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I am attempting to fix an OS drive that had some problems after installing updates. The hard drive is currently not bootable. My main goal right now is just to get some data off this drive.

I have a live CD which I am able to boot from when the hard drive is not attached. When I attach the hard drive however I get an error message after clicking "Try Ubunutu before installing".

The error message looks like this:

[    14.071718] ata2: COMRESET failed (errno=-16)
[    24.087575] ata2: COMRESET failed (errno=-16)

BusyBox v1.22.1 (Ubuntu 1:1.22.0-8ubunutu1) built-in shell (ash)

(initramfs) Unable to find a medium containing a live file system

Any thoughts on how I can get into this hard drive or what is keeping the Live CD from booting properly when the hard drive is connected?

tgrosinger
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  • Could you put the hard drive in an external USB enclosure then plug the drive in after "Try Ubuntu" is booted up? – Terrance May 06 '15 at 16:49
  • Unfortunately I do not have one, but if I don't find any other ideas I will go get one. – tgrosinger May 06 '15 at 16:49
  • Also, you might need to go to your BIOS and change the SATA controller from IDE to AHCI. – Terrance May 06 '15 at 16:54
  • Already done. Thank you for the idea though. – tgrosinger May 06 '15 at 17:10
  • Most BIOSes support SATA hot-unplugging/hot-plugging, check if that's the case for your BIOS – kos May 06 '15 at 17:10
  • It does and I tried plugging in the drive once already booted but it did not show up under /dev or sudo fdisk -l. I had this working earlier this morning. I would say it seems like the drive has died, but if that was the case I would think it wouldn't affect the Live CD booting. – tgrosinger May 06 '15 at 17:24
  • I did a little further searching and found the bug they refer to for this https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/casper/+bug/543875 but it lead to http://http.download.nvidia.com/XFree86/nforce/1.0-0306/KnownProblems.html which basically recommends disabling ACPI in BIOS. Hopefully that will help. – Terrance May 06 '15 at 17:35
  • It worked, and the drive showed up! Thank you very much. You should submit this as an answer so I can accept it. Only difference is I had to edit the grub option to include acpi=off when booting rather than doing it in the BIOS.

    http://askubuntu.com/questions/160036/how-do-i-disable-acpi-when-booting

     – tgrosinger May 06 '15 at 17:47
  • No problem, I will create an answer right now. – Terrance May 06 '15 at 18:14

2 Answers2

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ACPI needs to be turned off during boot. When booting to the LiveCD, before selecting Try Ubuntu without installing, press the F6 key for Other Options and select acpi=off. Press ESC to exit the Other Options menu, and press Enter to continue the boot.

For further help about selecting Other Options from a live boot, refer to https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BootOptions

Terrance
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Before chosing "Try ubuntu without installing" press the letter's e key to edit the boot option. In the longest line add --noacpi and press F10. The LiveCD will boot fine.

Fethi Dilmi
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