Transferring music files to SD card from Windows laptop - how to?

[robkyf]

Can anyone tell me how to do a 'hard' transfer of music files from a Windows 10 laptop to a Pi Zero 2 W running moOde 9x please.

Transferring larger volumes of files between the two over wifi is obviously glacially slow so any instructions would be gratefully received on how to speed this up. I'm assuming my options are either to: 

1. mount the moOde SD card directly on the laptop and transfer the files (using File Explorer?) from the hard drive to the folder moOde uses to store music; or
   
2. physically connect the Pi to the laptop and transfer the files over a USB cable (which I've tried but the moOde Pi just seems to appear on my local network rather than as a directly connected local storage device)
   

I realise this question will have been asked a thousand times before but I'm struggling to find a simple explainer that a Pi/moOde novice like me can follow.

I understand there are other ways to mount/play music files through the Pi, but I'm specifically interested in the SD card route.

Thanks!

[Tim Curtis]

Windows (and MacOS) won't be able to read the Linux ext4 formatted partition on the SD Card that contains all the application, data, and music files. You will need to use a USB drive for storing or transferring the files.

Option 1 - Music files on a USB drive

1. Create a Fat32 formatted USB drive
2. Plug it into your Windows box
3. Copy your music files onto that USB drive
4. Using a micro USB adapter, plug that drive into your Zero
5. Menu > Update Library

USB adapter (micro to standard)
https://www.amazon.com/Ksmile®-Female-Ad...262&sr=8-4
USB drive (format it as Fat32)
https://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-512GB-Ult...r=8-3&th=1

Option 2 - Music files on the SD Card

Similar to Option 1 except instead of step 5 do the following:

1. Menu > Configure > System
2. Turn on the WebSSH terminal
3. OPEN the terminal and enter the userid and password that you setup in the Pi Imager
4. Copy the files from the USB drive to the SDCARD directory on the SD Card

The commands would be something like below

1. Create a music directory on the SD Card
sudo mkdir /mnt/SDCARD/Music

2. Determine the USB drive mount directory
ls /media

3. Copy the files from the USB drive to the SD Card
sudo cp -v -r /media/USB_DRIVE_MOUNT_DIRECTORY/* /mnt/SDCARD/Music

4. Unplug the USB drive
5. Menu > Update Library

[robkyf]

Thank you @Tim Curtis. Crystal clear - very much appreciated!

[TheOldPresbyope]

It's a pity that Microsoft's Windows for Linux Subsystem still doesn't seem to support writing files to ext4 filesystems (although it appears one can mount and read one through some jiggery pokery. Since I run Windows 10/11 only as guest systems on a Linux box, I don't have a problem.

Worrying about the data transfer rate over WiFi being too slow suggests you are trying to put a v-e-r-y large music library on your uSD card. I would suggest you consider only Tim's first suggestion which will keep the library on a separate thumb drive. Sooner or later, you'll find yourself wanting to, or being forced to, rewrite that uSD card. It's the same reason NAS servers keep the data disk separate from the system disk.

Whichever choice you make, enjoy the music!

Regards,
Kent

[robkyf]

Thanks @TheOldPresbyope. Yes, acknowledged about the drawbacks of the music files being on the SD card, but my Pi Zero 2 W is the standard unit so only has the one micro USB port (discounting the one for power) and that’s outputting to my DAC.

But good to know that there is a faster way than wifi to do a bulk file transfer to the SD card when the need arises.

Thanks!

[HarryY]

My 2 cents...

I was big on Sandisk USB Drives (I have a bunch of them here) but after trying Samsung USB Drives
I have found that the Samsung USB Drives tend to run Cooler and are Faster than the Sandisk ones.

So I've slowly been migrating over to Samsung as I buy newer and larger USB drives.