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I've tried installing Ubuntu 12.04 from a USB live flash drive with no success. I got a message box with an error message similar to this:

Installation Failed

The installer encountered an error copying files to the hard disk:

[Errno 5] Input/output error

This is often due to a faulty CD/DVD disk or drive, or a faulty hard disk. It may help to clean the CD/DVD, to burn the CD/DVD at a lower speed, to clean the CD/DVD drive lens (cleaning kits are often available from electronics suppliers), to check whether the hard disk is old and in need of replacement, or to move the system to a cooler environment.

I say similar because that image belongs to this post, which seems to have the same problem: Ubuntu based distros wont install

When installing using a DVD (in this case I chose Kubuntu 12.04) the process completes successfully, but cannot boot. I get to the screen where Kubuntu shows four dots, and never loads. The DVD is not scratched, and the ISO from the USB was checked with MD5 sum.

I wanted to try non-Debian based distros, such as Korora, openMandriva and ROSA, but UNetbootin now gets stuck in the process of copying, in an Ubuntu live session. (I had never had problems with UNetbootin before!)

When I try to access /home from the live session, I can see the lost+found folder and the one which belongs to the username I picked during installation. The problem is that it is completely empty, there are no subfolders such as Videos, Documents, Pictures, etc. On the other hand, the / directory, located in another partition, seems to be properly installed. The partition where I have /home has root permissions, but my user directory (the one with my username) reads as follows:

Owner: 1000 - user #1000 Folder access: create and delete files 
Group: 1000, Folder access: Access files
Others: (blank), Folder access: Access files

Is this OK?

I hope my hard disk isn't corrupted. Btw, I checked the disk for errors with an option that is included in the live CD. No errors found. I did a Memtest which is listed in the GRUB menu, and there was no problem with this either. I cannot boot in recovery mode.

Do you have any suggestions other than buying a new hard drive? (just in case, I am going to!)

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  • Questions: you say the error is similar, does the text of the error differ from what is shown above? How does your problem differ from askubuntu.com/questions/419770/…
    – Amanda
    Feb 13, 2014 at 12:51
  • I do not remember exactly what my error said, I don't want to go over the process of installation again just to copy that :-)
    – vienswuer
    Feb 13, 2014 at 13:06
  • I do remember the first line: 'The installer encountered an error copying files to the hard disk' and not sure but somthg about the hard disk.
    – vienswuer
    Feb 13, 2014 at 13:07
  • Does make it hard to troubleshoot then. But there are a lot of suggestions if you just search Google for "The installer encountered an error copying files to the hard disk:"
    – Amanda
    Feb 13, 2014 at 13:39

1 Answer 1

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The hard drive WAS corrupted, don't really know the reason for which some tests gave successful results. Making a complete scan with "disks" (Gnome disk utility in Livecd mode) throwed more than 2 hundred bad sectors. For a strange reason I could accomplish the installation of two Fedora-based distros: Kororaa and Chapeau. Unluckily, they booted for a couple of weeks and then just stopped working. Now I have a brand new hard disk, and problems of that kind did not show up anymore. Hope this thread helps somebody out there!

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