Repair corrupted Linux partition of SD card

by | Mar 4, 2015 | Entertainment, Linux | 14 comments

Scenario

When using e.g. OpenELEC with Raspberry Pi, SD cards often get corrupted after some days.

You get error messages like

Error in mount_storage: mount_common: could not mount /dev/mmcblk0p2

Reasons

  • Removing power or resetting when system writes to SD card (without shutdown before). This should be avoided; it might work 100 times or more without a problem but can also damage the file system after 1-2 times.
  • Updating OpenELEC sometimes leads to this problem, especially on RPis.
  • In OE forum there are also discussions that OE 5.x leads to more corrupted SD cards than older versions.
  • SD card itself is damaged, either inside controller or physically.

Solutions

If you have a quite new SD card, in most cases only a part of the file system is corrupted.

If you get access to shell, try this command:

 

 

Or for check on next reboot:

 

 

An alternative to above ways could be to create a Gparted USB stick like described here. Boot from stick, then run all available checks on every partition.

Reference

14 Comments

  1. Philipp
    Philipp on Thursday May 21st, 2015 at 07:39 AM

    Thank you very much. This solved my problem with a corrupted file system under openelec.

    Reply
  2. szymon
    szymon on Friday May 29th, 2015 at 08:04 PM

    It works! Thank you so much!

    Reply
  3. Joe
    Joe on Sunday June 21st, 2015 at 05:37 PM

    Many thanks for the tip, my Kodi is working again.

    Reply
  4. Nabil
    Nabil on Sunday June 28th, 2015 at 05:46 PM

    I FUCKING LOVE U!
    I thought I will have to go through everything again, Kodi, addons, libraries ….
    THANKS A LOT

    Reply
  5. MostlyMustard
    MostlyMustard on Tuesday July 21st, 2015 at 04:32 PM

    Me too! Thanks for your post. While I lost all my Kodi customizations, the commands helped me recover the base Kodi system. I used “Fresh Start” to get up and running quickly.

    Thanks again!

    Reply
  6. alex x
    alex x on Thursday August 27th, 2015 at 05:57 PM

    Thanks a lot you saved my time

    Reply
  7. moi
    moi on Thursday September 3rd, 2015 at 09:50 PM

    Works! Let it do it’s thing, be patient and reboot. Thanks very much.

    Reply
  8. Bob
    Bob on Sunday October 4th, 2015 at 12:37 AM

    interesting. I got that message on my first boot after installing OpenElec.

    Reply
  9. bono
    bono on Monday December 7th, 2015 at 03:30 PM

    I’ve this exact error in the rasp boot.

    How can I connect via putty to the rasp to type this command lines?
    It seems rasp is not listen to any commands. I’ve a black screen without prompt…

    I’ve finally decided for reformatting the sd card and reinstall openelec and now I’ve the rasp working again but I’ve lost all the addons and the watched history (that’s very important for me to remember the last watched episodes…)

    Thanks in advance.

    Reply
    • julius
      julius on Tuesday December 15th, 2015 at 06:37 PM

      Thanks man!

      LESSON LEARNED: Don’t run your raspi on the TV’s USB plug and swith it off without first switching off the Raspi!

      Reply
  10. julius
    julius on Tuesday December 15th, 2015 at 06:39 PM

    Thank you Sir!

    LESSON LEARNED: SHUTDOW RASPI BEFORE TV if its powere by the TVs USB plug.

    Reply
  11. Ari
    Ari on Friday January 15th, 2016 at 06:42 PM

    WOW. This fixed it! I’ve been getting this period periodically and have been restoring from backups from scratch everytime. Using a cubox with OpenELEC. Thank you so much.

    Reply
  12. Ash
    Ash on Monday August 7th, 2017 at 09:19 PM

    I just get no such file or directory while trying to open /dev/mmcblk0p2
    Possibly non-existent device

    Reply
  13. eponge
    eponge on Monday February 5th, 2018 at 02:27 PM

    you saved my evening (and night probably),
    thank you so much!!

    Reply

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