How To: Setup ARpiCADE Updates for Larger (16GB,32GB,64GB) Memory Cards

PLEASE NOTE – YOU WILL BE USING PROGRAMS THAT CAN POTENTIALLY OVERWRITE DATA YOU WANT/NEED IF YOU USE THE PROGRAM IMPROPERLY.  I WILL NOT BE HELD RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY DAMAGE/LOSS AS THE RESULT OF FOLLOWING MY INSTRUCTIONS (CORRECTLY OR INCORRECTLY).  IF YOU DON'T AGREE TO THIS DON'T FOLLOW MY INSTRUCTIONS AND ALWAYS WORK WITH BACKUPS AND NOT YOUR MAIN MEMORY CARD.

When you upgrade your ARpiCADE, the upgrade image fits nicely on an 8GB mini-SD memory card creating a FAT32 (Windows compatible) partition of about 2.76GB free for ROMS, marquee image files, snap image files, wheel image files (think game logo only), movie files, and samples for the games that need them. Needless to say, a full set of ROM's including the artwork for it all takes up more than the 2.76GB available on the 8GB image. My "vertical" set I purchased when I purchased the ARpiCADE, for example, comes on a 32GB card.

Unfortunately, when you decompress an image of an 8GB card, it will decompress as an 8GB drive regardless of what size your memory card is… for example, when I decompress to a 32GB card, I end up with the exact same usable free space… 2.76GB. The rest of the space IS there… it's just not USABLE right now.

This is a guide on how to do just that. In order to accomplish this task you are going to need to download a few things first. First and foremost you will need to download the latest update from the ARpiCADE website then decompress it so that the .IMG file is available. 

Next you will need to write that .IMG file to your 16GB, 32GB, or 64GB memory card. There are a number of programs you can use for this task. Personally, I use Win32 Disk Imager which can be found here: http://sourceforge.net/projects/win32diskimager/files/latest/download 

Next you will need to download Partition Wizard.  It's a free program that allows you to move partitions around on a drive.  You can download it here: https://www.partitionwizard.com/free-partition-manager.html

You are going to want to install both programs and have them ready to go.  First load up Win 32Disk Imager.  This is what the program looks like:

1. Make sure the DEVICE drop down at the right of the Image File name is set to the memory card reader you are using.  This is IS VERY IMPORTANT as you will be writing over whatever DEVICE you choose.  MAKE SURE you are choosing the right device!

2. Click the FOLDER ICON and browse to the image file you downloaded from the ARpiCADE website.

3. Click the WRITE button.  It will give you a warning about overwriting data, etc… at this point you will want to TRIPLE CHECK you selected the correct device and that the new warning message includes that proper device within it's text.  If so.. click OK and let it run through it's course.  

After you've written the IMG you will notice that you now have a BOOT drive that is approximately 2.76GB in size.

You will now load the Partition Wizard program.  After going through a menu (click Partition Wizard)  you'll come to this screen:

At this point you want to select your memory card reader.  In my case that would be Disk 4:

You will notice that Disk 4 shows two active partitions and a large unallocated area.  The two partitions are the Windows compatible FAT32 partition named BOOT and the other is a Linux compatible EXT4 partition named ARpiCADE. The key to making the FAT32 BOOT partition larger is to first MOVE the EXT4 partition.  To achieve this you simply:

1. Click on the ARpiCADE (EXT4) partition.  Just that partition will highlight.
2. RIGHT CLICK on that highlighted partition.  A menu will appear.  Select MOVE/RESIZE.
3. The following window will appear:

DO NOT touch the ARROWS.  That is how you expand the size of the partition and right now we simply want to MOVE the partition to the right as far as it will go.  To do so,  click and hold the highlighted area and drag to the right.  Afterwards the window will look like this:

4. Click OK.  You will then notice that the screen that showed all the different drives has now changed and the ARpiCADE partition is now showing at the far right with the UNALLOCATED area between the BOOT partition and the ARpiCADE partition… like this:

5. Click the BOOT (FAT32) partition.  It will highlight as usual.
6. RIGHT CLICK and select MOVE/RESIZE and again this window will come up:

7. This time however,  you want to click and hold on the RIGHT ARROW and DRAG to the right… it will EXPAND the partition (highlighted) area.  You will end up with something like this:

8. Click the OK button which will bring you back to the main screen that now looks like this:

Take note that there is now only two partitions total with NO unallocated space.  The Linux partition is to the right with a larger FAT32 parittion to the left.  Now you just click APPLY at the top left and wait for the program to do it's magic.  It takes a while as it has to copy/move files around, etc. but it's all automated from here.  When it's complete,  you have a memory card with a larger usable space to add ROMS, movie files, whatever!

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