Headless Raspbian server diagnostics (on RaspberryPi)

Question

I own a RaspberryPi that I can connect only through ssh. A few days ago it was unsafely powered off. Now when I turn it on I cannot access it. It looks like it turns on but can't get an ip or so.

It is ptovided by fixed IP from router, and when I try to ping this IP, it tells me that the destination host is unreachable.

Is there a way to find out what has happened or the only way is to complete reinstall the OS?

Answer 1

One possibility is that the systems rootfs has been corrupted, this happened to me once with unsafe powerdown on a raspi.

If you have another sd-card, the easiest would be to install a fresh image on it and check if it boots correctly. If not, make an image of your current sd-card, format and reinstall.

Hopefully you've got backups, as there's no guarantee to recover your files if the data has been corrupted.