Novice how to: partition M.2 → Atari Storage+Win10+Batocera

[ManOfScience]

Re; Upgrade Objectives and Starting Point:

I have been reading the forums and watching youtube videos trying to plan how I will install a M.2 SSD (internally) into my VCS.

I have a 2TB SATA Stick and hope to achieve 4 things:

 

1)  expand the internal Storage available to the Stock Atari OS (to stock+500GB),

2)  add a PC-Mode Boot manager to select which partition to boot to,

3)  create a Windows 10 partition (1TB) , and

4)  create a partition for future use (500GB) to add another OS (hopefully Batocera) at a later date.

 

I have other goals that are not listed because they are not interdependent with the above 4.

(Like freeing up external USB ports and moving my keyboard/mouse off of 2.4GHz.)

 

The challenges that may not yet be resolved are:

 

a)  I think that I need to create a recovery image of the Atari OS partition before I do anything...

     (I likely need a separate computer that I may not currently have in order to do this),

b)  there may be no way to get an alternate OS onto the internal M.2 once it is installed - it may need to be done before installing the stick into the VCS,

c)  there may be no way to format the M.2 stick as an extension of the Atari OS storage without installing it into the VCS,

d)  there may be no way for the Atari OS to partition only part of the M.2 Stick to be part of the Atari OS,  

e)  once the M.2 Stick has been partitioned to add storage to the Atari OS, re-sizing the partition may mess up the Atari's access to it,

f)  PC Mode may not be able to point to rEFInd unless it's on an external USB drive (would be unfortunate but tolerable).

 

What I have to work with so far:

i)   an up-to-date Ubuntu box (that I know next-to-nothing about) that I could use if I need to.

ii)  another Ryzen box with Batocera installed and a selection of live-boot USB thumb-drives (Windows10, Lubunu, Ubuntu Mate)

iii) a M.2 -to- USB 3.1  External SSD drive adapter,

iv) the previously mentioned 2TB M.2 SSD (WD Blue 3D NAND 2TB Internal PC SSD - SATA III, M.2 - WDS200T2B0B) - not yet formatted, and

v)  a spare 1TB external USB 3.1 drive.

vi) 2x16GB memory cards (HyperX Impact 2933MHz DDR4 CL17 SODIMM HX429S17IB2K2/32, 32GB kit)

 

My tech background is in electronics design and some microcontroller programming, not with OS's, bootloaders, & drivers and such.  The folks in other threads seem to understand this stuff much better than me and may likely advise me to not attempt this at all as a self admitted novice.  My approach will be to simply go very slowly and research thoroughly before every step.  This is the very reason I bought my VCS - to make it my living room TV computer.  Worst case scenario is I have to give up on AtariOS, throw out the motherboard and jam a different motherboard in there - but I doubt it will come to that.

 

Re; Backing up and restoring AtariOS: (a)

In a thread called 'Hardware Upgrades, Experiences and Tips', started by justclaws several months and VCS updates ago, he points to a video by RetroAxis on backing up and restoring the AtariOS using a separate OpenSuSe linux box.  It will take me some time to decypher all of the terms to map out how to do that, but I think it will be doable with my other Ryzen box and an Ubuntu Live-boot USB thumb drive and backing up to my spare 1TB external USB drive.  I don't think I need to use OpenSuSe specifically... unless it has standard tools that Ubuntu is missing?  Does anyone know if it will save me headaches to start by making an OpenSuse live-boot USB drive first?

 

Re; Partitioning & Formatting the M.2 Drive: (b, c, d, & e)

From reading the discussions between Charles Darwin, 0_obeWAN, & others in the 'Multi Boot Loader for USB/eMMC' thread who seem to know what the heck they are doing, it looks like there is a good multi-boot Bootloader called rEFInd that might work.  I have not yet 

 

What I know so far: 

A)  the BIOS requires UEFI Boot, and since others have succeeded with it, rEFInd Bootloader must support this (... I think? I don't know what these words really mean.),

B)  the current BIOS password is 'Atar!C3l3br8te$50Y34r$'.

C)  

 

My rough-draft order-of-operations assumption is that I'll need to :  Does this seem rational?

1st  - Install & Format the AtariOS expanded (EXT3 ?) storage partition,

2nd - Remove the M.2 SSD and put it into the USB 3.1 external Drive adapter,

3rd  - (If neccessary) re-size the partition to make room for other OSs,

4th  - Format a Partition for the UEFI Multi-boot Bootloader, rEFInd,

5th  - Format 2 NTFS partitions for Windows 10 Boot and operations,

6th  - Format 2 XFS partitions for future OS Boot and operations,

7th  - Install Windows to the NTFS Partitions 

8th  - Somehow "Compose" the rEFInd bootloader for the OSs selected and install it into the Bootloader Partition,

9th  - Re-install the M.2 SSD into the internal bay of the VCS.

10th - ?

 

 

Although I've found lots of references to physically installing the M.2 SSD card, I have not yet found any info on how to format the M.2 internal SSD so that the AtariOS can see it for games storage. 

Can anyone advise me:

- if there is a utility in the AtariOS that recognizes new SSD and offers to format?

- if so, will it allow you to format only part of the SSD?

and

- if not, is it an ext3 file system?   &  will the AtariOS see it if I format it correctly?

 

Is there a known-good piece of software in a specific OS that will work for all this Formatting and Partitioning work?  (is it user-friendly?)

 

 

 

Re; Your feedback:

I think this summarizes my plan as it stands to date - I don't want to go too far based on false assumptions or mis-information.

Can anyone offer any feedback before I get too far along a faulty plan?

 

ANY ADVISE IS GREATLY APPRECIATED!

 

 

 

[0_obeWAN]

Hello,

I won't have all the answers to your questions, but here is what I hope will help you.

In my opinion there is no reason to move AtariOS to the M.2 card. The eMMC card is fine for carrying the system. For storage, an Ext4 partition on the M.2 card is visible to the system and allows to move applications and games.

If you still want to test, you need the Atari system restore image (Apertis v2020) first. Just in case.

 

To each his own technique the goal being to achieve these ends ;)

For Windows
Use a USB device and install Windows 10 with WinToUSB from a PC.
Start Windows 10 on the console, from the USB device and finish the installation and the system update.
Install Macrorit expert partition in Windows and clone the USB device to the internal M.2 card (system copy on reboot).

 

For batocera
I install it on a USB device, I boot it at least once to finish the installation. From Windows, I backup the Batocera and Share partitions with DiskGenius. I burn the two partitions on the M.2 card and restore both of them. If needed, you have to use the extend partitions option in batocera-boot.conf

 

You can use rEFInd from a usb key (simpler) provided you have deactivated the secure boot. At startup it will list the partitions that contain a system.

 

I hope this will help you

 

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

[ManOfScience]

That is very helpful, 0_obeWAN!  

I appreciate that you share your experience 

 

I think I have enough information to start experimenting - once I get my Atari System Restore Image made.  I think I can do that as soon as some 16gb usb drives arrive in the mail.

 

Thank you!

 

[jvas]

Is the image of the original OS available somewhere to download? All the links to it I found seems to be dead...

[Allpaul]

I just put Windows 10 on my m.2 drive. I can boot from the Windows drive by going into the bios, but it doesn’t show up in the PC Mode app.. Is this happening to anyone else?

[justclaws]

On 9/21/2021 at 3:01 PM, jvas said:

Is the image of the original OS available somewhere to download? All the links to it I found seems to be dead...

I contacted Atari directly and told them about the bad link in the documentation.
Of course, I'm sure I'm not the only one to do that. I don't have any fast-track. ?

I hope it's fixed soon, and you can then follow a link the AtariVCS support web-site.

[justclaws]

6 minutes ago, Allpaul said:

I just put Windows 10 on my m.2 drive. I can boot from the Windows drive by going into the bios, but it doesn’t show up in the PC Mode app.. Is this happening to anyone else?

All the app does is reboot the system for you, and then Windows should boot-up automatically
at startup, but the way the system (BIOS path) is setup, it looks to external drives for bootable
disks, (because the M.2 was added to allow extra storage for the system operating as a console).

You should also be able to boot it by pressing F10 at startup, and then you pick Windows there.
That will bring up the BIOS boot menu. I've not tried that specifically, as my Windows is via USB.