I'm using Endeavor OS. My computer lost power during system update. Now I can boot into it.
this post was submitted on 24 Jul 2025
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Are you using BTRFS as your file structure? If so, this is the little dirty secret the BTRFS fans don't like to discuss. It is well documented in the BTRFS wiki, that during power-outages/power fails, even OS errors, files become corrupt under BTRFS. I finally had enough of this happening to me (lots of power outages where I live,) and switched back to ext4, never had this issue again.
All the drives in my file server are btrfs. Is there an easy way to switch in place? I don't have enough spare space to hold everything while reformatting.
I don't think you can switch filesystems with files in place, sorry.
How often did it corrupt for you? As a BTRFS user, is there anything that can be done about it short of reformatting?
It did it first on my PC, then it happened again on my laptop. That is when I investigated the cause and found out BTRFS corrupts on hard shutdowns/failures. Beyond maybe a UPS battery backup that will allow you to MAYBE have some extra time to shut down properly before the battery fails, no. I would highly recommend backing up your data and reformatting to ext4.
I have several (at least 5) BTRFS filesystems, on SSDs and HDDs of varying speeds, with somewhat longer cache writeback and commit times, AND some wire problems that trip my apartment breakers once or twice every month;
I've been using BTRFS for about a year and a half, and at worst I suffered loss of newer data.
The BTRFS users are relying on backup systems, so make sure you have extensive backups as power failures can happen at any moment, etc. For me personally, a files system that so easily corrupts files, especially when power failures occur frequently, is not what I want. I will stick with ext4, a log file system, which is more stable.
BTRFS lets me backup my stuff more conveniently too, although it does start throwing a tantrum if you run out of space due to COW...