[ubuntu-uk] SATA drive problem .....

[Avi]

Barry Drake wrote:
> Hitachi boot disk with a diagnostic/repair tool told be that the boot
> sector had an irrecoverable mechanical error.  

What, exactly, did it say? Did a google of the phrase turn anything up?

> This entire saga doesn't make any sense at all to me.  Any thoughts?  

Can you boot the machine with the disk plugged in? If so, is anything
pertinent logged (/var/log/syslog, /var/log/messages, dmesg)?

Have you tried switching between AHCI and non-AHCI mode? Many drives
have broken AHCI implementations where specifically not using it makes
things better. Sometimes vice-versa is true.

If Windows is fine with it, I'd not find it easy to blame anything
below the firmware - cables, controllers etc.

-- 
Avi