Loaded up minecraft save game, and I'm inside rock?

I just loaded up my most recent save in Minecraft, and I appear to be underground, inside some rocks. I've seen this before a couple times (eg, the bug when exiting a cart), or when under falling sand. I'm quickly losing health, and in the couple of seconds that the game has been loaded, I haven't seen anything but the grey rock texture. I've tried jumping and moving to no avail.

Is there a way to respawn without losing everything I'm carrying with me? Is there anything that I need to do to prevent this from happening again?

Solution 1:

What is happening is you're suffocating - your head is buried into a block of stone.

Try and move out of the way; if that doesn't work equip a pickaxe and mine yourself a 1×1×2 bubble directly ahead of you, then move into it. Buy yourself some extra time by switching to peaceful difficulty.

Solution 2:

Probably something wrong happened with your save file. Nothing much can be done, I guess. I've even read about people who had the entire world wiped out.

Want a "solution"? Make frequent backups of your worlds.

If something bad happens, you can at least go back to latest known good state. Maybe you can even use any map editor to get you out of the rock if that happens again (after you restore the backup).

Solution 3:

This may be a little late, but I know what happened. Your file crashed while you were building through a wall, and you kept all your stuff but the blocks were put back. You are inside a wall, and there's no way through it.