I have asked this question a few times, I have been directed to websites that have nothing to do with my issue, and the conversation closed off so I can't even respond. So here I will try again.
I bought a ready made console that is running version 6.0 and comes with its own games on a 64GB SD card, thoughtfully moved to the outside of the console. As it stands, everything works fine, though I have been through all the menu systems, and have seen where you can choose between "INTERNAL" or "ANYEXTERNAL" for which the system can read your data from, so you can use your own roms. I have an portable 2TB drive which I wish to use for this purpose. The closest I have got is the the system recognised that a drive was plugged in, copied a set of directories under the one in the root directory called "recalbox' Apart from that, no matter which selection I make in the menu, it will always read the data from the SD card. I have read that the system works on the file system FAT32 and there is a way for format larger drives in this format, although I have not done that. Is that what could be hindering my process? I tried a similar thing with a smaller USB stick, it copied those files across again, I added a rom or 2 under the directory "roms" and in the appropriate directory. Still nothing. A while ago I saw a video (I wish I could find it again) that when this guy went into the menu system to select which drive he wanted the data to be read from, there was more than the 2 choices, so I presumed that whatever drive he had plugged in had been accepted by the system to be used for reading data. Despite all the research, all the forums, all the questions, I have not been able to find a solution that will let me use an external source to read data from. It has 4 USB ports, the top 2 go into a menu screen for button mapping, so it must be one of the bottom ones. Can anyone PLEASE help me, not only with a suggestion then close it off, but also leave it open to give me the opportunity to ask for further help should whatever is suggested does not work. Just to clarify, this is ready made system. It has controllers, buttons, the works. Attached is a picture of what I own. I don't need someone to send me a link to youtube on how to create this from scratch.. Thank you for your help in advance.

Hi
I am almost at my witts end trying to figure out what I can do with this console I purchased. I wanted to be able to play my own roms. There is even a selection in the menu weather to use the internal or external drive for data. It made no difference, it just used the internal one (which for some reason they wired up an made it external) When I plugged in my external 2TB portable drive, it copied all the system files, emulators, etc to the drive. I moved the roms on the portable drive to their respective directories now on the drive, chose the external drive in the menu system, but it still will not use that drive to read my roms from. I have over 500GB of roms so its not possible to add the SD card (even if I could, but its in Linux)
I would like to know if this system is a complete waste of time, sending it back would cost me almost half of what I paid for it. Yes, it has a lot of games on it, but I really wanted a system that not only had its own assortment of games I could play, but the option to use my own roms too.
Attached is a photo of what I purchased. Any input would be appreciated.

I recently bought a recalbox games console from here:

MODERATOR : DELETE LINK - NO PUB FOR RESELLER

I just found out that there is no support for this as it is not an official recalbox installation.

What do I have to do to take out what is inside, replace it with something official, with the end result being for me to be able to play not only installed roms, but all the ones I have collected for PS1 and SNES on my external 2TB portable drive. To date I have bought 2 consoles and they have both been duds. I don't want to waste a perfectly good cabinet with LED lighting just because what is inside is crap. Could someone please point me in the right direction, maybe give me an idea of how much this will cost me, and if I can buy one "ready to go" with SD card and games, and the ability to use my portable external drive to play the 500GB+ of roms I have collected as well as what comes with it. Thank you.

I paid about AU$300 for my prebuilt system which I got from here:

MODERTOR : DELETE LINK NO PUB FOR YOUR RESELLER

I opened it up, and it has a lead going from inside the console to the outside where the SD card is situated. When I plugged in my 2TB portable drive into the one of the bottom USB ports (it has 4) it copied over a folder called 'recalbox' with bios files, a roms directory with all the different consoles, and a bunch of other directories, but none of the roms from the SD card. I put all my roms into their respective directories on the portable drive, went into the menu setting and changed the data storage to external and rebooted. It still used all the roms located on the SD card, and I could see when it was booting up, there was no activity on the portable drive, so it was not being used. I have to presume that since there is an option to choose from the internal or external 'drive' then it must support some sort of external data storage. I had bought a Pandora system on the understanding that I would be able to import SNES games, only to find out that my system was not compatible with that, which is why this console was recommended to me. I am sure if you are able to help me, you may require some more information from me regarding what version of recalbox I am using or other information. I hope I hear again from you with some advice, as you are the first person who has reached out to me offering me any kind of help at all. To assist you, I have attached a few screen shots of what was copied to my external portable drive. Most of the directories are pretty empty, except for the BIOS and SYSTEM directories. I have attached snapshots of these for you to look at. Where you see "Retro Pi(E:)" that is referring to my external portable drive. Again thank you for replying to me.

Hi Group. I know I am only new here, but I honestly have been everywhere and no one seems to want to help me, even though what I am wanting to do is quite simple (I think)
I already have a Recalbox games machine (Raspberry pi 3B+ Recalbox Video Game Machine) and it comes with its games on a 64GB SD card which is external. I have collected a lot of roms, mainly PS1 and SNES and they take up approx 530GB, so obviously I can't put them on the SD card. What I want to do is to either move these games to my external 2TB portable drive, then do whatever I have to do to the roms I have collected (skrape etc) then add those games to the corresponding directory of games that were moved from the SD card, or at the very least switch between internal and external sources for my roms. When I plugged in my drive into the console, it did set up a directory called 'recalbox' with all the relevant folders. but that is as far as I have got. When I switch to an external drive, it just uses the games on the SD card. Ideally, I would like to be able to play all the roms I have collected. I really need some help. I have been everywhere and have been ignored. No one offers any advice. Not one bit. I purchased this console after buying a Pandora (on recommendation) just to find out it would not let me add SNES roms. So I went into debt to buy this machine recommended to me, and I am too much of a novice to know what to do next. Please, someone, take the time to help me. I am very savvy with computers of any kind, so not quite a noob with his first toy. But I catch on quick. I purchased this console with the specific purpose of being able to play PS1 and SNES games. I have a full romset. I hope someone who has a bit of spare time and a little patience to help me get the full potential out of my recalbox. Thank you in advance. I read through most of the posts, and I'm sorry if this topic has been covered elsewhere.