[SOLVED] err2err3 on boot

houndhen · 07-21-2011, 02:13 PM

My system is 32 bit multibooted XP and linux distros that includes a 250gb sata drive and 120gb ide drive. The MBR is on the 250g drive.

I shut down my system for the night and all was well. Next morning all I got was text message that had F2 option for setup and F11 or drive menu. I had not good result with either. The last line said " smart drive capable but disabled". At first I could get anything to boot, including cds, or rescue disks.

Finally I got Knoppix 6.4 live cd to boot. Then I got my Mepis 8.5 cd to boot and used it to re-write the mbr to sda7. Sda7 is where the installed version of Mepis 8.5 is located and the grub menu.lst resides. After re-writing the mbr to sda7, now I only get "err2err3" when I try to boot the computer.

I have done quite a bit of searching the web and reading about smart and re-doing the MBR. I also did a search in this forum for "err2err3". So far I am holding off on what to do next. If my hard drive is going bad than so be it. But I don't want to do something that might not be necessary.

Can someone advise me as to what might be the solution?

TobiSGD · 07-21-2011, 02:16 PM

1. Boot to a live-CD, if possible, and backup all your data, if not already done.
2. Download the diagnosis tool of your harddisk's manufacturer and test the drive with that.

houndhen · 07-21-2011, 03:34 PM

Thanks for the reply. I have downloaded the Maxtor/Seagate tool and burned it to a cd and at present running the long test on the drive in question.

I will post back what the results of the drive test.

houndhen · 07-21-2011, 04:36 PM

The drive in question passed. It also says:
Device 0 is Seagate Device MAXTORSTM**************** sryofgrb on Intel ICH7
Max Native Address 488397167
Device is 48 but addressed - number of LBAs 488397167 (250.059 GB)
This drive supports Security Features
SMART is Supported and Enabled
SMART has NOT been tripped
DST is supported
Logging feature set is supported
POH 9530 Current Temp 42

houndhen · 07-21-2011, 08:30 PM

I have posted my situation on the Maxter/Seagate forum. Thanks for you help.

yancek · 07-21-2011, 09:31 PM

Quote:

Then I got my Mepis 8.5 cd to boot and used it to re-write the mbr to sda7

Not sure what you mean by the above? Did you reinstall Grub to the mbr with it pointing to the rest of its boot files on sda7(Mepis)?
Are you unable to boot Mepis?
Have you tried using the Mepis CD, mounting sda7 to look at the grub files?
Do you get that error immediately on boot? before the option to enter BIOS?
I don't recall ever seeing the error you report so don't really know if it is Grub related.

houndhen · 07-22-2011, 03:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by yancek

Not sure what you mean by the above? Did you reinstall Grub to the mbr with it pointing to the rest of its boot files on sda7(Mepis)?
Are you unable to boot Mepis?
Have you tried using the Mepis CD, mounting sda7 to look at the grub files?
Do you get that error immediately on boot? before the option to enter BIOS?
I don't recall ever seeing the error you report so don't really know if it is Grub related.

I have a Mepis 8.5 live cd. I also have Mepis 8.5 installed at /dev/sda7. I got the live cd to boot and looked at the grub files on /dev/sda7 and everything looked OK. There is a MBR repair utility in the Mepis menus and I ran that to repair the MBR and pointed it to /dev/sda7. It was after this that I started getting the err2err3. I no longer get the option of F2 and F11 just the err2err3. After doing more looking I am thinking that the partition table has gotten messed up. I have been trying to find something to use to re-write the partition table. No, I don't have the partition table backed up. Not sure if I could even do that.

The computer won't boot at all; it just gets to the 'err2err3' text and stops. I have been looking at Test Disk to re-write the partition table, but I am in unfamiliar territory. I am not a computer expert by far.

yancek · 07-22-2011, 06:35 PM

Quote:

There is a MBR repair utility in the Mepis menus and I ran that to repair the MBR and pointed it to /dev/sda7.

Doesn't seem to have worked? Have you tried the standard method of reinstalling Grub Legacy?

Quote:

I no longer get the option of F2 and F11 just the err2err3.

The F2 is to enter setup(BIOS) and you don't get that?
I did some googling with that error and it all seemed to be windows related. I'd try reinstalling Grub. Boot the Mepis CD, open a terminal as root run: grub to get the grub prompt(grub>0 and then enter: root (hd0,6) (hit enter key), setup (hd0) (again hit enter key) quit.

If that fails, boot the CD, mount sda and post the menu.lst file. Someone might notice something amiss?

houndhen · 07-22-2011, 07:38 PM

OK, here is what I have discovered....

I have an USB external drive that I use for backup. Forgot about it because most of the time it is not even turned on. So I tried booting with it turned on and I got this:

Quote:

Grub loading stage 1.5

Grub loading, please wait...
error2

When I try to boot with it turned off then I go back to the "err2err3" on a black screen. So maybe it is a grub problem. I will try and reset the mbr again.

Reset MBR and finally got a menu. It listed several distros but the only one that would boot is on /dev/sdb5 which is not supposed to be the boot hd. I got into Antix M11 and tried to re-write the MBR again and put it to /dev/sda7 but it didn't work. So, I am back in Antix.

question...How do I get the boot drive back to sda instead of sdb?

yancek · 07-22-2011, 10:48 PM

Boot AntiX and go to a terminal. Login as root and enter: fdisk -l (lower case Letter L in the command). Before doing this, have both drives attached. This will output the drive/partition information for you to post here to get some specific help. When posting the info, indicate which drive you believe you have different operating systems on.

Quote:

Reset MBR and finally got a menu.

Exactly what did you do? Which drive was set to first boot priority in the BIOS when this happened?
You want to be able to boot from Mepis on sda7, correct? I don't have Mepis installed but believe it uses Grub Legacy, correct?

houndhen · 07-23-2011, 08:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by yancek

Boot AntiX and go to a terminal. Login as root and enter: fdisk -l (lower case Letter L in the command). Before doing this, have both drives attached. This will output the drive/partition information for you to post here to get some specific help. When posting the info, indicate which drive you believe you have different operating systems on.

Exactly what did you do? Which drive was set to first boot priority in the BIOS when this happened?
You want to be able to boot from Mepis on sda7, correct? I don't have Mepis installed but believe it uses Grub Legacy, correct?

Code:

fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 250.1 GB, 250059350016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30401 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x14c814c8

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *           1        2662    21382483+   7  HPFS/NTFS windows
/dev/sda2            2663        3057     3172837+  82  Linux swap
/dev/sda3            3058       29040   208706697    5  Extended
/dev/sda5            3058        4362    10482381   83  Linux PCLOS
/dev/sda6            4363        5667    10482381   83  Linux Mepis 8.5
/dev/sda7            5668        6972    10482381   83  Linux Ubuntu
/dev/sda8            6973        8277    10482381   83  Linux Mint
/dev/sda9   *        8278        9582    10482381   83  Linux /home(ext3)
/dev/sda10           9583       26461   135575017+  83  Linux ext4 homepclos
/dev/sda11          26462       29040    20714066   83  Linux freee space

Disk /dev/sdb: 120.0 GB, 120034123776 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 14593 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x1549f232

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdb1   *           1        1329    10670080   83  Linux Fedora
/dev/sdb2            1329       14594   106548225    5  Extended
/dev/sdb5            1329        1590     2097152   82  Linux swap
/dev/sdb6            1590        2896    10485760   83  Linux Mepis 11
/dev/sdb7            2896        4201    10485760   83  Linux Antix M11
/dev/sdb8            4201       12044    62996480   83  Linux /home (ext3)
/dev/sdb9           12044       14594    20478976   83  Linux /home (ext4)

Both sda and sdb are internal drives, and they both run at each boot. Sda was the original boot drive before my problems started.

What did I do just before I was able to boot into Antix? All I did was to re-write MBR again using the Mepis gui from the live cd. I have never used the command line to re-write the MBR because I am not sure of the commands. The gui is just quicker for me than trying to look up the CL commands.

Yes, I would like to be able to get back to booting from sda7 and it does use grub legacy.

houndhen · 07-23-2011, 09:27 AM

After I saw the results of 'fdisk -l' I went back into the bios and looked at the boot area and the sdb was listed as the third boot device after usb and cd-rom and the 4th boot device was disabled. The sda drive was not even listed. So I got it listed and then changed the third device to boot as the Maxtor (sda) and everything is back to normal. Man! what a ride for the last couple of days.

Thanks for all the help. Maybe I have learned something that will help in the future. Maybe someone else will be helped by this thread. Will mark this thread solved.

Tigg · 11-07-2012, 02:07 PM

I know this thread is a bit old , But I had the same problem ...I had forgotten to give my root partition a boot flag , the way I resolved this was to get back on the live CD , ran Gparted and made sure that the Partition flag was set for 'boot' by right clicking the /dev/sda1 and selecting 'Manage flags' and clicking the top box 'boot' wait a few seconds , then rebooted , Poof .. all fixed

houndhen · 11-07-2012, 02:20 PM

Thanks, Tigg. Good to know.