Hello Everyone,

I'm wondering if anyone else has had this problem. I recently installed Debian Squeeze (Stable) onto my ATA hard drive...completely wiping out my Windows OS ( I did that on purpose ) I chose the total disk install, but when I check disk utility it's showing that I have 3 extensions? Other than that, the install seemed to go flawlessly, but now the only way that I can get debian to boot is if I have the USB stick plugged in. I've checked the boot settings in BIOS, and when I set it to boot from the ATA hard drive, all I get is a black screen with a flashing cursor. I then plug in the USB stick and reset the BIOS to boot from that and it goes just fine. After Debian boots, I can remove the USB stick and everything still works fine. But will not boot up again without the stick plugged in.

I've searched through the forums and I'm thinking it's either a partitioning problem, or something isn't configured right with the ATA hard drive. In case anyone is wondering I have Grub 1.98 installed. At least that is what it's telling me when I type (as root) grub-install -v. Maybe I'm booting from the wrong area? I'm totally confused as to how to fix this.

Can anyone share a link with me as to how to fix this, or explain what you may have done to fix it? I've read that ATA's sometimes don't end up getting installed correctly?

Thanks,

Chris73

once booted go to a root terminal

grub

root (<yourhd(likely hd0,(yourbootpartition again if you're on a normal setup 0)

setup (hd0 (again use the appropriate hdd))

exit

example standard is

grub
root(hd0,0)
setup (hd0)

reboot and see if it works btw taht's to mbr if you want to first partition just add that to your setup command. edit: not sure the root bit MAY not be needed...i usually set it though..doesn't hurt

AFAIK, this will only work with Grub legacy, not Grub2.

To the OP: Boot the system with the stick attached, then remove it. Now determine which is your internal disk, you can use (lowercase L, as root)for that. Once you know the descriptor of the disk you can install Grub to to it.
Let's assume that your system's disk is /dev/sdb, than you can install Grub with Now try to reboot.

2 members found this post helpful.

Since Chris73 is using Squeeze, he should use the appropriate command for grub2:
Open a terminal, and, as root, grub-install /dev/hda.
(supply the root password when prompted).

PS: TobiSGD beat me to it.

2 members found this post helpful.