Yes, sometimes if you hit Enter on things like that is may show further options on the right. I saw one option to Add Device and that might help too. I'm just not convinced the "Flash5" is your drive, though I may be wrong. It just looks odd, and it didn't show with your DVD and WDC hard drive as a boot option.
Well, it may be... but looks odd to me. I usually see a brand name. It shows available for boot override, but not in the regular boot priorities.
Is the GRUB error you showed from trying to boot on it?
it is a tool to "flash your BIOS" (update it to a newer version from Asus).
Crikey you folks move too quickly I went to get my 3rd morning coffee (brain moves slowly on a Sunday morning, and any other day ending in "y")
Last I was here we were only up to the 7 screenshots.
Christina, if I need to suggest to you, and not dumbing down in any way - take notes of settings before and after you change them, because I find myself wondering, where the frick was I??? So play it safe, eh?
Off for more coffee
Chris Turner
wizardfromoz
Christina's shows UEFI disabled, and I am thinking between seeing if that has an option to enable, and perhaps switching to CSM (Compatibility Support Module, aka Legacy Mode there is a way to work around.
Ah, maybe we'll get something to work out. It's a shame that the DVD drive is not working... but since it's broke, you can disable it next time you're in the BIOS setup. It will speed up the hard drive boot time slightly.
Wizard has a good point here (he usually does).... you may want to try to enable the UEFI boot to see if that will let you boot on your USB stick. And on that matter: What Linux do you have on the USB stick? Are you wanting to reinstall Ubuntu 16.04? Or do you have something else on there. And might you consider some other distros? The choice between UEFI and CSM may help or hinder booting some Linux systems, so we probably need to know what you're trying to get to boot.
Last photograph Grub "Error 17".
Have you messed with your partitions or could the Hard Drive be failing?
So, if hard drive is failing will it do any good to reinstall? Can the bad partitions be bypassed? Or would it be worth messing with?
Yeah, I kinda wanted her to go this route too, but if I found the right instructions on the web I don't think it will be an easy task on this laptop. I don't think it is the standard coin battery (CR2032) so it would require ordering the correct battery and disassembling the case. But the symptoms also are not really calling for a new battery right now (like losing system time accuracy).I am not sure if this has a CMOS battery, if it has, then it would wise to change that and see if that cures things.
Yeah, I kinda wanted her to go this route too, but if I found the right instructions on the web I don't think it will be an easy task on this laptop. I don't think it is the standard coin battery (CR2032) so it would require ordering the correct battery and disassembling the case. But the symptoms also are not really calling for a new battery right now (like losing system time accuracy).
Re-installing on the same hard drive may work better for awhile, and there are tools to help mark bad blocks or sectors to keep the system from using those and losing data. But if new bad blocks or sectors keep appearing, then the drive may not have much life left. So it's just a choice for you, @Christina, whether to give it another go or to replace the drive.
And on that note, what about that Windows drive you swapped with? You said it ran fine, right? Not that I want you to go back to Windows (and it may be an outdated version anyway). But what about putting that drive back in, and then installing Linux on it... and erasing Windows? Is that an option? Or do you need to save things on that drive? Just a thought...
Cheers
I get that... so keep your original plan and purpose for that drive. It's a good way for you to use it just like that.kinda hate to use it as it is a fine backup... and I saved the Windows hard drive to use when I go to craft shows
Well, hard drive lifespan is not a very good science... you can read about average lifespans (4-5 years really is a pretty good average) but usage is also a factor. Just being turned on is not hard usage, like being used in a busy server. Real lifespans for average people may be quite different from the averages. You can have a brand new hard drive fail within days... I have personally had a few of those. And you can have hard drives last 15-20 years, or more. I am currently running two exact desktops bought in October 2009 with the release of Windows 7, and they have never had an issue now in almost 9 years (with mechanical hard drives). And I have some older drives that still work too (or they did last time I plugged them into anything... but they're kind of small now for normal use).I doubt this is a 'normal' hard drive if they only last about 5 years
Maybe others can jump in with more experience with these (or other) tools.
This package contains programs for creating, checking, and maintaining
ext2/3/4-based file systems. It also includes the "badblocks" program,
which can be used to scan for bad blocks on a disk or other storage device.
sudo apt-get install e2fsprogs
sudo fdisk -l
#that's a lowercase "L"
sudo badblocks -v /dev/sda16 > badsectors.txt
#remember to use your own /dev/sda result
chris@Peppermint8-Study ~ $ sudo badblocks -v /dev/sda16 > badsectors.txt
Checking blocks 0 to 15728639
Checking for bad blocks (read-only test): done
Pass completed, 0 bad blocks found. (0/0/0 errors)
What we have done here is to stream the output of badblocks (the -v is for verbose) into a file we have created called badsectors.txt. It will be in your Home folder or partition.
chris@Peppermint8-Study ~ $ pwd
/home/chris
chris@Peppermint8-Study ~ $ ls
badsectors.txt DMZ-ubuntu Downloads Music Public Videos
Desktop Documents inxi_info.txt Pictures Templates
If I get Linux 's "cat" command to type the output of that file
Code:chris@Peppermint8-Study ~ $ cat badsectors.txt chris@Peppermint8-Study ~ $
... I am returned to the prompt, because there is nothing in the file. If I had bad sectors, they would be reported there.
If I want to do some housekeeping before going on, I can remove the empty file.
Code:rm badsectors.txt
SMARTMONTOOLS
This will be in your Repositories (ie seen in Synaptic) but may not be installed. Install it through Synaptic or else at Terminal
Code:sudo apt-get -y install smartmontools
The -y is optional, I use it when I am installing from my Repos, which I trust, it simply says yes to installing rather than listing then prompting me.
When installed, run (& again, here substitute your /dev/sdax)
- this, in my case:
Code:sudo smartctl -H /dev/sda16
The -H is for "health".
My output is
chris@Peppermint8-Study ~ $ sudo smartctl -H /dev/sda16
smartctl 6.5 2016-01-24 r4214 [x86_64-linux-4.13.0-45-generic] (local build)
Copyright (C) 2002-16, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org
=== START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===
SMART overall-health self-assessment test result: PASSED
You can read more on this command with
Code:man smartctl #OR smartctl -h
So that's a couple to get you rolling with, and there are more if you need them.
This article I found
https://www.tecmint.com/check-linux-hard-disk-bad-sectors-bad-blocks/
is handy to bookmark, perhaps. I had used smartctl a couple of years ago, and it looks familiar. I found it with a Google search using keywords "linux hard drive health tools". I had not used "badblocks" until today, so I am no wiser than Stan, Doh.
Cheers
Wizard