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I dropped my laptop (from a chair!) and now it does not boot. It shows me only the grub menu screen. Using the recovery mode it gave me:

No init found.Try passing init=bootarg  and prompted (initramsfs)

Then, I used a live cd and did:

sudo fdisk -l 

 Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *        2048      292863      145408   83  Linux
/dev/sda2          294910    95995903    47850497    5  Extended
/dev/sda3        95995904   312580095   108292096   83  Linux
/dev/sda5        88184832    95995903     3905536   82  Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda6          294912    23730175    11717632   83  Linux
/dev/sda7        23732224    88178687    32223232   83  Linux

I did : sudo fsck /dev/ for all the devices.

All were fine except from /dev/sda2 which gives :

fsck.ext2: Attempt to read block from filesystem resulted in short
read while trying to open /dev/sda2

/dev/sda5 :

fsck: fsck.swap: not found fsck: error 2 while executing fsck.swap for
/dev/sda5

and /dev/sda6 :

/dev/sda6 contains a file system with errors, check forced.
Pass 1: Checking inodes, blocks, and sizes
Error reading block 659 (Attempt to read block from filesystem resulted in short read).  Ignore error<y>? no
Error while iterating over blocks in inode 7: Attempt to read block from filesystem resulted in short read
e2fsck: aborted

(I don't know what to answer at "Ignore error")

After that, I rebooted and chose recovery from the menu grub. Now, it gave me no longer the "No init found" , it showed me a ncurses menu where I did system check and grub (these options).

The system check gave me:

/dev/sda6: UNEXPECTED INCONSISTENCY RUN fsck MANUALLY Error reading
block 659  /dev/sda6 contains a file system with errors mountall:The
system file contains errors mountall:Ignoring Plymouth not available 
(sth like that) fsck [866] terminating with condition 4

What can I do?

Kevin Bowen
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George
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1 Answers1

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My guess is that the hard drive has broken down due to the fall. I'd try to backup your files as fast as you can, using the live CD.

To check the device for errors, you can run sudo fsck -t ext3 /dev/sdaX again.

I think you'll have to get a new hard drive and reinstall your PC though.

Pieter Vandamme
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  • :It says "/dev/sda6 is in use. e2fsck: Cannot continue, aborting.". If I format and reinstall linux the problem will be solved? – George Mar 21 '13 at 13:20
  • @George: no - in case your drive was damaged: if you have anything of value on it try to rescue it now. Do not use the drive for anything else before you have your data back. See: http://askubuntu.com/questions/158855/how-can-i-recover-data-from-a-clicking-dying-external-drive – Takkat Mar 21 '13 at 13:26
  • Why do you believe the hard drive was physically damaged? If the read/write head slammed down on a single storage location, it could cause localized data loss, and possibly even physical damage (but usually of a type that is corrected for by running badblocks, since bad blocks can be marked bad and the hard drive will stop using them). It's also possible that the hard drive was dislodged and that its data (or power) connection is now intermittent or otherwise no longer securely fastened. – Eliah Kagan Mar 21 '13 at 13:31
  • But if the hard drive's reading head smashed the hard drive, there is a big chance it'll not work properly anymore, creating more and more badblocks and eventually completely crashing – Pieter Vandamme Mar 21 '13 at 14:04
  • @PieterVandamme How do you support that claim? Is there research to back that up? In my experience, hard drives that take minimal damage often work fine for many years. Most hard drives gradually degrade which could be mistaken as caused by a specific event even if it was not. So hard evidence would be necessary to support the idea that a minimally damaged drive should be discarded or considered bad. – Eliah Kagan Mar 21 '13 at 17:22
  • @Eliah Kagan:So, do you have any suggestions?I did format and still can't boot.I choose 'linux' from grub ,the hard disk shows that is working but then does nothing. – George Mar 21 '13 at 17:26
  • @Pieter Vandamme:I did format but still not booting.See above comment please.Thanks – George Mar 21 '13 at 17:31
  • @George If you can physically access the hard drive without voiding your laptop's warranty (which is usually but not always the case), I recommend checking to make sure it is well-seated, that is, that its connection to the rest of the computer is not loose. If you can provide information about that, that may help someone to post an answer. – Eliah Kagan Mar 21 '13 at 17:33
  • @Eliah Kagan:The problem is that one time I tried to open laptop and I lost a "button".Needless to say It took me hours..I will see what I can do.. – George Mar 21 '13 at 17:38
  • @George If you're concerned about accidentally damaging the computer by opening it, you might not want to open it yourself, especially if it has a warranty, or if you can enlist the assistance of others. If you do decide to open it, I recommend consulting its manuals (which should be available on the manufacturer's website even if you don't have physical copies in your possession). Usually, accessing a laptop's hard drive requires considerably less "opening up" of the laptop than would be required to access most components. – Eliah Kagan Mar 21 '13 at 17:40
  • @Eliah Kagan:I just did "sudo badblocks -sv /dev/sda1" and it found 96 bad blocks..Do I have any hope?If I do "fsck -cct ext4 /dev/sda1" , maybe it will fix it?Thanks! – George Mar 21 '13 at 17:53
  • @Eliah Kagan:Or use "sudo e2fsck -cfpv /dev/sda1"? – George Mar 21 '13 at 17:55
  • let us continue this discussion in chat – Eliah Kagan Mar 21 '13 at 17:55
  • @Eliah Kagan:Hello , I got a new hard drive ,unfortunately the problem didn't fix.Could you help me with this please? http://askubuntu.com/questions/271637/messed-up-with-mount-and-naming-a-partition-delete-a-folder-in-file-system . Thanks! – George Mar 23 '13 at 18:31