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I'm not a new user of Ubuntu (8 years and counting) but this is my first post, as I cannot seem to find an answer to this particular problem. I had Ubuntu 18.04 installed on a Toshiba Tecra and fitted a Western Digital Green 120Gb SSD. All went well initially, then after a while at boot it would start to fail with the error message

INSERT DISK IN DRIVE THEN PRESS ANY KEY.

I thought perhaps the SSD was a dud, so I replaced it, reinstalled 18.04, same happened. I then tried a clean install of 19.10 (Budgie) and all was going well for a few weeks and then yesterday it crashed out and displayed an

EXT4-fs error

related to the SSD (I presume). See screenshot. I am running 19.10 on an old HP630 with the same WD SSD and it's giving me no problems at all.

Any ideas what the problem is on my Toshiba? Thanks!

zx485
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paulreb
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  • I had wondered if it's related to this error: https://askubuntu.com/questions/905710/ext4-fs-error-after-ubuntu-17-04-upgrade – paulreb Dec 15 '19 at 02:54
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    I would boot a 'live' system (eg. Ubuntu (Ubuntu-Budgie) install media) and fsck (file system check) your ssd. I would also check the hardware health of the ssd (ie. reading it's SMART data), though the issue could just be a power-off (battery died before shutdown) type issue that created the fs errs. – guiverc Dec 15 '19 at 03:09
  • Thanks @guiverc. SMART data looks good. fsck comes up clean for both partitions (one EFI, one Linux, created on install). I also ran 'Check Filesystem' using the gnome-disk-utility, and partitions are clean. – paulreb Dec 15 '19 at 04:48
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    More than likely it's a hardware problem. I'd first suspect the SATA data and power cables. Re-seat them at both ends and see if the problem goes away. Report back. Start comments to me with @heynnema or I may miss them. – heynnema Dec 16 '19 at 01:17
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    Also check your BIOS version with sudo dmidecode -s bios-version and then go to the manufacturer's web site and check for a newer BIOS. Report back. – heynnema Dec 16 '19 at 01:18
  • @heynnema thanks so much for your help! I finally managed to look today. I unplugged the SSD from the SATA cables and reattached firmly, but am not sure how to do the same where the a cable is attached to the board. Any simple guide I could follow? Also checked the BIOS. It's v.3.9 and there is a v4.3 on the Toshiba site, and interestingly v.4.0 comes with 'Improved SSD related system stability'. How do I install? It only comes as an executable. – paulreb Dec 21 '19 at 03:33
  • @paulreb In a laptop, the SATA drive cables attach to the motherboard via a small plug... but it's really easy to damage that... so try the BIOS update first... you download the .exe in Windows and do the update from Windows... although some computers allow it to be done right from within the BIOS itself. You'll have to look at the Toshiba Tecra manual to check for that option. – heynnema Dec 21 '19 at 03:59
  • @paulreb How did the BIOS update go? Did it solve anything for you? – heynnema Dec 21 '19 at 13:42
  • @heynnem - thanks so much again. I don't have Windows installed so will have to figure out how to update the BIOS using other means. Searching now... – paulreb Dec 22 '19 at 02:51
  • @paulreb see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WqDUCfU-e-A – heynnema Dec 22 '19 at 04:26
  • @paulreb status please... – heynnema Dec 23 '19 at 16:11
  • @heynnem - spent a few hours this morning trying to update the BIOS and no luck. The problem is that the freedos bootable USB works does not work on the laptop I need to update the BIOS of. It works on another laptop (i.e. boots to freedos) but not on the Toshiba Tecra. And I have no idea why this would be. I've searched around a lot and tried a number of alternatives to create the bootable USB, but it simply does not work on the Toshiba. I have set the boot order to USB, and another USB boots fine, but the one with freedos does not, but only on the Toshiba (it boots fine on my other laptop). – paulreb Dec 26 '19 at 04:35
  • @heynnem - one difference between the two laptops is that the Toshiba has UEFI and the SSD was automatically partitioned when Ubuntu installed. – paulreb Dec 26 '19 at 04:44
  • @paulreb then probably the USB flash key was created on a BIOS (not UEFI) computer. Can you recreate it on the Toshiba? If you dual-boot, and don't boot into Windows, you could probably flip the Toshiba from UEFI to BIOS/CFM and then the USB flash key should boot (do at your own risk... as some OS's like Windows don't like that... and that's why I mentioned not to boot into Windows when set that way). – heynnema Dec 26 '19 at 13:28
  • @heynnem - thanks for all of your help once again. I followed your advice and the result is the same: the USB won't boot. I have two other USB drives for installing Ubuntu (created using the Start-up Disk Creator) and they both boot fine. I even downloaded the Win10 ISO and attempted to create a boot USB using advice here (https://itsfoss.com/bootable-windows-usb-linux/) but that didn't work. I'm stumped! – paulreb Dec 28 '19 at 10:07
  • Refresh. Did you use unetbootin to build the USB? Did you first format the USB in FAT or exFAT format? Did you build it on the Toshiba? Prior to all that, were you able to fsck your drive? – heynnema Dec 28 '19 at 15:42
  • @heynnem - yes, I did all of those. I found some advice to reformat and run check and repair filesystem on the USB a few times. Did all of that. Now the USB partitioning shows as 'Master Boot Record' and the partition type as 'W95 FAT32 (LBA) (Bootable)' (see https://drive.google.com/open?id=1YnMKxEt9xUnNPaYQKRHesR46ulbvKzfr) but still doesn't boot and boot order is definitely set to USB as other bootable USBs are recognised – paulreb Dec 29 '19 at 06:09
  • @heynnem - seems relevant: https://askubuntu.com/questions/374931/install-ubuntu-in-uefi-mode-unable-to-boot-from-usb "...the Ubuntu installer should work fine if copied to a USB flash drive via the Linux dd command or equivalent tools in Windows. More complex programs, like unetbootin, were designed with BIOS-mode booting in mind. Furthermore, EFIs vary greatly, making it impossible for developers of such tools to test on a wide enough variety of systems. Such tools can therefore sometimes create USB flash drives that are unbootable in EFI mode." – paulreb Dec 29 '19 at 07:55
  • @heynnem - as the main challenge now seems to be one of creating a bootable USB on UEFI (so that I can run/install freedos or even window) I wonder if I should open a new question? – paulreb Dec 29 '19 at 10:02
  • @paulreb I would have never thought that creating a bootable flash would be so difficult... not your fault for lack of trying. Sure, go ahead and start a new question, however don't make it sound too much like a hardware question, as it'll get closed. Do link back to this question. If you're ever able to update your BIOS, let me know, ok? – heynnema Dec 29 '19 at 15:15
  • @heynnem - yes, it's been amazingly frustrating. But thanks for your help. I'll post a new Q. – paulreb Dec 30 '19 at 06:04

1 Answers1

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partial pending answer...

We're looking to solve SATA SSD disk related errors.

File system check...

  • boot to a Ubuntu Live DVD/USB
  • open a terminal window by pressing Ctrl+Alt+T
  • type sudo fdisk -l
  • identify the /dev/sdXX device name for your "Linux Filesystem"
  • type sudo fsck -f /dev/sdXX, replacing sdXX with the number you found earlier
  • repeat the fsck command if there were errors
  • type reboot

BIOS check/update...

With sudo dmidecode -s bios-version we learned that your current BIOS version is 3.9. Checking the Toshiba web site we find that the current BIOS is version 4.3. (and interestingly v4.0 comes with 'Improved SSD related system stability').

We don't have a Windows environment installed, so we can't install the BIOS update using Windows.

But we can install the BIOS updates from Linux! See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WqDUCfU-e-A for instructions. (unetbootin, FreeDOS (http://www.freedos.org/), and BIOS .exe files).

heynnema
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