[IDEA] Create/protect music partition on SD card

[Miss Sissy Princess]

With the availability of 512GB MicroSDXC cards, many users would be able to store their music library on the same card with a bootable moOde partition.  But major revision upgrades of moOde (as opposed to in-place upgrades) wipe out the entire MicroSDXC card, including any music that might have been stored on it.

That's a shame, because music is almost ideally suited to storage on flash media; it's generally written once and remains unchanged unless someone edits tags. 

It would be great if there was a "moOde installer" (MicroSD writer) application that would create a separate Music partition if one did not already exist.  If one did exist, it would not erase it or overwrite it.  Expanding the partition should expand the Music partition, not the moOde OS partition.

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Anticipated replies follow (this isn't my first rodeo):

You should store your music on a NAS.
Neither my 8-drive NAS nor my 5-drive NAS will fit in my pocket with the Pi 4 and power supply -- and I want to be able to take my music server with me to a friend's house, on vacation, etc.

You should store your music on a thumb drive.
How would putting it on a thumb drive accomplish my goal of having it on the MicroSD card?

My music library is way too large to fit on a MicroSD card.
Mine would fit comfortably and I see no reason to needlessly bloat my collection with music that I don't truly enjoy.  

You should use this set of Linux commands to accomplish what you want...
I appreciate your offer of help, but I want this to be a a standard feature that could benefit many users, not just me.

[the_bertrum]

I think the problem is that moOde does not handle the writing of the image in the first place. The feature you need would need to be in the flash utility rather than moOde, and making one of those is a very different skill set.
The simplest solution is to copy your music off before a major version and copy it back on afterwards, which frankly I'd recommend even if the flash utility could handle partitions, just in case. I realise that isn't the "in system" solution you desire.

[Miss Sissy Princess]

I think the problem is that moOde does not handle the writing of the image in the first place.  The feature you need would need to be in the flash utility rather than moOde

Yes, that is why I wrote "It would be great if there was a "moOde installer" (MicroSD writer) application that would..."  

The simplest solution is to copy your music off before a major version and copy it back on afterwards,

What you're proposing would take hours and would subject an expensive 512GB MicroSDXC card to unnecessary write operations.  I made this suggestion specifically to avoid those issues.

But why would you copy it off?  If you're keeping your sole copy of your music library on a MicroSDXC card, hire an engineer to work with you to put together something more robust and resilient.  For example, I have the master copy of my music library on a RAID6 NAS powered by a 3000VA Eaton UPS.

which frankly I'd recommend even if the flash utility could handle partitions, just in case.

If you have doubts about the data integrity, you are much better off comparing the MicroSDXC copy of the music library to your master copy on your NAS.  It should be faster and it won't subject the flash memory to unnecessary write cycles.

[Tim Curtis]

Maybe a dev with particular expertise in partitions and image writing will volunteer their time to develop and support an image writer and partition manager utility that can do what you are proposing.

One of the challenges with generating interest in the proposal though is that modern USB storage is fast, compact, super reliable and cheap for example this 512MB device https://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-512GB-Ult...6595166973

   

[Miss Sissy Princess]

One of the challenges with generating interest in the proposal though is that modern USB storage is fast, compact, super reliable and cheap for example this 512MB device...

That's a very good option and one I will consider.  It's the same form factor as the USB "thumb" drive I use as my Unraid OS drive.

I kind of like the idea of having the USB dedicated solely to my USB DAC.  Right now, I have a 512GB USB SSD on one of the USB 3.0 ports and I have the Emotiva USB DAC on one of the two USB 2.0 ports, but all of the USB ports go through the same VL805 chip.  At least it's not like prior Pi boards where the Ethernet was, in essence, another USB device.

Thanks for suggesting that fits-in-the-pocket alternative.