'Error Mounting System Partition' on RP3 NOOBS First Boot

Question

I'm brand new to the Rasberry Pi 3 Universe and I am trying to set up my Pi for the first time using NOOBS on a 16GB MicroSD. The box that contained the RP3 said Element14.com on it, so I figured I'd start here...

So let's begin:

Every time I try to boot up the RP3 for the first time, the system runs through a series of dialogue boxes before it gets stuck on an error message saying:

'Error mounting system partition.'

When I click 'close' I get the following message:

'Persistent settings partition seems corrupt. Reformat?'

I guess my first question is should I reformat at this step? I've already taken the SD card out, reformatted it on my PC and downloaded NOOBS from the RasberryPi website to try and start fresh. This doesn't seem to do the trick, as I always return to square one with the 'Error mounting system partition' message every time I boot up.

Regardless of whether or not I reformat; the next message I get is

'SD card might be damaged'.

Alright, so next question: Is there something I need to do before going out to buy another MicroSD? This is a brand new card that came with the NOOBS accessory kit I purchased online. I can't imagine it would be physically damaged in the one day I've been working with it.

Anyways I push Okay and NOOBS starts to initialize; then I get a box that says

"Network access is required to use NOOBS without local images. Please select your wifi network in the next screen'

However there are apparently no Wifi interfaces available because my home network doesn't show up. I have never had an issue with the wifi in my home, though. Is this an issue that is related to the SD card? or something bigger that will require a new Rasberry Pi 3?

Please help

mcb1 · Answer

One question worth asking is how did you " reformatted it on my PC and downloaded NOOBS from the RasberryPi website to try and start fresh "

There is a newer formatter and image copier program called Etcher https://etcher.io/

They talk about using it here. I've used it and it is much easier.

https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/installation/installing-images/README.md

HOWEVER

This is probably the better guide to how to do it.

https://learn.adafruit.com/setting-up-a-raspberry-pi-with-noobs/download-noobs

It demonstrates the correct file, and the need to extract it.

It also shows what you will see on your windows PC when the image has been loaded.

"Network access is required to use NOOBS without local images. Please select your wifi network in the next screen'

This suggests to me that you might have downloaded the wrong image.

You need this one

It is certainly possible that your card is damaged (electronically), but have another go using the guide before sending it to the rubbish tin.

Cheers

Mark

rew · Answer

If you did put NOOBS on that card again, I would suspect that your card does have some repeatable error if you're getting this. Or your download of NOOBS is corrupt.

I would suggest that you try to download Raspbian instead.

When you have personal data on some storage and then it asks you to reformat, I recommend you say NO and contact a data recovery company (like mine, "harddisk-recovery.nl") for advice. But when it's about a fresh NOOBS download, there is no harm in saying yes. So that's something you could try first.

But when it can't mount the system partition, it is possible that for example, it can then not find the WIFI driver either. So as far as your system is concerned it doesn't have wifi hardware.

The cards that are sold as "with NOOBS" are low quality. That you happened to get one that doesn't work "out of the box" is not all that surprising. I have not gotten one myself, but I've heard enough stories that concluded: Maybe your card was broken from the start that I'm starting to count that as a possibility. Get a second card. You might be able to switch OSes later or use it in your smartphone. So it won't hurt to have an extra around. Another use of an "extra" SD card is for example to have a bootable Ubuntu image on it, so that you can walk up to a "random PC" and run your own Ubuntu on there.