Error: resizing fat partition

[hoc]

Hello forum!
So, yesterday I bought my new Raspberry Pi 3 and I tried it out with NOOBS and it worked great! But today I tried to reinstall NOOBS on it and this is what happened..
- I formatted the SD card that I was going to install NOOBS on
- I extracted NOOBS on it
- Put it in my Raspberry Pi and I got the message: "Error: resizing FAT partition"
Once I clicked on Enter or Okay, a window opened with a loading bar trying to do something with the SD card. (I am sorry, I do not remember.)
Right now as we speak, I am putting on a new image of NOOBS on my SD card so I will be putting in an update once I try it out.
For more information, the SD card that I am using is a SanDisk Ultra 16GB one. Previously, it has been only in a GoPro Hero camera. Nowhere else.
I am hoping for an answer. Thanks, and have a nice day!

[Ernst]

Did you follow the instructions ?
https://www.raspberrypi.org/learning/so ... uickstart/

[B.Goode]

today I tried to reinstall NOOBS on it and this is what happened..
- I formatted the SD card that I was going to install NOOBS on
- I extracted NOOBS on it
- Put it in my Raspberry Pi and I got the message: "Error: resizing FAT partition"

One tiny pedantic detail.

After formatting the microSD card as FAT, using the recommended SDFormatter utility, be sure to Eject (or 'Safely Unload') the card and re-insert it before copying the extracted NOOBS installer files onto it.

If you get a similar error again, the important details of the underlying problem are further down in that Error dialog box. Usually something like 'FATs do not match'.

[hoc]

Well, I formatted the SD card as a FAT32.. I am about to try to format it once again, wish me luck!

[B.Goode]

Another possibility is that the SD card reader you are using is only capable of correctly handling SD cards, not SDHC cards. If you are using the built-in slot in a laptop check its specification or try an external microSDHC card reader 'dongle'.

[hoc]

The first time I used the SD card reader to put on the image of NOOBS it worked great, but the second time I used it, didn't do so good..

[Martin Frezman]

Keep in mind the significant fact that it worked once.

The key is figuring out what is different this time vs. the first time.

Also, and just out of curiosity, why did you decide to re-do it? That may influence what is different this time vs. the first time.

[hoc]

Keep in mind the significant fact that it worked once.

The key is figuring out what is different this time vs. the first time.

Also, and just out of curiosity, why did you decide to re-do it? That may influence what is different this time vs. the first time.

Because I tried to install snappy ubuntu then it worked, but I kind of wanted NOOBS again, and after it it stoped working..

[Ernst]

Well, I formatted the SD card as a FAT32.. I am about to try to format it once again, wish me luck!

Let me ask again: Did you follow the instructions ? My guess is no, because formatting the SD card as FAT32 indicates that you are not using the SD Formatter.

[hoc]

Well, I formatted the SD card as a FAT32.. I am about to try to format it once again, wish me luck!

Let me ask again: Did you follow the instructions ? My guess is no, because formatting the SD card as FAT32 indicates that you are not using the SD Formatter.

I am using SDFormatter all of the time. I have no Idea how it ends up like that.

[drgeoff]

Are you setting the 'Size Adjustment' option in SDFormatter to 'On'?

[hoc]

Are you setting the 'Size Adjustment' option in SDFormatter to 'On'?

No, but should I?

[procount]

Yes, in order to ensure all previous partitions are deleted and you hav full access to the whole SD card.
If you still have problems, try formatting it in a digital camera if you have one, or try using gparted or other diskutilities to remove all partitions and reformat the single remaining partition as FAT32.
Another trick that sometimes works is to give the disk a label after formatting it.

My personal opinion is that the problem is some partition alignment problem that causes NOOBS' parted program to not recognise the partition format after it has tried to resize it. Doing some of the above options is sometimes sufficient to avoid the issue.

[hoc]

Yes, in order to ensure all previous partitions are deleted and you hav full access to the whole SD card.
If you still have problems, try formatting it in a digital camera if you have one, or try using gparted or other diskutilities to remove all partitions and reformat the single remaining partition as FAT32.
Another trick that sometimes works is to give the disk a label after formatting it.

My personal opinion is that the problem is some partition alignment problem that causes NOOBS' parted program to not recognise the partition format after it has tried to resize it. Doing some of the above options is sometimes sufficient to avoid the issue.

I am going to try to format it with my GoPro camera.. Will be sure to leave an update about it. Because, after I took the SD card out of my GoPro (formatted it through the camera) and then just extracted all of the NOOBS files on it, it worked..

[hoc]

UPDATE: There we go, fixed it. Just formatted the SD card with a digital camera, extracted the files and its done!

[drgeoff]

UPDATE: There we go, fixed it. Just formatted the SD card with a digital camera, extracted the files and its done!

I expect that using SDFormatter with the Size Adjustment on would have been successful too.

[SFC]

I have the same problem, been trying to get NOOBS V2_4 to work for days. No matter how I format the 8Gb sd card (samsung evo) I get a FAT partition error
Error Resizing existing partition
Fatal: Bad FAT: undetermined chain for \os\Raspbian\Slides~1
*Should run DOSFSCK or SCANDISK

I formatted the sd with SD Formatter as recommended in many videos, with and without format size adjustment on and off. I tried Windows 10 (right click format), I tried from Linux. I tried guiformat 32 bit and 64bit. I tried from my camera. I tried 3 different sd cards. All produce an error!!!

I was able to successfully able to do it on a 32GB sd card (samsung evo) and a 16gb sd card with NOOBS V2_3 a while back.
Is there a problem with using 8gb sd cards?

[xreg0]

I got around this on windows 10 by:


Control Panel > Create and format hard disk partitions > Select your SD card > Right Click > Set as Active partition.

Maybe wont work for you but i was having the same issue and this fixed it for me!

[theGrant]

I had this same problem. When you format the SD card, make sure you choose ‘Quick Format’.

[dherrington2]

I had same problem with my RPi 2 Model B V1.1 (4 USB ports), which was working before I tried to reinstall Noobs from scratch, at which point I was getting solid red light. I did get it to work after reformatting the card with my GoPro, so here is exactly what I did, in case you want to follow along.

I initially tried the process on a MacBook Pro, but then switched over to a Windows 10 laptop (however, I don't think this really mattered in the end).

After I went through the recommended process on the MacBook Pro (full SD reformat with the recommended V5 SD Formatter tool then copying the Noobs files to the SD card), the Pi would not boot. Just solid red, no green light at all, and no HDMI video.

So, I switched over to the Windows 10 machine and did the exact same process (full SD reformat with the V5 SD Formatter tool, then copied the Noobs files to the SD card). I also pulled all of the cables off of the RPi this time. This time the green light flashed a couple of times (progress), so I plugged in the HDMI cable. The boot process had started, but there was a partition error (sorry I didn't record the text of the error.)

At this point, I took the advice of some of the other posters and reformatted the card using my GoPro camera.

I then I went back to the Windows 10 laptop and did the full SD reformat with the V5 SD Formatter tool, then copied the Noobs files to the SD card. I noticed that Windows 10 now indicated in File Explorer that the card was "SDHC", which I don't think it did before. Also, the reformat and file copy process worked a lot faster this time around, after the card was reformatted using the GoPro.

Again, I pulled all cables off the RPi and booted it. This time, green light flashed normally, and I was able to connect HDMI, keyboard and mouse, and it booted normally.

So, the key for me (I believe) was reformatting the card with my GoPro camera.

I do recall a long time ago, when I first got the RPi and did the original install (same card), that I accepted the Noobs installer option to create an additional 500MB data partition, which I never ended up using. Maybe that was a root cause? Anyway, the camera reformat fixed it.

Good luck!
-Dave