I was installing Linux, when during the middle of the process the installer sent this error message (or something similar):

I was installing from a flash drive into my hd. My HD is a 40GB disk that recently has been corrupting OS installation. A couple times in the last months, when I boot up it says it cannot find a certain block and I end reinstalling the OS. This time wasn't this error that forced to reinstall it, but now, for the first time, I received the above error message from the installer. The disk still work as a data storage device, I mean, I can access the data in the other partition, is always the one with the OS that causes trouble, the sdx5 one

Anyway, I bought a new HD, it arrived today. I connected the power cable, the Sata cable. It took a long time for the bios to recognize it, but it finally did and I then proceeded to install the OS from the pen drive.

The boot process started to took a long time, so I restarted the cpu and changed some boot options to be bale to read what was being informed during the boot process. Here some messages that I noted. The ... is for stuff that I did not write

When it finally starts the OS, the hard drive does not appear on the installed, neither on gparted. Only a program called Disk Utility shows it and is not able to format the drive:

So basically I would like to have an idea if there is anything I can do to solve these issues, or if I should already plan to return the new hard drive and to acquire another one.

You need a partition created in order to format the device - did you initialize the disk and create a partition? (Run cfdisk against it as root and do so)

Most OS installers will automatically create partitions and format the device but depends on the distribution.

The replacement drive could be bad.

If your flash drive is running a live version you can try running smartctl (SMART diagnostics tool) if installed and see if there are any errors.

It could also be a SATA controller going bad. Maybe the BIOS settings are not configured correctly but unlikely.

If the system has more then one SATA port try switching but make sure the channel is on in the BIOS.

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If the SATA cable is old, especially if it is a certain shade of red made from a certain dye that causes leads to corrode, change it.

Running cfdisk: Anyway, as I said before: Not installed, unfortunately.

The drive shows up in the bios, if there is need to do anything there, I don't know what could be.

I have two sata disks, the old and the new one. Not sure if that interferes somehow. Not a

Btw, the disk appears to be doing noise since last reboot.

One of the times I rebooted it, on the initial screen, the initial screen that prints hardware info said it status was not okay. Such message did not appear in the next reboot.

Will switch the sata cables on the next reboot.

If it is making (bad) noise out of the box as new, I'd concur with 'you got a bad one' and see if your vendor will swap it for another.

If you do not have smartctl installed you should do so, then run smartctl -a on both drives so see what the output tells you.

Smartctl will report issues seen by the drive firmware. The OS will report is the data is corrupted when you run fsck.

As already mentioned, if the drive is making a strange noise (constant or intermittent) then it should be dumped and replaced, whether it is new or old.

Also, if one's power supply that didn't include enough SATA power connections and you're using one of those Y-adapters to adapt an old 4-pin Molex connector to a SATA power connector, be aware that those adapters can `go bad'. They might fail to have a good connection and the drive misbehaves. In the worst case, I had one fail in such a way that it melted the adapter's SATA power connector as well as the receptacle on the drive. ("Hmm... what's that smell and why is that md device running in a reduced state?")

Ok, updating the situation's status: I returned the new hd that apparently had problems. After doing that, when doing tests, I noticed that if I swap the sata cables, my old hd start to bip like a madman.

Based on that, I got a new hd and a new sata cable (its one of those with four plugs that connect straight to the power wires, not to the motherboard)

I installed the cables, attached it to the pc's case and started the system. Since the first problem appeared (that I could no more to install the OS on the old HD) I was forced to use my flash drive to make my pc operational, as only it has an OS on it.

Unfortunately, I did not configure it to use a persistent partition, which means that if I shut down the pc, all the OS settings are gone (albeit I derived a install script, from the one I use after a "normal" hd installation, that solves most issues. Yet there is annoying settings that have to be manually performed after each reinstall)

Anyway, back to the install process. Using the flash drive with Linux on it, I intended to use it to make a normal installation on the new HD. Running the os installer, it was not detected. Then I proceeded to use "Disk Utility" to see if the HD was detected.

It was, then I created new partitions on the unpartitioned and executed the install program again. I configured things the way I want them and told the installer to proceed.
It started doing its stuff, but when it reached 36% of the process, the attached error message appeared (please, open the attached screenshot):

This is exactly the same error that showed up when installing in the old HD. Even the 36% of completed install is equal. So in the end it wasn't the old hd the responsible for the problem? If not what might be the guilty?

It might be the Linux that I am trying to install from the flash drive the guilty one? Or it might be something else? Even if it is, that put me on a difficult situation. As I am running the pc from it, I cannot just erase it, overwriting everything on it. (I suppose if I try to install a new image on it, it can fail, since it would overwrite something essential to the process)

So the only other option would be a dvd install. But there is catch on it: The dvd has problems to connect the Sata cable. Even if I manage to do it, its possible that it will work, because many times it does not detect media on it. This started to happen since I knocked down the pc's case on the floor and a DVD inside it shattered into one million of fragments. I removed many and the situation improved, but it is far away from a certain. I might even open fully the DVD's case and remove more shards, but again, its not a certain it will work). Plus I will have to disconnect one of the HDs to accomplish it, since I believe I only have two sata connections available.

And even if everything goes ok with the DVD part, if the problem lies anywhere else, it would be all pointless.

So what I would like here it is:
1)To help me to identify the cause of the problem with 100% of certain (if not possible, with 90%. If not possible with 90%, with 80% and so goes on)

2)After 1) is accomplish as good as possible: To suggest ways to fix it, starting from a very cheap solution (preferably with a %0 expenditure)

Attached Thumbnails

 

Would you think its worthy to try to get it after I swapped hd again?


Could the the adapter the responsible one for this problem? I don't know nothing about them.

That error seems to indicate there may be a problem with the iso image you put on the usb. Either the image was faulty or the write process faulted somewhere.

Try to verify the iso image using the checksum files available at the download site. If it is good then try to write the image to the usb device again, using dd if on linux or rufus if on windows.

Hopefully this will fix the problem.

I agree with the above.

Are you trying to reinstall Ubuntu 10.04?

Several places on the internet offer for sale at a reasonable price brand new USB sticks with your choice of Linux distro already installed, ready to boot and install on your own HDD, SDD or USB device. Purchasing one containing some distro other than the one on your stick would provide several opportunities:

• ensure it is not your USB stick that is the problem
• ensure it is not your burning of your downloaded .iso to the stick that is the problem
• ensure it is not your download of an .iso that is the problem
• ensure that the distro on your stick having an incompatibility with your hardware is not the problem
• provide opportunity to learn if your hardware may be the problem
• avoid the problem of trying to replace the distro on your USB stick with a reburn or some other distro without another computer available to do so, including enabling burning another .iso to your present USB stick

Most DVD drives in computers are generic and can be replaced with a new one for as little as US$17 or so on sale delivered, or US$20 not on sale.