Can't back-up Recalbox image...

[supersaiyancurry]

So, I finally made my perfect Recalbox image, but I just can't back it up. I've tried a million times with win32diskimager and sd formatter, but every time I try to burn the img to a new SD card, none of the roms or settings are there... It's really frustrating.

[Substring]

@supersaiyancurry such images can only be restored to a sd of at least the very same size. We rather encourage backups to a usb device

[supersaiyancurry]

@substring well, yeah, I've been buying the EXACT same brand of micro sd card and it still just doesn't work.

[OyyoDams]

@supersaiyancurry what do you mean exactly by "it doesn't work" ? can you give us more details ?

[supersaiyancurry]

@oyyodams Okay. So, I use win32diskimager "read" to create a copy of my "PERFECT recalbox" on my PC. I've tried MANY times to write this img to a new SD card. Every time, I start up Recalbox with the new SD card and every time, it starts up the basic version of Recalbox with none of my ROMs or custom configurations. It's just the barebones ROMs and consoles that I deleted from my "PERFECT recalbox"- not even the theme is the same. It's like it automatically defaults to a basic installation every time I try to write my "Perfect Recalbox". I've used win32's read function several times on my perfect one and all images do the same exact thing when written. My "Perfect Recalbox" is only 67% full capacity too. The SD cards are both 32 gigs I've gotten from Microcenter and I've never had issues with them before.

[OyyoDams]

@supersaiyancurry ok can you run Recalbox with your "bad" SD (the backup one, which with you have issues) and make a support archive ?

For that open a web browser, connect to Recalbox, go to "Support", launch the support script, and paste the link here.

[supersaiyancurry]

@oyyodams https://file.ac/x8A1F-hS5nc/
There you go. And thanks for the help also. I REALLY want to back up all the work I've put into my Recalbox.

[OyyoDams]

@supersaiyancurry thanks.

I have a part of the explanation. You can't see your roms, configuration, etc. because Recalbox can't access your share partition on this SD card. So in this case it mounts a virtual share partition in RAM, with default values.

Filesystem                Size      Used Available Use% Mounted on
/dev/root                 1.9G    903.2M    905.2M  50% /
devtmpfs                236.7M         0    236.7M   0% /dev
tmpfs                   240.9M         0    240.9M   0% /dev/shm
tmpfs                   240.9M    120.0K    240.8M   0% /tmp
tmpfs                   240.9M      2.8M    238.1M   1% /var
tmpfs                   240.9M    104.0K    240.8M   0% /run
/dev/mmcblk0p1           63.0M      7.0M     56.0M  11% /boot
tmpfs                   128.0M    100.5M     27.5M  79% /recalbox/share

During the boot process, we can see errors:

[    2.977520] EXT4-fs (mmcblk0p3): couldn't mount as ext3 due to feature incompatibilities
[    2.986321] EXT4-fs (mmcblk0p3): couldn't mount as ext2 due to feature incompatibilities
[    2.996573] EXT4-fs (mmcblk0p3): bad geometry: block count 7306306 exceeds size of device (7046210 blocks)

So according to me, @Substring is right, even if the 2 cards seem to be the same, they are not identical, and the second one is a bit smaller. There is nothing you can do easily under Windows...

[supersaiyancurry]

@oyyodams but I've even tried SD formatter on it. You mean to say that the 2nd SD card STILL isn't big enough after that?

[OyyoDams]

@supersaiyancurry yes exactly. You can try to restore on a bigger SD card, I'm sure it will work.

[supersaiyancurry]

@oyyodams Welp, good news. I tried it with a different brand 32gb sd and it worked. Still makes no sense to me though... I feel like there's probably a way to solve this issue, but for now, I guess I'll only buy the Samsung 32 th Sd.

[Substring]

@supersaiyancurry you don't seem to get the point that the image is not properly restored, which corrupts the last partition on the sd, Linux refuses to mount it

[supersaiyancurry]

@substring well, I've tried a full overwrite format with SD formatter and that didn't work, so idk what else I could do.

[OyyoDams]

@supersaiyancurry once again, that's because your desination SD card is smaller that the source SD card. Format won't change anything, it's hardcoded in the SD card.

[supersaiyancurry]

@oyyodams but, like I've said, the 2 SD cards are EXACTLY the same. I literally went to the store and asked for 2 of the same thing.

[OyyoDams]

@supersaiyancurry and I repeat, you do think they are identical, but they aren't.

Believe me or not, believe @Substring or not.

You want to check by yourself ? I don't know any tool under Windows that will show the exact size of the SD card.

So if you really want to check:

1. Boot under Linux
2. Insert the 1st SD
3. Run blockdev --getsize64 /dev/XXX where XXX is the SD
4. Eject the 1st SD and insert the 2nd SD
5. Run blockdev --getsize64 /dev/XXX again
6. Compare the results

You'll be surprised.

Then return to your shop and complain if you want, and stop complaining here, it's not our fault!

[jaime.O]

So to my understanding is if my image is from 32gb sd card I can flash it to a 64gb SD card and everything should be there. I am having the same issue of backing up my image. I know not all SD cards are the same even tho they are the same brand.

[Dragu]

@jaime-O
The SD cards may be physically the same, but it depends of the formatting tool. As example, first you use directly out of the package, ready formatted by company. Second, you reformat it with some program. So if the formatting tools are different, your usable size will be it also most of time.
Only possibility, reduce partition on your SD card by a tool like "Parted" with virtual linux system on your pc, but sure not under windows.

[Zing]

@jaime-o Although the subject to be related, the ideal is not "dig out" an old topic that was "stopped". Regardless, yes, it is possible to back up a 32GB card to a 64GB card. However, depending on the tool you use, the 64gb card can be only 32gb visible and the rest "unallocated", which is easy to solve: just use a tool to expand the size of the SHARE partition, for that partition to use all available space. (using gparted from linux is a great option, but some applications for windows, specific to partition HD, also work). (If you are using windows, you can use "SD Memory Card Formatter" to format the card, "win32-disk-imager" to copy the image and the same program to write to the new SD card, or "RUFUS", and if necessary, the "MiniTool Partition Wizard" to expand the SHARE partition after the backup.)
Please open a new topic, specify as much information as possible: If you are using Rpi0,1,2 or 3 (since you are talking about an SD card), which are the cards you are using (which should be original , and class 10), what is going wrong exactly, etc.

[nirmal]

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