A couple months, maybe six months ago, I started getting this error on boot, can't find UUID=blah blah, can't mount root, specify another disk or hit return. I hit return and it boots.

It doesn't always do this. Sometimes if I reboot it won't. I've tried rootwait and rootdelay in grub, no luck.

I have initrd initramfs.gz which I made myself awhile ago because the initram disk that came with gentoo or whatever didn't have "blkid" in its /bin.

I feel like this is a really silly error but I have no idea how to fix it or what the problem is. I'm not certain that I need the initramfs disk but I think there's a good chance that I do. Its an external USB disk.