use a ssd

hilman2

hi, i have a spare 500gb ssd and want to use this in a nuc for batocera. I flashed the image with etcher to the disk and it creates a 2GB partition only. so i created another partion (ntfs) to use as the "external storage" but i cant choose this partition when booting from this ssd. If i boot from a usb stick with batocera i can choose the ntfs partition on the ssd as external storage. Help? What to do to boot batocera from ssd and also use the same ssd as storage for roms?

joinski

hilman2 I flashed the image with etcher to the disk and it creates a 2GB partition only

This is normal. On first boot of Batocera, the required partitions will be created (and expanded) automatically.

hilman2 so i created another partion (ntfs)

You should not have done that.

Just format the SSD and flash Batocera again and boot from it 😉

lux

joinski
hilman2
I agree with Joinski, the easier way is to use ssd as storage and boot Batocera from USB. It may look like a waste of USB key but this way grants you the system behaves correctly.

beljim

@joinski
So are you saying that although Batocera only creates a 2GB partition. If we add 5GB of roms the 2GB partition will automaticallly expand to accomate?

I'm with hilman2 in that i don't want my 500GB drive going to waste with only 2GB being used.

joinski

beljim
No, you do not add roms to the 2GB partition.
Just boot from the 500GB drive, where you flashed the Batocera image on and you will see, what i mean 😉
You will see in EmulationStation main menu under "System Settings", "Information", "Disk Usage" that there will be much more space, than 2GB 😉

beljim

joinski
Thanks. I have wrapped my head around it now.

Under Windows there are two partitions
1.86GB Batocera
12.76GB other (on my 16GB stick)
These never change under Windows even when adding more data to the Usb stick which was confusing me.

Pressing F1 in Batocera I can add more data files from another source (usb stick) and they get added as expeced using the full storage capacity of the Usb stick.

skideric

beljim Yup,that's how i ended up adding games,with the Files App. Had games on HD Part in PC,so just copied to my Large Boot Usb drive.

retrorimmer

From my experience, if you allow the boot installtion of Batocera to create the shared partition, it will automatically create a EXT4 partition. To use your own preferred NTFS partition you should format it before booting and label it RECALBOX but dont add any files to the partition.
Next open recalbox-boot.conf which is on the boot partition and change the line:

sharedevice=ANYEXTERNAL

Next boot should create the recalbox folder structure automatically for you. I use this on a dual boot disk with Windows XP and Batocera booting from Grub4Dos from the boot.ini file.

The Batocera install image requries a minimum of 2GB for the boot partition and at least another 2GB for the shared partition which can be on the smae drive or an external USB drive. Adding the modified line above to the recalbox-boot.conf file will allow you to use both internal and external drives for the shared disk. I don't know why this recalbox-boot.conf file isn't documented more in detail as it fixes many black screen issues.

ushilives

retrorimmer I hope this works for me. This issue has been driving me nuts. Been hard to find an answer as to why i can't use all my USB stick storage capacity

GameCast

try this
https://batocera-linux.xorhub.com/forum/d/1872-videotutorial-dualboot-windows-batocera

skideric

Selecting a HDD Part from Boot USB as storage never worked.After reboot,would get black screen.Seems the recalbox-boot.conf file that is created is the cause. Have to delete it to get USB to Boot again.So ther's a problem there...

GameCast

and i ask for what a ssd if batocera runs like a charm whit 7200 rpm HDD !!??

Dragu

Just to put a few realities.
- An 150mB USB3 memory stick or adapter in an USB3 socket reach the speed of a Sata III SSD, and higher as an HDD, because no spinup.
- The version update of Batocera/Recalbox/Lakka... on a monthly base is realized much more speed with an USB stick as with a partition on disk even without considering the inherent risks.
- You can use older versions of the package all parallel with just a plug movement into the socket. Great for testing.
- You can multiboot directly from the PC bios with no need of third part software.
So what is the advantage to have a Batocera/Recalbox/Lakka... on ssd or hdd ?
Now in general, when you ask me for data, Sandisk 480GB is around 63 Euro now, what is pretty good price.

ConteZero

The advantage is there when you want a compact case with everything fitted inside, for example for a cabinet.
More than this: SSD (even small 32GB Kingdian SSD you can buy from aliexpress for 20 euro) are actually a bit faster when managing multiple files, support command queue (you cannot get that on a USB if you're not going to spend quite a bit more for a UASP USB disk) and are A LOT MORE wear-resistant (and that does count, a lot!).

All in all it depends on what are you going to do with your system: if you need a small "thing" to play Ghost'n'goblins once in a while USB pen is ok, if you are building a cabinet then an SSD is a valid alternative.

Dragu

ConteZero
I was meaning just for the system, I have also all my datas in 2 machines on SSD. But Batocra system will always stay on USB, just the system. On SSD I have everywhere Windows 10 as system in about 30GB, and a big shared data volume for the rest. So it has also some advantage to easy access your game datas offline. And multiboot always just from bios. As you have 2 different devices.

ConteZero

That's, again, configuration (or purpose) dependant.
I've got a €56 PC (awesome deal) for emulation only so I don't need a dual boot environment.
The thing I was trying to say, however, is that I already lost not one but two machines due to USB pen fail (two 16GB Verbatim holding FreeNAS "OS") so I always try to avoid OS-on-a-pen scenarios.

Given that there isn't that much of a difference price-wise (€20 for a 32GB SSD) and given that SSD has other advantages over pendrives (like trim support) I see no reason to use pendrives nowadays.

Dragu

ConteZero

The thing I was trying to say, however, is that I already lost not one but two machines due to USB pen fail (two 16GB Verbatim holding FreeNAS "OS") so I always try to avoid OS-on-a-pen scenarios.

But this sounds very strange to me, as all the USB chips are short protected. Otherway, you dont have always interface for 2 SSD, if they are not Sata style. I can even shock you more, also my SSD are connected over USB3. I have even no Sata drivers installed. 🙂
The double boot version with W10 on all my gaming machines is not for using it as business PC's. It give you the comfort to make all operations in your share files over windows, even without a local network connection. May everybody become happy on its own way.