4GB micro SD problem -- anyone else?

[jggall01]

After initially working fine (Raspbian Wheezy), I am no longer able to boot my Pi from the 4GB micro SDHC included in the development pack. The problem started only after I removed the 4GB SD, and replaced it with a different SD that had been loaded with RaspBMC.

When I put the original 4GB SD back in the Pi and expected it to boot up again in Wheezy, I got the dreaded message telling me that there was a VFS failure in 179,2, etc.

I was able to reload Wheezy into the 4GB SD using a Linux laptop and the Adafruit micro SD USB adapter. But I continued to get the same boot failure message with the refreshed image.

After a few more tries, the SD card became bricked completely. It is recognized by neither Linux nor by Windows.

Anyone else having similar problems with this 4GB micro SD in their newer Pi (mine is from the batch shipped out from Adafruit around Christmas 2012)?

Jim

PS - Pi was always powered down while making SD card changes.

[gigamegawatts]

Hi,

If the problem began after switching to a different SD card, perhaps the system wasn't completely shutdown when it was powered off?

Linux needs to be shutdown using one of the following commands, or by clicking the Shutdown button if you are using the GUI:

sudo init 0
sudo shutdown -h now
sudo halt

All of the lights except the red power light should go off -- then it is safe to unplug the Pi.

Otherwise, if did this and you still had the problem, then it's probably just a wonky microSD card. I've had new cards start misbehaving on my Beaglebone within a month, while others have never had a problem. I've also found that, once a card reports errors, they generally can't be reused -- after rewriting the image to the card, it will continue to have problems. It's always a good idea to occasionally backup an image of the card to a USB drive, making it less painful to switch to a new card.

Dan.

[jggall01]

Hi, Dan -

Thank you for the reply.

Initially, I had not been executing a shutdown command prior to powering down the system. I have since begun.

It will be pretty inconvenient if it turns out that a manual shutdown is required prior to each power down.

Jim