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Can't see the root partition

pCP Team 6 May 2024 pCP 6.1.0 FAQ
Windows PCs can’t see the Linux partition on the SD card (or USB device).

Windows will work with partitions formatted as Win95 FAT32 (LBA), so it will see the boot partition /dev/mmcblk0p1, but the Linux formatted root partition /dev/mmcblk0p2 is invisible. For all intents and purposes the SD card appears to be only 64.0M in size.

If access to the root partition is required, there are 2 options:

  • use a computer with Linux type OS.
  • load additional software onto the Windows PC.
Danger

Depending on the software loaded on your Windows PC, you may be get a series of messages when you plug your SD card in. Always:

  • Ignore formatting requests.
  • Ignore anti-virus warnings.
  • Ignore requests to do backups.

More information

A standard piCorePlayer image contain 2 partitions:

Device     Boot   StartCHS    EndCHS      StartLBA     EndLBA    Sectors   Size  Id  Type
/dev/mmcblk0p1    128,0,1     127,3,16        8192     139263     131072  64.0M   c  Win95 FAT32 (LBA)
/dev/mmcblk0p2    1023,3,16   1023,3,16     139264    4235263    4096000  2000M  83  Linux
Can't see the boot partition
Information
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