[quote=94251]
i thought if i changed the path to an external hd i have (with the chd’s on it), that it would work but i get the same file not found error. the line in question is in the following file:

/opt/retropie/configs/mame-advmame/advmame.rc

the line is:

dir_image /media/MAME106/chds

[/quote]

That .rc filename doesnt look quite right – I think (in RetroPie 3) there are 2 rc files in there one for 1.2 and one for 0.94 – do a “ls” in that dir to confirm.

You can get it to search multiple paths by separating each one with a :

So you could have
dir_image /opt/cheese:/opt/biscuits:/home/pi:/media/MAME106/chds

if you wanted.