How to Recover Data After Raspberry Pi OS System Failure

[valerymartyshko]

Hi,

My Raspberry Pi OS failed. I need to recover lost data.

Are there built-in recovery mechanisms or tools in Raspberry Pi OS to assist with data recovery? Are there third-party data recovery tools or software that can be used to retrieve data from a failed Raspberry Pi OS installation?

Will be grateful for any help.

[Eigenvektor]

The best third-party solution is called having a backup. Operating systems generally do not include recovery software, plus installing an OS has a pretty high chance of overwriting the data you're looking to recover in the first place. So it would have to be software that can be booted without needing to be installed (i.e. a USB live image)

 

Did you install the OS on an actual Pi, or somewhere else? If it's just the OS installation that's broken, the data should still be on the disk, so you should be able to attach it to any other machine that understands the disk format (i.e. any Linux). If it's on an SD card, put the card into a computer with an SD card reader. If it's on an external disk, attach the disk to a computer through USB.

[valerymartyshko]

On 11/1/2023 at 3:59 PM, Eigenvektor said:

The best third-party solution is called having a backup. Operating systems generally do not include recovery software, plus installing an OS has a pretty high chance of overwriting the data you're looking to recover in the first place. So it would have to be software that can be booted without needing to be installed (i.e. a USB live image)

 

Did you install the OS on an actual Pi, or somewhere else? If it's just the OS installation that's broken, the data should still be on the disk, so you should be able to attach it to any other machine that understands the disk format (i.e. any Linux). If it's on an SD card, put the card into a computer with an SD card reader. If it's on an external disk, attach the disk to a computer through USB.

 

I take the disk out of Raspberry Pi OS device and connect it to a Windows computer (connect it to a SATA port on the motherboard).

Launch Hetman Partition Recovery: the program automatically scan the connected drive and display it in the main window. I scanned the drive with this program and it found my files.

 

[valerymartyshko]

On 11/2/2023 at 4:23 PM, valerymartyshko said:

 

I take the disk out of Raspberry Pi OS device and connect it to a Windows computer (connect it to a SATA port on the motherboard).

Launch Hetman Partition Recovery: the program automatically scan the connected drive and display it in the main window. I scanned the drive with this program and it found my files.

 

this is how it looks like: