On Mon 23 Jan 2017 19:36:50 NZDT +1300, Barry wrote: > Hi All, the heading understates my problem - I can no longer boot my > desktop!!!
Did anyone already overstate the requirement for giving useful fault descriptions? > to start any one of them but none work. All attempts to reinstate > boot records have failed and the mbr has some funny entries. Before you ever do anything else, you boot a rescue disk, yes that runs from RAM only, and use smartctl to inspect the disks for failures. Any failed disks you get your data off first as much as possible, then you replace it. Should the rescue CD/USB stick not boot fix your hardware first. Culprits are cabling and bad connections at the connectors, if you're lucky (re-plug all of them 5 times), disk PCB failure, mobo failure (not only in the disk circuitry, could also be RAM and CPU). Ehm, maybe re-do the connections before booting a live disk. Do not attempt to write to any disk until you have verified that they are functioning, or you reduce your chances of getting your stuff off considerably and you're wasting your time re-installing anything on them anyway. But that should have been obvious to anyone. > Boot-Repair-Disk. None of the install disks appear to be writing to > the mbr. Some mobos, especially newer ones, have a BIOS setting (ugggh or UEFI) to disable MBR writing. You'll need to change that setting first. grub 2 is a bit more painful regarding config files and config directives. Fixing that up from a rescue disk can be a challenge, especially if you have a pile of different OSes installed and some braindead distros don't leave the commands used to install grub in a file somewhere. It's easy to make mistakes here and have the system not boot as you like. But check your hardware first. Volker -- Volker Kuhlmann http://volker.top.geek.nz/ Please do not CC list postings to me. _______________________________________________ Linux-users mailing list [email protected] http://lists.canterbury.ac.nz/mailman/listinfo/linux-users
