Noobs fails to load

[Kirk Fraser]

I downloaded Noobs and checked SHA-1 which is perfect. I extracted it to a new lite formatted 32GB SD card. I installed it into my new RPi 3B and the rainbow screen appeared. Then after only a few code lines were displayed it showed an Error window which says Error resizing existing FAT partition. Warning File system is reporting the free space as 988998 clusters, not 972005 clusters. Also, below the Raspberry it says For recovery mode hold {^ Shift] which I may be doing wrong but does nothing.

What should I do? Thanks.

[fruitoftheloom]

I downloaded Noobs and checked SHA-1 which is perfect. I extracted it to a new lite formatted 32GB SD card. I installed it into my new RPi 3B and the rainbow screen appeared. Then after only a few code lines were displayed it showed an Error window which says Error resizing existing FAT partition. Warning File system is reporting the free space as 988998 clusters, not 972005 clusters. Also, below the Raspberry it says For recovery mode hold {^ Shift] which I may be doing wrong but does nothing.

What should I do? Thanks.

viewtopic.php?f=28&t=58151

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[B.Goode]

What should I do?

Fully format the card so that the formatting information on it is self-consistent before copying the NOOBS Installer files onto it.

[Kirk Fraser]

The full format worked to get Noobs up. It required setting the internet connection to display several OS selections. I only X'd Raspbian and it started with "creating file system" and displayed various screens (including Scratch) but only got to about 20 Mb then displayed an error pup-up window "Raspbian" Error mounting file system". This happened twice. I tried other things like X'ing all 5 OS's which quickly failed then installing an empty partition which worked BUT it caused Noobs to fail to fully load again and it renamed my SD card "RECOVERY". So I deleted all files, reformatted, and am now extracting full Raspbian download onto the SD card. I'll update if it also fails to load correctly.

I hope RPi 4 comes pre-loaded in an on board memory chip that is less likely to go bad than SD cards.

[Kirk Fraser]

The RPi 3B is very much harder to get running than the original RPi. After reformatting the SD card on full and loading the Raspbian.img file it does not start. So I'm leaving it on the SD card and extracting NOOBS to it now, which as we saw above is probably going to take longer to fail. I was hopping for better performance which is why I gave away my original RPi. Any suggestions?

From the documentation the only idea I have is to buy a different SD card from a better vendor (NEVER SAMSUNG) and try again.

[fruitoftheloom]

The RPi 3B is very much harder to get running than the original RPi. After reformatting the SD card on full and loading the Raspbian.img file it does not start. So I'm leaving it on the SD card and extracting NOOBS to it now, which as we saw above is probably going to take longer to fail. It appears to me the Raspbian system programmers did not test their work on an RPi 3B. I was hopping for better performance which is why I gave away my original RPi. Any suggestions?

What SD Card are you using ??

What SD Card Reader are you using ??

Also are you using 7ZIP to unzip the download in Windows ??


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[Kirk Fraser]

What SD Card are you using ??
What SD Card Reader are you using ??
Also are you using 7ZIP to unzip the download in Windows ??

SAMSUNG 32Gb - I've had trouble with SAMSUNG products going bad before - last one failed within warranty. This one if it's the problem was purchased from China via Ebay for $10 and free shipping which I am amazed at but makes returns difficult.
I am using one in an old HP multi-function printer. It takes hours but reports success and the files show up as present.
No. I'm using the Windows extractor.

[Kirk Fraser]

Errors mounting file system on OSMC, LibreElec, and Raspbian. LibreElec downloaded most of itself before error, the others quit sooner, suggesting it is not bad memory on the SD card but bad software for the file system in RPi 3B. How can that be fixed?

Windows was less certain as to cause of failure - it may have been their system's handling after setting up a new account.

[drgeoff]

The RPi 3B is very much harder to get running than the original RPi. After reformatting the SD card on full and loading the Raspbian.img file it does not start. So I'm leaving it on the SD card and extracting NOOBS to it now, which as we saw above is probably going to take longer to fail. I was hopping for better performance which is why I gave away my original RPi. Any suggestions?

From the documentation the only idea I have is to buy a different SD card from a better vendor (NEVER SAMSUNG) and try again.

You seem to be utterly at odds with reality.

1. The RPi3 is not harder to get running than the original RPi.

2. Reformatting a card is unnecessary if an OS image is to be written to it.

3. If you leave Raspbian on a card and then extract NOOBS to it, you will certainly experience failure very quickly.

4. Many people including myself have successfully used genuine Samsung cards with their RPis.

[Kirk Fraser]

Please do not post in this thread when you have no help to offer. A chat response is still marked as a response and would likely cause others who may offer help to bypass my problem.

1. My experience is my RPi3B still does not work.
2. It was done anyway and still did not work.
3. Oh. Then why didn't it work with NOOBS alone?
4. I have not yet had much success with Samsung.

I went to town and bought a new 16GB PNY card and the computer doesn't even recognize it to enable formatting.

So I think the RPi is a bad choice for the 2nd time and I won't buy another until they design out SD chips and provide something more reliable, either built in pre-loaded memory or a way to use a USB external drive. Either a thumb drive or hard drive would be vastly more reliable than SD cards. Anybody got help on booting from an external drive?

[drgeoff]

Almost all problems are either faulty hardware or PEBKAC. The vast majority are the latter. And almost all problems can be found by carefully reading the "not booting" sticky.

More than 8 million RPis have been sold. I think that if there were widespread non-PEBKAC problems with using SD cards in RPis, there would be more stories on the net about them.

Point 3 means that you do not understand and are not following instructions. A card that has had Raspbian image written to it has one small FAT32 partition (about 60 Mbyte). It is impossible to copy all the NOOBS files into that. A card that has Raspbian on it MUST be formatted properly before the NOOBS files are copied to it.

You also wrote "..and am now extracting full Raspbian download onto the SD card." You do not extract an OS image onto a card. You extract the img file from within the downloaded zip file to somewhere on your computer, NOT the card. You then write the img file to the card using an method appropriate method such as Win32DiskImager on a PC. ApplePiBaker on a Mac or the dd command on a Linux box.

Have you now added PNY cards to the list of those you will never buy again?

[Kirk Fraser]

Either a thumb drive or hard drive would be vastly more reliable than SD cards.
Anybody got help on booting from an external drive?

[drgeoff]

Either a thumb drive or hard drive would be vastly more reliable than SD cards.
Anybody got help on booting from an external drive?

That may be possible in the nearish future, but currently it is way more complex and unreliable than booting from SD card. viewtopic.php?f=29&t=154070

[Kirk Fraser]

Since buying new non-working SD cards has now cost me over $26 cash plus transportation, approaching the price of RPi itself, and there is no possibility of booting from a USB port, the only solution I see is to buy a pre-loaded card that has been pre-tested on a RPi 3B. Where might I find one to buy? Thanks.

[drgeoff]

It is very unlikely that you purchased 2 cards that were hardware failures. That leaves the other reason I mentioned. You still have the option of using the correct procedure to put Raspbian on a card.

However, if you have concluded that you should doubt your competence at doing that, most RPi vendors can also supply a card with NOOBS already on it.

But, and with your luck (or lack of it) it is a big "but", it is not totally unknown for a pre-made NOOBS card to contain an old version with firmware that does not support a newly manufactured RPi.

[Kirk Fraser]

I have already searched and found vendors with old software on their SD cards. So my question remains:

The only solution I see is to buy a pre-loaded card that has been pre-tested on a RPi 3B. Where might I find one to buy?

[davidcoton]

Where in the world are you? Maybe another Pi owner near you could check your cards? Even put Raspbian (or another OS) on for you?

[Kirk Fraser]

Thanks, I'll try going to the nearest computer store. I live in rural Oregon, USA. I spend more time on (removed URL: spam) than electronics.

An advantage of using the computer store is they can easily return defective parts or fix them and let things run while doing other jobs.

[mahjongg]

Since buying new non-working SD cards has now cost me over $26 cash plus transportation, approaching the price of RPi itself, and there is no possibility of booting from a USB port, the only solution I see is to buy a pre-loaded card that has been pre-tested on a RPi 3B. Where might I find one to buy? Thanks.

In the US, the local Farnell distributor MCM should have it, actually the link is here: http://www.mcmelectronics.com/product/83-17305