Batocera: Switch partition to extFAT for macOS/Windows compatibility


Many distributions prepared to play emulators, come by default with the secondary partition in *EXT4* to store settings, *BIOS and ROMs*. For those of us who usually work with *macOS and/or Windows*, it would be better if this partition came in *extFAT* to be able to mount in you non *Linux OS* and transfer files comfortably from the *Explorer/Finder*, so that is what I have proposed today. It's not a big deal, let's go.

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First of all, I must to tell you something that will cross your mind when thinking about solving this dilemma, repeat with me: **I CANNOT convert the EXT4 partition to extFAT without data loss**. That said, let's continue.

The first thing we're going to do is find a computer with some *Linux* distribution. I always have a laptop with *Ubuntu* for various tasks. We could also use our *Raspberry Pi* or a *Live* distro to temporarily install apps. By the way, today is the release of [Ubuntu 20.04](https://ubuntu.com/download). It's a good time to try it out.

Now we boot [Batocera](https://batocera.org/download) in our *SBC* (*Raspberry Pi* 4 has a *Beta* version highly recommended) so that it generates the files and system partitions. Finally, we turn it off and extract the card.

It's time to insert into our *Linux* laptop and examine the partitions. You can use *GParted*. Now we delete the last *ext4* partition, which will be the one that occupies the most space. If your distro allows it, you can create the *extFAT* partition now, although new versions of *GParted* don't allow it even if we have the *extfat-tools* installed. **NOTE**: If you want to keep your settings, *ROMs* and so on, it's time to make a copy of the entire contents of this partition. Anyway, at the end of this post I leave you a **exact copy of the data of that partition**.


List of folders on the SHARE partition

Now we'll have to create an *extFAT* partition in case you haven't already done so. Possible solutions depending on your main operating system:

• *macOS*: Insert the SD in your *Mac*, open *Disk Utility* and format the partition.


MacOS disk utility allows us to format in extFAT with no hassle

• *Windows*: We'll have to use the *Disk Manager*. I always enter by typing from the start button *Create and format hard disk partitions*. From there you will have no problem viewing the drive and formatting it. Another idea could have been that you formatted from *Linux* the partition into *FAT32* and then reformat it normally from *Windows* by right clicking on the drive and choosing to format into *extFAT*.

• *Linux: Gparted* as mentioned, does not allow formatting in *extFAT*, but if you have installed the *extfat-tools* package, you can use *gnome-disks* to do the partitioning, or the command line:

sudo fdisk -l # To know the partition we want to format. For example, /dev/sdb2
sudo mkfs.exfat -n SHARE /dev/sdXn # where sdXn is the partition to be formatted and SHARE is the label we are going to assign to it

The only thing you have to keep in mind is that we have to name the partition **SHARE** (important).

Now we copy the content that was originally in that partition. In case you have made a backup, you just have to restore it. If you didn't, at the end of the post I leave you a copy that you should untar to this new *SHARE* partition.

For *macOS* users, remember before extracting the image, to remove the residual files usually left by the operating system. You can delete them from the command line by typing:

find /Volumes/SHARE -type f -name "._*" -depth -delete

That's it! Now it will be easier for you to copy the *ROMs* and addons for *KODI* from the comfort of your operating system.

Download: [dropbox.com > share-batocera.tar.gz (63.6 MB)](https://www.dropbox.com/s/85vef1sjiduui1s/share-batocera.tar.gz?dl=0)