The disk drive for / is not ready yet or not present

[Saltwaterfishin]

Hi,

I'm a total newby. I tried to upgrade to the newest ubuntu version (10.04 I think). Now I can't even boot my computer. After the initial "boot" stuff, the ubuntu screen comes on and then locks up in the process. I get the message "The disk drive for / is not ready yet or not present. Continue to wait; or press s to skip mounting or M for manual recovery."

I've tried "waiting" overnight to no avail. I tried the "S" command to skip and got the message "[141.233783] Adding 1502036k Swap on /dev/sdb5. Priority-1 extents:1 across:1502036k"

I think the manual recovery is what I need to do. When I type the "M" for manual recovery I get a maintenance shell with the last line being

root@jay-desktop:~#

Can anyone please give me some commands to fix this problem? I have an OLD ubuntu boot disk. How can I get my computer to boot from it? I tried hitting "esc" while booting up to no avail. I also tried hitting F1 while booting up. I think that used to allow me to boot from the CD drive...but doesn't work now.

Please help

Jay

[jv2112]

You need to set the bios to boot to the DVD-Rom drive.

F1,Del, F12 etc --> Depends on your mother board. Some boards have a boot options by command key.

Once you get in I would recommend a fresh install with default options. Sounds like the partitions got set incorrectly.

[aenesias]

i have a similar problem related with it if u dont mind. I am using win xp and ubuntu 10.4 dual booting. I am okey with file system checks it does it sometimes without a problem with the ntfs partition and ubuntu partition but for the last check i got this message “The disk drive for /media/25C74B07FB07878 is not ready or not present continue waiting or press s to skip or M for manual recovery” i waited for it but nothing happened. Then now i have to press “s” to skip everytime. I have my ubuntu working fine and the ntsf drives and the xp everything is fine. I couldnt find which "media" does this message is talking aboout? Do u have any ideas for this problem thanx in advance

[smackwacker]

You can solve this manually:
During boot write down the UUID of the drive and press S to skip mounting the drive.
Open the terminal window and type:
sudo gedit /etc/fstab

Locate the entry with the UUID you wrote down and put a dash (#) before that line to disable it. The file will look something like this and I highlighted the line that I disabled:

# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# <file system> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>

proc /proc proc nodev,noexec,nosuid 0 0
#Entry for /dev/sda1 :
UUID=31b7ed42-80c5-4d3e-ab89-fd5fb6cbc7df /..........
#Entry for /dev/sdc5 :
#UUID=15DB122A7DAE9399 /.........
#Entry for /dev/sda5 :
UUID=db6830a1-c2f8-4f7a-b04b-3b3662c2455d none swap sw 0 0

Save the file and at the next reboot no questions asked

You get this message because you disconnected that disc and is still mounted when the system is booting.

Good luck!

[RBruiser]

oops.

[ondrejch]

I have the same problem after upgrade to 11.04. I have separate root and home partitions, both on soft raid1 (mdadm).

The system boots into recovery, I remount the root filesystem RW and type "mountall", and it happily starts up.

I checked that UUIDs are fine in /etc/fstab, I tried putting /dev/mdN instead of UUIDs in there, I tried to uncomment the root FS from fstab - all gives me the same problem.

During the upgrade the cmake package failed, and I recovered by usual apt-get -f install, dpkg --configure -a etc.

Any ideas where to look? thanks

[maphew]

I have the same problem after upgrade to 11.04. I have separate root and home partitions, both on soft raid1 (mdadm).

I also have the same problem after upgrading to 11.04. I'm not using soft raid though I do have distinct home and root partitions. There were failed packages during the upgrade but I don't recall their names.

I booted from sysrescue cd and ran `fsck.ext4 /dev/sda6`, the root (/) partition (based on advice from here: http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php...21&postcount=6). It said "file system was modified". I'm about to reboot and will follow up with the results.

[ondrejch]

I ran fsck, it checked out without problems, and the issue remains. Let me know hoe it worked for you. I am at lost here, as reumounting root filesystem rw and running "mountall" after the drop to emergency shell continues the boot process flawlessly to X login, and everything works afterwards.

[maphew]

Ok, finally solved this! The steps I took were to: boot machine with SysRescue CD, mount my root partition and `chroot` to it, run `dpkg` and `apt-get` to fix broken/incomplete packages. There are about half a dozen .deb packages in /var/cache/apt/packages which were corrupt and needed to be deleted.

I had to run through this procedure 3 or 4 times before I finally got it all done. The following code is for reference, don't just blindly run it.

# sd6 is my root partition  
mount /dev/sda6 /mnt/custom  
mount -o bind /proc /mnt/custom/proc  
mount -o bind /dev /mnt/custom/dev  
mount -o bind /sys /mnt/custom/sys  

chroot /mnt/custom
$ mv /sbin/initctl /sbin/initctl.old
$ ln -s /sbin/initctl /bin/true
$ dpkg --configure -a
$ apt-get -f install
$ apt-get check
$ move /sbin/initctl.old /sbin/initctl
$ exit

reboot

Resources used in developing this recipe:

* "Solution 2: Reinstallation of Grub using chroot" from http://www.sysresccd.org/Sysresccd-P...a-damaged-Grub (though the grub part made no difference on my machine)

* http://aaronshang.wordpress.com/2010...ct-to-upstart/ - to fix problems with apt-get and dpkg not completing properly

[ouch_ouch]

Then now i have to press “s” to skip everytime.

You are fortunate to have you can start your ubuntu by that way.
i have the same problem .unfortunately,i can start the system by press "S",
because when i press "s" ,it crashed.
i am using dual system ,too.the ubuntu was installed by a program for window xp (wubi).i've tried more method to recover it,but failed
i don't know how i can do something for it new .