

This is because Windows does not recognise some of the files on your SD card (RetroPie is developed to run on a Linux machine, not Windows) and is therefore asking if you want to wipe the card. At this point Windows may ask you if you want to format the SD card. Take the SD card containing the RetroPie build that you want to backup and insert it into the SD card reader connected to your computer.

If you have a Mac, unfortunately Win32 Disk Imager is not available on the iOS platform, however you can use the Disk Utility app, which is shipped with the macOS, and performs a similar task. This process can be performed on many versions of Windows including 7, 8 and 10 amoung others.

We will be using Win32 Disk Imager for this example. How to Backup RetroPie on Windowsīacking up RetroPie through a Windows operating system is by far the easiest method so that’s the procedure we will be using in this instance.Īs well as a Windows PC you will also need an SD card reader (there is probably one installed on your PC) and a disk imaging application such as Win32 Disk Imager which can be downloaded for free by clicking on the link. Here we will take you through the entire process of backing up and updating RetroPie from start to finish, so that you can enjoy the latest features that RetroPie has to offer, safe in the knowledge that if anything goes wrong you can always fallback to your previous, stable build. The way to ensure that there is no danger of losing any bespoke features that you may have added to your existing build (which will no doubt enable you to sleep soundly at night) would be to backup your RetroPie image before you attempt any updates. So what improvements have you missed out on by not updating RetroPie to the latest version? Are you missing out of any new features that have been added since your initial build? Have there been any bug fixes that have managed to resolve any frustrating glitches? If so, how do you get hold of these new features? Would updating your software risk corrupting the build you worked for weeks on getting just the way you wanted? What about all the ROMs that you have painstakingly downloaded? You don’t want to risk losing any of those. The issue this creates however is that you downloaded and set up RetroPie a while ago now and are not able to experience all these impressive upgrades unless you update your application. It may not surprise you to learn that, being the fantastic people that they are, the developers at RetroPie are constantly adding improvements to their amazing application. So, you have your retro gaming machine all setup and have been enjoying some awesome gaming for some months now.
