Cant install ubuntu 11.10 on my HP DV2

**hckim021983** · December 23rd, 2011

i have an hp dv 2, i put ubuntu 11.10 on a flash drive to boot from the drive.
The laptop had windows xp or vista, i cant remember, and i was getting a bootmgr missing error. So i figured that i would just install ubuntu and get rid of windows. but during install i got an error message:
1)input/output error during read on /dev/sda

so the next step i took was to just run ubuntu from the usb, it stays on the boot up screen forever!

is there a better way to approach this?

thank you so very much in advacnce for any help!!!

**Mahkoe** · December 24th, 2011

I've had bad experiences with 11.10 up 'til now. I would suggest getting a different liveCD (such as gparted, http://gparted.sourceforge.net/download.php) and trying to figure out whether it's because your file system is corrupted, or whether your disk is busted. Try creating a new partition table, and if there are errors, I would look into getting a new hard drive/computer.

**bobsageek** · December 24th, 2011

Well /dev/sda is generally your primary hard drive, so it's likely that the error you got in Windows was from a failing drive. If you are booting from the USB key into a live image it's probably doing hardware detection and getting hung up on the bad hard drive.

If you want a lazy solution and you don't mind opening the computer, temporarily disconnect the hard drive (I think it's user accessible from a door on the bottom) and see if the live image will boot. Otherwise, the suggestion about GParted would be the more thorough thing to do.

**Bucky Ball** · December 24th, 2011

Personally I'd start with 10.04 LTS, stable and reliable, that would give a better idea as 11.10 is problematic. If all good with 10.04 LTS then install a newer release on another partition (you will get the option to select either, along with Windows).

When you 'Try Ubuntu' from the 11.10 install CD does everything work okay?

**spcwingo** · December 24th, 2011

I hate to be the bearer of bad news but, if you're getting I/O errors while trying to install from USB it could be that there is something wrong with either your USB flash, HDD, or even worse, the motherboard of the machine.

**bobsageek** · December 27th, 2011

I'm going to disagree with all the assessments saying go back to an older version, I've installed 11.10 across a lot of hardware and it's more compatible than any prior version. Let's stay focused on what is likely a dead/dying primary hard drive.