Ubuntu

Iwill K7S3 won't boot from hard drive after installation of Ubuntu 6.06

Asked by Aaron Burger

Maxtor 6L060J3 hard drive was found to be in working order when tested on another computer. System runs from live CD with no problems. System with hard drive ran Windows XP with no issues prior to reformatting of hard drive and installation of Ubuntu.

When the system is booting with no cd, I see the screen

Verifying DMI Pool Data ...............................
Disk Boot Failure, insert system disk and press enter

Hard drive is seen by bios and mounting the drive from the live CD allows access to all files installed on the hard drive. Bios is set to boot from HDD-0, then CD drive, then any other device. Changing bios settings to only boot from HDD-0 (or HDD-2, 3, 4, 5) and disabling boot from cd, floppy disk, or any other drive gives the same "Disk Boot Falure, insert system disk and press enter" message. Booting from the disk and choosing the option to boot from first hard drive shows the screen

Booting from local disk...

and the computer locks up. I tried waiting as long as a half an hour with no changes.

I checked several other questions similar to mine and went ahead and got all the information they were asked for when being helped with their issue.

----------------------------------------
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo fdisk -l
----------------------------------------
Disk /dev/hda: 60.0 GB, 60040544256 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 7299 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

   Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hda1 * 1 7112 57127108+ 83 Linux
/dev/hda2 7113 7299 1502077+ 5 Extended
/dev/hda5 7113 7299 1502046 82 Linux swap / Solaris

----------------------------------------------
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo sfdisk -l -x /dev/hda
----------------------------------------------
Disk /dev/hda: 116336 cylinders, 16 heads, 63 sectors/track
Warning: extended partition does not start at a cylinder boundary.
DOS and Linux will interpret the contents differently.
Warning: The partition table looks like it was made
  for C/H/S=*/255/63 (instead of 116336/16/63).
For this listing I'll assume that geometry.
Units = cylinders of 8225280 bytes, blocks of 1024 bytes, counting from 0

   Device Boot Start End #cyls #blocks Id System
/dev/hda1 * 0+ 7111 7112- 57127108+ 83 Linux
/dev/hda2 7112 7298 187 1502077+ 5 Extended
/dev/hda3 0 - 0 0 0 Empty
/dev/hda4 0 - 0 0 0 Empty

/dev/hda5 7112+ 7298 187- 1502046 82 Linux swap / Solaris
    - 7112 7111 0 0 0 Empty
    - 7112 7111 0 0 0 Empty
    - 7112 7111 0 0 0 Empty

------------------------------
/etc/fstab (from hard drive)
------------------------------
# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# <file system> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
/dev/hda1 / ext3 defaults,errors=remount-ro 0 1
/dev/hda5 none swap sw 0 0
/dev/hdc /media/cdrom0 udf,iso9660 user,noauto 0 0

--------------------------------------------
/boot/grub/menu.lst (from hard drive)
--------------------------------------------
# menu.lst - See: grub(8), info grub, update-grub(8)
# grub-install(8), grub-floppy(8),
# grub-md5-crypt, /usr/share/doc/grub
# and /usr/share/doc/grub-doc/.

## default num
# Set the default entry to the entry number NUM. Numbering starts from 0, and
# the entry number 0 is the default if the command is not used.
#
# You can specify 'saved' instead of a number. In this case, the default entry
# is the entry saved with the command 'savedefault'.
# WARNING: If you are using dmraid do not change this entry to 'saved' or your
# array will desync and will not let you boot your system.
default 0

## timeout sec
# Set a timeout, in SEC seconds, before automatically booting the default entry
# (normally the first entry defined).
timeout 3

## hiddenmenu
# Hides the menu by default (press ESC to see the menu)
hiddenmenu

# Pretty colours
#color cyan/blue white/blue

## password ['--md5'] passwd
# If used in the first section of a menu file, disable all interactive editing
# control (menu entry editor and command-line) and entries protected by the
# command 'lock'
# e.g. password topsecret
# password --md5 $1$gLhU0/$aW78kHK1QfV3P2b2znUoe/
# password topsecret

#
# examples
#
# title Windows 95/98/NT/2000
# root (hd0,0)
# makeactive
# chainloader +1
#
# title Linux
# root (hd0,1)
# kernel /vmlinuz root=/dev/hda2 ro
#

#
# Put static boot stanzas before and/or after AUTOMAGIC KERNEL LIST

### BEGIN AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST
## lines between the AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST markers will be modified
## by the debian update-grub script except for the default options below

## DO NOT UNCOMMENT THEM, Just edit them to your needs

## ## Start Default Options ##
## default kernel options
## default kernel options for automagic boot options
## If you want special options for specific kernels use kopt_x_y_z
## where x.y.z is kernel version. Minor versions can be omitted.
## e.g. kopt=root=/dev/hda1 ro
## kopt_2_6_8=root=/dev/hdc1 ro
## kopt_2_6_8_2_686=root=/dev/hdc2 ro
# kopt=root=/dev/hda1 ro

## default grub root device
## e.g. groot=(hd0,0)
# groot=(hd0,0)

## should update-grub create alternative automagic boot options
## e.g. alternative=true
## alternative=false
# alternative=true

## should update-grub lock alternative automagic boot options
## e.g. lockalternative=true
## lockalternative=false
# lockalternative=false

## additional options to use with the default boot option, but not with the
## alternatives
## e.g. defoptions=vga=791 resume=/dev/hda5
# defoptions=quiet splash

## altoption boot targets option
## multiple altoptions lines are allowed
## e.g. altoptions=(extra menu suffix) extra boot options
## altoptions=(recovery mode) single
# altoptions=(recovery mode) single

## controls how many kernels should be put into the menu.lst
## only counts the first occurence of a kernel, not the
## alternative kernel options
## e.g. howmany=all
## howmany=7
# howmany=all

## should update-grub create memtest86 boot option
## e.g. memtest86=true
## memtest86=false
# memtest86=true

## should update-grub adjust the value of the default booted system
## can be true or false
# updatedefaultentry=false

## ## End Default Options ##

title Ubuntu, kernel 2.6.15-26-386
root (hd0,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.15-26-386 root=/dev/hda1 ro quiet splash
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.15-26-386
savedefault
boot

title Ubuntu, kernel 2.6.15-26-386 (recovery mode)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.15-26-386 root=/dev/hda1 ro single
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.15-26-386
boot

title Ubuntu, memtest86+
root (hd0,0)
kernel /boot/memtest86+.bin
boot

### END DEBIAN AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST

----------------------------------------------------
Any help would be greatly appreciated and I can get any other information needed if asked.

Question information

Language:
English Edit question
Status:
Solved
For:
Ubuntu Edit question
Assignee:
No assignee Edit question
Solved by:
Aaron Burger
Solved:
Last query:
Last reply:
Revision history for this message
marcobra (Marco Braida) (marcobra) said : 		#1

Aaron please take a look here this http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=463965

HTH

Revision history for this message
Aaron Burger (afallen) said : 		#2

I should have mentioned this before, but when I use the jumper on the motherboard to reset the CMOS and BIOS I get the message

Verifying DMI Pool Data ....................... Successful
Boot from CD:
Disk Boot Falure, insert system disk and press enter

When I just make changes to the BIOS during startup, it doesn't show the word Successful. In either case, I don't believe that's the issue. Also, I looked at the thread suggested, but that probem was never solved. The suggestions that were given were to disable settings in BIOS that I do not have. My motherboard only supports IDE hard drives, there is no SATA or SCSI hard drive option to disable. It also suggests to disable the floppy drive if there isn't one connected, but mine is connected and working properly. Even so, I have tried disabling my floppy drive, but it doesn't change my boot error.

I have tried disabling everything from the boot options in BIOS except for HDD-0, changing the option of "boot other devices" to "disabled" and it still says "disk boot falure, insert system disk and press enter"

Revision history for this message
Aaron Burger (afallen) said : 		#3

I tried the jumper to reset CMOS and BIOS again, still doesn't work. But I guess it says Update Successful, not Successful, to be more specific.

Revision history for this message
Aaron Burger (afallen) said : 		#4

I've noticed that when I reset, the CMOS and BIOS options stay the same, but when I turn the computer off and back on again, it says Checksum error and goes back to the default settings. I've tried to replace the motherboard battery (since the motherboard is nearly 5 years old) but it still goes back to the defaults every time I turn the power off.

I've thought of the possibility that the motherboard is trashed, but then why does it still work fine running Ubuntu live off the cd? Any suggestions?

Revision history for this message
Aaron Burger (afallen) said : 		#5

I've done lots more tests since the last post. With the new motherboard I ran fsck, badblocks (in several different modes including read only and non destructive read-write) and found nearly 1,000 bad sectors total from the several scans I did. I made a bootable cd from Maxtor and did a full scan that claimed "drives that pass this test are certified error free" and it passed with no issues. However, what I'm guessing is that the power surge that fried my power supply, also ruined the boot sector of my hard drive. That's why it would reformat and save files without error, but wouldn't load an OS.

My solution was to remove the faulty IDE hard drive and install a new SATA hard drive. Everything else exactly the way it was, but the new hard drive reformatted, installed, and rebooted without error.