Software :: Problem With Installing Debian Onto External Hard Drive/grub Bootloader Error "21"
Jul 10, 2009
I've been running Debian Lenny kernel 2.6.26 w/ desktop kde3.5 on my laptop for a while, and im going to take a trip in which i will be unable to take wmy laptop with me. However, where i am going contains computers and i figured if i could install debian onto my external harddrive, i could just boot onto the other computers. I install it using the debianlenny-i386 dvd image. However whenever I try to boot it from a computer. Grub returns
Code:
Grub Loading...
Error 21
and then the blinkng cursor. On one site i found something saying "you may need to activat the drive" and some command-line instructions on how to do it. However the commands have faded from memory and i am now unable to find that site again. Could anyone offer insight on how to fix this "grub error 21" or how to activate it. I run primarily debian but i have a windows partition on one of my relative's computers.
Thank you in advance for the help!!!
btw I'm installing on a western digital 500gb "passport" external hard drive with ext3 and swap partitions.
View 5 Replies
ADVERTISEMENT
May 25, 2010
I have Ubuntu/Vista dual boot desktop with Single HDD (200GB) that i cloned to an external USB HDD (320GB) using clonezilla. My intention is to use the external HDD as a backup to up running in case my 3 year old desktop HDD fails. To make sure the clone is good to use if need, i connected external HDD to USB port and tried boot from it but got "Error 18". I tried to Google got some infoDid a fdisk -lu and got the following.
Code:
Disk /dev/sda: 200.0 GB, 200049647616 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 24321 cylinders, total 390721968 sectors
[code]....
View 1 Replies
View Related
Apr 23, 2011
I've got Vista installed on my notebook and I've bought an external drive (1,5 TB, but its size shouldn't matter in this case) and after formatting it I left 10 gigs for future purpose. Now, I decided to install 64bit debian on the unallocated 10 gigs. And so I did. To be precise: I have SATA drive inside my lap and hard drive (it's also SATA inside the cover) connected to my lap through USB. Boot sequence was 1)CD/DVD 2)hard drive 3)removable drive. During the installation the installer detected my internal drive as /dev/sda and my external drive as /dev/sdb. I decided to install grub on /dev/sdb (it was logical to me, since I didn't want to mess up my regular drive's MBR). Installer created 5 partitions on my USB drive. After booting from my external drive (look below*) I've got a message saying
Code:
error: no such partition Entering rescue mode... and after that I was in grub rescue console. When I typed ls I've got an output
Code:
(hd0) (hd0,msdos1) (hd1) (hd1,msdos5) (hd1,msdos2) (hd1,msdos1)
When I tried to type
Code:
ls (hd0)/
I only got a message
Code:
error: unknown filesystem This occured for all the listed devices... On my internal drive there were (during the installation and running the live cd) 3 partitions detected (vista os, data, rescue disk) so I don't understand the output that ls in rescue console gave me. about booting from external drive: I did that after pressing ESC - I've got a prompt to choose which device I want to boot from - this wasn't working properly; after changing the boot sequence the grub started but with the abovementioned error message...
If there's any info about exact names/types/devices of my installed partitions needed I will run live CD and check it. If any other info is required I will provide it (I tried to describe the problem in the most precise way ) What I was thinking about: maybe there is a problem with ordering of the devices - when I boot from DVD my removable disk is treated as the "second one" and after booting from the removable disk it becames the "first one" or something like that? If any of you have any good info on how mapping of the device names works it would be appreciated, since I couldn't find anything useful or I just don't know what to ask google about.
1) How to install Debian on a removable disk (I had no problems with installing Linux on pendrive but I did that from VirtualBox and it was some time ago) OR how to install GRUB on a removable disk? (unfortunately, I cannot install 64bit system through VirtualBox)
2) What's the logic behind naming devices under /dev? How come the devices in grub have their names mapped as hdx etc and I've read that hdx are the names for IDE/ATA drives and sdx is the proper name for a SATA or USB device
View 3 Replies
View Related
Feb 5, 2010
I am helping my pal to get into Debian (yes first timer).He is running W7 on a 500G SATA HDD and he has another 250G SATA HDD that he wants Debian to go to.Will Debian install grub on the master bootloader even if the installation is going on a separate hard drive?I have dual boot before but on the same hard drive.
View 6 Replies
View Related
Jan 11, 2011
It started when I wanted to dual boot Windows 7 and Opensuse off of my netbook (No DVD/CD drive) I tried install suse from an external hard drive and I botched it. I ended up erasing EVERYTHING off of my internal netbook hard drive. Windows and all.
Well, I had a couple of other computers so I studied up and eventually successfully installed OpenSUSE 11.2 on my external hard drive (11.3 being the one that I accidentally erased everything with, so kinda scared of it) and now I want to install openSUSE 11.2 on my internal netbook hard drive.
I can not use disks
I can not use a flash drive (For some reason, even if I make it bootable, it will not load up, this could be because it's actually a 8GB microSD card that is placed in a USB card reader.)
I can not use an external hard drive because that's what I'm running suse off of.
I've tried reading up on how to install suse on another drive off of the hard drive and I've gotten as far as whenever I boot up the netbook with the suse external hard drive connected it will ask to boot into OpenSUSE, the Fail Safe, or to install OpenSuse. When I select to install it it gives me the Error 18 Unknown File system.
I've tried formatting the internal hard drive twice. One as NTFS and again as EXT4. Neither seems to effect it other than when it's ext4 I can open it and it contains a Lost and Found folder.
When I interrupt the boot sequence by pressing c and going to the terminal and I use the root (hd +TAB command it tells me I have a hd0 and a hd1. The hd1 only has 1 partition which is ext4, which I'm assuming hd1 is the internal hard drive (I'm not sure how to check) and the hd0 is the external hard drive, which has three partitions. One with an unknown file system and two with ext4. When I try to enter the set up from the terminal it gives me the same error for any thing I put it (e.g. root (hd0,0) gives the same error as root (hd0,1), or root (hd0,2) and root (hd1,0)
Something like it cannot locate these two files I'm assuming it needs to boot. If anyone finds this relevant I'll retry it and post the files its missing.
I've been searching for awhile and can't find any threads that can solve my problem. From other threads, however, I have noticed that I should probably include my menu.lst, listed below
Code:
I have also ran the boot info script and received the RESULTS.txt file it generates. Listed below
Code:
View 9 Replies
View Related
Jun 19, 2011
I would like to install Linux Ubuntu 11.04 on an external hard drive - its partitioned and ready for Linux.I've downloaded and burnt the .iso file to a DVD so its all good so far...First of all... is this possible without messing up my macbook? I don't particularly want to break into my macbook to disconnect the hard drive (I read on a tutorial for a previous version of Ubuntu that I'd have to do that... - does it still apply to 11.04?) - as it voids the warranty (I checked ).The reason I ask this is because I had a friend who partitioned their internal hard drive and installed Ubuntu on it. But after installation was complete they couldn't boot up Windows 7 or Ubuntu... and it resulted in them having to clean install Windows 7... - I don't want to end up in that situation
Second... If it is possible to install it without messing up my macbook... - Do I just follow the install instructions but just make sure that where possible I make sure that everything is installed on my external hard drive?...I really need someone to put my mind at rest that everything will run smoothly and that I'll be able to run Mac OS X as usual but also that I'll be able to boot from my external hard drive to run Ubuntu.
View 2 Replies
View Related
Jun 19, 2011
I have windows on my box, I have fedora 14 on my external that goes through my usb. Grub is installed on my usb. Since the only thing stored on my external was fedora i really didn't have to do much to it. just go into bios and boot from usb. Now that im using fedora more, Id like to add Vista to my choices. I guess the numbers change once your using an external drive. Ive read some of the problems like mine but they didn't quite do it. Im going to inclose 2 screen shots of my drives/partitions and my grub.conf.
# grub.conf generated by anaconda
# Note that you do not have to rerun grub after making changes to this file
# NOTICE: You have a /boot partition. This means that
[code]....
View 2 Replies
View Related
Feb 2, 2010
I just bought WD External Hard drive for my laptop and found out that there is no support for Linux. I am running Ubuntu 9.10 and need advice on installation.
View 9 Replies
View Related
Feb 20, 2010
I looked around on these forums and google and came to no solution so, I decided to make this thread. I'm using Windows XP and after I downloaded and tested out Ubuntu 9.10, I decided I'd like it as a second OS, can I install Ubuntu on my external hard drive (1TB)? would installing on an external hard drive take away the risks of losing data etc? If I installed Ubuntu on my external hard drive would it delete any files already on my hard drive?
View 9 Replies
View Related
Apr 19, 2011
I tried to do this and something went wrong, and caused so much trouble that I decided I didn't want to do it at all. Then I changed my mind today, and decided I'll try again even after all that happened.
View 4 Replies
View Related
Jan 14, 2009
I have 2 ubuntu's: 1 on my ineternal hard drive, 1 on my external
When I startup without my ext drive =>GRUB error 21.
And when I plug it in I can choose: the standard ubuntu kernel is the one on my external, and the original one is listed under other...
I'd like to be able to startup without external hard drive and make the ubuntu on my internal drve the standard.
View 14 Replies
View Related
Apr 9, 2009
I have got a hold of a extra hdd along with a hdd enclosure. I have tried looking for information on how to install linux on to one but haven't been completely successful on my search. So I turn to all of you. I was also wondering if its possible to have it were I can use it on multiple computers so I can use it for computer repair.
View 3 Replies
View Related
Aug 9, 2011
I tried doing a search and couldn't find anything relatively recent on the topic so here is my question.
I am fairly new to the linux world and am in the process of trying out a couple different distributions. I am doing this by installing them to an external hard drive. This allows me to test them out without affecting my main system in any way. I have already tried openSUSE and it installed with no problems. I am trying to install Ubuntu, however when the installation tries to install GRUB2 it fails asking me for a different location to install it to.
When installing I unhook all drives from the computer except for the dvd drive, usb drive I'm installing from, and the external hard drive I am trying to install Ubuntu to. I'm not sure what else may be of use.
View 9 Replies
View Related
Nov 11, 2015
I have an issue after the installation of debian 8.2 on an usb flash drive:
I had debian 8.2 and windows 8.1 running on a single SSD. Everything was fine. I wanted to install a second debian on a 32gb USB flash drive as a live system. After the installation I am not able to boot my debian (SSD) without the flash drive plugged in. I only get a grub rescue prompt. Booting windows still works. It is also possible to boot both debian systems if the USB drive is plugged in.
So it seems to me, that the debian bootloader was accidently installed to the USB flash drive and the original bootloader on the SSD does not work properly anymore. I used a netinst image from a second USB flash drive to install debian to the first USB flash drive.
Update fdisk output:
/dev/sda1 2048 2050047 2048000 1000M Windows recovery environment
/dev/sda2 2050048 2582527 532480 260M EFI System
/dev/sda3 2582528 4630527 2048000 1000M Lenovo boot partition
/dev/sda4 4630528 4892671 262144 128M Microsoft reserved
/dev/sda5 4892672 223840255 218947584 104,4G Microsoft basic data
[Code] ....
View 6 Replies
View Related
Feb 8, 2010
I've tried to be clever but as usual I didn't think before acting and missed a small detail.
I have recently installed karmic (dual booting with Vista) on my dell xps laptop. The install went fine, I'm very happy with my new OS.
I bought a new Seagate 500GB portable external HDD. I got a bit over-excited and installed karmic on the external drive. This worked fine and I got a lovely (but slow to appear) Grub2 menu showing my vista and both ubuntu options.
My problem is that now, when I unplug the external drive, Grub fails and I get a grub rescue> prompt. So I need the external drive to be plugged in if I want to boot.
It seems I have done something to the grub configuration. I have read around the subject but I am not confident about how best to proceed.
I understand there is an 'advanced' option in the installer which will allow me to choose where to install grub. Presumably I want it on the internal drive so that I can boot without the external one plugged in.
Am I right in thinking I can just pop in my install disk and redo the installation?
If I indicate I want to install Grub on the internal drive, which partition should I aim for?
Will I get a grub option for booting to the external drive?
Will I be able to plug the external drive into a different machine and boot from it?
I haven't done anything with the fresh install on the external drive so I don't mind losing that.
View 9 Replies
View Related
Jul 9, 2011
A few days back, I was moving a file from my home directory to a 1TB WD external hard drive (NTFS). In the middle of the process, the power went out so moving was interrupted. Now, the file I was trying to move is there on the external hard drive, but it can not be read, moved, renamed or removed. Besides, the destination folder on the external hard drive and all other files in it can be read, but they can't be removed or renamed.
View 5 Replies
View Related
Mar 28, 2011
i have a 2TB WD external HDD, works ok in windows, although sometimes tries to run on some random driver.when connected in linux i get the following error, however, my other 500GB WD HDD works flawlessly:Quote:An error occurred while accessing '2TB Backup', the system responded: org.freedesktopUDisks.Error. Failed: Error mounting: mount exited with exit code 12: Failed to read last sector (3907027119):
View 14 Replies
View Related
Jul 15, 2010
The default (graphical) installer did not work on my PC (i7 quadcore 8 GB DDR3). I have installed Ubuntu using the alternative installer (Desktop, 64 bit) on my external USB drive. I installed grub on the MBR of the second drive (/dev/sdb) as I did not want to touch my (first) Windows disk. After reboot (chosing the USB drive as boot device, else Windows is booted) grub reports an error and enters the rescue mode. I tried all possible combinations of "root=(hdX,Y)" in grub.cfg to no avail.
I repeated the whole procedure but now disconnected the internal HD with Windows. Installation went smooth again (Windows disk was not seen this time), but after reboot (the internal drive connected or not) I again get (slightly different this time) grub error: can not find file.
View 9 Replies
View Related
Apr 8, 2011
I am trying to install Ubuntu to an external usb hard drive (WD Elements SE). I am also choosing to install the grub bootloader to this disk (/dev/sdb) because I do not want anything modified on the internal drive. The installation appears to go okay, but when I try to boot to the usb drive, I get the error, "no boot sector on usb device" and it immediately falls back to my interal drive. I have tried this installation with both 10.10 (amd64) and 11.04 (amd64). How can I fix this?
View 7 Replies
View Related
Nov 29, 2009
Just installed Slackware 13 this morning. It's been a long time since I last tried Linux, but Slack works (a lot easier than Slack 8 did back when I last used it!) quite well. I'm using the XFCE desktop and it's smooth as silk except for one odd problem-I cannot get any of my USB drives to mount. I just plugged in my Lexar 4GB USB flash drive and received an error message. Here's from /var/log/messages from when I initally plugged in the drive (I have a 500GB WD MyBook USB external drive that is always plugged in):
Any ideas or suggestions of what to look at? I'm not familiar with HAL in Linux although I've seen plenty of discussion about it and have an idea of what it's supposed to (or break! ).
View 1 Replies
View Related
Jun 6, 2011
I have a HP Compaq 6710b notebook with W7 on it. I want to use Ubuntu for hobby activities, but as this is a company notebook, W7 should remain intact. I decided to install Ubuntu to an external drive.I set BIOS boot order to CD-USB-HDD.I attached a 2.5" 250GB WD Passport usb hard disk and installed Ubuntu to it from the CD.As a result, the clean install doesn't boot, I get a mere grub console (normal, not rescue).
Examining the situation I learned, that during Live CD session the inner hdd is hd0 and usb drive is hd1. Grub.cfg gets compiled to use /dev/sdb.When booting from usb drive, BIOS makes it to be hd0 and inner hdd becomes hd1 so grub tries to load kernel from W7 partition (and can't find it, I wonder why? )How to fix problem? Although grub.cfg is supposed not to be edited, may I change every sdb to sda in it?
View 3 Replies
View Related
Aug 22, 2010
I have a new install of debian on my laptop. When I plug in my external hard drive (usb) I get the message. Invalid mount option when attempting to mount the volume 'External Drive'.
View 7 Replies
View Related
Sep 18, 2015
I have got a 1TB USB hard drive, which I partitioned to be 500GB NTFS and on the other half I installed Debian 8.1.0. During graphical install I selected to install the bootloader not to the MBR but also to the external drive. After completing the installation I wanted to boot into Debian, but it just started Windows, which is installed on my internal. Even after choosing the USB drive in the boot menu, Windows booted. I later installed the bootloader to my internal, then I could boot into both Debian and Windows, but only if my hard drive was plugged in.
View 14 Replies
View Related
Feb 20, 2016
I have a 2TB external Hard drive that nonetheless is being used for booting Debian off of. I have downloaded the "debian-8.3.0-amd64-netinst.iso" and have extracted it to my external hard drive. The letter assigned to this drive is "I". When I shut it down and enter the boot settings, it asks me for a name and a path for a new boot option. I have tried many different paths including:
Code: Select allI:setup.exe
I:autorun.inf
I:debian.iso
setup.exe
debian.iso
I renamed the original Debian download (debian-8.3.0-amd64-netinst.iso) to "debian" so I didn't have to type the long file name into the path. When I type in "I:debian.iso" as the path and restart it pops up with a grub prompt, in my mind that tells me that some part of the debian.iso file is corrupted.
Specs:
Dual Core i5-3317U, 1.7 GHz, Turbo boosted
8GB RAM
1TB Internal Memory
64-bit OS and processor
Windows 8.1 Default OS
View 5 Replies
View Related
Apr 12, 2014
I have a WD20EZRX (Green) 3.5" hard drive installed in an external USB3 case (Icy Box IB-351StU3S-B), which is detected as an AS2105 device in Debian 7 (Linux 3.13 from back ports). My computer is a TP X200s. The problem is that the hard drive does not spin down even with hdparm -S timeout set and the file system unmounted. It does spin down with the hdparm -y command, though, and stays that way until accessed. The case also seems to prevent the TP entering standby mode, or at least the indication light is left blinking when the lid is closed. Other than this, the drive works fine. It does have a GPT partition scheme and ext3 file system.
Note that the TP does have only USB2 ports.
View 0 Replies
View Related
Jan 25, 2010
I got a dell inspiron 1501 laptop with a 80Gb sata drive what is the best solution to add data storage space for someone that love to have multiples operating systems at hand Note: I use mostly linux so I won't need to change my laptop for many years maybe ...
View 2 Replies
View Related
May 22, 2014
My external hard drive (about 2 years old) won't mount. It wouldn't mount on Windows either. Other external hard drives (sdb1) mount perfectly.
I am wondering is there a Linux way of getting the hard drive to work again? The disc spins up so it's not a mechanical failure. I'm guessing here but is there a way of flashing firmware onto the external HD if that might be the problem?
(Seagate 2TB ST320005EXD101-RK)
Code: Select all# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# Use 'blkid' to print the universally unique identifier for a
# device; this may be used with UUID= as a more robust way to name devices
# that works even if disks are added and removed. See fstab(5).
#
# <file system> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
# / was on /dev/sda2 during installation
[Code] .....
View 5 Replies
View Related
Oct 1, 2010
I recently installed Maverick RC to a partition on my external drive.Following the GUI, I used the advanced option and installed the bootloader to "sdb" and had Maverick install to a partition on the external drive (I want the GRUB to be on the external drive so I can boot directly into Win7 when I don't have the external connected). And, to note, I did set my BIOS to boot from the external drive first, I have that option in my BIOS. So, when I finished installing, I rebooted and all I got was a "-". Not even a "disk not bootable message". It just hung at "-" .
View 9 Replies
View Related
May 30, 2015
I can't mount my external hard drive with the graphic interface of my Xfce desktop anymore, since the latest upgrade.
The disk does show up, but when I try mounting it, I get a pop up window telling me that :
Failed to mount "My_Passport". Not authorized to perform operation.
View 12 Replies
View Related
Sep 5, 2010
I bought a new hard drive. I thought it would be clever and SAFE to install Ubuntu on the Hard Drive so that would not interfere with the internal hard drive on my laptop. It worked fine until I disconnected the hard drive. I got the "Grub Error 21" when I installed. I know how to get around it, unfortunately, I have to lug around this hard drive whenever my computer sleeps or restarts. I would like to be able to restart and boot into Windows without my hard drive connected. Is this possible?
View 3 Replies
View Related
