Move node from pi-to-pi but with a crashed sd card

Node Operators troubleshooting
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I ran a small 2TB node some years now. It is a raspberry pi with an external usb drive. One month ago my pi’s sd card died and my node went offline. I managed to find an old image of my Raspbian installation with the storj installed on it as well but when I try to burn it on an new sd card, the pi WILL NOT BOOT.

The pi will start up with a fresh Raspbian image though which means the hardware is ok. The 2TB disk is also intact. Anyway.
Is there any way to transfer my node no the new sd card by just copying the /mnt/storj files? Is so, what other folders do I have to copy?

thanks in advance

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If you are using a container it does not matter. Containers are disposable.

Setup a new pi, and create container pointing to that data on the HDD the same way you had on the old pi. If all the data you have been mounting into the container is on the HDD — that’s all you need.

And don’t buy consumer grade sd cards designed for photography and what not. There is a number of industrial grade SD cards you can use. Better yet — boot from SATA SSD.

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would be a better idea booting from pendrive if ssd is not available?

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no, pendrives are significantly worse. SD cards are somewhat designed to be in continued use, but pen drives are only good for couple rewrites and wear leveling is non-existent.

I’m using this one in my pi’s and not one failed yet, they seem to be good: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09CYFG1QJ

You cam want to disable paging and as much logging as possible, ideally you want no writes to the sd bar software updates.

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what do you think about booting from a usb 3’5 hdd (powered from ac/dc converter)

I want to build a low power raspi (3B+) backup rig with an HDD and powered both with an adapter like this https://www.amazon.es/Adaptador-alimentación-Componentes-computadora-Accesorios/dp/B09LLN2H7H

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Or look for so-called heavy-duty, industrial or SLC pendrives. And don’t ask why they are so much more expensive than even consumer SATA SSDs (-:

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Hello @geometryofthings,
Welcome to the forum!

If you have its identity on the HDD with its data, then boot with a new fresh OS version and run the container with your full docker run command.
Please, do not use the SETUP step, it could kill your node. This step must be executed only once for the same identity and you did it already in the past.

Maybe you would need to adjust paths if they have changed or update the owner for the data location, if it doesn’t match.

If you have its identity on the SD card, then insert to a USB cardreader and copy it out of there to the HDD with its data. I would also recommend to make a backup copy of the identity on case of its possible corruption.

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My HHD contains an “Identity” folder with a “storagenode” folder inside. This sub couple .cert and .key files. I guess this is the my identity you are referring to.
So all I have to do it to follow the instructions in the section “Install Docker” ?

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Yes, you just do not need to generate a new identity, format your drive, perform a setup step, etc. All you need is to configure a static mount for the drive to always have it mounted after reboot.
Just run the full docker run command with correct paths, and external address with port.
Perhaps you would need to adjust the port forwarding rule on your router, but that’s it.

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