No subject

1) check the partitions are being recognised using cfdisk

sudo cfdisk /dev/hda

- assuming your laptop hard drive is at /dev/hda (hda is the first ide hard
drive)

2) Check for badblocks on the file system using a command called badblocks.
For example

sudo badblocks /dev/hda1 > bad-blocks-first-harddrive-partition.txt

- assuming hda1 is your root (/) partition

These two commands may give you some information as to if your hard drive is
faulty.

Otherwise I guess it is a case of running the system log viewer and seeing
if there are a lot of errors being generated somewhere.

gnome-system-log &

Good luck.
-- 
John Stevenson
Lean Agile Consultant / Coach
jr0cket.com  |  leanagilemachine.com

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<div class=3D"gmail_quote">On 30 August 2010 16:21,  <span dir=3D"ltr">&lt;=
<a href=3D"mailto:daveg at boavon.plus.com">daveg at boavon.plus.com</a>&gt;</spa=
n> wrote:<br><blockquote class=3D"gmail_quote" style=3D"margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt=
 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); padding-left: 1ex;">
I&#39;ll try to be sucinct as possible, but also explain as fully as I can.=
<br>
<br>
Booting up, I get the grub menu. =A0Choosing any of the 4ish(?) Ubuntu<br>
choices (exept restore versions) results in hung system. Choosing XP<br>
results in hung system. =A0Choosing one of the restore options results in a=
<br>
scrolling screen of text, so fast it is difficult to pause and read but I<b=
r>
do recall some bad messages relating to DMA. =A0I can get to grub prompt bu=
t<br>
I haven&#39;t much of a clue from here whether this is a good thing or not.=
<br>
<br>
Portege does not have floppy drive - just DVD. =A0However, I did try<br>
re-installing XP but it hangs when it comes to trying doing anything with<b=
r>
the hard drive. =A0Tried a number of live CDs again in an attempt to use<br=
>
partitioning software to sort it all out, but to no avail. =A0Even<br>
attempting to delete partitions - it just hangs. =A0Latest attempt was usin=
g<br>
a live version of Gparted but again although it can see my partitions any<b=
r>
attempt to change them causes problems - its as if they are write<br>
protected; but no feedback from tools says this.<br>
<br>
I&#39;m investigating whether I can repair the MBR - if in fact that is wro=
ng.<br>
=A0Thought I&#39;d found some utility to do this but it doesn&#39;t appear =
to be<br>
part of any distro I have.<br>
<br>
All very frustrating. =A0As I say - any tips would be appreciated.<br></blo=
ckquote></div><br>Hello Dave,<br>My first guess would be a problem with the=
 hard drive, 8 years is a long time especially living in a laptop.<br><br>