"Grub loading ...Error 18" - HD's not accessible any more. (Kubuntu Karmic/ WinXP)

[Bas Roufs]

Hello Goh Lip and everybody else

In the mean time I found a smoothly working external CD/DVD
lightscribe device. Additionally, the CD/DVD drive in the big PC is
still good enough to adequately READ and BOOT from the iso-CD's
produced via the little lightscriber. That's why, I try to continue at
the point where I got stuck about one week ago, when trying to access
the hard disks of the PC. So, I have tried the grub rescue disk. Till
a certain point I do manage to follow your instructions. But beyond
that point, I get stuck. That's why, I hope to get one or a few
advises from this forum enabling me to go on the attempts to save and
access again the SDB 180GB hard disk with the two Linux partitions:
Kubuntu 7.10 and Kubuntu 9.10. Below, I provide you with some
technical details that will probably help you to give me answers.

>> I've set up a grub.cfg file in that iso. To get to that menu type
>> configfile /grub.cfg    then amend to your partition the entry and boot.

I do manage to boot from your CD and to enter the configfile /grub.cfg menu.

> Further details.....
> upon configfile /grub.cfg, you'll come to 3 entries, you have 25 secs.
>
> Configfile
> Vmlinuz
> Chainload
>
> scroll to 'Vmlinux' entry, press 'e' to edit and you'll get
>
> linux '(hd0,8)'/vmlinuz root=/dev/sda8 ro
> initrd '(hd0,8)'/initrd.img

I do get to see the 2 lines above after scrolling to 'Vmlinuz' and
pressing 'e'.

> Amend the (hd0,8) and sda8 to the partition output of the search.
I try to do so by taking into account the partition information I got
via a live CD of Kubuntu 9.10. I opened a terminal via that live CD
and got the following information.

ubuntu at ubuntu:~$ sudo fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 80.0 GB, 80026361856 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9729 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x09590958

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *           1        3824    30716248+   7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2            3825        9729    47431912+   f  W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sda5            3825        9729    47431881    b  W95 FAT32

Disk /dev/sdb: 163.9 GB, 163928604672 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19929 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xadf256f8

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdb1               1        1992    16000708+  83  Linux
/dev/sdb2            1993       19929   144078952+   5  Extended
/dev/sdb5            1993        2116      995998+  82  Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sdb6            2117       10879    70388766   83  Linux
/dev/sdb7           10880       19554    69681906   83  Linux
/dev/sdb8           19555       19929     3012156   82  Linux swap / Solaris
ubuntu at ubuntu:~$

SDA contains a Windows partition as well as a DATA partition separate
from it. SDB2 contains Kubuntu 7.10. SDB6 and SDB7 contain Kubuntu
9.10.

After this, I carried out another command check within the terminal.
ubuntu at ubuntu:~$ sudo blkid
/dev/loop0: TYPE="squashfs"
/dev/sda1: UUID="0834CB7534CB63F2" LABEL="WIN" TYPE="ntfs"
/dev/sda5: LABEL="DATA" UUID="4536-ADED" TYPE="vfat"
/dev/sdg1: LABEL="BASROUFS4GB" UUID="46EA-7748" TYPE="vfat"
ubuntu at ubuntu:~$

So, 2 media showed up:
* the 80GB HD with the Windows partition and a data partition: SDA.
* the 4 GB USB stick, SDG1.
But the 160 GB Disk with the 2 Linux partitions, SDB, did NOT show up.

A check via the Dolphin file manager confirm the results summarised
above. I DO manage to check SDA as well as SDG1. But an attempt to
check SDB fails, because of some problem(s?) in the partition SDB1.
The problem has been reported as follows:

"An error occurred while accessing ' Volume (ext3)', the system responded:
org.freedesktop.Hal.Device.Volume.UnknownFailure: mount: wrong fs
type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/sdb1, missing codepage or
helper program, or other error. In some cases useful info is found in
syslog – try dsmeg I tail or so."

To be honest, none of the advises in the five lines above did work
out. On the other hand, I seemingly know enough to boot again your
grub rescue CD. I have done so. As said above, I have come till this
point:

> scroll to 'Vmlinuz' entry, press 'e' to edit and you'll get
>
> linux '(hd0,8)'/vmlinuz root=/dev/sda8 ro
> initrd '(hd0,8)'/initrd.img

I have re-edited the two lines as follows:
linux '(sdb1,8)'/vmlinuz root=/dev/sdb1 ro
initrd '(sdb,8)'/initrd.img
Afterwords, I pressed Control-x to boot, as suggested at the screen.
But nothing happens.

In another attempt, I edited the two lines as follows:
linux '(sdb1)'/vmlinuz root=/dev/sdb1 ro
initrd '(sdb1)'/initrd.img
Afterwords, I again pressed Control-x to boot. But again nothing happens.
At this point, I get stuck and need your advise before going on.....

Thanks for your reaction(s). Respectfully Yours,

Bas.