I've read several similar grub error questions and answers, researched on Google (a lot), but still have not found a solution to my problem.
I have an "old" notebook where I've installed Windows XP and then Ubuntu 8.04 – everything worked well for a long time. After the kids played with it (i.e. I have not seen what happened), I couldn't boot anymore. Grub simply said Error 17, and nothing else. After several Error 17 failures, the error changed to Error 18 – and this is the error it shows now.
What have I tried? I tried several Linux LIVE CD's and DVD's I have: Ubuntu 8.04, Kubuntu 10.04, Ubuntu 10.04, Ubuntu 11.10, Fedora 11, etc. – none of them is able to start, in all modes and options I tried (I have not manually edited the commands, but tried the provided options). I can't use the Live CD OS, and I can't install them either. This is important: it is ok to erase all HD contents! It is ok to format, repartition, lose all HD data – no problem.
In most of the Ubuntu flavours, including the 8.04 CD, the initialization stucks, showing repeatedly the following error messages:
ata3.00: exception Emask 0x0 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x0 action 0x0
ata3.00: BMDMA stat 0x25
ata3.00: cmd 25/00:08:e5:a5:50/00:00:12:00:00/e0 tag 0 dma 1024 in
ata3.00: status: { DRDY ERR }
ata3.00: error: { UNC }
I also have tried the Windows XP installation CD. The recover command-line fails: fixmbr, fixboot, format – nothing works. If I try diskpart the partitioning tool tells me the HD is "unreachable" and if I try to continue a kind-of BSOD appears, giving me the only option to restart the computer.
If instead of the recover command-line, I try to install the system, the same diskpart thing happens in the partition selection step.
So, I downloaded and burned Rescatux into a CD. It can't start, saying:
Welcome to GRUB!
error: invalid arch independent ELF magic.
Entering rescue mode...
grub rescue>
And I am left with this grub rescue prompt, which sounds good, but it is useless to me, since I have no idea of what and how can I do with it.
So, please, good and helpful souls who read my quest up to here: what can I type in this grub rescue prompt which can help me in the way of being able to boot again???
It is ok to me to format the HD, reinstall Windows XP, reinstall Ubuntu, repartition the HD, or eventually restore the damaged part and recover the dual boot ability. I just want to use my notebook again.
Thanks!
Best Answer
From what you say, it doesn't sound like a problem with GRUB or any other operating system. GRUB is the first thing that is read on the hard drive, but it seems like you are having problems even reading the hard drive at all. It may be a hard drive failure on the laptop, which definitely happens eventually to any hard drive, especially laptops that move around while the drive is spinning and also have reduced airflow (especially when old and clogged up with years of dust inside).
But the fact that you are having trouble reading all of the CDs makes it seem like it might be something causing all the disks to fail, like a controller card or something. It's possible to have multiple failures at once, but seems unlikely.
If it was me, and I really wanted to resurrect the laptop, I would try to first take apart as much as I can and clean it out with a vacuum cleaner and perhaps compressed air, getting out as much dust as possible. Sometimes dust makes the cpu fan stop, and when that happens, all sorts of errors occur. I once had a computer where the fan had stopped, and I thought I had a virus, as it kept getting strange errors right away.
If you can't get a CD to boot properly, nothing else will work, though.