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RaspberryPi SD card unusable after taking an image with Ubuntu 20.04

cn flag

I have a Raspberrypi 4 8Gb installed with Ubuntu 21.04, using the Raspberrypi imager, on a Sandisk Ultra microSD card 128Gb. After sometime, the Raspberrypi would 'randomly' not boot up, leaving a black screen. In an attempt to save the SD card setup, I researched how to create an image of the SD card by using the 'dd' command in Ubuntu 20.04. This image was then written to a new SD card (exact same type). However the Raspberrypi would not boot on the new SD card AND the original SD card.

I did extensive online research to find ways to recover the SD cards (at least the new one) through formatting, re-partioning, etc but was unsuccessful. It seemed from what I could find online that I did not unmouted the SD card before starting the image, which corrupted the SD card and/or the image. Eventually I resorted to buying another new SD card and rebuilding the system. Once successfully setup, I decided create another image of the new-new SD card (after unmounting the drive) for 'safe keeping'. Creating the image was done on a Virtualbox VM running Ubuntu 20.04.

Unfortunately the same result, an unusable SD card (see screen pic attached).

Please help:

  1. Are the SD cards recoverable? How?
  2. How can images be made without corrupting the card/image?

Boot error pic

Liso avatar
sd flag
Is your goal to use sd card again after it has been used for pi purpose?
Grant Kerr avatar
cn flag
The first goal is to get the cd card working in the pi again, without starting with another new card and a fresh install. The other goal is to have one sd card 'working' in the pi and then a spare sd card with an image of the working card as a backup
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