Hi, I am extremely new to Linux, I installed Mint Cinnamon 17.3 on a rebuild. Having many issues, not finding drivers for usb devices and constantly receiving errors at each boot. The errors appear and the system hangs, it took me 3 tries just to get it to boot to the screen. I dont know if the errors are os related. I am considering doing a clean install and place Zorin on the system. I built a pc for my brother and want an os in which he can use word docs (or similar), play games and use his webcam. Below are the errors Had to write this by hand as the Log Viewer hangs also. Sorry for any mistakes

BusyBox v1.21.1 (Ubuntu 1:1.21.0-1unbuntu1) built-in shell (ash)
Enter 'help' for a list of built-in commands


(initramfs) Ata3: [ 67.408869] ata3: SRST failed (errno=-16)
[ 72.443194] ata3L SRST failed (errno=-16)
[ 72.455046] ata3 reset failed, giving up

also
2.184022 ACPI PCC prove failed error
22.284109 ata9 SRST failed errno=-16
32.308713 ata9 SRST failed errno=-16
Boot args (cat /proc/cmdline
-Check rootdelay= did the system wait long enough?
-Check root= did the system wait for the right device?
-Missing modules (cat/ proc/modules; ls /dev
ALERT! /dev/disk/by-uuid/5c48ceb3-03e8-4080-a418-a881d775a5c0 does not exist. Dropping to a shell


BusyBox v1.21.1 (Ubuntu 1:1.21.0-1unbuntu1) built-in shell (ash)
Enter 'help' for a list of built-in commands

67.396832 ata9 SRST failed errno=-16
72.431162 ata9 SRST failed errno=-16
72.443011 ata9 reset failed, giving up

What type of hard drive(s)? IDE or SATA?

Hi, thanks for replying. I have two Sata drives.

As in, you (re-)built the hardware ?.
Those errors are hard disk errors - but check the PSU and reseat all cables.

Then go do it all again just to be sure. Then maybe check the hard disk on another machine.

If the hardware is playing up, any distro will give you grief.

Two hard drives/cables going bad at once? Possible. But more likely it is out of specs PSU or dying motherboard.

One more thing. The connection speed between controller and drive is supposedly auto-negotiated. In real world it may or may not work. Make sure the speed settings on hard drive (jumpers) are set to match controller specs.

once angain, thanks for the reply. The PSU is new, I did a fdisk chk on HD and it registered ok. The HD is not new, I had windows OS on it and cleaned the drive. The bios would not recognize the cd, I did use a disk for this pc, (and used the usb on my two laptops for other linux os') and continued to give me a disk boot error. Since I have never used linux before, I do not know if it could be the way in which I installed the OS. I connected it to my desktop and did an external drive install. I am not sure how sensitive the linux os is; I followed the instructions of a guy on youtube as to how to perform the install and it seemed to have worked fine. I have a gigabyte 890fxa-ud5 with amd Ra HD5570 card. Once I connected the drive to my pc, the HD was recognized but it dont instill wifi and usb drivers. As I began to try to install other software, it continued to have boot issues. I have plenty of software to diagnose Win OS. In Win disk boot error are either HD or corrupted OS. In addition, once I determine if OS or HD are the source of the issue, I would like to get rid of Linux Mint and move to something like Zorian, is there a link as to how to for dummies on this. Any suggestions on how to determine the issue here. I have another HD installed on the pc, I am going to see if I can install the os on this drive also. But still need to know how to fix these issues, if I am going to stay with Linux.

What do you mean by "the BIOS would not recognise the CD"?
Do you mean that the CD had not been created as a bootable image format, or it did not attempt to read from the CD?

You do not have to (normally) look for any drivers -its just plug & go with Linux. Especially don't try to load USB drivers.
Booting from a live CD/DVD should give you a slowed down version of the real thing.
It should include drivers for USB, basic Video, ethernet & Wi-Fi.
It doesn't need any disks to be present, but does have the ability to access them, if present.

Mint has a stable, relatively recent version of the kernel, so loading an alternative distro is unlikely to help.

Linux can run LibreOffice in place of Word, use a webcam, play dozens of free basic games and some more advanced games.

Sorry, the pc would not recognize the linux cd when I set the pc to boot from the pc. Ok, removed the hd with linux mint. Turned the pc on and there was a very loud sound from the fan. Then a burning smell. Turned the pc off and checked all fans and found it was the Radeon hd5570 - fried. Replace it with an Nvidia Geforce 8500. Set the Bios to default settings. Rebooted and Zorian is up and running with no issues. Rebooted again and once again, no errors. It appears that the errors were caused by the video card. I heard the loud fan noise when I first installed Linux, tightened a fan and the noise went away. The noise went away. At this time, all devices are recognized. Still dont have wifi, but the wifi card is recognized and I received a message that it was not set up and needs a driver. Will try to tackle installing drivers on the machine Monday, never install one on Linux. Will also take out the Linux Mint HD and put it on my desktop and perform full diagnostics.