error: out of disk

[silver]

I've done a search on this error but can't seem to find an answer for my flavor of the problem.
I have mint 11 installed on a Samsung N145 plus netbook. It has been working perfect for me.
Yesterday I shut down the netbook, today when I power up I get the error.
error: out of disk.
grub rescue>
I try to boot off of a mint 11 dvd and I can not, I try to boot off of a usb boot drive with mint 11 and also It will not let me.
It refuses to boot anything, just goes to black screen, except in compatibility mode.

If I boot (mint 11 DVD) into compatibility mode I notice this error.
ata1.00 failed command: READ FPDMA QUEUED
But it never boots it just flashes this error with a lot of other info about ata1.00 after 10 seconds I get a black screen and that's it.

If someone could help that would be great.
Thanks
Ronnie

[Elisa]

Try to run fsck command from a CD booted rescue disc or any other linux.
If you are lucky, then mount the hdd, backup all your needed data - due your disk is probably seriously ill and gonna pass away...
Then try regular boot.

It seems you will have to go to your seller and ask for new disk...

[kyphi]

About half-way down in the document in the following URL is a section of commands for "grub rescue>" under the heading of "Rescue Mode (''grub rescue>'') Booting" which may be of help to you.

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Grub2#Rescue%20Mode

also here:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1331730

You could also consider a BIOS update (in case the fault originates from your BIOS) and put a copy of System Rescue CD into your recovery toolkit: http://www.sysresccd.org/Main_Page

[silver]

For the moment I only have mint 11 dvd, mint 10 dvd, and mint dabian. And none of them boot.
I am downloading a rescue cd. Will try with that.
If I could get something to boot then the Grub Rescue page might help. But until I can get something to boot either CD, DVD or USB I can't work on fixing the problem.

I will update when I have the rescue cd downloaded and try it.

Thanks
Ronnie

[kyphi]

If you cannot boot from any source then the SystemRescue CD will be of no use to you at the moment. Do download it, however, you may find it useful in the future and it should be in your recovery toolkit.

Netbooks are set to boot from the internal hard drive. If you want to boot from a different source, you will have to press "Esc" or another button during boot to access the boot order screen where you will be able to specify which medium the machine should boot from. Check your Samsung manual what procedure to follow to access the boot order screen. The Asus Eee PC uses the "Esc" key.

The Grub Rescue page tells you what commands are available to you when you get to the "grub rescue >" prompt.

[silver]

So I went ahead and downloaded the Rescue CD.
As the other CD's they all boot up to the grub start menu but even the rescue after selecting any of the boot up options just begins to error out. It's as if on boot up Linux wants to make sure the hard drive works or something. I get page after page of sata errors. And then eventually the system locks up on a black screen.

Could it be that all the linux live cd's try to use the virtual memory space on the hard drive?
I'm just wondering why the live cd's even care about the hard drive?
I would think that you could boot any live cd regardless to the condition of the hard drive.

the error I get:
ata3: SATA link down (SStatus 0 SControl 300)
ata4: SATA link down (SStatus 0 SControl 300)
ata1.00: qc timout (cmd 0xoc)
ata1.00: failed to IDENTIFY (I/O error, err_mask=0x4)

ata1.00: satus: { DRDY ERR }
ata1.00: error: { UNC }
end_request: I/O error, dev sda, sector 459956294
Buffer I/O error on device sda4, logical block 8

etc........
And these error just go on for pages.

I wish I could just at least boot up some live cd.

Well thanks for the good ideas.
I'll just keep working at it.
Ronnie

[Elisa]

AFAIK or remember well, Debian Squeeze DVD (disk No. 1) is possible to load to RAM only. Also Amnesia (Incognito) CD also.
But can you see your hdd(s) in BIOS ?

As I mentioned, it's probably passing away to HDD heaven...

[silver]

Yes I can see the hard drive in BIOS.

I would think even if the HD was toast that a live CD would boot.


Thanks
Ronnie

[kyphi]

It is quite possible that the hard drive failed - they do not always give a warning. If that is the case then the machine should be returned to the manufacturer. Nevertheless, the machine should still be able to boot from another medium.

The things I would try are:
1. Go into the BIOS and reset to "Default" or "Failsafe" and then attempt to boot.
2. Check the CMOS battery - that it is not loose or low in charge or leaking (causing a short circuit).
3. Get a BIOS upgrade.
4. Try some of the commands applicable to "grub rescue>" such as "dump" to clear memory.