SD Card won't work again

[NickBull]

I seem to have broken something whilst, ironically, trying to do a backup of my system!

I had a lot of changes and things done, so I thought I would do a backup. I followed the instructions I found (I'm on a Mac) using dd which looked like it had worked. Somehow though, I have broken my SD card. I now can't boot from that card. So I checked in my Mac again and it was all OK - can read from the boot partition.

I've tried:
Creating a new SD card and re-imaging that and then copying the boot partition files onto my old SD card
Reformatting the entire card as new and putting BootBerry on it (which is what worked previously)
Reformatting the card in a camera and then re-trying with BootBerry.

Nothing seems to work - I just get a single red light with nothing else. Using a different SD card and it is fine. My SD card that won't work on the Pi works on the Mac and in my camera.

Anyone got any ideas? Hopefully I'll be able to restore my image that I took and get it working, but I guess I might have to resign myself to the fact that I'll have to start again on what I was doing (knew I should've made better notes!)

[mongoose2]

Same problem here. Sandisk Ultra 4GB Class 6 used to work perfectly, now stopped booting. Works fine in cardreader. Other cards work fine (cross-tested using 2 raspis and 3 different cards). Writing different images (including latest and somewhat older official images, mainly using windd) works fine, but raspi won't boot. Only red light lights up, green led has tiny little green spot in the middle (would not call that light up). Rebooting or touching the card or anything won't help (except using one of the other cards which still work fine). Funny enough, I did not do anything special to the card between the days where it still booted and the day when it stopped booting. I also tried dd'ing the card with zeros before rewriting different images (which all work fine on other cards). Just to repeat: this is not a problem with an incompatible card or not the latest firmware, because the card has been working fine for months.

[xanmanning]

I have the exact same problem with an Integral 8Gb Class 4 SDHC card. I know very little about memory cards so am not sure if there is something I am doing wrong that may cause this.

It worked fine, I had been using it with an older version of Arch Linux ARM, but I wanted to use it for another project so I made a backup of the card using dd, put a fresh install of Arch Linux ARM (Hard float, 2012-09-18) on it and then booted up.

It booted up fine, worked well, I cannot remember exactly what I did - I do not think there was a firmware update (although I could be wrong) - halted it, powered off, come to use it the next day and it just will not boot up. Single red light on power, nothing on OK or Ethernet, etc.

I have two 32Gb class 10 Integral Ultima Pro SDHC cards which I used to test that the Raspberry Pi was still working, hurray - they still boot up. I returned to the 8Gb one and nothing happens. I restored the backup .img file I made using dd (just in case it was Arch Linux ARM HF) but it still doesn't boot.

I do not know what to make of this, but it is good to know that there are others who have experienced this quite recently - so it is a bug (albeit not a widespread one).

[ksc]

me too, some weeks ago ,i think it's the contact problem between pi and sd card.
some times , the system will display '*io error *' .then i put the sd card on my ubuntu use gparted fix the filesystem. but it's doesn't work this time.

[Dilligaf]

Check out this thread, specially post #45 he got his card to work again, but only with a card extension, it makes no sense at all
http://forum.stmlabs.com/showthread.php ... 2#pid35052

Also check this for a possible "fix?" http://forum.stmlabs.com/showthread.php ... 4#pid37124

[xanmanning]

Thanks Dilligaf, I shall investigate. You are right, the SD card extender is a mad concept to fix the issue.

I may crack open my card later and have a look inside, depends on how desperate I am.

[malakai]

There is really nothing inside just a simple piece of plastic with copper strips. I know this because I started having similar problems and like another in one of these threads it somehow had a tiny chip missing and wouldn't make contact. So I tore it open. I also have a micro adapter that is thin for some reason and also doesn't make a good contact. I believe someone glued a piece of plastic over their card holder and this helped them.

I would imaging the SD Extenders are just thicker considering they have a cable inside.

[xanmanning]

Thanks guys, I think I have diagnosed my issue, finally, and it is a very simple fault. This probably is not the same as everyone else but it is perhaps something to look out for.

On the "chopped off" corner of the SD card there is a piece of the guide rail (right term?) missing. The card fits snugly in position when in a proper card reader but doesn't always make contact in the Raspberry Pi due to the short slot not holding it perfectly in place. (See attached photos)


Dark black bit shows where something has broken off.


Contact is exposed from the side.

I am not sure how I am going to fix this, too small and fiddly. I may have to just buy a brand new card or an extender.

Hope this helps someone. Take a very close look at your card for physical damage to the housing, the smallest thing can seem to cause mayhem.