Cant write image to memory stick

archie456 · April 1, 2017 at 9:50 PM

I have an issue with writing a backup image to a memory stick.

I have LibreElec set up so that a SD card hold the system and a 16GB USB memory stick hold the storage files - this all works really nice.

Every so often I stick the USB stick and the SD card into my laptop and back them up by making an image file with Win32DiskImager.

In the past when I've wanted to restore the USB stick to an earlier stage I plug it back into the laptop - Windows displays the memory stick as drive D, but it can't read it (I think because its EXT4), but as the drive is listed as D I can select it in Win32DiskImager to write an image back to it successfully.

The problem I have is that this time, I formatted the stick as FAT32 as I needed to transfer files.

When I try to use Win32DiskImager to write the I get an error stating that there is not enough space on the USB stick.

If I format the stick as EXT4, I Windows this time wont assign it a drive letter (like it did in the past).

So I'm now stuck and unable to write the image back.

I'd appreciate some advice on what I'm doing wrong.

Cheers.

**chewitt** · April 1, 2017 at 11:01 PM Official Post

It's time to create a Linux VM on your Windows laptop and learn how to use 'dd' (in Linux) to create disk/partition images. Windows is so completely stupid about multi-partition USB sticks and anything Linux related that this is the easy long-term option.

You can also use the backup function in LE settings which (unless your 16GB card is 95% full) will be several hundred percent quicker than imaging the entire card full of empty space.

archie456 · April 2, 2017 at 9:39 AM

OK, I;ll give that a try - Would using VirtualBox and Ubuntu do the job?

**chewitt** · April 2, 2017 at 4:31 PM Official Post

Should be fine.

**Iridium** · April 2, 2017 at 6:01 PM Official Post

One of the problems I have encountered with Win32diskimager is that it backups a 4G SD card as a 4G image. However, on trying to restore there is only 3.9G available (Capacity of the SD card)

You'd be better off using the LE backup option or the Kodi addon " Script Backup" to backup your settings.

archie456 · April 2, 2017 at 6:03 PM

Quote from Iridium

One of the problems I have encountered with Win32diskimager is that it backups a 4G SD card as a 4G image. However, on trying to restore there is only 3.9G available (Capacity of the SD card)

You'd be better off using the LE backup option or the Kodi addon " Script Backup" to backup your settings.

The thing is that I've backed up and restored the memory sticks in the past fine, its just now that I've formatted it I'm getting problems...

Whats LE backup?

**Iridium** · April 2, 2017 at 6:20 PM Official Post

Depending on you release you can find it in system or addons. LE configuration.