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GnOOb 10-25-2009 02:52 PM

display after boot up is messed up and have a Grub error 22 on secondary hard drive
 
I have 2 (two) hard drives hooked up to my desktop. They at one time were connected when it was a Windows XP computer. The master drive boots up but I am unable to see anything this has been going off and on for a month, but now wont go back to where I can see the screen. I have cleaned out the inside of my desktop twice since then thinking that it was just dirty, which is was, but it still goes to a screen I cant see. The slave drive was wiped when the master was wiped and I havent used it since then, as I am unable to reconnect them for linux usage. I looked around on here for an answer, i found someone who has the same type of problem and was told to do a fdisk /dev/sda1 and see what was posted thereafter which came up with,

Device contains neither a valid DOS partition table, nor Sun, SGI or OSF disklabel

Building a new DOS disklabel with disk identifier 0xc4276f93.

Changes will remain in memory only, until you decide to write them.

After that, of course, the previous content won't be recoverable.





The number of cylinders for this disk is set to 14029.

There is nothing wrong with that, but this is larger than 1024,

and could in certain setups cause problems with:

1) software that runs at boot time (e.g., old versions of LILO)

2) booting and partitioning software from other OSs

(e.g., DOS FDISK, OS/2 FDISK)

Warning: invalid flag 0x0000 of partition table 4 will be corrected by w(rite)


I have NO clue what that means, lol. I have had this computer for 3 years but only used linux for 4 months and had a friend install it but didnt tell me how to use alot of it and had to teach myself after using windows for 20 years. I use this computer for college and for running a non- profit organization so I need it working at top notch like it was before., Please someone tell me I can fix my master drive and use my slave drive again, thank you.

sploot 10-25-2009 03:14 PM

EDIT: Read the end of this post first, I don't want something to happen that is irreversible and not necessary. Answer questions, then wait for another reply :)

It looks like something happened to corrupt the drive. So the information you are receiving from fdisk is telling you that the partition table is messed up. In other words, it can't tell where one partition ends and another begins. Do you have backups of the data stored on the disk? You may lose it.

As far as the screen not being visible, I'm not sure what this is about. Possibilities that come to mind are: video card issues, connection issues on your video card cables, tower to monitor cables. Do you see your BIOS screen when you first boot, or is it completely black?

If you want to try to start from scratch on these disks, overwrite your MBR with
Code:

dd bs=16 count=100 if=/dev/zero of=/dev/<your hard drive>
but be warned that if you have data on these disks, you WILL lose it. After doin this you can repartition, the fdisk command will no longer report the cannot read partition table error. You will likely need to reinstall your operating system after doing this.

Before you do this, make an install cd and whatever else you need to do to prepare for an installation. ALSO, your original post seems ambiguous, so please respond to these questions before following the code presented above:

1) Is the computer currently usable? Can you boot?
2) when did you wipe the master and slave drives?
3) what distribution of linux were you using?
4) do you feel comfortable re-installing linux?

Good luck!

GnOOb 10-25-2009 03:52 PM

1) Is the computer currently usable? Can you boot? I can only do stuff while running of the install disk/boot disk which I am currently doing

2) when did you wipe the master and slave drives? around july

3) what distribution of linux were you using? the lastest version im sure of it 9.04
4) do you feel comfortable re-installing linux? from when i watched it done the first time it seemed fairly easy

Even when everything was working I have never even seen the BIOS pop up, if I have to hit a certain key to get to it I wouldnt know what key it is, hence calling my self GnOOB, lol.

I have checked the video card in another CPU and it worked fine, I believe it has something to do with the hard drive, maybe why it is possibly corrupted.

Everything I have on the master hard drive I had on it when running windows, so I am not worried about having to wipe it and start again.

Thank you for responding so quick by the way.

yancek 10-25-2009 04:21 PM

In your first post, you indicate that at one time these two drives were connected, connected to what? do you mean installed on the same computer? You also said the master drive boots up but you don't see anything on the screen, what does that mean? What do you mean by 'boots up'? What operating system do you have on the machine? You said you wiped both drives so...? Your last paragraph of the first post indicates you used Linux for four months, on this computer? reading your last post, I guess you are using Ubuntu or one of its deritvatives.

Use the install CD and run the command: sudo fdisk -l (lower case Letter L) to get your partition information to post here to see if you actually have any partitions. I'm assuming from your post you just want to get Ubuntu installed and don't care about the windows partition, if any exist? Have you tried just installing Ubuntu? Do you have your CD drive set to first boot priority in the BIOS? Do you know how to get into BIOS. When you start the computer you see some info scroll by and usually at the bottom right, it will tell you to press a specific key to enter setup, sometimes in the upper right corner. It's only on for a few seconds so you need to watch for it. Dell is usually F2, Compaq and HP usually F10, some are DEL key.

GnOOb 10-25-2009 04:34 PM

more answers to questions
 
what do you mean installed on the same computer? the were combined together and were used as a single hard drive but when they were wiped we were unable to figire out what the error 22 meant.

You also said the master drive boots up but you don't see anything on the screen, what does that mean? they entire screen is jumbled and cannot be recognized visually

What do you mean by 'boots up'? wether it be restarted or force restarted and the first screens come up with a bunch of words

What operating system do you have on the machine? Ubuntu 9.04

You said you wiped both drives so...? this computer was built for me 3 years ago, i was unaware of there being two hard drives combined and used as 1 single hard drive

Your last paragraph of the first post indicates you used Linux for four months, on this computer? yes

reading your last post, I guess you are using Ubuntu or one of its deritvatives.yes i am using ubuntu

this is what i got when i did the terminal for the partitions

Disk /dev/sda: 120.0 GB, 120034123776 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 14593 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x006c004d

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 14030 112695943+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda2 14031 14593 4522297+ 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 14031 14593 4522266 82 Linux swap / Solaris

Disk /dev/sdb: 120.0 GB, 120034123776 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 14593 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x2a23a6e1

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$


I really would like to be able to use both drives if i can but I relly just want to be able to use my computer and not run off of the install disk as i am now. i would like to get everything fixed before if i need to reinstall. right now i am able to hit f11 and select where to boot from, which right now is my disk yes. i do not know how to get to my BIOS. When you start the computer you see some info scroll by and usually at the bottom right, it will tell you to press a specific key to enter setup, sometimes in the upper right corner. It's only on for a few seconds so you need to watch for it. Dell is usually F2, Compaq and HP usually F10, some are DEL key. i dont see that even when it was working.

GnOOb 10-25-2009 07:52 PM

1 Attachment(s)
this is what I get when reinstalling it at step 4/7 the partition step

This computer has Ubuntu 9.04 (9.04) on it.

Where do you want to put Ubuntu 9.04

(A) Install them side by side choosing between them each startup

(B) Use the entire disk (then asks which hard drive to choose from)
(a) it then says that this will delete Ubuntu 9.04 and install Ubuntu 9.04

(C) Use the largest Continuous free space

(D) Specify partitions manually

right now it is installing on the second hard drive and I hope it works Cross Fingers

GnOOb 10-25-2009 09:28 PM

Ubuntu is working on my secondary drive with no problems at all with the screen. this makes me believe that the primary drive is screwed up more than I thought.

yancek 10-25-2009 11:29 PM

The fdisk command output you posted earlier showed your second drive (sdb) was empty and your first drive (sda) had a Linux partition (Ubuntu) on sda1 and an Extended partition (sda2) and a swap partition sda3. That's what the step four of installation refers to, you have Ubuntu on the computer on the first drive and now you are installing it to the second drive.

Anyhow, glad you got it installed. If it is working alright off the second drive then you may have a hardware problem with the first drive.


Here's what the Grub Error 22 is:
Quote:

No such partition
This error is returned if a partition is requested in the device part of a device- or full file name which isn't on the selected disk.
This happens when the Grub bootloader from Ubuntu can't find the rest of its files needed to boot, often after a partition has been modified or deleted or the entry in the menu.lst file is pointing to the wrong partition.

GnOOb 10-26-2009 12:33 AM

One more thing
 
now that it is working now my audio isnt responding at all. I think it is just a setting somewhere I dont know about. but i have also realized that all i did was partition the first hard drive and installed ubuntu on the partition. I really could care less as long as its working. thank you very much for all your input guys.

yancek 10-26-2009 10:04 AM

GnOOb:

If you are still having problems with your audio, you would probably be better served with that problem by starting a new thread under Ubuntu.


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