Raspberry Pi Forums

I did a cursory search and didn't see any hard answers as to what is the maximum size supported micro SD card for the Pi4B as well as the fastest supported micro SD card for the Pi4B. Any one have the answers? I'd like to think that with all the other improvements there has been a juicy upgrade on those lanes as well.

Thanks!

There is no max size I know of. Literally any size you buy that's 8 GB or larger will do, though if you're wanting to format it as any kind of FAT for NOOBS, you can just grab your favorite partition editor and shrink it below 32GB so FAT32 will be an option.

For max speed, I'm not certain, but it's supposed to be about twice as fast as previous Pis. I've heard good things about SanDisk Extreme Pro cards, but Samsung EVO cards seem to do the job well enough.

Sandisk A1 class cards are fast and reasonably priced.

https://www.sdcard.org/developers/overv ... index.html

https://www.amazon.co.uk/SanDisk-microS ... r=8-1&th=1

Apart from NOOB's issues (don't use it), the main filesystem for Raspbian is "ext4" which can handle any sized disk.

You may download Raspbian from here, follow the instructions.

https://www.raspberrypi.org/downloads/raspbian/

I use 128GB SD cards with Raspbian.

There was a Twitter post from Raspberry Pi themselves a few days ago stating that there was NO limit on size. I purchase a 128Gb Sandisk and just replicated the SD from the store using the SD copy app. Works fine and extended the size of my usable disk to the SD size.

The practical limit to SD card size is...what can you afford? Personally, while I do have one Pi using a 64GB card, generally if I go over 32GB, I switch to an SSD instead. While one can do a hybrid boot (/boot on an SD card, everything else on a mass storage device), in practice I am patiently awaiting the Pi4B upgrade to boot over USB to be implemented.

Profezzur wrote: ↑

Wed Jul 17, 2019 2:31 am

I did a cursory search and didn't see any hard answers as to what is the maximum size supported micro SD card for the Pi4B as well as the fastest supported micro SD card for the Pi4B. Any one have the answers? I'd like to think that with all the other improvements there has been a juicy upgrade on those lanes as well.

Thanks!

On all Pi's before Pi 4B the interface can do up to SDXC, which has a maximum size of 2TB. On the Pi 4 this may be different. Note that on the Pi 1, zero, 2 and 3B (but not 3B+ and 4B) there is a bug in the SoC ROM which means the maximum SD card size which the Pi can boot from is 256GB.

Best you can get (highest ) for small files R/W is Samsung Pro+ or Evo+, not Evo Plus!

https://www.jeffgeerling.com/blog/2019/ ... rison-2019

Musketeer wrote: ↑

Wed Jul 17, 2019 4:15 pm

Best you can get (highest ) for small files R/W is Samsung Pro+ or Evo+, not Evo Plus!

https://www.jeffgeerling.com/blog/2019/ ... rison-2019

You should be looking at A1 class cards

The largest card I've used in a Pi was a 128GB Samsung EVO. I had no problems with it.

andrum99 wrote: ↑

Wed Jul 17, 2019 2:43 pm

Profezzur wrote: ↑

Wed Jul 17, 2019 2:31 am

I did a cursory search and didn't see any hard answers as to what is the maximum size supported micro SD card for the Pi4B as well as the fastest supported micro SD card for the Pi4B. Any one have the answers? I'd like to think that with all the other improvements there has been a juicy upgrade on those lanes as well.

Thanks!

On all Pi's before Pi 4B the interface can do up to SDXC, which has a maximum size of 2TB. On the Pi 4 this may be different. Note that on the Pi 1, zero, 2 and 3B (but not 3B+ and 4B) there is a bug in the SoC ROM which means the maximum SD card size which the Pi can boot from is 256GB.

Is that the maximum card size, or the maximum size of the boot partition on the card? If I were going to go with a card that big, I'd be partitioning it anyway...

Cheers,
Bruce.

Thank you everyone for the great replies! I have a 128gb Evo in my 3 B+ and it works well, I've tried a few other 64gb and 128gb cards and they fail to boot the Pi. I can't wait to get my Pi4 when the 4gb ones ship in August.

Profezzur wrote: ↑

Wed Jul 17, 2019 9:07 pm

Thank you everyone for the great replies! I have a 128gb Evo in my 3 B+ and it works well, I've tried a few other 64gb and 128gb cards and they fail to boot the Pi. I can't wait to get my Pi4 when the 4gb ones ship in August.

As always, when buying large storage media, you should always perform a test to see if it is fake. Use a utility such as H2testW
There should be no reason for a Pi not to boot from one SD card and not from another.

drllama wrote: ↑

Wed Jul 17, 2019 8:28 pm

andrum99 wrote: ↑

Wed Jul 17, 2019 2:43 pm

Profezzur wrote: ↑

Wed Jul 17, 2019 2:31 am

I did a cursory search and didn't see any hard answers as to what is the maximum size supported micro SD card for the Pi4B as well as the fastest supported micro SD card for the Pi4B. Any one have the answers? I'd like to think that with all the other improvements there has been a juicy upgrade on those lanes as well.

Thanks!

On all Pi's before Pi 4B the interface can do up to SDXC, which has a maximum size of 2TB. On the Pi 4 this may be different. Note that on the Pi 1, zero, 2 and 3B (but not 3B+ and 4B) there is a bug in the SoC ROM which means the maximum SD card size which the Pi can boot from is 256GB.

Is that the maximum card size, or the maximum size of the boot partition on the card? If I were going to go with a card that big, I'd be partitioning it anyway...

Cheers,
Bruce.

I was told it is the maximum size of the card itself.

Hello,

I got a spare SanDisk Extreme Pro 256 GB and I want use it with my Pi4 b 4 GB. Is just a matter of burning Raspbian and plug and will work ? Or I need do something else ?Thanks

DMMG wrote: ↑

Tue May 19, 2020 6:43 pm

Hello,

I got a spare SanDisk Extreme Pro 256 GB and I want use it with my Pi4 b 4 GB. Is just a matter of burning Raspbian and plug and will work ? Or I need do something else ?Thanks

Unless you're planning to use NOOBS, that's it. Personally, once I plan to go over 32GB or 64GB (depending on what the Pi will be doing), I shift to an SSD, but that's just me. (Most of my Pis are currently using 16GB SD cards. I miss the days when a full Raspbian install fit on a 4GB card. And--to be complete--Raspbian Lite will fit on a 2GB card, last time I checked.)

W. H. Heydt wrote: ↑

Tue May 19, 2020 8:27 pm

DMMG wrote: ↑

Tue May 19, 2020 6:43 pm

Hello,

I got a spare SanDisk Extreme Pro 256 GB and I want use it with my Pi4 b 4 GB. Is just a matter of burning Raspbian and plug and will work ? Or I need do something else ?Thanks

Unless you're planning to use NOOBS, that's it. Personally, once I plan to go over 32GB or 64GB (depending on what the Pi will be doing), I shift to an SSD, but that's just me. (Most of my Pis are currently using 16GB SD cards. I miss the days when a full Raspbian install fit on a 4GB card. And--to be complete--Raspbian Lite will fit on a 2GB card, last time I checked.)

Thanks. I decided to leave an 16GB for initial boot and move the system over a 500GB SSD. and i`m using the SDcard as a backup.
I believe this is by far the best outcome as i`m using it for plex /samba/transmission.