Re: SD Cards Erased Upon Removal? #raspberrypi #usability #hampi #hardware #pi
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One important point I cannot stress enough when it comes to Raspberry Pi devices….? You CANNOT just yank the power connection from the device ?- ever.? The storage medium is usually in read/write mode and many files are held open when the device is running. When you perform a graceful shutdown, anything held in memory gets committed to disk and file handlers are closed properly. The Raspberry Pi is a small computer. Would you yank the power from your desktop or laptop (aside from battery)? No. So why treat the Pi any different? There are lots of embedded devices/appliances that are designed in such a way that there is little to no risk in abruptly disconnecting power (I.e. Openspot). The Raspberry Pi is not one of them.? If you do not perform a proper shutdown, then you run the risk of corrupting the storage device and significantly increase your chances of never being able to boot the device again without re-imaging and restoring from backup.? There are a number of distros that make a concerted effort to keep the filesystem in read only mode (Pi-Star is a good example), but there are plenty of times where it was not possible for the device to re-enter read-only mode after an operation that required switching to read-write.? I’ve recently changed from using MicroSD to using USB flash drives because they seem to be more resilient and forgiving (faster too!), but they are not immune to this.? I know - this is a pain in the you know what, but taking the time to perform a graceful shutdown will allow you to enjoy a much stabler device for a lot longer. I know - some people will probably disagree with me. That’s fine. As long as you have a backup of your configuration and don’t mind the possibility that you may need to re-image your device at some point, then I say YANK AWAY! Enjoy the convenience and increased risk.? I no longer take the chance and haven’t had a single Pi get corrupted in the past 2 to 3 years since I first learned to not take thw time to do things right. I can guarantee you that if you don’t properly shutdown the Pi, it’s not a matter of IF it will get corrupted, it’s a matter of WHEN.? Ok…off soapbox.? P.S. I recently came across Samsung “Endurance” Micro SD cards which are supposed to be very tolerant of running in demanding environments. That doesn’t make them immune to this issue, but I’ve been using one for several months and can say with confidence that I haven’t encountered a single issue.? P.P.S. There’s lots of examples of people that build a hardware switch connected to two of the GPIO pins that, when pressed, trigger a shutdown command. I’ve been meaning to try one. This is a great solution for the inconvenience of having to SSH in or rely on connecting to a browser interface to click a “soft” shutdown button.? On Wed, Aug 18, 2021 at 8:08 PM David AJ6RE <dc1@...> wrote: I finally got Hampi back up and running today. Actually, it's Version 2.0 now, so at least I got a fresh upgrade for my trouble. --
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JeffH - W4JEW