[ncolug] Re: General Live CD Question
- From: Aidan Artos MacTyre <wolfson@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: ncolug@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 25 Jan 2010 19:06:01 -0500
Hey Group!
Thank you all for the many suggestions. I do not think I can answer all
the questions since the machine belongs to a good friend who has already
made plans to purchase a new HD to rebuild with and wants their machine
running Windoze in time for tax prep. I know we have till mid-April,
but their schedule requires working things out early, not to mention
getting the machine even running as a basic first step. However since I
received so many helpful responses from fellow geeks, here goes with
what I can say at this point:
1. Spinrite: I haven't played with it in a very long time. Two issues
with it: price is $90 vs. $35 for a new larger HD; and no data really
needs to be saved from the old HD. Oh, and according to HDD diagnostics
included on the Dell recovery disk and other tests I attempted, there is
physical corruption to that HD involving the boot/directory enumeration
sectors. Alternative answer from the FOSS world, potentially recover
the function of the HD using KillDisk low level formatting to see if it
is recoverable in any way as a data disk minus some sectors. If you'd
like, I might be able to acquire that HD after the machine recovery if
you want to try running Spinrite on it to see what may be found. That
sounds like a fun afternoon. Also, since the KillDisk program has not
yet been run against that drive, would be interesting to see if it makes
a difference on what Spinrite can recover.
2. I need to investigate the SATA as primary issue if I get a chance.
However, I'm not sure I will get that chance using their machine and I
don't have a machine I can potentially trash that way to just run
experiments on unless needed. I'm still not sure that is a real issue
since I've booted Linux Live CD's on many systems so far (including
testing the ones that failed on other machines to prove they still work)
and they have included machines from Dell as well as others.
3. Yes, the boot sequence was checked many times. According to that
machine's configuration (BIOS settings) the boot sequence was Bootable
CD, Diskette, HDD; in that order. Before attempting any other changes,
I switched the setup to put the diskette drive before the CD and then
put them back in the prior order - testing the bootup between each
change. Nothing changed as far as success in booting the machine.
WinXP Install loaded, Linux Live did not. Oh, for what it may be worth,
Linux Distro's tried include Fedora Core 10, Ubuntu, Xubuntu, and DSL.
4. Multiple attempts to boot. Including both soft boots and hard boots,
I gave each CD multiple chances to load. Before I made ANY changes, I
was somewhat surprised to see that the Linux Live CD's never got a
chance, yet the Windoze Install prompted: "Boot from CD?" I doubt there
are any sequences I didn't try there. I also, using the Dell machine
hardware, used the F12 key (Boot Menu) to choose the boot from source
and chose the Linux Live CD with no happiness. With the WinXP CD in the
same drive, the option to boot from CD was presented and ran
successfully. I guess this is the root of my original question, LOL.
For those who have lost the thread, Is there a Linux Distro Live CD that
can get past such hardware failures as the Windoze Install CD apparently
can. (PS: on this one, I also checked the disks to be absolutely sure I
was using CD's instead of DVD's as well.)
5. As for the BIOS, can't answer that one this moment. I can relate
that it is a Dell Dimension 4600 using a 2.66GHz Intel CPU. Yes, I too
get frustrated by what Dell does with their BIOS ideas. Hitting F2 for
Bios Setup on what they claim as Identical Models of machines can show
very different menu structures. Hitting F12 for the boot menu is often
a "what will you show me this time" as you move from machine to machine.
Don't hate on me, those were the keys chosen by the Dell machine and I
used them.
I look forward to what comes from all of you with this information!
Keep having fun. For the FOSS supporters, this is really how it works so
well!
Thanks again,
Jim.
Ken Allen wrote:
I had the same issue before, but what I had found on that machine was
a bios going flaky. Ok, so here is a question, did it boot to windoze
every time? The computer that I worked with that had this issue would
boot to windoze several time and then all of a sudden not boot 1 or 2
times. So, I ran hdd diag test several times and found that the error
could would change causing windoze not to boot.
Now, as far as linux. I could not get it to boot on this machine
either, until a changed some settings in the bios and then I was able
to boot. I know that Dell's can be a real bear to change to the
settings you need. What I figured out, is that SATA is set for 1st
book devices. The trick is, getting the cd-rom as the first boot
device. I know your thinking that I have the bios set as cd-rom, hdd
sata, ect, but what I did find is that there is another setting in the
bios that will actual set this as this. After several hours of
searching, I found that if you don't change this setting the bios will
look at both the sata and cd-rom, with sata being the primary.
The setting in the bios is labeled as "Sata as primary" or something
like that. It took me a while to find it and not all systems are the
same. So, once I found that setting, I changed the Sata default and
then rebooted the computer right to linux with no issues after that.
The way I found this was pure luck anyway. I was working on two exact
machines, one work on was not. So when I tested the linux disk, it
booted to windoze anyway, even though the boot order was right. So, I
thought I has a bad linux disk and tested on another machine and it
booted.
So, find in the bios some along the lines that sata is primary and
change that setting and it should boot, but why windoze and boot from
the cd even with this setting, I have never figured out, but that is
how I got around that issue.
Ken
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