Grub won't load; re-install doesn't work.

TruckStuff · 04-11-2005, 04:19 PM

I've got a server with a dead/dieing HDD. I bought another HDD and have been trying to simply copy everything from one drive to the other (HDDs are different sizes, so dd wouldn't work). I've been able to copy all of the content, but the problem is that I can't get Grub to install correctly. When I boot from the new drive, All I get is

Code:

GRUB

From googling, I know that this means that Grub can't load its first stage. So I d/l'ed Knoppix to rescue the system. Knoppix sees the drive just fine, can mount, read, write, etc. to the drive just fine. I then go into the Grub shell:

Code:

grub> root (hd0,0)
  Filesystem type is ext2fs, partition type0x83

grub> find /grub/menu.lst
  (hd0,0)

grub> setup (hd0)
 Checking if "/boot/grub/stage1" exists... no
 Checking if "/grub/stage1" exists... yes
 Checking if "/grub/stage2" exists... yes
 Checking if "/grub/e2fs_stage1_5" exists... yes
 Running "embed /grub/e2fs_stage1_5 (hd0)"... 16 sectors are embeded
succeeded
 Running "install /grub/stage1 (hd0) (hd0)1+16 p (hd0,0)/grub/stage2 /grub/menu.lst"... succeeded
Done.

grub> quit
# init 6
INIT: switching to runlevel: 6
...

Now the system runs through the POST process, the screen clears as if its going to go to Grub, then it reboots. This cycle repeats infinitely as far as I can tell. Going to do some more googling, but I though I'd ask for help here too. TIA.

contiang · 04-11-2005, 08:39 PM

Hi guys,

Thanks a lot, I just recover from this problem today. Previously I installed
new kernel (2.4.30) on my linux machine. And because of my silly mistake,
I accidentally lost my grub.conf file. So my linux machine refused to load.
Thanks god I found this thread...

thanks guys...

- contiang

TruckStuff · 04-11-2005, 10:30 PM

Is that a question or a solution??

contiang · 04-12-2005, 12:18 AM

its an appreciation actually... i m thinking this matter for such period
of time. Can i delete my old kernel after i installed a new one?
if i can do so? how can i? can i simply rm -rf <my-old-kernel-directory> just
like that?