

At this stage, remove the USB from your Pi and plug it back into your computer. By the time you get back it should be done. If your USB does not have an indicator light, make a cup of coffee. Your Pi is finished when the indicator light on your USB stops flashing. RetroPie will then create folders with the names of the emulators automatically. If you haven’t flashed RetroPie to an SD card, do so now.īoot up your Raspberry Pi running RetroPie and plug in your newly-formatted USB. Rename this folder “retropie,” all lowercase.Īutomatically Create ROM Folder StructureĮject, or if you’re someone who likes to live dangerously, yank your USB out of your computer. With your USB formatted to FAT32, create a folder at the root of the USB.

For El Capitan and above, click the Erase button, select “MS-DOS (FAT)” and click the Erase button again. For Yosemite and below, click on the “Erase” tab, select “MS-DOS (FAT)” from the drop-down box and click the Erase button. With Disk Utility open, click on your USB drive in the panel on the left. If you are on a Mac, plug in the USB and open “Disk Utility.” The Disk utility program can be found by following this path “Applications -> Utilities -> Disk Utility.” Alternatively, you can type “Disk Utility” into Spotlight. The second one from the top should be labeled “File system.” Click on the arrow and select “FAT32.” Finally, click on the “Start” button at the bottom to format the USB. From here, click on “Format.” A window will pop up with a few drop-down menus. Right-click on the USB, and a menu will appear. If you are on a Windows PC, plug in your USB and open the File Explorer. This isn’t essential, but it makes life a little easier in later steps. Additionally, we suggest using a USB that has an indicator light that flashes when the USB is in use. Ensure that the USB you are using does not contain data you do not want to lose. Be aware that reformatting a drive will always result in data loss. Before you can transfer ROMs to your Pi, you’ll first need to format your USB to FAT32.
