initramfs appears almost every boot

[since2019]

2007 laptop computer

lmde4 sda2
clean install mint on sda1, errors.
clean install mint on sda2 (lmde4 deleted), working fine.

its not a grub thing.

[since2019]

2007 laptop computer

lmde4 sda2
clean install mint on sda1, errors.
clean install mint on sda2 (lmde4 deleted), working fine.

[since2019]

this is a post reply and appears apart. perhap is a hack who respond in that purpose.

[since2019]

im not so old, its dealing with old technology, trying to make it work.
can be arrogant sometimes but this is not the case.
there are helpers and people who guess and no accurate. its only 1 partition showing the ata error even with clean install.
copying files some are good or ok and other corrupts only to be on the bad partition.
updates can be a disaster.

some text of the error that shows a lot of times.

exception Emask 0x0 SAct 0x0 SErr 0/0 action 0x0
BMDMA stat 0x25
failed command: READ DMA
cmd
res
status DRDY ERR
error: UNC
_req_error: I/O error, dev sda, sector .... flags
error on swap-device

[since2019]

Code: Select all

SMART Attributes Data Structure revision number: 16
Vendor Specific SMART Attributes with Thresholds:
ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME          FLAG     VALUE WORST THRESH TYPE      UPDATED  WHEN_FAILED RAW_VALUE
  1 Raw_Read_Error_Rate     0x000b   100   100   062    Pre-fail  Always       -       1
  2 Throughput_Performance  0x0005   100   100   040    Pre-fail  Offline      -       0
  3 Spin_Up_Time            0x0007   230   230   033    Pre-fail  Always       -       1
  4 Start_Stop_Count        0x0012   094   094   000    Old_age   Always       -       10406
  5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct   0x0033   001   001   005    Pre-fail  Always   FAILING_NOW 0
  7 Seek_Error_Rate         0x000b   100   100   067    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
  8 Seek_Time_Performance   0x0005   100   100   040    Pre-fail  Offline      -       0
  9 Power_On_Hours          0x0012   038   038   000    Old_age   Always       -       27577
 10 Spin_Retry_Count        0x0013   100   100   060    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
 12 Power_Cycle_Count       0x0032   094   094   000    Old_age   Always       -       10368
191 G-Sense_Error_Rate      0x000a   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
192 Power-Off_Retract_Count 0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       175
193 Load_Cycle_Count        0x0012   073   073   000    Old_age   Always       -       276269
194 Temperature_Celsius     0x0002   114   114   000    Old_age   Always       -       48 (Min/Max 18/55)
196 Reallocated_Event_Count 0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       5275
197 Current_Pending_Sector  0x0022   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       10
198 Offline_Uncorrectable   0x0008   100   100   000    Old_age   Offline      -       0
199 UDMA_CRC_Error_Count    0x000a   200   253   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
223 Load_Retry_Count        0x000a   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       0

[rene]

Code: Select all

  5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct   0x0033   001   001   005    Pre-fail  Always   FAILING_NOW 0
[ ... ]
196 Reallocated_Event_Count 0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       5275
197 Current_Pending_Sector  0x0022   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       10

This is to say that your drive is definitely failing. Not sure why the RAW value for 5 still displays as 0 but its normalized VALUE 1 is certainly below the THRESH of 5. 196/197 additionally confirm currently failing state.

There is some chance that a so-called "secure erase" (which in this case has nothing to do with security but simply with such being the lowest level "format" you can give the drive) will revive things to some extent, but a normalized value of 1 for attribute 5 I've in fact never seen; that has been counting down from 100.

A secure-erase would imply an erase; a complete emptying of the drive. If interested to try, see e.g. viewtopic.php?p=1223337#p1223337. But I'd chuck that drive in the garbage bin.

[since2019]

is a 2007 laptop 120GB hdd, old hardware, appears to be the hdd have bad parts failing but not total.
if i can upgrade the hdd now, there is a limit for this old hardware in GB?

[rene]

Not really-really although the BIOS will have a 2TiB limit as to what it can still boot from. If you'd be using Linux exclusively it's easily worked around but a 2T drive or smaller should be best and especially since I'd quite advise putting a small, cheap SSD in there anyway.

[since2019]

2TB! great news, i cant find less than 1TB in this 2021.
SSD? do you think an SSD can work on old hardware like this 2007 laptop?

[rene]

Combining your footer with http://www.notebookreview.com/notebookr ... 35-review/ says it's a SATA drive (as opposed to still IDE) so yes, a SATA SSD will work. Cheap one will do as wrt (sequential) speed you will be limited to SATA1 or at best SATA2 anyway.