This is becoming a recurring problem (3 times) and if possible I would like to know how to get my HDD back as it was, more importantly I'd like to know whats likely to be causing it and how to stop it happening

I have 2 HDDs on the PC. dev/sda is a 128Gb SSD running Xubuntu 16.04 with a single partition. This became unreadable after I tried booting from a USB drive (possibly a coincidence) with the error
Error: Unknown filesystem,
grub rescue>

I tried booting from the other HDD which I know worked 2 days ago, it has an older version of Mint on that I use for printing because I cant get my printer going in Xubuntu, and it gave me the same error. I tried unplugging my SSD, in case it was still trying to boot through there somehow with no luck

With some googling I found these commands
set root =(HDD location)
set prefix= (HDD location)/boot/grub
insmod normal
normal

and for all partitions I got normal.mod not found

If it was happening on one HDD, I would be tempted to blame and replace the HDD. Seems unlikely 2 HDDs are starting to fail at a year old. How likely is it my motherboard (Gigabyte still looking for model no) is frying my HDDs?

I have used fdisk(I think) in the past with some success but any advice on how to recover my partitions would be appreciated. Mainly want the Mint one because it normally takes me a good few hours googling to get the printer going. Obviously theres stuff on the SSD I'd prefer not to loose but I'll live without it
currently on gparted, both partitions I'm having trouble with are showing up as "unknown" but they are there and the right sizes, and they both have the following warning. The other partitions on /sdb are all there and working properly, it is only the linux partition that is damaged

Unable to detect file system! Possible reasons are:
- The file system is damaged
- The file system is unknown to GParted
- There is no file system available (unformatted)
- The device entry /dev/sdb4 is missing

Thanks

That is a weird issue I once encountered when trying to install PC-BSD, one the first attempt it fried my Linux partition and on the second attempt my whole partition table went out - although those hard disks haven't given me issues since. Also, what OS were you booting on the USB Drive?

I *STRONGLY* recommend before doing anything else, booting to another Live USB Thumbdrive or Cd with a live distro that contains "testdisk" and "photorec" (KNOPPIX includes it, although not too sure about Mint or (X)Ubuntu), and recovering your data. Whatever that's causing your issue may corrupt the partition table or other partitions, so I'd rescue what you can first.

I found a quick guide on how to use photorec to rescue data from a corrupt file system:

http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/Photo...Rec_executable

testdisk and photorec might also be able to look for things that would give you a clue on what got corrupted. There are also tests for the integrity of (at least) physical drives like "badblocks".

One last thing, perhaps you want to look up issues with the specific models of your motherboard, power supply, and hard disks.

Best luck!

Simply "trying" to boot from a usb in itself would not logically create a problem like this so did you actually boot something from the usb and what was it and what if anything did you do after booting it? The reason I ask is the message you report "I got normal.mod not found".

Have you run fsck on whichever partitions you get the message on?
Can you mount any of the partitions with the boot directory to see if you actually have a 'normal.mod' file?
Can you post the output of fdisk -l or an image of GParted screen?

HOW?

as in did you change the boot order in the bios ?

what did you do ?

as above just putting a usb in and ( if SET to boot first) will not cause any change

mikeb1986,

As yancek asked above, we really need the output of:

or a photo of your GParted screen.

Is all your personal data backed up?

Thank you all for replies, I am short of time now but will answer what I can quickly, I will have a go with fdisk etc. after work.


I know booting from a live USB shouldn't do any damage. The USB drive had either Mint or Xubunutu on it I was loading it to see which it was mainly. I didnt get that far because on the boot menu my keyboard wouldn't work (USB, but always has worked to set up in the past). I thought it was odd but Mrs was waiting to go shopping so came back to it later. When I did the PC wouldn't boot (unknown filesystem). The keyboard wasn't working still in the BIOS or boot menu thinking about it, I ended up removing my SSD so I could boot from the HDD without using boot menu. But after I made a fresh USB live disk to run on (on Windows laptop) the BIOS etc. was working fine. I did try with and without the old live USB plugged in

I can't mount either partition. But the good partitions on the HDD are mounted and usable

Personal data is mainly backed up. Theres bits I would like that I'm not certain are backed up, but nothing I'll lose sleep over. I would mainly like to get the Mint partition back up and running as it was so I still have a printer I can use

gparted screenshots
http://s33.postimg.org/s3h1f1p2n/Screenshot.png
http://s33.postimg.org/ol0woafqn/Screenshot_1.png

part of fdisk -l output. I assume only this is relevant but happy to post the lot if it helps. I notice the partitions are both showing up as linux here, not unrecognised

mikeb1986,

Thanks for the info.

Whilst this is being analysed, I think it would be a good idea to burn a Rescatux CD:

http://www.supergrubdisk.org/rescatux/

mikeb1986,

First of all, as wagscat123 strongly recommends, it is important to retrieve any personal data from both the SSD and HDD1.

I bought one of these mains-powered USB 2.0 to SATA/IDE adapter kits ages ago:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B001A5SK...9VPGVXV6MAXKP1

Much cheaper is something like this USB to SATA HDD adapter:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Proxima-Dir.../dp/B0098AF3U0

Connect the adapter to the SSD.
Then ideally borrow a functioning Linux PC/laptop and plug in the adapter's USB connector.

Boot up the PC/laptop and the SSD should appear as a 128GB volume (probably less) external drive on your Desktop.
Click on volume/drive.
Click on the username and all the folders for your Documents, Downloads, Pictures, Videos etc should be shown.

Then copy & paste this personal data to another external drive (HDD2).

Repeat the operation for the 1.8TB HDD1.

If nothing shows up on the SSD and HDD1 then you will need to use TestDisk or PhotoRec to try to recover the data.

Once you have recovered your data, I suggest that you do something like *this:

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...d-drive-36892/

*NB This assumes that you are installing Linux Mint on the SSD and using the HDD1 for storage.

If you also need to use Windows then you will need to do something different.

After doing your backup, you might try running a filesystem check from a Live CD.

Some info on the 'normal.mod not found' error at the link below.

http://askubuntu.com/questions/26642...-mod-not-found

Thanks again

beachboy2. I am going to have a go with the rescatux program I haven't come across it before but I like the idea of a nice wizard rather than trying to stumble through blindly like I normally do.

The tutorial link you have posted regarding SSDs, I assume this makes the PC run from the SSD but gives access to the full size HDD for storing? I have tried to do that before but with no luck. I currently use a big partition on the HDD and manually transfer files when I am done with them.
Is there any reason this wouldn't work with Xubuntu rather than Mint,
and is there any reason it wouldn't work if I had a separate partition on the HDD to run my older version of Mint, since thats all I can get my printer to work on

Yancek, I did come across that thread when I was looking for an obvious quick fix yesterday. It didn't help because the 2 partitions that should have grub on are "unknown"

mikeb1986,

Dogman2 managed it recently after a hiccup or two:

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...ge-4175580891/

The only proviso is that you must be 100% accurate with your typing.

Also, print off the tutorial notes first.

The Linux OS is immaterial.

Just as a matter of interest, what is your printer?

There must be a current Xubuntu, Mint, Ubuntu etc with which your printer will work, surely?

NB Make sure that you recover your personal data before doing anything else.
Failure to do so could well result in lost data!

The printer is Epson XP 322, there are linux drivers for it but there was a known bug with X/Ubuntu 16 at the time I was looking and Epson aren't supporting linux drivers anymore. I did have a look into it but gave up, I knew it would work on Mint anyway.

I have photorec running on SSD now to recover what I can. I will quickly have a go at restoring the partition on it tonight when that's done, but it will be tomorrow before I try much more than that

My main issue now is finding out what is causing the problem so I can try and stop it happening again

mikeb1986,

A workaround has apparently been found for the printer Bug #1536353.

See post #34 onwards:

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+s...b/+bug/1536353

Thanks Beachboy2. That would save me having an OS just for printing if I can get it working in Xubuntu.

Regarding the main problem, I recovered all my files through Testdisk, but it wouldn't restore the partition. Rescatux gave me a failed message but when I looked afterwards the label on /sda had changed from "unable to mount" to "ubuntu". I took a chance and rebooted and I am back on my Xubuntu OS with nothing wrong as far as I can tell.

There was a few error messages when Rescatux was laoding up and most are still present on SSD booting, but the last bits flash off too quickly to read. This are the errors when it was booting into Rescatux anyway, I assume they are the same ones booting into Xubuntu

http://s33.postimg.org/hq9vzeqwf/IMG...602_165605.jpg

I hadn't noticed them before, but to be fair I usually turn the PC on and go and make a drink while it boots so they could have been there for an unknown time

The good news is I now have a working printer in Xubuntu which means I can probably go for a setup like you showed me before re OS on SSD and storage on HDD