Settings and changes persist after re-installing

[oswinsutrisno]

Hi all,

I'm new to the Pi world. I've read the Common Pitfalls for Beginners but I'm still not able to figure out my problem.

I've successfully installed Raspbian with a 3 inch display working by following online guides. I've also attached a WiFi USB dongle and got WiFi up and running.

I've decided to start from scratch and reformatting my SD card using SD Formatter with Full Erase Overwrite option and used Win32DiskImager to write the latest Jessie build of Raspbian.

The strange thing i've noticed is that all my prior work (downloading TFT LCD drivers, updates made in /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/99-fbturbo.conf, WiFi configuration) are still present in my "formatted" SD card.

Am I not formatting it correctly? Are these not stored on the SD card?

I've tried a different SD card and i'm still getting the same effect.

Totally baffled. Appreciate if someone can point me in the right direction.

Thanks!

[mahjongg]

You are not formatting it correctly, it seems the formatter you used formats just one partition, but ignores the other (linux) partitions.
the official sd-formatter needs a few options set (resizing, not doing a quick format) to work (with previously used sd-cards).

Formatting in a camera also works due to the way the formatter works there, it just wipes everything from the card.

[oswinsutrisno]

But I've even tried another SD card that i've never used for Pi work.

I've also used diskpart on windows to clean the entire SD and create a new volume. then proceed to SD formatter with the said options (Full Overwrite and Resize).

[oswinsutrisno]

I figured it out....worst silliest mistake in the world.....

[Burngate]

... and used Win32DiskImager to write the latest Jessie build of Raspbian.

Win32DiskImager overwrites anything that was on the card, so formatting it first has no effect.


Go on, tell us what you did ... I've got the scars to prove my mistakes were sillier

[oswinsutrisno]

I must have mis-click the "read" button which is right beside the "write" button in Win32DiskImager

That's why my image file of Jessie was overwritten with the image of my initial setup.....

Re-downloading Jessie distro finally worked, so i'm guessing the above must have happened.

[Burngate]

I was pruning the roses. I'm left-handed, so with my right hand holding a branch, I squeezed the secateurs. My right hand little finger started to hurt, but never mind, roses have thorns, so I squeezed a bit more. Then a bit more
The nurse thought I was stupid, as well

[RAZERZ]

Alternativly you can use the windows formatter. When you plug your sdcard in open "my computer" and right click on the sdcard and click format.

[mahjongg]

NO!
windows formatter will only find and format the very first (FAT) partition on the card, and ignore all the other (much larger) partitions. That is not what you want! You should remove all partitions, create one partition, and format it as FAT32.

[RAZERZ]

NO!
windows formatter will only find and format the very first (FAT) partition on the card, and ignore all the other (much larger) partitions. That is not what you want! You should remove all partitions, create one partition, and format it as FAT32.

Ah yes, OP, if you have an android phone with an sdcard slot, put the sdcard there and format it, then put it in windows and format it as fat32. Atleast that is how I do it otherwise I will end up with an sdcard showing less memory, i.e I have an 8GB sdcard and it will show as ~60MB.

[SonOfAMotherlessGoat]

Or just use SDFormatter like the OP did since it worked perfectly fine. (But then WIn32DiskImager is going to overwrite that anyways.)