Can't boot after using dd

[stamatiou]

I was trying to write an iso in my usb flash drive by using dd but instead of writing it on the flash drive I did it on my hard drive. Now when I try to boot, I get stuck on the Compaq Logo before and I am unable to boot from other sources because it is frozen. What can I do now?

[darkod]

Get your latest backup. Reinstall ubuntu and restore your personal data from the backup.

And try to avoid copying ISOs with dd, it's really not a good practice. You have to be very, very careful with dd.

Right now I would guess your partition table is gone, together with the data that was at the start of the disk, the part the ISO overwrote.

If you want to, you can try recovering the partitions with testdisk but the data that was overwritten can't be restored.

[stamatiou]

I tried to boot the ubuntu live cd but as soon as I try to enter in the boot options menu, the computer freezes completely. I also tried to boot in the default source by not pressing anything but it freezes too.

[darkod]

The cd should boot into live mode regardless of the hdd. Even when there is no hdd you should be able to boot into live mode, it's working from the cd. If you can't boot into live mode then you have another problem. Maybe video driver issue, or similar.

What boot options are you talking about, the bios boot options? Is your bios freezing?

[stamatiou]

Yes. it is stuck in the bios before anything starts up and it seems like I can't boot from any source...

[oldfred]

A few systems that have multiple boot issues seem to lock up. A full power shutdown often fixes that. with laptops you have to remove battery, wait and usually holding boot key without battery may help to get capacitors to discharge.

Laptop full power reset. post #4
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=12401315

[stamatiou]

I tried the cold finger reset without disconnecting the keyboard and it didn't work. Also I tried this and it didn't work either: http://youtu.be/D72M6wpEhZE
EDIT: Here says that the problem was a damaged drive: HP Logo boot screen(Stuck!) - HP Support Forum - 157688

[darkod]

Can you take out the hdd and connect it to another desktop so you can try restoring the partitions, or write a new empty partition table, which ever you decided to do?

[stamatiou]

I got the hdd out and it didn't freeze... Is there a way I can create an empty partition table using a live cd without putting the hdd into another pc?

[oldfred]

Does your system boot the flash drive or DVD? And if you have hard drive in a caddy you should be able to see it.

But then the issue just may have been that BIOS/UEFI was always set to boot hard drive first and the corruption on the hard drive was the issue. Changing boot order in BIOS so hard drive was last then should have worked??