I've read several similar grub error questions and answers, researched on Google (a lot), but still have not found a solution to my problem.
I have an "old" notebook where I've installed Windows XP and then Ubuntu 8.04 - everything worked well for a long time. After the kids played with it (i.e. I have not seen what happened), I couldn't boot anymore. Grub simply said Error 17
, and nothing else. After several Error 17
failures, the error changed to Error 18
- and this is the error it shows now.
What have I tried? I tried several Linux LIVE CD's and DVD's I have: Ubuntu 8.04, Kubuntu 10.04, Ubuntu 10.04, Ubuntu 11.10, Fedora 11, etc. - none of them is able to start, in all modes and options I tried (I have not manually edited the commands, but tried the provided options). I can't use the Live CD OS, and I can't install them either. This is important: it is ok to erase all HD contents! It is ok to format, repartition, lose all HD data - no problem.
In most of the Ubuntu flavours, including the 8.04 CD, the initialization stucks, showing repeatedly the following error messages:
ata3.00: exception Emask 0x0 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x0 action 0x0
ata3.00: BMDMA stat 0x25
ata3.00: cmd 25/00:08:e5:a5:50/00:00:12:00:00/e0 tag 0 dma 1024 in
ata3.00: status: { DRDY ERR }
ata3.00: error: { UNC }
I also have tried the Windows XP installation CD. The recover command-line fails: fixmbr
, fixboot
, format
- nothing works. If I try diskpart
the partitioning tool tells me the HD is "unreachable" and if I try to continue a kind-of BSOD appears, giving me the only option to restart the computer.
If instead of the recover command-line, I try to install the system, the same diskpart
thing happens in the partition selection step.
So, I downloaded and burned Rescatux into a CD. It can't start, saying:
Welcome to GRUB!
error: invalid arch independent ELF magic.
Entering rescue mode...
grub rescue>
And I am left with this grub rescue prompt, which sounds good, but it is useless to me, since I have no idea of what and how can I do with it.
So, please, good and helpful souls who read my quest up to here: what can I type in this grub rescue
prompt which can help me in the way of being able to boot again???
It is ok to me to format the HD, reinstall Windows XP, reinstall Ubuntu, repartition the HD, or eventually restore the damaged part and recover the dual boot ability. I just want to use my notebook again.
Thanks!
ls
command gives me(hd0) (cd)
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