# SD Card Failure. Notebooks recoverable? **URL:** \ **Category:** Support\ **Created:** [September 5, 2024, 7:42pm UTC](https://discuss.pynq.io/t/sd-card-failure-notebooks-recoverable/7458 "2024-09-05T19:42:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![feezus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f475e1/32.png) [@feezus](https://discuss.pynq.io/u/feezus)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2024, 7:42pm UTC](https://discuss.pynq.io/t/sd-card-failure-notebooks-recoverable/7458/1 "2024-09-05T19:42:06Z")
RFSoC 4x2. PYNQ 3.0.1 Recently, my board that has been in operation for months failed to boot. Some troubleshooting has revealed that the board will no longer boot with its old SD card (CardA), but will successfully boot with a new SD card w/ fresh PYNQ install (CardB). Unfortunately, several months worth of notebooks are contained on CardA and were not stored anywhere else. While CardA will not boot my board, I am able to open it and explore its contents on my Windows machine, but the files within don’t reveal any file structures that I can access. ![Screenshot 2024-09-05 123923](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/uploads/pynq1/original/2X/6/608265d47409f1b52ec085a9c0f9fa8b365a1d19.png) Is it possible for me to extract my notebooks from this SD card without being able to use the card to boot the board? Thanks in advance to anyone that provides input. ---
**Author:** ![matthew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ed655f/32.png) [@matthew](https://discuss.pynq.io/u/matthew)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2024, 8:25pm UTC](https://discuss.pynq.io/t/sd-card-failure-notebooks-recoverable/7458/2 "2024-09-05T20:25:14Z")
Hi, Have you tried booting with the cardB and checking Jupyter? Maybe the files were saved in the 4GB of the PS of the board. If not, maybe you could copy the content of cardA and paste it on cardB, you could possible keep the booting image and the files. ---
**Author:** ![marioruiz](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/discuss.pynq.io/marioruiz/32/2177_2.png) [@marioruiz](https://discuss.pynq.io/u/marioruiz)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2024, 8:18am UTC](https://discuss.pynq.io/t/sd-card-failure-notebooks-recoverable/7458/3 "2024-09-06T08:18:36Z")
Dear @feezus, Unfortunately, SD cards are not that reliable. I suggest you back up your work often. Having said that, the SD card has two partitions. What you can see in Windows is only the boot partition. You can use a Linux machine to open the second partition. You can also try `fsck` to try to fix the data corruption. Mario ---
**Author:** ![briansune](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/discuss.pynq.io/briansune/32/3087_2.png) [@briansune](https://discuss.pynq.io/u/briansune)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2024, 4:46pm UTC](https://discuss.pynq.io/t/sd-card-failure-notebooks-recoverable/7458/4 "2024-09-07T16:46:41Z")
@feezus On top of what Mario suggested. You can easily backup the either SD card via Win32DiskImager. And access the linux os via the 7-zip to walk through the subfolders. > **[Win32 Disk Imager](https://sourceforge.net/projects/win32diskimager/)** > > Download Win32 Disk Imager for free. A Windows tool for writing images to USB sticks or SD/CF cards . This program is designed to write a raw disk image to a removable device or backup a removable device to a raw image file. It is very useful for... So from time to time you can backup the OS from time to time. ENJOY~ ---
**Author:** ![briansune](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/discuss.pynq.io/briansune/32/3087_2.png) [@briansune](https://discuss.pynq.io/u/briansune)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2024, 4:50pm UTC](https://discuss.pynq.io/t/sd-card-failure-notebooks-recoverable/7458/5 "2024-09-07T16:50:52Z")
@marioruiz Do PYNQ having any idea on cloud services that can backup user script folders? This also opens up possibilities to user sharing different project on cloud and sharing ideas. ---
**Author:** ![feezus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f475e1/32.png) [@feezus](https://discuss.pynq.io/u/feezus)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2024, 5:50pm UTC](https://discuss.pynq.io/t/sd-card-failure-notebooks-recoverable/7458/6 "2024-09-09T17:50:33Z")
While Ethernet issues with my current laptop prevent me from testing this, I believe I’ve run git commands from the terminal on the board in the past. I would imagine that you could create a repository for backing up and sharing files. ---
**Author:** ![feezus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f475e1/32.png) [@feezus](https://discuss.pynq.io/u/feezus)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2024, 5:53pm UTC](https://discuss.pynq.io/t/sd-card-failure-notebooks-recoverable/7458/7 "2024-09-09T17:53:17Z")
Ty Mario. I tried a couple of programs unsuccessfully, but I found that DiskInternals Linux Reader for Windows can successfully see and allow saving of the files from the PYNQ SD card. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/discuss.pynq.io/system/32/2_2.png) [@system](https://discuss.pynq.io/u/system)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2024, 5:54pm UTC](https://discuss.pynq.io/t/sd-card-failure-notebooks-recoverable/7458/8 "2024-09-12T17:54:01Z")
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