Install and Storage?

Jay

Hi all, :)
Just come across this amazing front end after trying many others only to be left pulling my hair out.

And have to say its great, i have quickly installed it onto my ODRIOD N2 and its working like a charm.

Now i am thinking of buying a cheapish PC and setting up properly so when all set i can emulate some of the higher systems as well, adding a 8TB HDD for storage.

Have a couple of questions to start.....

Installing on a SD Card Or HDD?, Can we access the extra space for storage, or will it be wasted?
for instance i am using a 64gb SD card on my N2, But cant see what i can do with the extra space?

As for setting up on a PC, Is it again better to set OS up on a card or fast SSD, the store roms on a seperate drive?
Bit confused about this.
Thanks ALL.

and GOOD WORK!!! Cant wait for updates.

joinski

Jay

Best is to use a USB flash/thumbdrive to install Batocera on and then use an internal/external hard-disk (or SSD) for the roms (you can set within Batocera, where you want to have the storage for roms).
This way you can, if you need (because you messed something up or the flashdrive got broken etc.) make a fresh new install, without losing all your important data (saves, themes, configurations, roms etc.).

GreyHawk

joinski So would it be better to leave the install on the USB, or could I change it to an internal SSD for example? I have a 160 GB SSD that I'd like to use for the OS and a 1TB HDD for ROMs.

Jay

That makes good sense, so what size SD is recommended? And does any extra space get wasted?
For instance i just used a 16Gb Card i have had hanging around to test a setup on PC, and noticed its only used 3GB, What happens to the rest? And i assume when you add an extra drive, already done on my N2, all further data is written to the external drive, like Images covers ect?

joinski

Jay

The rest is for userdata, see this picture:
https://wiki.batocera.org/doku.php?id=upgrade_manually#the_batoceralinux_usb_key

If you are using a 16GB Card, then 3GB is for the boot-partition and the rest (~ 13GB) can be used for roms, bios, themes (if you set Storage Device to "Internal" under System Settings).

Jay

So technically anything over a 4GB is wasted if using and external drive?

Genetik57

Jay The system requires ~ 2 Gb. Batocera will therefore keep this partition for the system

joinski

GreyHawk

You can just do what you prefer. Both is possible.
Advantage for SSD: it is usually faster than USB flashdrive

Jay

How do we access this other partition though, i dont get how to access it?

joinski

Jay
the other partition is an ext4 file system, which you can access via network or an operating system, that can handle ext4 (linux). Under windows you can not see and access this ext4 partition.

Jay

Well here is the problem i have at the moment, I am booting from a 64GB SD Card, and using a 2TB drive external for roms. Now im guessing when you select an external drive all config data is then copied over to there.

While opening the share on the PC, i believe its trying to copy data to the boot partition of the SD. While trying to copy over 400mb of roms i get an error saying you need another 1.5gb of space?? Huh

So its not going to the remaining 60gb card partition or HDD

Is it possible to access the HDD or other partition, or do i have to keep unplugging my drive to transfer stuff over.

I should explain that im am running the program currently on my ODROID N2, and accessing it over the network.

What part am i accessing?

joinski

Jay While opening the share on the PC, i believe its trying to copy data to the boot partition of the SD

could you explain in more detail please, what exactly you did here?
how do you open the share on the PC?

GreyHawk

The issue I had is that the config files appeared to stay on the USB. I guess I could just... drag them over to the SSD? The system work just fine running on the SSD, so I don't think it's missing anything crucial. Still strange.

Jay

Im sure the config files transfer to the drive as it seems to reset everything when you select an external drive. which is odd as i thought the idea was to keep the system on the boot drive??

I am looking in my network folder, and i see link to batocera there.

joinski

Jay

When you select an external drive as Storage Device, then after reboot, this external drive will be used as Storage Device for roms, saves, themes etc.

In your network folder you see the linkt to batocera and you can put all your rom files into the /share/roms directory (into the appropriate system folders).

Jay

Yes but what drive is it using?

joinski

Jay

for booting still the one, where you initially burnt the image onto.

Jay

No I meant if we tell the system to use an external drive. the share still points to the boot drive? Not the external drive?

joinski

Jay
No, then it should point to the external drive (after reboot)