[ubuntu-uk] Disk Rescue!

[John Stevenson]

On 30 August 2010 16:21, <daveg at boavon.plus.com> wrote:

> I'll try to be sucinct as possible, but also explain as fully as I can.
>
> Booting up, I get the grub menu.  Choosing any of the 4ish(?) Ubuntu
> choices (exept restore versions) results in hung system. Choosing XP
> results in hung system.  Choosing one of the restore options results in a
> scrolling screen of text, so fast it is difficult to pause and read but I
> do recall some bad messages relating to DMA.  I can get to grub prompt but
> I haven't much of a clue from here whether this is a good thing or not.
>
> Portege does not have floppy drive - just DVD.  However, I did try
> re-installing XP but it hangs when it comes to trying doing anything with
> the hard drive.  Tried a number of live CDs again in an attempt to use
> partitioning software to sort it all out, but to no avail.  Even
> attempting to delete partitions - it just hangs.  Latest attempt was using
> a live version of Gparted but again although it can see my partitions any
> attempt to change them causes problems - its as if they are write
> protected; but no feedback from tools says this.
>
> I'm investigating whether I can repair the MBR - if in fact that is wrong.
>  Thought I'd found some utility to do this but it doesn't appear to be
> part of any distro I have.
>
> All very frustrating.  As I say - any tips would be appreciated.
>

Hello Dave,
My first guess would be a problem with the hard drive, 8 years is a long
time especially living in a laptop.