4

At the moment my laptop does not have any OS. I am trying to install Ubuntu 10.04 using a live cd, which runs perfectly, but after the initial installation steps it shows an

input/output error during read on /dev/sda

and the installation stops.

I am selecting the option to erase and use the entire disk. I also tried doing manual partitioning - of the 60 GB hard disk I allowed 52 GB to be the root partition formatted as ext4, and the rest to be a swap area, but I still got the same error.

How can I fix this?

1

4 Answers 4

3

From your description, it sounds like your disk is dying. To confirm this, I suggest using a low-level disk integrity checking tool, like Salvation HDD Scan and Repair

Formatting the disk will only resolve problems at the filesystem level. If the aforementioned tool detects any errors, your only recourse will be to replace the disk.

1

I have experienced this problem because of bad installation media. Download from torrent or check the MD5 sums against the ones here.

1

I had this problem too; I fixed it by changing the HDD to SATA mode in BIOS.

See this post for more details.

0
0

Try some diagnosis on your drive, the Ubuntu-live-cd has a pretty good disc-analysis-tool! Else try SystemRescueCd 1.6.0. These tests will give you an idea if your drive is still ok.

3
  • i ran the memtest 86 and it said that it was ok and test passed.
    – sukrit
    Sep 16, 2010 at 13:35
  • Sukrit, just run the Ubuntu10.4 live-cd. Select Try ubuntu. Then System->Preferences->Administration->Diskutility. Is your disc listed up? You can perform some tests here. Sep 16, 2010 at 16:29
  • diskutility is showin my 60 HD but when i tried using benchmark it showed an error indetails it showed input/output error. i tried formatting,same error..
    – sukrit
    Sep 16, 2010 at 17:23

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .