Trying to install to an i386 Dell with 250GB disk succeeds then boots to Grub Rescue

[mikeyrg65]

I am completely new to Linux and successfully had the machine running with a small hard disk. Now I have put in a 250GB Hard Disk and have used a lubuntu 18.04.5 LTS disk to install. All appears to go well unil the stage where one has to remove the media and reboot. When the machine restarts there is a black, blank screen with the following at the top of the screen
error: Attempt to read or write outside of disk 'hd0'
entering rescue mode...
grub rescue>

How do I get the thing to run properly?
This message was entered on the machine with Lubuntu running from the disk media.

[TheFu]

My mirror only shows amd64 ISOs for Lubuntu. http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/lubuntu/releases/20.04.1/release/

No i386 versions (which are actually i686). If you cannot find an i386/i686 ISO, then you'll want to change distros.

It appears that 18.04.5 Lubuntu has a i686 ISO file here: https://lubuntu.me/downloads/

[guiverc]

Did you verify the ISO as being perfect? (an example of a check can be found in the Lubuntu manual, see https://manual.lubuntu.me/stable/1/1.1/retrieving_the_image.html)

And in my experience, more likely to be a problem, perform the media validation step? (ie. validate a perfect write to install media using the "*Check disc for defects*" option in the first screen found in the Lubuntu manual - https://manual.lubuntu.me/stable/1/1.3/installation.html)

Note: The Lubuntu manual is setup for Lubuntu 20.04 LTS, so what you'll see on your screens will differ, but be mostly the same. (18.04 uses `ubiquity` as it's installer for example, where as all later releases use `calamares` as seen in the manual).

I've seen the issue you describe before, but not recently so I can't remember the cause. I have a feeling it's due to a inconsistency in either file-system or partition table, so I'd firstly boot live media (such as your Lubuntu install media; assuming it was checked as being perfect) then use the partitioning tool (`gparted` for 18.04 using GUI, `fsck` for CLI) to check your disk for errors. I'd also check SMART (`smartctl`, `gparted` etc) but that would be my habit..