Slow Hard drive.... unable to reach BIOS

Hi Christina

/dev/sda1 is where your Linux (small r) root system is. That is, your operating system files.

So now you can type in and enter



... a modification of what I mentioned earlier.

Cheers

Chris

Here's what I got:

root@christina-K53U:/home/christina# sudo badblocks -v /dev/sda1 > badsectors.txt
Checking blocks 0 to 308789247
Checking for bad blocks (read-only test): done
Pass completed, 548 bad blocks found. (548/0/0 errors)
root@christina-K53U:/home/christina#
 


OK, so the suspicions about having some problems are correct, and these bad blocks, depending on their positioning may or may not be accounting for some of your difficulties you are experiencing.

If you type in and enter

Code:
cat badsectors.txt

there should be some output generated and you could provide that to us.

Cheers

Wizard
 
Hi Christina... I'm still following along, but you're getting such good advice from @arochester and @wizardfromoz and @Ptahhotep that I have just been attending to other things. Wizard may be heading toward my next thought (he does seem to be a mind reader sometimes)... but I'd like for you to also use another tool to do some testing on your hard drive. Using different tools can give different perspectives on what may be going on. The one I have in mind is something I mentioned earlier, called smartmontools. It also has a graphical interface available (GSmartControl) to make it a little easier to use, I hope! It depends on you having a S.M.A.R.T. capable drive, but it is likely that you do.

Please installed the two programs with just this single command:
Code:
sudo apt install smartmontools && sudo apt install gsmartcontrol

When finished, go into your Ubuntu Dash to access your programs and find/launch GSmartControl. It will need your password to launch this app. It will look like this after you click your hard drive to highlight it, and also click the little arrow icon next to More:
Screenshot at 2018-07-16 21-38-06.png


There are a number of things about your hard drive that this can probably detect, but for now I mostly would just like to see if it reports PASSED for the Basic Health Check like mine shows above. The app also has a "short test" and a "long test" that we might ask you to run later.

Another question I have is... Have you tried to boot on your Ubuntu 16.04 USB yet? I guess that you will want to try to reinstall that at some point coming up, and I want to make sure that it works, for one thing. But for another thing... I wonder if when that time comes if we might have you boot on it and use the "live USB" to erase this hard drive and run some of these tests again on the empty hard drive before installing Ubuntu. And then possibly run the tests again after Ubuntu is installed. Testing in stages like that may also help shape our opinion of the health of the drive.

Cheers
 
Hi Christina... I'm still following along, but you're getting such good advice from @arochester and @wizardfromoz and @Ptahhotep that I have just been attending to other things. Wizard may be heading toward my next thought (he does seem to be a mind reader sometimes)... but I'd like for you to also use another tool to do some testing on your hard drive. Using different tools can give different perspectives on what may be going on. The one I have in mind is something I mentioned earlier, called smartmontools. It also has a graphical interface available (GSmartControl) to make it a little easier to use, I hope! It depends on you having a S.M.A.R.T. capable drive, but it is likely that you do.

Please installed the two programs with just this single command:
Code:
sudo apt install smartmontools && sudo apt install gsmartcontrol

When finished, go into your Ubuntu Dash to access your programs and find/launch GSmartControl. It will need your password to launch this app. It will look like this after you click your hard drive to highlight it, and also click the little arrow icon next to More:
View attachment 3230

There are a number of things about your hard drive that this can probably detect, but for now I mostly would just like to see if it reports PASSED for the Basic Health Check like mine shows above. The app also has a "short test" and a "long test" that we might ask you to run later.

Another question I have is... Have you tried to boot on your Ubuntu 16.04 USB yet? I guess that you will want to try to reinstall that at some point coming up, and I want to make sure that it works, for one thing. But for another thing... I wonder if when that time comes if we might have you boot on it and use the "live USB" to erase this hard drive and run some of these tests again on the empty hard drive before installing Ubuntu. And then possibly run the tests again after Ubuntu is installed. Testing in stages like that may also help shape our opinion of the health of the drive.

Cheers
Not heard of these tools - I know of Killdisk which can be used on Windows which I have used in the past not only to erase the disk but to check it. Not sure if you still have the windows 7 there? If you have and can boot into then download and try that way. It takes a good while to complete, but it shows up everything. I do think erasing the hard drive is the best option to try, because once it is clean it will show the way forward - or if it won't clean then it will be almost certain that that drive is an ex-drive. - We're all still with you lass - keep going and let us know how you're doing :):)
 
OK, so the suspicions about having some problems are correct, and these bad blocks, depending on their positioning may or may not be accounting for some of your difficulties you are experiencing.

If you type in and enter

Code:
cat badsectors.txt

there should be some output generated and you could provide that to us.

Cheers

Wizard

Nothing......

root@christina-K53U:/home/christina# cat badsectors.txt
root@christina-K53U:/home/christina#
 
I think she said Windows was on a separate drive, so it can't help to test the Linux drive... unless maybe she has an external hard drive enclosure to put the Linux drive into so she could plug that into the laptop.

Cheers
I think she can still use it to check the BIOS and hard drive no matter what she has on it : http://www.killdisk.com/linux-console-prepare.htm this link shows how - it was always one of my most trusted tools and hard drive wipers - If you install an OS on an un-clean hd or SSD the problem may still be there - I know that by killing the disk off you remove everything for certain and then can have a clean start - if that doesn't work then it has to be a hardware problem IMHO - this is reminding so much of someone I helped after they had a virus and that was the solution, the only solution that worked in the end
 
I think she can still use it to check the BIOS and hard drive no matter what she has on it : http://www.killdisk.com/linux-console-prepare.htm this link shows how - it was always one of my most trusted tools and hard drive wipers - If you install an OS on an un-clean hd or SSD the problem may still be there - I know that by killing the disk off you remove everything for certain and then can have a clean start - if that doesn't work then it has to be a hardware problem IMHO - this is reminding so much of someone I helped after they had a virus and that was the solution, the only solution that worked in the end
I don't think we're on the same page here, or maybe I've missed something (I do sometimes). If she removes the Linux hard drive that shows bad blocks from the laptop.... and puts the Windows drive back in the laptop to install KillDisk... then how can she use that to test the Linux drive that would now be removed? :confused:

Or are you suggesting that KillDisk might run under Wine on her Linux hard drive?

Or that she should install Windows on the Linux hard drive in order to install KillDisk to test it that way?

Or something else?

Cheers
 
Trying to take a step at a time. Got the GSmart and now am going to shut down and see about booting on the usb then will get back to you all.

Screenshot from 2018-07-17 08-58-13.png
 
I obviously have no idea what I am doing. Got to BIOS and enabled UEFI but could not find a way to boot from the USB. It is still inserted but my normal desktop came up.

Screenshot from 2018-07-17 09-24-28.png
Screenshot from 2018-07-17 09-24-43.png
Screenshot from 2018-07-17 09-25-21.png
 
I'm at work on my phone, so I may not be as clear as I want to be. :eek::D

There are usually a couple of ways to get your USB to boot. It looks like you have 2 flash drives plugged in... one is 2 GB and has the Ubuntu .iso file. If this is a separate flash drive, it's not the one to try to boot. The other one that shows all the folders inside should be the bootable drive.

The simplest way is usually to interrupt the computer when it is booting, like you interrupt it to get to your BIOS. Is it the ESC key that started working for you? At that point you should have an option for Boot Menu also, and you would pick that instead of BIOS (you need the flash drive plugged in earlier... as soon as you start to turn on the computer).

The other method needs to go into BIOS and find your Boot Options there. Sometimes you have to go into some other section first to find the Boot Options inside. There is usually a option to boot on a USB device, and you need to move that option to the top of the list. The F5 or F6 keys are often used to move a highlighted device up or down on the boot order. When you get it into position, you can usually hit F10 to Exit, and be sure to Save Changes. It should then always boot on the USB first, before the hard drive, if you set this up correctly.

Glad to see the PASSED report from the GSmartControl app. I'll describe for you later how to run a "short test" which only takes about 2 minutes. I want to investigate the "long test" a little more before recommending that. Some long tests can take days to complete, and I don't want to get into that unless we think it will be worthwhile. :eek::D

Cheers
 
Oh, and UEFI enabled should be fine with Ubuntu. I think that is the best choice.
 
So, tried again. Yes esc key is what does it. First it comes up with boot menu but the only thing there for usb is the Flash5.0 which doesn't work, error 17. Refering to the pics I posted of my Boot Menu and Bios on pg 1 it looks like I have to add a boot option. I am not sure how to.....
 
There are usually a couple of ways to get your USB to boot. It looks like you have 2 flash drives plugged in... one is 2 GB and has the Ubuntu .iso file. If this is a separate flash drive, it's not the one to try to boot. The other one that shows all the folders inside should be the bootable drive.

Only have 1 flash drive plugged in... the other stuff is after double clicking the .iso file
 
I don't think we're on the same page here, or maybe I've missed something (I do sometimes). If she removes the Linux hard drive that shows bad blocks from the laptop.... and puts the Windows drive back in the laptop to install KillDisk... then how can she use that to test the Linux drive that would now be removed? :confused:

Or are you suggesting that KillDisk might run under Wine on her Linux hard drive?

Or that she should install Windows on the Linux hard drive in order to install KillDisk to test it that way?

Or something else?

Cheers
No I would never suggest anyone runs anything through wine. Killdisk can be downloaded and used as an ISO which is then started BEFORE loading anything else and run to check the disk - if there are problems then you can re-boot into it and kill the whole disk off as you would if you were going to get rid of. This will make it "almost new". Once the disk has been killed you can then restart an OS of choice as a clean install. If killdisk doesn't work then that is a very clear indication that the hard drive is faulty. It that was the case then I personally would purchase an SSD and install that - I have done that a few times and have never had a problem again -
 
Only have 1 flash drive plugged in... the other stuff is after double clicking the .iso file
Ah, okay... that explains it. An .iso file is not bootable when you simply copy it to a USB or DVD. It has to first be installed to the USB with a special tool... and that will make it look like what you see when you double clicked on it.

There are many of these tools available for both Linux and Windows. A very simple one called dd comes installed with just about all Linux versions, but you have to be very careful to type the command correctly, and you have to be certain of how your computer identifies your particular flash drive. I don't trust myself to give you the command exactly from memory, so I'll come back to this later or someone else may give you the instructions. There are also some programs that you can install if you want a graphical tool instead. One very nice one is called Etcher, but my work is getting busy now so I can't find a link or give you a better description of it.

This may be where Wizard appears in a puff of smoke! :eek::D

There may be a newer Ubuntu also... I think 16.04.4 but I'm not sure. As you get ready to make this USB it is a good time to consider what you want to install. There is a much newer version, 18.04, but they no longer use the same Unity desktop that you have been using. The desktop that looks like Unity is called Gnome, and I would actually discourage that one for various reasons.

Gotta run for now....
 
No I would never suggest anyone runs anything through wine. Killdisk can be downloaded and used as an ISO which is then started BEFORE loading anything else and run to check the disk - if there are problems then you can re-boot into it and kill the whole disk off as you would if you were going to get rid of. This will make it "almost new". Once the disk has been killed you can then restart an OS of choice as a clean install. If killdisk doesn't work then that is a very clear indication that the hard drive is faulty. It that was the case then I personally would purchase an SSD and install that - I have done that a few times and have never had a problem again -
Okay, thanks! I get it now. By referring to it as a Windows program, I was lost to the idea that you could make a bootable utility disk with it. Cool... that may be another good option for her to try. :cool::D
 
Well, guess I will await instructions as to what to do first lol and where to find stuff and how to make my usb bootable and........ lol
 
Okay, thanks! I get it now. By referring to it as a Windows program, I was lost to the idea that you could make a bootable utility disk with it. Cool... that may be another good option for her to try. :cool::D
I had used it on Windows that is why I made reference to it - It's been that long since I made my copy now :)I should have been clearer:oops::oops:By using it, it won't muck anything up unless you kill the drive only then major changes take place. It is a simple tool to use - if the test comes back okay then you know it's a software problem - if not then it is a hardware one. In any case I think we can all get lost when an easy solution might be right in front of us - killdisk is one of my short cuts, but then I know what I am doing.
 
Ok, I am downloading 16.04.4 and have found the instructions to make a bootable usb so hopefully tomorrow I can do this. I will be using Startup Disk Creator for the usb.
 

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