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I am trying to install Ubuntu Server on a 4TB hard drive and I can not get the system to see the boot loader.

I had originally installed Ubuntu Server on this exact same computer with a 500GB hard drive with absolutely no issues; I decided to do a clean install when I got the 4TB hard drive because I had not done much with the old installation.

When I first tried to install Ubuntu Server, I tried installing it in a RAID1 setup with two 4TB HDDs, but the installer would fail when it got to the boot loader step. I then tried to install GRUB manually with a Live USB, but that never worked.

I eventually gave up and decided to just do the installation once again on just one 4TB hard drive with no RAID. This time, it had no errors, but when I finished, I got an Intel PXE error message saying it couldn't find any bootable device. I checked the BIOS and unplugged all other drives to make sure it is booting to the right drive.

I used the Live USB to run boot-repair with recommended repair, which said it ran successfully, and still got the same error. I then ran boot-repair with advanced settings for manual configuration. During this process it asked me to paste a command into the Terminal which then asked which drives to install GRUB on. Any partition on this list comes back with an error saying that the GRUB couldn't be installed to the partition.

What on earth is going on? I'm going to have to switch to Windows Server 2012 at this rate. As much as I hate Windows, it's still better than this.

tsmith18256
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  • Afaik you have to install GRUB to a device (e.g. sda without number) instead of a partition (e.g. sda1). And I only have seen Some Intel PXE errors when the machine tried to boot from a non-existing LAN connection. Check your boot order in BIOS. – Byte Commander Feb 18 '15 at 01:35
  • @ByteCommander I have tried this and the grub-install command says it succeeded with no errors; however the system still won't boot. I turned off the Boot From Internet option to eliminate the LAN possibility and still no luck. – tsmith18256 Feb 18 '15 at 02:29
  • And you are booting from the correct disk? Could you unplug all except the first with GRUB installed or is it a remote server? – Byte Commander Feb 18 '15 at 02:55
  • @ByteCommander Yes I have unplugged all other boot options. The Boot From Internet is turned off, there is no optical drive or other hard drives connected, and I pulled the USB drive. – tsmith18256 Feb 18 '15 at 06:27
  • And it still does not work? And boot-repair still does nothing? And what about manually installing GRUB (described in this Q&A)? – Byte Commander Feb 18 '15 at 10:29
  • @ByteCommander Nope, it still just says no bootable device. If I try to manually install grub as /dev/sda, it says success but doesn't work. If I try to install grub as /dev/sda1, it errors out. Boot repair does not accomplish anything. – tsmith18256 Feb 18 '15 at 19:18
  • @ByteCommander I even tried shrinking the / partition to 500GB, like it was on my old drive, and then mounting the other 3.5TB to another folder, as described here: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2099479 but that still didn't work! I really thought that forum there was going to be the solution. – tsmith18256 Feb 18 '15 at 19:22
  • Very very strange. To be exact, it is too strange for me. I have no more ideas at the moment, unfortunately... Sorry :-( – Byte Commander Feb 18 '15 at 19:24

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I have determined that this was an issue with the motherboard and not with Ubuntu Server. I had tried many settings on the BIOS to get it working (UEFI on/off fast boot on/off, secure boot on/off), but nothing worked. When I took the drive to my main computer, it worked perfectly on my newer Asus motherboard. I guess this Intel board doesn't like 4TB hard drives.

tsmith18256
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