Out of Disk Space but Still Boots – Troubleshooting Guide

diskgrub2

I have a HP Compaq nx6310 notebook wth 4gb memory & a new 250gb hdd. After installing Ubuntu 12.04, i got an "out of disk" error & was unable to boot. I rebooted in live, instaled & ran Boot Repair then rebooted. Grub menu loaded fine, followed by "out of disk…..press any key to continue". I pressed a key & Ubuntu booted, a bit slow but still booted.
So here are my questions:
1- Since Ubuntu DOES boot, should I just leave it alone?
2- If I need to fix this, HOW do I do it?
3- What causes this error?

$wolf@lpc-1:~$ df -h
Filesystem      Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda1       230G  9.1G  209G   5% /
udev            1.6G   12K  1.6G   1% /dev
tmpfs           655M  868K  654M   1% /run
none            5.0M     0  5.0M   0% /run/lock
none            1.6G  260K  1.6G   1% /run/shm
wolf@lpc-1:~$

Best Answer

Okay, so it seems to be a problem with GRUB. I found this info in the official Ubuntu documentation. I know you already know how to get going with boot repair, but I will include it in case you forgot, or someone else is having the same issue.

You can either download the boot repair ISO, burn it to a CD and boot from that, or you can use a regular Ubuntu Live CD. When using a regular Ubuntu Live CD you will need to:

  • boot your computer on a Ubuntu live-CD or live-USB.

  • choose "Try Ubuntu"

  • connect internet

  • open a new Terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T), then type:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:yannubuntu/boot-repair && sudo apt-get update - Press Enter.

  • Then type:

sudo apt-get install -y boot-repair && boot-repair - Press Enter

The information on getting boot repair also came from the Ubuntu documentation.

Now, fire up boot repair, click the Advanced options -> GRUB options tab, and check the ATA disk support (solves the [out-of-disk] error) option, then Apply. Reboot, and hopefully that will take care of the issue.

Boot Repair - Advanced Options - Grub Options

If still not good, create a separate /boot partition at the start of the disk: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BootPartition

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