Ubuntu 16.04/16.10 not booting

Question

I have been trying to install Ubuntu 16.10/16.04 on my computer. 16.04 also had installation issues if I remember correctly, but it eventually worked. It got deleted and I installed windows on a separate hdd (attempting to dual boot win10 + ubuntu). After multiple reinstalls, ubuntu no longer boots.

Here is my setup and what I have tried so far:

• Motherboard: GA-78LMT-ISB3;
• SATA Port 0: 2TB HDD (unplugged, win10) (master);
• SATA Port 1: 250GB SanDisk 850 evo SSD (not booting) (master);
• BIOS: Award (separate problem: I cannot boot via usb);
• Graphics: MSI

I have tried using nomodeset (seemed to make it worse), reinstalling ubuntu (>5 times), reinstalling grub, installing with or without the windows disk plugged in, changing the SATA controller mode from IDE to AHCI, changing the boot order, telling it to boot the SSD, etc.

When I hold Shift on boot to try and access grub, it says that it's loading grub. 1 second later I get a black screen for 2-3 seconds, then the computer reboots.

** EDIT: I believe problem is the SSD because I loaded Windows on it and tried to boot it and got the same problem. What could be wrong, all the files seem to be there?

** EDIT 2: I now believe it is the BIOS. Neither Windows nor Ubuntu will boot anymore.

Thank you.

Answer 1

The easy way out would be to reinstall.

First create a bootable CD/DVD of another Linux distribution such as Kali Linux, Linux Mint or Ubuntu

Then boot from the CD/DVD and you should be able to access your files on the hard disk. Copy any important files to a USB Stick or a Cloud Storage service (OneDrive, Google Drive, Mega, Dropbox etc), you may also want to backup your home folder (/home/"username") aswell so after reinstalling you will get most of your personal settings.

Then reinstall by using either that same CD/DVD to reinstall or make another Ubuntu CD/DVD and reinstall.

Hope this helps!

Linux4Life - Linux at your fingertips

Answer 2

The first thing is to perform a file system check on your Ubuntu disk...

• boot to the GRUB menu (where you select which OS to start)
• choose Advanced Options
• choose Recovery mode
• choose Root access
• at the # prompt, type sudo fsck -f /
• you can ignore errors about the time/date/superblock
• repeat the fsck command if there were other errors
• type reboot