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I have a machine which is supposed to be a media server. I have tried to install ubuntu (both alternate and regular i386). The installation (and boot to usb drive) went on fine but after the install I tried to load the machine and it freeze.

In the case of i386 I get an error hd0 out of disk and am left with grub rescue console. set gives:

prefix=(hd0,msdos1)/boot/grub
root=hd0,msdos1

Following ubuntu wiki, I replaced msdos1 with 1 which didn't work.

In the case of alternate install, I only get a blinking cursor on the top left (I waited for about two minutes).

If I wait a really long time in the alternate version, I get

error: no such partition
grub rescue>

Nothing works in this mode as well. I also tried to replace (hd0,1) with (hd0,sda) or (hd0,0) but this doesn't seam to have an effect

Install information:

  1. Single hard drive
  2. Install on a hard drive via usb thumb drive
  3. Ubuntu's default hard drive portioning and formatting (use entire hard drive)
  4. Ubuntu Natty

How can I fix this?

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ubuntu natty. I'm using usb thumb drive to install to hard disk. I have let ubuntu yo choose it's default partitioning (use and erase entire hard drive) – Yotam Aug 3 '11 at 21:00
Have you tried the recover options when running the install again from the thumb drive. I might also try re installing grub. If you can boot into a live environment. – nelaar Aug 4 '11 at 9:05
Yes, I tried the recover operation after the new install. I don't think that re installing grub will work since this will be the exact same operation as the one carried by the install process. I'll try though... – Yotam Aug 4 '11 at 9:07
Is this a standard sata hard drive or a ssd hard drive. – nelaar Aug 4 '11 at 9:08
@nelaar, This is an interesting question. I don't think this is a ssd since this is a cheap machine. The manufacture claims this is a SATA2 hard drive. I'm not sure since I remember this is a 320GB Toshiba hard drive with S.M.A.R.T technoligy while the link I posted state this is a 250 GB. When I'll get back home I'll check this. – Yotam Aug 4 '11 at 9:15
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1 Answer

up vote 1 down vote

I would start with testing your hardware. It is probably not RAM but I would test that first anyway to prove it isn't a problem.

Next I would move onto the hard drive. You could try the diagnostics on the Ultimate Boot CD. There is a tool for most brands of hard drive. The other thing I would recommend is to try a different hard drive in your machine. Also changing USB cables if this is a desktop machine.

Hopefully at some point during this process you isolated the problem. If not then I think it is probably a software issue not hardware.

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It was a hardware error, thanks – Yotam Oct 5 '11 at 5:58

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