[plug] Help needed ...

[Richard Meyer]

Advice, I have plenty of, AND AT NO EXTRA charge...  ;-)

I would check the bios startup messages for any SMART info about the WD
disk.

If there were messages about how broken it was, I'd weep.

What I would then do (regardless of SMART results), is lash out for a
USB disk cage/enclosure for about $20 and put the disk in there.

I would then boot without it and plug it in, and see whether Linux can
see it ....

I would also run smartmon against it .. (Hmmm, I don't have smartmon any
more) I'm sure others will have better ideas for disk diagnostics
anyway ...

If I could access the disk, I'd back up what I needed and
destroy/reformat the disk as indicated by the SMART status.

HTH

On Thu, 2010-07-15 at 21:08 +0800, David Dartnall wrote:
> Now that the plug server's up again, below is the third of three emails
> which didn't get through. Perhaps someone could advise/help.
> 
> Hi all,
> 
> I need a linux/hardware guru. My system suddenly refused to boot, and I
> took it to the Windows bloke who sold it to me and who has been keeping
> it going over a number of years, and he got Windows running.
> 
> It has XP as well as Lucid on it, and the Windows drive now boots into 
> Windows, (very slow if the Lucid disk is connected) but Windows systems 
> can't see Linux disks, so I tried a Jaunty CD disk that I had but it 
> would only fully boot into a live session if the drive holding the Lucid 
> system is disconnected.
> 
> With it connected, (it's a relatively new WD 500 gig drive), the Jaunty 
> live session boot stops after selection of the language 'English' and 
> drops into a initramfs root prompt.
> 
> Running the live session with WD 500 unplugged, gparted found the 
> Windows disk and also my third disk which was formatted ext3 but without 
> any OS on it.
> 
> I installed Jaunty on this and plugged the 500GB Lucid disk in and 
> rebooted. After a _very long_ boot time, the Jaunty system comes up but 
> all it can see is the Windows disk... Jaunty boots quickly with the 
> 500Gb disk disconnected.
> 
> It's obviously going to cost money but I need to get the Lucid system 
> going - I'll take the box anywhere Perth Metro area...
> 
> Regards and advice please.
> I am unable to access the WD 500GB Lucid disk - can not see it.
> No I have not backed up - I'll never learn!  I sure will now tho'.
> 
> Regards
> Dave Dartnall
> 
> _______________________________________________
> PLUG discussion list: plug at plug.org.au
> http://www.plug.org.au/mailman/listinfo/plug
> Committee e-mail: committee at plug.linux.org.au

-- 
Richard Meyer <meyerri at westnet.com.au>