Cannot boot from sd card to re-image

[Deadlyone]

So I did an ssd swap all good shows up in the bios. Loaded the steamos image onto an sd-card using balena etcher (macOS) pop it in get into recovery mode, boot manager shows the card/file select it to boot from and then nothing. Sits on the SD logo endlessly until I force shut down. Once I do that I go to re-open it and then the file/sd card won’t show up in boot manager until I reformat the sd card and re-flash the image. What gives? Done this three times now no change. Tried different file types on reformat too. Any help would be appreciated

[Prezidentas]

the steamOS recovery will take a long time to boot, 30+ minutes sometimes

[Deadlyone]

Originally posted by Vairuotojas-Kontrolierius:

the steamOS recovery will take a long time to boot, 30+ minutes sometimes

Every picture I’ve seen shows a loading bar though, does that appear after sitting forever at just the logo?

[Prezidentas]

Originally posted by Deadlyone:

Originally posted by Vairuotojas-Kontrolierius:

the steamOS recovery will take a long time to boot, 30+ minutes sometimes

Every picture I’ve seen shows a loading bar though, does that appear after sitting forever at just the logo?

I don't remember. I used a USB 3 flash drive and it was slow, dunno how quick it will be on a memory card. Just let it run for like an hour or two and see if anything happens

[Deadlyone]

I’ve let it run 2.5 hours so far and no change from the splash screen, does anyone have any additional info?

[PAinKiLLa777]

I tried booting from SD too and had the same problem with it stuck on logo. If you stop the process it just corrupts the file saved to sd and you have to rewrite it again.

I found no fix for this issue, the only other way to do it was to buy a otg cable so you could use a usb stick. I didn't try the usb method because I didn't want to waste money on a cable I would only use once and might not work anyway.

[ClassicGOD]

Unfortunately Steam Deck recovery image is finicky when it comes to boot media. I think media size can be a contributing factor as it did not want to boot for me from 128gb USB drive but it did boot right up from a 32gb one. It also does not start from Ventoy.

I hope we will get updated, more compatible image soon. Since they are planning to change kernel with 3.4 here is hoping for a new recovery image then.

[Prezidentas]

Originally posted by PAinKiLLa777:

I tried booting from SD too and had the same problem with it stuck on logo. If you stop the process it just corrupts the file saved to sd and you have to rewrite it again.

I found no fix for this issue, the only other way to do it was to buy a otg cable so you could use a usb stick. I didn't try the usb method because I didn't want to waste money on a cable I would only use once and might not work anyway.

you are never gonna plug anything into your deck?

also it's USB-C to A adapter, OTG died with micro-usb

[Prezidentas]

Originally posted by ClassicGOD:

Unfortunately Steam Deck recovery image is finicky when it comes to boot media. I think media size can be a contributing factor as it did not want to boot for me from 128gb USB drive but it did boot right up from a 32gb one. It also does not start from Ventoy.

I hope we will get updated, more compatible image soon. Since they are planning to change kernel with 3.4 here is hoping for a new recovery image then.

it doesn't like to boot because it's a full OS image, and not a liveCD type of recovery. It treats USB/SD card as a HDD but it takes years to boot because USBs are slow af. Live media tends to copy everything into ram

[PAinKiLLa777]

Originally posted by Vairuotojas-Kontrolierius:

Originally posted by PAinKiLLa777:

I tried booting from SD too and had the same problem with it stuck on logo. If you stop the process it just corrupts the file saved to sd and you have to rewrite it again.

I found no fix for this issue, the only other way to do it was to buy a otg cable so you could use a usb stick. I didn't try the usb method because I didn't want to waste money on a cable I would only use once and might not work anyway.

you are never gonna plug anything into your deck?

also it's USB-C to A adapter, OTG died with micro-usb

Considering my deck arrived faulty over a month ago and I'm still waiting for a refund I doubt I will be using anything with my deck. Just sayin'

Btw OTG stands for "On The Go" doesn't matter if is a usb c or micro it can still be OTG

[Frankbot]

I was having a problem not being able to boot "Twice" from recovery MicroSD. I had to rewrite it to the card again. Then the bootloader would recognize it.

[Theo]

I'm having the same problem. I bought a new 1TB SSD, tried installing SteamOS on the flashdrive (32gb) and with a usb-c adapter on the deck, just BLACK SCREEN (
I hear the beep when it turns on), tried everything and nothing. I reinstalled it several times via Balena or Rufus. It didn't worked. I bought a new 128gb flashdrive 3.0 from Lexus. Also not worked. I bought a hub dock, a 128gb microSD , a microsd reader, and a new usb-c adapter. I'm waiting to test them. I'm buying a thousand things to try to revive my steam deck. Something that was supposed to be easy turned into a nightmare.

[PhaethonH]

Originally posted by Theozinho:

I'm having the same problem. I bought a new 1TB SSD, tried installing SteamOS on the flashdrive (32gb) and with a usb-c adapter on the deck, just BLACK SCREEN (
I hear the beep when it turns on), tried everything and nothing. I reinstalled it several times via Balena or Rufus. It didn't worked. I bought a new 128gb flashdrive 3.0 from Lexus. Also not worked. I bought a hub dock, a 128gb microSD , a microsd reader, and a new usb-c adapter. I'm waiting to test them. I'm buying a thousand things to try to revive my steam deck. Something that was supposed to be easy turned into a nightmare.

My anecdotal suggestion is to try reseating the SSD.

A couple weeks back (2023 Sep 4), my Steam Deck started powering on to backlit black screen, no logo, no Volume+Power chords working. For a variety of reasons, I removed the SSD, to see if at least the firmware setup (VolumeUp+Power) would work without SSD. It did, so I put back in the same SSD (i.e. reseated it), and the Steam Deck nature was fully restored for deep and unknown reasons. While doing that, I also gave the SSD's EMI shield (the metal tape(?) wrapped around the SSD) a look-over, as I faintly recall some obscure statement about the WiFi card's emissions possibly interfering with the SSD.

[Theo]

Problem solved:
I bought the Baseus hub for Steam deck and I put the flashdrive directly on the USB 3.0 and the Steam logo appeared, I waited about 2 minutes and a black screen w a mouse cursor appeared, I waited another 4 minutes and the desktop mode appeared, I proceeded with the reinstallation of steamOs and everything went fine! Using a usb hub really works lol

[Zinedine Tzigane]

Salut, j'ai le même problème lorsque je lance le démarrage sur un carte micro sd 32gb ou une clé USB 32gb j'ai le logo steam deck qui reste affiché à l'infini et il ne se passe rien. Pourtant j'ai récupéré l'image de steamOS sur le site officiel et j'ai utilisé rufus 4.2 en version standard. Je ne sais pas ce qui peut bloquer ? Y'a t'il des formats de stockage à respecter pour pouvoir booter sur un stockage externe avec le steam deck ?

[FX]

I had this exact same problem, I spent way too long trying to figure this out, I seriously mean too long, I was legitimately at the end of giving up at 5am, but here's what I managed to do;

I was using a 32GB Kingston MicroSD, so what I did is used a different spare MicroSD (SanDisk 64GB same spec), I also didn't have the Steam Deck plugged in to a power source, I let it sit for a minute with the steam logo, then Plugged in my Charge but it wasn't the stock charger, I used my 80w MacBook Pro charger, and I'm not sure if this was a fluke/coincidence or if the USB C activated some sort of trigger but the deck actually posted past the logo. now why I mention to plug it in; I know Steam themselves say to use a USB drive, so my theory is maybe the USB C triggered some kind of execute script, I really have no clue, it could have been coincidence but that worked, and I really didn't want to test that theory again with my other MicroSD, as it took way too long for me to get this sorted.

TL;DR
Unplug Deck from power, use a different MicroSD, plug in the Deck after a minute of the deck booting. (possibly a more powerful charger than stock (80w?))

Hope I could help with anyone that was struggling with this, and solved their issue, because I was going through mental torture only a sadomasochist could dream of.