HARD DISK ERROR while booting

[marcellux]

Hi,

I just bought a Notebook HP Pavilion dv6 with Windows 7 on it. First thing I did was to format the entire HDD, I created 3 partition; 1 for Windows, 1 for Kubuntu 11.10 and 1 for data.

After a while I started to get "HARD DISK ERROR" messages on startup. The message was obviously generated by BIOS. So, I thought it has nothing to do with the OS. I took it back to the shop where I bought it and they send it to HP for replacing the HDD.

After 2 weeks I picked it up and they just replaced the RAM memories, updated the BIOS and re-installed Windows 7. But they did not change the HDD. They said there´s nothing wrong with the HDD.

I Installed Kubuntu 11.10, single boot, and I am still getting the "HARD DISK ERROR" from the BIOS before Kubuntu even starts loading. This happens 4 times out of 10.

Could it be possible that Kubuntu causes the porblem? Does anybody else have that problem? I would take it back to the shop, they would re-install Windows 7 and wunna replace the HDD again...

So, what to do?

Thanks a lot in advance

[xyzzyman]

Hi,

I just bought a Notebook HP Pavilion dv6 with Windows 7 on it. First thing I did was to format the entire HDD, I created 3 partition; 1 for Windows, 1 for Kubuntu 11.10 and 1 for data.

After a while I started to get "HARD DISK ERROR" messages on startup. The message was obviously generated by BIOS. So, I thought it has nothing to do with the OS. I took it back to the shop where I bought it and they send it to HP for replacing the HDD.

After 2 weeks I picked it up and they just replaced the RAM memories, updated the BIOS and re-installed Windows 7. But they did not change the HDD. They said there´s nothing wrong with the HDD.

I Installed Kubuntu 11.10, single boot, and I am still getting the "HARD DISK ERROR" from the BIOS before Kubuntu even starts loading. This happens 4 times out of 10.

Could it be possible that Kubuntu causes the porblem? Does anybody else have that problem? I would take it back to the shop, they would re-install Windows 7 and wunna replace the HDD again...

So, what to do?

Thanks a lot in advance

Was the error happening after they restored to factory with Windows? You aren't fully clear on that. First thing I would do is find who made the hard drive and run their diagnostic tool (WD Diagnostics, Seagate Seatools, Hitachi DFT, etc) and see what is reported.

[marcellux]

I ran a quick and a complete hard disk test (Hitachi) and it gave no errors...

the error message was coming before the restoring to windows and after.

now I tried installing openSUSE, also KDE... and first thing I see after reboot is "hard disk error".

.....

I just tried with a Gnome distro, BT5 (no unity)... still getting "hard disk error". I click F2 and then ESC and the OS starts, but not happy with that...

[xyzzyman]

There's no point in installing other OS's. If it was happening after they sent it back with Windows 7 on it, before you wiped it again then it is a problem with the computer. You shouldn't have installed Kubuntu even. Just given it back with Win7 still on it and told them to fix it correctly. You need to restore it back to Windows and give it back until it's done.

If it's a hitachi drive then DFT should have detected whatever code the drive is reporting to the BIOS. So it might be a problem on the mobo and not the drive itself.

[marcellux]

this is part of the problem!!! UEFI

http://benjaminkerensa.com/2011/10/2...es-begin-linux


I read somewhere that removing GRUB and installing ELILO as bootloader should solve the problem... I 'll give it a try and then I'll post back to tell the results!!!

So, here it's me again with the results:
ELILO can handle UEFI!!! "HARD DISK ERROR" message on startup is gone!!! Notice: after first reboot you will get 3 errors; no file found, no suitable mode found and no video found. Linux will run anyways. After second reboot the 3 errors will not show anymore!!!

The boot loader looks like old school "grub" to choose what you want to do and with no timeout set as default, so you have to press enter to start. You can change the configuuration on elilo.conf, it should be located under etc/elilo.conf.

[xyzzyman]

Then why was it giving a hard disk error when freshly installed with factory Windows?

[marcellux]

because of the dualboot! grub took over and became the only bootloader

[xyzzyman]

There was no grub when it was only windows installed!!

[corrytonapple]

because of the dualboot! grub took over and became the only bootloader

He is asking when just Windows was installed. When you boot up Windows, and you got the error. No other partitions were there, Kubuntu wasn't installed.
BTW, since this is solved, at the top right hand corner of the thread "box" there is something called "Thread Tools". Click it, then click "Mark as Solved".

[marcellux]

with windows as only OS, no error messages.

with windows and linux dualboot with grub 2 bootloader, hard disk error

with linux as only OS, hard disk error