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Hmm... hard disk doesn't seem to boot

Posted: Tue Jan 09, 2007 3:47 pm
by Chris Corbyn
Just got an old PC for somebody... I mean old... it's got a 6GB HDD, 400MHz CPU, 192MB SDRAM.

The BIOS kept saying that no OS was installed so I re-installed Win2K server on it (it has run on this machine before!). It formatted the disk and copied all the files to it OK but then at the reboot stage it just hangs at a black screen (after the MBR has been read and at the point where windows' bootloader would usually fire up windows). It just sits there, no errors.

So I installed Ubuntu. Again, the disk is readbale and it installed, but Grub gets to the "Grub is loading" or whatever it says note, but enever actually manages to start Grub so it won't boot Linux neither.

Any ideas what to look for to fix this? :( I guess "dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/hda" won't make any difference.

Posted: Tue Jan 09, 2007 4:11 pm
by Maugrim_The_Reaper
Try swapping the HDD for another to see what happens? Could be the HDD has passed its time and is destined for some retailer's disposal heap. I can install Win2K Server on something even older, so it should work on a 6GB HDD unless it's MBR sectors are corrupt/damaged.

Posted: Tue Jan 09, 2007 4:13 pm
by feyd
6GB? My mp3 player has that much. Damn that's old.

Hmm... maybe use a Live CD of some distro to do some in-depth checking of the disk?

Posted: Tue Jan 09, 2007 4:23 pm
by Chris Corbyn
I suspect the boot sector could be damaged, that sounds logical.

I'll try flattening the entire disk with zeroes and see if that helps. I that doesn't work, it will finish up having to have a floppy in the drive with GRUB or something on it configured to boot the system.

Hmm... ponders how easy it is to install GRUB purely on a floppy :idea:

EDIT | A GRUB boot CD looks like an awesome idea. GRUB is extremely handy if you know how to run the commands manually should all else fail on you :)

I'm currently flattening the disk from start to finish with "dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/hda bs=1"... the bs=1 is gonna make it take a long time to finish :evil:

Posted: Tue Jan 09, 2007 5:53 pm
by Chris Corbyn
I am officially a legend :P

dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/hda bs=1 count=512

That fixed it! w00t!

(I wonder why the linux and windows install disks don't have the same effect when they write to the boot sector? Unless they onyl write to that 446 bytes (the actual MBR!!)).

Posted: Tue Jan 09, 2007 6:36 pm
by John Cartwright
d11wtq wrote:I am officially a legend :P
You were already a legend. :lol: