Dropped laptop- Ubuntu not working

You probably damaged your hard drive. Was it booted in to Linux when the machine fell?

Can you get a utility from your hard drive manufacturer in Windows to run a SMART diagnostic or something?

It was booted in Linux.

How would I go about running SMART?

Hi :)

LOL!! Err i would try an Ubuntu Cd. Can you boot up from an Ubuntu Cd?
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/LiveCD

From this LiveCd session you should be able to get to a command-line to use "fsck" to check the drive for errors. You might be able to safely copy your files to somewhere safe while you try a quick reinstall or anything. The main thing is to get a LiveCd session working just to have a look.

No, i would not try to use Windows to fix this!!

Please let us know how this goes!
Good luck and regards from
Tom :)

HI again :)

If your machine doesn't have a Cd/Dvd-drive then getting the "Ubuntu Netbook Remix" would be a better idea, and put it on a usb-stick as advised.

If you don't already have an Ubuntu Cd then you should be able to get a new one just by downloading it and making one yourself, or this link has other ideas
http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu

If you can't download and can't wait for a Cd to get delivered then it miht be a good plan to get a much lighter-weight alternative distro to use as a LiveCd
http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=slitaz
although it might be slightly unfamiliar it does work very much the same.

This guide is worth considering, particularly if you run into any troubles trying to access the files on the Ubuntu side of your dual-boot
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/DataRecovery

However, i think that all you really need is to reinstall grub2 and fsck the partition to safely mark the bad-blocks on the drive (and it sorts a few other things too). Hopefully then it should be fairly easy to boot into Ubuntu. So from a LiveCd please give us the output from this command

sudo fdisk -l

where "-l" is a lower-case "-L" so that we can help you work through this guide
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Grub2#Reinstalling%20from%20LiveCD

Good luck and regards from
Tom :)

Hi Tom, I'd rather not "fix" this with Windows either. I inserted my LiveCd and entered in sudo fdisk -l, these are the results

Disk /dev/sda: 320.1 GB, 320072933376 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 38913 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x9f7139f1

   Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 1 5 40131 de Dell Utility
/dev/sda2 6 1918 15360000 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda3 * 1918 32540 245969236 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda4 32541 38913 51191122+ 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 32541 38647 49054446 83 Linux
/dev/sda6 38648 38913 2136613+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris

Thanks again for the Help in Advance! Have you ever seen this happen to anyone before? Because I sure haven't lol.

Hi :)

Several things make this unusual. If there's a problem it's usually the entries just get missed off completely. The Dell-recovery partition is supposed to be 'hidden' and not appear in the boot menu at all so i'm not sure how it "normally" gets used! Also sda3 is marked as the boot partition, despite you using the grub boot-loader which is usually on a "Linux" partition not a Windows "Ntfs" one. Something weird is going on.

I am pretty much convinced that this is a mix-up in a grub1's menu.lst. Grub2 does not look pretty to start with but it does the job. To install it try a LiveCd of 9.10 or 10.04 and perhaps these commands make sense from the guide?

sudo mount /dev/sda5 /mnt

sudo grub-install --root-directory=/mnt/ /dev/sda

Notice that there are 3 spaces in each line. Most people forget the space before and after "/dev/sda5" & "--root-directory=/mnt/"
Then a reboot should show the problem's been fixed? Otherwise you might need to run

update-grub

Good luck and regards from
Tom :)

Hi :)

The "something weird going on" is bothering me a lot. Little alarm bells ringing and all that. So on a LiveCd session please could you try

blkid

which is lower-case "BLKID". Then try

ls /mnt

where "l" is a lower-case "L" again. On the command-line you can only copy or paste using the right-click menu on the mouse. The keyboard short-cuts don't work. So if there are any folders in /mnt please can you try using "ls" to get a list of what is in each folder in there? We are looking for the folder that contains any of these folders

bin boot cdrom
dev etc home
lib lost+found media mnt
opt proc root
sbin selinux srv
sys tmp usr
var

When you find it please let us know which folder it was in. Also the result of the "blkid" would be useful
Thanks and regards from
Tom :)

lol Tom, here is the result of the latter comment you posted. I'm guessing you don't want me to do the first one yet, right?

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo blkid
/dev/loop0: TYPE="squashfs"
/dev/sda1: SEC_TYPE="msdos" LABEL="DellUtility" UUID="3030-3030" TYPE="vfat"
/dev/sda2: UUID="788EBF1D8EBED33C" LABEL="RECOVERY" TYPE="ntfs"
/dev/sda3: UUID="2626C13A26C10C2D" LABEL="OS" TYPE="ntfs"
/dev/sda5: UUID="f3c36f39-9d0e-4577-a08a-e809cfcbfebe" TYPE="ext3"
/dev/sda6: UUID="e1c71088-5dd8-4861-9fbb-5f18665416dd" TYPE="swap"

the 'ls /mnt' is not doing anything

i tried these two

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo ls /mnt
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ ls /mnt

nothing?

Hi :)

Ok, no please don't try my first answer just yet. On a LiveCd command-line please try

sudo mount /dev/sda2 /mnt/sda2
sudo mount /dev/sda3 /mnt/sda3
sudo mount /dev/sda5 /mnt/sda5

Note that in each line are 3 spaces separating 4 parts of the command. In line 1 people often miss out the space before and after "/dev/sda2". Ok, now when you try

ls /mnt

there should be at least 1 of those folders? Which one has the "boot" folder in it?

ls /mnt/sda5

or one of the others?
Good luck and regards from
Tom :)

Hey mate, sorry again.

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo mount /dev/sda2 /mnt/sda2
fuse: failed to access mountpoint /mnt/sda2: No such file or directory
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo mount /dev/sda3 /mnt/sda3
fuse: failed to access mountpoint /mnt/sda3: No such file or directory
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo mount /dev/sda5 /mnt/sda5
mount: mount point /mnt/sda5 does not exist

Did I do it right?

oh, addendum on the side, this is What my system looked like about 2 months ago.

/dev/sda1 1 5 40131 de Dell Utility
/dev/sda2 6 1918 15360000 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda3 * 1918 32540 245969236 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda4 32541 38913 51191122+ 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 32541 38647 49054446 83 Linux
/dev/sda6 38648 38913 2136613+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris

Same.

Hi :)

I think i made the mistake there. I'm not quite sure how to use the mount command effectively. Sorry it's really late here so i have to leave this for a few hours. It might be worth trying

sudo mount /dev/sda5 /mnt

to see if the boot" folder appears in /mnt. If so then go-ahead with my first answer.
Good luck and regards from
Tom :)

kk here's what's up,

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo mount /dev/sda5 /mnt

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ ls /mnt
bin dev initrd.img lost+found opt sbin sys var
boot etc initrd.img.old media proc selinux tmp vmlinuz
cdrom home lib mnt root srv usr vmlinuz.old

Hi :)

Great, that's a relief :) So these 3 commands should fix it

sudo mount /dev/sda5 /mnt

sudo grub-install --root-directory=/mnt/ /dev/sda

sudo update-grub

Good luck and regards again from
Tom :)

Well, i did the first two, but the last one says

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo update-grub
grub-probe: error: cannot find a device for /.

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$

Hi again

Once you get to the grub boot-menu when booting up from the hard-drive please try the "recovery mode" option and choose "fsck scan partition" to check the linux partition for problems. Alternatively on the LiveCd go up to the top taskbar and click on

System - Administration - "Partition Editor"!

and when you are in GPartEd right click on sda5 to "Check" the partition.
Regards again from
Tom :)

HI

The guide i am trying to work from is
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Grub2#Reinstalling%20from%20LiveCD

I can't see what i am doing wrong here. Can you spot the "deliberate" error? I think you are supposed to reboot before running the 3rd command and it should be fine to try rebooting as soon as the LiveCd has finished it's fsck scan
Regards from
Tom :)

I appreciate the desire not to try things in Windows, but it's not a n00b suggestion. All I'm suggesting there is that you go find a hard drive diagnostic utility for your particular hard drive manufacturer (which basically you'll only find windows apps for) and then you can use that to check (with confidence) the status of the drive. Don't get me wrong, I freakin hate Windows, but in terms of assessing the health of the drive, it's likely an efficient suggestion....

But of course, do whatever you feel is best!

Tom, You're right about the rebooting. I didn't reboot before the last command, right now GParted is scanning for disk errors. After it's done, I'll restart the Live CD, and enter in the last command.

Dawning, For future reference, what would be a good hd diagnostic tool for Windows?

Well, I rebooted my computer, there were no options for choosing an OS, not Windows or ANY Ubuntu. So I reinserted the Live CD and am on that now.

I tried the Sudo update-grub, but this popped up

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo update-grub
grub-probe: error: cannot find a device for /.

 As of now, Palimpsest Disk utility says 320 GB hard Disk has many bad sectors, 78 of them. Overall Assessment: Backup all data and Replace the Disk.

It says Warnings For:

Reallocated Sector Count:Failure of this type is a sign of imminent Disk failure. Value:77 sectors.

Current Pending Sector count: Failure is a sign of old age. Value:1 Sector

So, Am I through guys? Have to get a new HD?

Oh, this laptop is only about 8-9 months old.

I think you'd be wasting any more time to continue with that obviously damaged hard drive. Age doesn't really help when it's been dropped. Some drives have drop sensors in them that help them brace for impacts and reduce damage. Anyway, seems obvious you need a new drive.

With respect to the diagnostic utilities, it depends on the hard drive MANUFACTURER. My point from the start with that was that you should figure out who made your drive and then use a utility made by that company to test the drive. I don't know for sure if all the manufacturers have such utilities, but some certainly do. I believe Seagate and Maxtor both have such tools. I'd expect Western Digital to as well.

For booting, you can try the Super Grub Disk (an ISO you have to get and burn to CD) to try to boot the system as it is. If it were me, I'd get a new drive and an enclosure. Put the nearly dead drive in the enclosure and get whatever files you can off of it (unless you don't need any of it).. Then of course do a fresh install of things on the new drive. If your machine didn't come with a factory restore disk, which is getting pathetically common, then you should/could try to "copy" your "factory restore partition" from your dying drive on to a new drive by booting the LiveCD and copying the partition with gparted. But with the drive dying, I wouldn't bet on that working out, but it could be worth a go.

Good luck have fun!

Hi :)

I think a 'new' laptop is inevitable. For linux a 2nd hand or older laptop is fine. A friend just found one that has a proper nvidia "daughter board" rather than just some graphics chipset for under £150 (Uk). It is worth hunting around for one that is compatible with linux. Most things do usually work well but sometimes there are annoying issues. I need to dig out a link about this later if you choose this route.

Yes, i was too quick to judge Dawning's reply and that was very wrong of me. Not least because the kind of attitude i showed does not really help anyone and has no place in forums such as this. Many apologies to Dawning, sorry chap.

A new hard-drive might be all the machine needs and laptop hard-drives are not as difficult to replace as most parts in a laptop. The enclosure idea sounds like it's building something that could be useful in the longer-term. Perhaps leading to some sort of place at home where you can plug in various devices and back-up your hard-drive safely onto a new hard-drive. Perhaps something you could also use to backup your main desktop machine once you have more hard-drives in the enclosure. Generally i just use a lead that cost me about £10 and can plug any drive into my machine as tho it were an external hard-drive. It's a more flimsy answer but just about good enough for "one off" tasks like this backup.

Now that we are moving to grub2 the SuperGrub Cd seems to not work quite so well. Doubtless it will be excellent again in a few weeks time but right now it might be worth avoiding.

Ok, lets just try again with re-installing grub2 now that the bad-sectors and stuff has all been dealt with by the fsck or gparted checks. Sorry i gave slightly wrong instructions last time, forgetting the reboot! So, this should work now
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Grub2#Reinstalling%20from%20LiveCD

sudo mount /dev/sda5 /mnt

sudo grub-install --root-directory=/mnt/ /dev/sda

Then a reboot to the hard-dive, not the LiveCd should show the problem's been fixed? Otherwise you might need to run

update-grub

Good luck and regards from
Tom :)

Hey guys. My HD finally quit on me. But Dell said they would have me a new one by tomorrow.Thanks for all your help though.

Tom, Before it crashed I tried

sudo mount /dev/sda5 /mnt
sudo grub-install --root-directory=/mnt/ /dev/sda

but all it did was erease my being able to log onto Ubuntu or windows. It said "Grub Version 1.97 beta Bash line" How come?

I inserted the live cd and tried

update-grub

Still nothing.

Also, what else should I check on my computer to make sue it's fine?Thanks guys again, sorry we couldn't figure out what's wrong.

Thanks for the acknowledgment Tom..

I'm often quick to shoot down any solution involving windows as I generally avoid it like the plague, so I can appreciate where there may have been some confusion there :)

That makes sense that SGD hasn't quite kept up with the grub2 curve, good point on that one - thanks for that too!

Looks like you're suggestions completely cover it and with Sikth getting a new drive, I imagine he'll likely be out of the woods after he's installed that.

Cheers!

Hi :(

Sorry to hear that! Presumably you can still use LiveCd sessions until the new hard-drive arrives? Until then are you able to see the hard-drive at all in the "places" menu?

Also does your machine have 2 slots for hard-drives? Usually they only have 1 slot. This means that if you want to try to recover any of the data off the hard-drive then you are going to need something to plug into one of the Usb slots (or something, usb is more normal) that you can plug your hard-drive into. There are options. Dawning's enclosure plan is a slightly more expensive but more robust and longer lasting suggestion but my way is cheaper & smaller. Do you want links to suggested places? We don't normally give links to sites where you buy stuff but in this case there's no free alternative.

Of course if you can't see the hard-drive at all in "Places" then getting the data off would take professional "data recovery" services which tend to be quite expensive.

Downing, oops timing! I think you and Sikth pressed send at the same time! SuperGrub Disc will probably catch up in a matter of days, perhaps a week or few at the most, that's my guess.

I am quite gutted to hear my answer caused further problems although the hard-drive failure makes that irrelevant now, perhaps even caused my answer to fail.

Sikth it might be worth doing a google (or someone) search to find your laptop's manual or an "exploded diagram" or a technical schematic. Hopefully one of those should help you find where the slot for the hard-drive is. They are often held in place by a couple of tiny screws on the underside of the case. It's tempting to take apart the entire machine but really it should be just 2 screws a little under 2.5inches apart from each other somewhere near one of the sides or the front of the case. If you find the manual please post a link to it in this thread so that we can have a look too.

Good luck and regards from
Tom :)

Thanks, but I knew that once Ubuntu told me to get a new HD, to back up ALL my data, so I did. Right now I'm on the new hd, dual booted once again, so far everything seems to be fine. Thanks for all your help Tom and Dawning.

I really would like to know what actually happened to my hd, but warranty says I have to send it back or they will charge me. I guess some mysterious can't always be solved.

Hi :)

It's physical damage. These things just happen and are worth avoiding worrying about. It's why we try to take fairly frequent back-ups especially on portable devices where accidents are more likely. The best way to deal with this is to take a little care but avoid becoming paranoid, just shrug it off and get on with the next thing.

If you enjoy problem solving then try helping us volunteers in here to help people solve problems on their machines. Launchpad also need more volunteers to help with translation bugs-triage and a range of other things but i mostly prefer trying to help with problem solving in Answers Team.

Good luck and regards from
Tom :)

Hi again :)

Congrats on getting the new hard-drive installed! :)) Good move on getting your data off the failing hard-drive in good time :)) All seems to be going smoothly again?

Have you installed Ubuntu onto the new hard-drive yet? When you do please consider quickly working through the Medibuntu worksheet to get multimedia configured for your machine
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Medibuntu

Good luck and regards from
Tom :)