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Strange Laptop Problem
Topic Started: Nov 24 2009, 04:38 PM (589 Views)
Gina
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I think I may have a problem with my laptop. After playing about with partitions the partition editor stopped working (GParted) either from an installed OS or from Live CD run from DVD drive or USB stick. So I downloaded the latest SystemRescueCD and burnt a CD (no USB sticks spare ATM) but it won't run. It gets as far as the text boot prompt then nothing!

Ubuntu Karmic and Lucid Live CDs won't boot either but I think that might be a different issue.

No doubt I'll find it in time!! Hope it's not a dismantling job - I could do without that!

Am I missing something obvious? I will go on thinking and testing but meanwhile, anyone any thoughts on this, please?
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Phaedrus
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Does it boot and run ok? Or is it just the partitioning and disk tweaking stuff thats not playing the game?
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Gina
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It was booting everything but grub2 stuff from HD and 9.04 Live CD from USB stick. But SRCD only got so far as I said. It works fine on my AMD64 so it's not the app. Anyway, I only really wanted testdisk to repair a partition or the Partition Table, so I downloaded it in 9.04 on the laptop and installed it. I wasn't sure if you could run it on a live HD (running OS) but it did and I checked the partitions. All read correctly including the dodgy one so I concluded it was corrupted PT and wrote the data back to PT. It said the changes wouldn't take effect until the system was rebooted which I did. Um... well not exactly - 9.04 wouldn't boot, I got Error 15.

So I played about with the Live CD USB stick 9.04 and eventually managed to bu**er that up too!!! I think I probably overloaded the persistence partition or something.

I'm currently running an install of 9.10 aka Karmic with Minimal CD - OS and Ubuntu desktop only. I have something to try from a post in my Ubuntu Forums thread. I'm not that worried if I destroy all the data on the HD - everything remotely important is backed up. A lot of it I wouldn't even bother to put back - I'd just have Karmic and Lucid on it. Assuming I can get them to work eventually. Anyway, the partitioner in the installer found all the partitions correctly so I think the HD is fine :)
Edited by Gina, Nov 24 2009, 11:04 PM.
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Phaedrus
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I think the Karmic/Lucid setup sounds like the best plan. Grub2 all the way. lol
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Gina
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The Karmic minimal install proceeded apparently faultlessly but the boot hangup still occurs. All OSs listed as before but crash on selecting or time-out.

So I'll make a new 9.04 USB "Live CD" and run that to edit the grub2 setup and see how it goes then.
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Phaedrus
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A screwed up boot sector? Or is it just a grub2 issue do you think?
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Gina
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I think the inability to run Jaunty could be the boot sector. But there's a grub2 problem too.

I've done the grub2 edit and about to re-boot and see what's what.
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Gina
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Well that made no difference! :( Now I'll go and post that on Ubuntu Forums.
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Gina
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More detail in my thread over there Trev :)
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Phaedrus
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Good luck..........it looks like you`ll need to install legacy grub :shrug
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Gina
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Well, maybe....

I installed testdisk into my Live CD USB stick system and did a deep search (took a while :lol ). That found all partitions, old and current. Some I wanted were marked as deleted. I carefully went through the list changing the Deleted flag to either P or L as appropriate and checked they were all contiguous. Then I wrote all that back to the Partition Table.

Next it said the boot sector was corrupted (which I suspected) but there was a good backup, and choices of restoring that or rebuilding the boot sector (amongst others) - I chose to restore. So there have been problems with the HD. Next thing, I think, is a thorough check of the HD itself. I'll have to check again because I've been asleep since :lol but I think I found GParted still wouldn't work on that drive - it found the USB drive.

So I think I've got to make sure the hardware and disk structure is OK before I abandon grub2. Because, although there are problems (lots of bugs) with grub2, I feel it's the way to go. If there are still currently insurmountable problems when I've completed the checks and repairs, I shall revert to grub legacy until the worst bugs are fixed in grub2.
Edited by Gina, Nov 26 2009, 10:06 AM.
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Gina
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Confirmed - GParted still won't read the partitions on sda. So the hard drive has a problem that needs sorting out before anything else.
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Phaedrus
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What make of drive is it? Is there a manufacturers utility you can run on the drive?
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Gina
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Can't remember now and unlike most laptops, the HD is right inside this one and much undoing and taking apart to get at :( I think it's a Mitsubishi but not sure. It's not the original, that was only 20GB (I think) - and I'd outgrown it :lol Current one is 120GB. Even that's small compared with current standards! Actually, having changed operating systems, 20GB would suffice now.-
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Phaedrus
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I was thinking you could run a disk tool like you get from maxtor or seagate
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Gina
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It's a Hitachi HD - just run System Testing. But I'll use a Linux one.
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Gina
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Ran fsck which found oooooooodles of errors, particularly on the partition I was playing with. I've marked that deleted in the PT. Could only check Linux partitions with that so I put the MBR back to grub legacy and now running XP and checking the NTFS partitions for bad sectors etc.

Once the repairs are done I'll try GParted again. But I've already pretty much decided I don't really want Windows XP on the laptop any more so I'm thinking of installing Karmic and letting it grab the whole HD and format it how it likes. See if that works and take it from there. The drive is really in a bit of a mess and I'm hoping a whole drive install will wipe the PT and start from scratch.
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Gina
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GParted now works but the partitions are numbered differently from what they were. Also, my main /home partition I was using in Jaunty has disappeared!! Just as well I made a point of backing up anything important as I went - 'coz it's gone now!

While I was in XP I looked at what was there - a right old mess! About half a dozen users and several dozen icons on the desktop. And there's nothing anywhere else on that HD of any use either - so time to dump the lot and start afresh, methinks! :)

So... no old cr*p - Just a nice fresh Karmic and if that goes OK, Lucid testing. The idea being to use Lucid most of the time, only reverting to Karmic if Lucid falls down.
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Gina
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Well.... the old has now gone and Karmic is now occupying 110GB of HD real-estate :lol the rest being a swap partition of 1.33GB. grub2 to MBR. BUT it still won't boot so it looks like I'll have to downgrade to grub legacy. Oh well... A nice clean slate anyway :lol

I'm ATM back to using my trusty Jaunty USB Live CD :lol A duff boot loader on HD doesn't stop me getting online with my laptop!! :)
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Phaedrus
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Odd that grub2 isn`t installing to the mbr as it should :shrug

Legacy grub has been fine for years and years so I guess its no biggie to just use that instead. I`m sure grub2 will have its problems ironed out in time, and grub is fine till then.
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