Saturday, November 7, 2020¶
My old Dell notebook, used now by Ly, doesn’t start any more after it froze suddenly while Ly was working. Maybe it had gotten too hot. Or some RAM or SSD is getting old.
When starting it up, it only says “Invalid partition table!”. I created an lubuntu startup USB stick in order to boot.
Strange: I created the lubuntu startup stick from an iso file I had downloaded already in September 22. 20.04.1
The machine behaves perfectly when booted from the live lubuntu stick.
$ sudo fdisk /dev/sda -l
Disk /dev/sda: 238,49 GiB, 256060514304 bytes, 500118192 sectors
Disk model: SAMSUNG SSD SM84
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0x1427a579
Device Boot Start End Sectors Size Id Type
/dev/sda1 * 2048 206847 204800 100M 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda2 206848 209922047 209715200 100G 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda3 209924094 500117503 290193410 138,4G 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 483469312 500117503 16648192 8G 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda6 209924096 483469311 273545216 130,4G 83 Linux
Partition table entries are not in disk order.
$ sudo fdisk /dev/sda
Welcome to fdisk (util-linux 2.34).
Changes will remain in memory only, until you decide to write them.
Be careful before using the write command.
Command (m for help): v
Remaining 2734 unallocated 512-byte sectors.
I started sudo gparted. I selected :
No file systems found on /dev/sda
The disk scan by gpart did not find any recognizable file systems on this disk.
Again in gparted I did right click on the /dev/sda1 partition and select “Check”. Then “run pending operations”. This created the following report:
GParted 1.0.0
configuration --enable-libparted-dmraid --enable-online-resize
libparted 3.3
========================================
Device: /dev/sda
Model: ATA SAMSUNG SSD SM84
Serial: S12LNSAD707427
Sector size: 512
Total sectors: 500118192
Heads: 255
Sectors/track: 2
Cylinders: 980623
Partition table: msdos
Partition Type Start End Flags Partition Name File System Label Mount Point
/dev/sda1 Primary 2048 206847 boot ntfs System Reserved
/dev/sda2 Primary 206848 209922047 ntfs
/dev/sda3 Extended 209924094 500117503 extended
/dev/sda6 Logical 209924096 483469311 ext4
/dev/sda5 Logical 483469312 500117503 linux-swap
========================================
Device: /dev/sdb
Model: ATA WDC WD10SPCX-60H
Serial: WD-WX41A9309763
Sector size: 512
Total sectors: 1953525168
Heads: 255
Sectors/track: 2
Cylinders: 3830441
Partition table: msdos
Partition Type Start End Flags Partition Name File System Label Mount Point
/dev/sdb1 Primary 63 1953525167 ext4 Dell1TB
========================================
Device: /dev/sdc
Model: USB Flash Memory
Serial: none
Sector size: 512
Total sectors: 30253056
Heads: 255
Sectors/track: 2
Cylinders: 59319
Partition table: none
Partition Type Start End Flags Partition Name File System Label Mount Point
/dev/sdc Unpartitioned 0 30253055 iso9660 Lubuntu 20.04.1 LTS amd64
========================================
Check and repair file system (ntfs) on /dev/sda1 00:00:00 ( SUCCESS )
calibrate /dev/sda1 00:00:00 ( SUCCESS )
path: /dev/sda1 (partition)
start: 2048
end: 206847
size: 204800 (100.00 MiB)
check file system on /dev/sda1 for errors and (if possible) fix them 00:00:00 ( SUCCESS )
ntfsresize -i -f -v '/dev/sda1' 00:00:00 ( SUCCESS )
ntfsresize v2017.3.23AR.3 (libntfs-3g)
Device name : /dev/sda1
NTFS volume version: 3.1
Cluster size : 4096 bytes
Current volume size: 104854016 bytes (105 MB)
Current device size: 104857600 bytes (105 MB)
Checking for bad sectors ...
Checking filesystem consistency ...
100.00 percent completed
Accounting clusters ...
Space in use : 60 MB (56,5%)
Collecting resizing constraints ...
Estimating smallest shrunken size supported ...
File feature Last used at By inode
$MFTMirr : 1 MB 1
Sparse : 35 MB 102
Ordinary : 103 MB 100
You might resize at 59219968 bytes or 60 MB (freeing 45 MB).
Please make a test run using both the -n and -s options before real resizing!
grow file system to fill the partition 00:00:00 ( SUCCESS )
run simulation 00:00:00 ( SUCCESS )
ntfsresize --force --force --no-action '/dev/sda1' 00:00:00 ( SUCCESS )
ntfsresize v2017.3.23AR.3 (libntfs-3g)
Device name : /dev/sda1
NTFS volume version: 3.1
Cluster size : 4096 bytes
Current volume size: 104854016 bytes (105 MB)
Current device size: 104857600 bytes (105 MB)
New volume size : 104854016 bytes (105 MB)
Nothing to do: NTFS volume size is already OK.
real resize 00:00:00 ( SUCCESS )
ntfsresize --force --force '/dev/sda1' 00:00:00 ( SUCCESS )
ntfsresize v2017.3.23AR.3 (libntfs-3g)
Device name : /dev/sda1
NTFS volume version: 3.1
Cluster size : 4096 bytes
Current volume size: 104854016 bytes (105 MB)
Current device size: 104857600 bytes (105 MB)
New volume size : 104854016 bytes (105 MB)
Nothing to do: NTFS volume size is already OK.
I tried Christophe Grenier’s testdisk utility:
$ sudo apt install testdisk
It said that there were problems but that it cannot fix them.
I copied the data to another machine.
Memtest86 (version 5.01) always froze at the same place, at 63% of Test #2. Maybe it is just the problem described here: If the freeze occurs in MemTest86 but the system runs normally otherwise, the problem is likely with the UEFI firmware. The most common issue is when running MemTest86 using multiple CPU cores (default behaviour).
The lubuntu boot usb can only start lubuntu but has no option
I installed a new Ubuntu 20.10 on onto the first SSD (/dev/sda), overriding the partitions, including a Windows 7 that had been kept from doll’s previous owner when we bought it many years ago.