order for Retro Pie to work, and followed the instructions included and did so. What I didn't know at the time was that this could ONLY be done with Raspbian Jessie currently. So of course, I done goofed.

My main problem now, is that I am trying to reformat my microSD card for Retro Pie, but am running into something which I don't quite understand. When I plug my microSD into the USB MicroSD Card Reader included with the CanaKit, my PC recognizes 4 separate drives.
'RECOVERY (E:)' 'USB Drive (F:)' 'boot (G:)' and 'USB Drive (H:)'.

Besides not knowing which drive I even would reformat, I'm not even entirely sure that this is supposed to be the case, as most tutorials I've seen that cover reformatting a microSD for Raspberry Pi do not seem to have this occurrence.

Any assistance at all on this matter would be appreciated, I am very confused on how to proceed.

[jbudd]

There are download and installation instructions at https://retropie.org.uk/docs/First-Installation/

Current wisdom seems to be that if you burn the image to the SD card with Win32DiskImager, you don't need to format the card first. Certainly that's true if you use Etcher.

[Jomsloth]

There are download and installation instructions at https://retropie.org.uk/docs/First-Installation/

Current wisdom seems to be that if you burn the image to the SD card with Win32DiskImager, you don't need to format the card first. Certainly that's true if you use Etcher.

Hi Jbudd, thank you very much for your reply!

Alright, I'll burn the image with Win32DiskManager.

I still have the problem of not knowing which 'device' to burn to, however. My PC still recognizes the microSD card and reader as 4 different drives, and I'm unsure which drive I would burn the image onto. F and H are both unreadable using Windows, so I would assume that I can narrow it down to one of the two?

[FTrevorGowen]

...
I still have the problem of not knowing which 'device' to burn to, however. My PC still recognizes the microSD card and reader as 4 different drives, and I'm unsure which drive I would burn the image onto. F and H are both unreadable using Windows, so I would assume that I can narrow it down to one of the two?

It's not "4 different drives" but 4 "partitions" on the same drive (device). Some of those partitions are in a format that Windows can't handle w/o extra software (ie. your F & H). Up until recently only the first partition was detected by Windows - this had a size of ~100Mb and lead to folks asking "where has all my disc space gone" here. Whilst Win32DiskImager may have improved somewhat, the current recommendation is to use Etcher:
https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentati ... /README.md
(That tool "knows" which "drive" is the "correct" one)
FWIW, since I don't have access to a new enough Windows (10?) PC to check, FWIW here's Etcher in use under Linux (which also shows the partition structure):
http://www.cpmspectrepi.uk/raspberry_pi ... tcher.html
Trev.

[jbudd]

I'm unsure which drive I would burn the image onto. F and H are both unreadable using Windows, so I would assume that I can narrow it down to one of the two?

I have never used NOOBS so I don't know what partitions it creates. But when I put a Raspbian SD card into my PC I see drive D: (FAT32, Windows understands it) and E: (Windows says "You have to format the drive...")

I used to tell Win32DiskImager to write to D: . It overwrites the entire card, not just that partition.
Nowadays though I use Etcher, and it lets me choose "SDHC Card"

[FTrevorGowen]

...
I used to tell Win32DiskImager to write to D: . It overwrites the entire card, not just that partition.
Nowadays though I use Etcher, and it lets me choose "SDHC Card"

That's the difference between writing a disk "image" (*.img file) and copying the NOOBS installer's files (which usually include at least one compressed image file**) - the former does not require the uSDHC card to be (re-)formatted.
Trev.
** Except for NOOBS lite which needs an active network connection to allow it to download the file(s).

[DougieLawson]

I'm unsure which drive I would burn the image onto. F and H are both unreadable using Windows, so I would assume that I can narrow it down to one of the two?

I have never used NOOBS so I don't know what partitions it creates. But when I put a Raspbian SD card into my PC I see drive D: (FAT32, Windows understands it) and E: (Windows says "You have to format the drive...")

I used to tell Win32DiskImager to write to D: . It overwrites the entire card, not just that partition.
Nowadays though I use Etcher, and it lets me choose "SDHC Card"

The general rule for Win32DiskImager is to use the lowest assigned letter when the SDCard is inserted. But BEWARE that Win32DiskImager takes no prisoners if you get the wrong drive letter. It WILL trash your harddisk if you ask it nicely.

Use Etcher, it has more brains and has some protection to avoid smoking weapons and holes in feet.