You Need to Format the Disk in Drive Before You Can Use It

Just installed Emuelec and everything works great on my brand new T95max+, games, bios etc.
I really want to say thanks to everyone working on this wonderful project.

I have few question if you can help.
When insert my SD (64GB) on Windows 10, I see 3 partitions and Windows Keep asking me “You Need to Format the Disk in Drive Before You Can Use It” about H partition.

Capture

I suppose formatting partition H can harm Emuelec, so I never do. My concern is to accidentally format it when in hurry.

Is there a way to stop Windows asking to format H partition? Or should I format it?

I’m new to this kind of stuff:

There is an option to switch to RetroArch, what is its use?

remove the assigned drive letter.

disable the emulationstation frontend.

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What’s the advantage?
What’s the difference between emulationstation, Emuelec and RetroArch?

Do you mean removing drive letter using Disk Management or by prompt diskpart?
I would like to try but don’t know if I’m so brave :sweat_smile:

You don’t need to do anything, just ignore the error, its because there is a partition Windows can’t access, the partition you need to use is already mounted EEROMS, ignore the others.

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emuelec is the complete build, like different linux variants.

emulationstation is a fancy frontend.

retroarch is the emulator backend.

using disk managment is fine - just dont do anything else than removing drive letter.

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In this case he does not need to use disk management, the partition giving the error is EXT4 (storage) which is not supported on Windows, the only thing to do is ignore the error. The only time he needs to use disk management, is when EEROMS is not mounted, which if you look at the screenshot its clearly mounted on I:\ already

Adding: Your suggestion of removing the assigned letter WILL work, but he will need to do this every-time he inserts the SD, which is why ignoring the error would be much faster.

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i dont have to, using windows 10.

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Thanks @EmuELEC & @paparansen for info, now it is much clear.
I’ll do a clone of my SD with Clonezilla before doing anything, just in case :grin:
Anyone using Clonezilla? I hope it works for this task, I love it.

you can use rufus for creating an image of sd card.

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I don’t know if Rufus can clone an SD card, it can mount an image but not clone it, or not? Clonizilla is a bit complicated because of the interface, it should clone all disk partitions, the Emuelec system one and the other too (Games included) in one single image.

Rufus can clone SD card. Without doubt. Just click on the “disk icon” button on the upper right corner.

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This is a good news, I didn’t know about it! Thanks.
Still not sure about it, must investigate.

Ignore this error is the only solution, removing drive letter is not possible because windows can’t recognize that linux partition, both disk managment or diskpart by prompt won’t work.
Be sure to not accidentally format that partition, I did a clone of the whole SD just in case :grin:

there is something wrong with your stuff.

i have batocera on an external hdd, same partition structure
as emuelec ( ext4 & fat ). for the same reason as you, i removed
the drive letter without any problems.

No idea what we have different, for me SD cards always ask this.

weird… i will try it with sd card.