SD Card Corruption Raspberry Pi

LaatSahab

Skilled
Couple of days back I got a Raspberry Pi 4. Had watched many YouTube videos about initial setup of Pi 4 thus went accordingly. Didn't knew about undervolting it so long story short, my SD card got corrupted as I powered off the device while NOOBS was installing Raspbian on it. Had a another card so got Raspbian installed on it. The card that got corrupted isn't undergoing format and I have tried most of the fixes given on Internet;
Linux-> tried Gparted and fdisk method but doesn't formats, gives I/O error as reason Attaching dump file of Gparted alongwith a screenshot of both. Have tried these fixes on both Raspbian and Elementary OS live environment.
Windows-> Both 7 and 10 are unable to format it. Even partition managers such as AMOEI, EASUS, don't work. They give Cyclic Redundancy Error, so does DISKPART command line utility when asked to 'clean'
Android-> Samsung phone tries to format the card but gets stuck at 20% and after a while reboots, to no effect on the card
Old Nokia phone-> it just hangs while trying to 'read' the card
Digital camera-> It says it has formatted the card but then on viewfinder screen, it displays card error.

Is the card bricked? If so then why it's partitions are shown in devices it's connected to? Any way to fix it or have to cut my losses here?
corrupxn.jpg

Code:
GParted 0.32.0 --enable-libparted-dmraid --enable-online-resize
Libparted 3.2
Delete /dev/sda1 (fat32, 2.37 GiB) from /dev/sda  00:07:14    ( SUCCESS )
    
calibrate /dev/sda1  00:00:02    ( SUCCESS )
    
path: /dev/sda1 (partition)
start: 8192
end: 4988281
size: 4980090 (2.37 GiB)


delete partition  00:07:12    ( SUCCESS )
    
libparted messages    ( INFO )
    
Input/output error during write on /dev/sda






========================================
Delete Logical Partition (unknown, 12.22 GiB) from /dev/sda  00:04:44    ( SUCCESS )
    
calibrate /dev/sda7  00:00:02    ( SUCCESS )
    
path: /dev/sda7 (partition)
start: 5578752
end: 31211519
size: 25632768 (12.22 GiB)


delete partition  00:04:42    ( SUCCESS )
    
libparted messages    ( INFO )
    
Input/output error during write on /dev/sda






========================================
Delete Logical Partition (fat32, 256.00 MiB) from /dev/sda  00:01:28    ( SUCCESS )
    
calibrate /dev/sda6  00:00:02    ( SUCCESS )
    
path: /dev/sda6 (partition)
start: 5054464
end: 5578749
size: 524286 (256.00 MiB)


delete partition  00:01:26    ( SUCCESS )
    
libparted messages    ( INFO )
    
Input/output error during write on /dev/sda






========================================
Delete Logical Partition (ext4, 32.00 MiB) from /dev/sda  00:01:31    ( SUCCESS )
    
calibrate /dev/sda5  00:00:02    ( SUCCESS )
    
path: /dev/sda5 (partition)
start: 4988928
end: 5054461
size: 65534 (32.00 MiB)


delete partition  00:01:29    ( SUCCESS )
    
libparted messages    ( INFO )
    
Input/output error during write on /dev/sda






========================================
Delete /dev/sda2 (extended, 12.50 GiB) from /dev/sda  00:00:42    ( SUCCESS )
    
calibrate /dev/sda2  00:00:02    ( SUCCESS )
    
path: /dev/sda2 (partition)
start: 4988282
end: 31211519
size: 26223238 (12.50 GiB)


delete partition  00:00:40    ( SUCCESS )
    
libparted messages    ( INFO )
    
Input/output error during write on /dev/sda






========================================
 
Was the card new? maybe you could claim warranty. I've heard that brownouts cause permanent damage to flash based memories. Have you tried creating a single partition and then running badblocks on it?
 
It doesn't even allows deletion of old partitions, let alone create new ones. Any method of Linux gives I/O error, any version and/or software on Windows gives CRC error and even Digital Camera gives Card error.
As folks even on Raspberry Pi forum have termed card to be dead, I have initiated RMA request with Strontium. They've come through in the past, hope they follow suite this time too.
 
Last edited:
Card and pen drives are known for such nuisance..
For pen drives a firmware re-flash works wonders but for cards either solve or throw!
Linux is the last option to shred some light to get back life but if you already tried then seems no way out.
Is its a micro sd then try on android phone, should get formatted and then try data recovery etc.
 
Even Android phones didn't work in this case, neither did "dumb" phone of Nokia or hard format of Digital Camera for that matter. Luckily it's a Strontium SD card, under lifetime warranty so applied for RMA and it got through. Will be getting a replacement in couple of days.
 
Hmm, got the Strontium card RMA. and bought multiple Strontium and SanDisk cards as backup. Want to try USB/SSD boot for Pi but then again don't want to sacrifice memory card boot and storage option.
 
i dont have a lot of experience with sd cards but you can try
Code:
sudo sgdisk --zap-all -o /dev/sda
and/or
Code:
wipefs -a /dev/sda
assuming that /dev/sda is you sd card which is a bit suspicious so verify the device name by executing lsscsi command.
 
Facing same issue with my micro-SD card as well. No software in Windows or Linux worked. Again Strontium card and was being used in Rpi 0W for Pi-Hole.
 
Facing same issue with my micro-SD card as well. No software in Windows or Linux worked. Again Strontium card and was being used in Rpi 0W for Pi-Hole.
Try what @booo mentioned. If that don't work then save yourself the frustration and get the card RMA from Strontium. You'll just have to drop a mail to them explaining the issue and front and back pics of the card, showing the card serial number etc. They are quick to respond and to issue replacements. Have had 2 cards replaced in last 2 years, each bricked due to different reason.
 
I am just trying RMA which is again bit tricky. I had purchased this card in India and now trying to RMA it in Hong Kong - awaiting their revert on mail. In worst case scenario, I will just get another one and RMA it when I am in India again.
 
You know it sucks when RPi still relies on sd card for os. You will either way corrupt the card at one point when it runs out of write cycles. I have learnt it hard way after losing 2 cards within 2 months that it is better to create periodic backup of the card.
 
Hmm, got the Strontium card RMA. and bought multiple Strontium and SanDisk cards as backup. Want to try USB/SSD boot for Pi but then again don't want to sacrifice memory card boot and storage option.
I have been booting off an old 64 GB M.2 SSD in a SATA III case since the beta and for such a low powered device, the difference in performance is remarkable, especially if you don't use the other USB 3.0 port as the bandwidth is shared.

Not really sure what the sacrifice will be. You can still boot off the SD card or use it as a storage if you want.
 
SD Card slot for storage is practically useless given the cost of high capacity SD cards but given the cheap price of low capacity cards and smaller installation footprint of various Pi distros, it is best suited for OS duty. USB slots are best used for storage expansion because almost for everything else, even storage included, there's GPIO
 
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