Ubuntu
ubiquity package

I cannot boot from the hard-drive, only USB stick

Asked by Mark Hopkins

I upgraded to 12.04 from upgrade manager recently and apart from some network problems everything went smoothly. Today it no longer boots from the hard drive. When I start up it gave me errors on the disk drive after only 2% complete and when I tried to F to fix it was unable to do so. It then says the disk drive for /tmp is not ready yet or not present and I can either skip or manual recovery and gets stuck there, after a long time (10 min) of letting it run or trying the esc key I need to force it to shut down with the power button. Ultimately when I restart I end up in the Grub screen with Ubuntu, with linux 3.2.0-38-generic, same with recovery, previous linux versions or 2 memory test options. None of them get me running.
I did download the USB startup and can get it to boot from the USB, and once there I can read the hard drive except many folder say permission denied, probably because I am not logged in under my usual account, but as Ubuntu.
I have 12.04 on an IBM Thinkpad T43.
I wonder if some of the startup programs got corrupted, and if so can I just reinstall from the USB? What will happen to the information on the hard drive (photos etc) and will I be able to get access to them again (it was four years ago when I first setup the Ubuntu on that computer and I do not remember all the settings. Also how can i verify the hard drive for bad sectors? I do not seem to be able to find the programs the same way as in the earlier versions. Finally how can I change my login to be able to read the denied files on the hard drive, I tried to log in under the user name I thought I was using but to no avail.
Please help, Thanks in advance,
Mark

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actionparsnip (andrew-woodhead666) said : 		#1

Which version did you upgrade from please?

You can use this guide to chroot to the installed OS and reinstate Grub to the MBR.
www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2011/09/live-usb-sticking-grub-2-video

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Mark Hopkins (mpinegrove) said : 		#2

I upgraded from the last LTS version, I believe it was 9.04
I tried to reinstall Grub according to the video, but with no success.
I get back to the same screen on startup.
I have to wonder if there is a problem with the hard drive, is there an easy way to verify it, and how can I change the user to see if I can recover any parts of the drive that are presently denied to me?
Thanks,
Mark

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Mark Hopkins (mpinegrove) said : 		#3

I also just tried to install and use boot repair, but also with no luck. the program never gets past the first window that says "scanning systems, this may require several minutes..." after 30 minutes I figure it will not proceed.
Also I realized that the last version I had was in fact 10.04.
Thanks,
Mark

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Anton Kanishchev (ak12-deactivatedaccount) said : 		#4

Can you try to boot from live cd, does the hard drive get recognised? If so then this is likely a software problem and not a fault with the hdd. Whilst in live cd mode you can copy your home folder (check your files open afterwards, so you are sure they are okay), so then if it is a hard drive fault you have your documents saved.

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