Raspberry pi, endless issues of corrupted data, any advice?

Hello. I use a raspberry pi as a small server on my home network.

I primarily use it for testing out socket based client/server programming ideas. Along with its use for running weechat under tmux (acts as a 24/7 irc bouncer), and i also run nginx/php/mariadb for some hobbyist web development.

Now, this all works once i set it up, regardless of whether i've decided to run slackware, freebsd, or any other *nix type OS on the device.

My problem is, that once in a while, i experience a power surge or even a power cut at home which forces the device to lose power. I haven't had a raspberry pi computer running form more than 6 months because of this. Other times, the device might become unresponsive for whatever reason, meaning i have to pull the plug to reboot it.

Each time this happens, the entire raspberry pi installation becomes corrupt beyond repair, and means having to start over from scratch again at setting it all up. This becomes very tedious due to the slow speeds at disk writes, and hell for compiling anything.

Why is this such a problem? Is this because of the microsd disk? Why does it seem so fragile, that the device becomes completely corrupted so easily?

What power cable/transformer/amps are you using? I solved my undervolting problem by splicing two usb cables together. This also allowed me to switch from AC to a DC battery pack without rebooting.

Perhaps you could fix up a battery pack that kicks on when the amps get to low?

It's the SDcard. I run my pi's behind a small UPS, but you're better off using the SD as little as possible. Get the system onto USB if you can - they'll even boot from USB these dayss, but I haven't bothered.

Originally Posted by Mill J What power cable/transformer/amps are you using? I solved my undervolting problem by splicing two usb cables together. This also allowed me to switch from AC to a DC battery pack without rebooting. Perhaps you could fix up a battery pack that kicks on when the amps get to low?

Using whatever charger comes with the official raspberry pi, that's not the problem however. I mean power issues as in, random power cuts to the entire street, during a storm for example. As soon as the power goes, the pi basically corrupts everything. But it's not like this for any other storage device i have (NAS, desktop, etc).

I guess i will try setting it up next time onto a usb stick as syg00 suggested.

Hi,

If you setup the Pi power supply with a UPS then any power problems should be handled by that device. I have UPS on most of my systems and never have lag or brownouts causing issues. Even when the power goes completely then you have the duration for the life of the UPS batteries to shut the Pi down safely.

Hope this helps.
Have fun & enjoy!

SDcards are crap fragile - even behind a UPS they fail too regularly. If you allow things like the systemd journal on them they break. I had a class10 DOA so I couldn't even boot the thing - I keep an image of my pi3 on another system so I can reload it any time. Yesterdays tech IMHO.

Yep, there has been a lot of trouble using microSD cards as the sole system. Suggest you boot a USB disk if you are using a 3B, else only use the microSD card to boot a system on an external device.