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I have a Hcl notebook P38 PDC, the hard disk is completely blank. I tried installing Ubuntu 11.04 as a .iso image from a cd but it did not boot. Later I tried installing it from USB using UNetbootin and also Universal USB installer but both in vain. Can someone please tell me what wrong am I doing or what else needs to be done. I am using a Toshiba pen drive 4Gb. I tried booting from the rescue mode but again had the same problem. Would be great if someone helps me out ASAP. Thank you( for reading as well as for helping).

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    "I tried installing Ubuntu 11.04 as a .iso image from a cd but it did not boot" Many people new to Linux will simply copy an iso to a CD. No, you need to "burn an iso".That is a special process which creates a Linux bootable disk. Look at help.ubuntu.com/community/BurningIsoHowto "I am using a Toshiba pen drive 4Gb. I tried booting from the rescue mode but again had the same problem. " 1) What same problem? 2) Exactly what happened when you tried a NORMAL boot from the pen drive?
    – user4815
    Aug 8, 2011 at 16:58
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    Not just people new to Linux but also people new to CD/DVD burning.
    – ThePiercingPrince
    Jun 26, 2012 at 3:17

4 Answers 4

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Since you're able to get to the grub screen (to select failsafe), it sounds like you are booting to USB correctly.

Try the alternative CD, and see if you have any luck.

http://www.ubuntu.com/download/ubuntu/alternative-download

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It's likely that you are having issue seeing the drive. This may be an AHCI issue or an issue with the way your BIOS is handling your hard drive mode. Go into your bios and see what your hard drive mode is. If you can change the mode to IDE you may have more luck.

I will warn you however that if AHCI mode isn't enabled it reduces hot swap ability. It being a laptop I don't forsee this as much of an issue, but thought I would let you know.

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"I tried installing Ubuntu 11.04 as a .iso image from a cd but it did not boot." Are you copying the .iso image to the CD or simply burn the CD with the .iso image? If you are simply copying, it would not work. However, if you are burning the data of the image to your CD, it will work. Also check your BIOS setup.

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I had a similar problem with UBUNTU 13.04- my laptop would not boot from the live cd AT ALL...

I found out that you have to burn the downloaded ISO image file to the cd/dvd as an image and not just as a normal file.

The boot up will then mount the image and boot up from it and ask if you want to try UBUNTU or INSTALL it. With the try option, UBUNTU will run from the live cd without affecting anything on you current system.

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    Please avoid posting the same answer in more than one place. When tempted to do so, typically: (1) the answer should be customized to account for what is different about the different questions, (2) one question should be flagged for closure as a duplicate of another question (you can flag posts with 15 reputation), (3) the answer should really be a comment, or (4) the answer should be posted in the most appropriate place, and one-line comments posted on the other questions summarizing and linking to it.
    – Eliah Kagan
    Jul 24, 2013 at 9:42

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