[SOLVED] Unable to boot arch installation after dd partition copy

mark-o-solo · 2012-06-08 12:32:05

Hello everyone,

last night, installed a new windows on the same hdd (lets call it sdb) as my Arch install. Naturally, afterwards I booted my live cd in order to restore my grub. However, it said something like: I/O error something...fd0. Despite this error, grub opened up, found my /boot/grub/stage1, I did:
root (hd4,2)
setup (hd4)
, it said success, but on reboot, windows bootloader was the one to start.
I thought, I had an invalid partition table somewhere since all partition and disk managers have been showing an empty 8GB disk (separate disk not partition) on my system.
Next, i tried to install grub on another harddisk: sda, but I was inhibited by the previous grub error. I copied my Arch install via dd from sdb to an empty partition on sda ( iv been wanting a backup anyway), shut down my power supply, unplugged all the disks except for sda and rebooted. I still got the same error and the 8gb device was still there, but there is NOTHING on my pc. Same thing when unplugging all but sdb.
I dont exactly remember how i did it, but i managed to get grub working both on sda and sdb. Of course i edited menu.lst and fstab on sda, but when I tried to boot, I got the message : waiting 10 seconds for device .../by-uuid/...
I tried all the help I found on google:
chroot
pacman -Syu
pacman -S udev, mkinitcpio
mkinitcio -p linux
But without success, still the same error. I was thinking, i need to set some hooks with mkinitcpio ? But I dont quite understand how or whether this really is the issue here...

All help is appreciated,
thank you

Last edited by mark-o-solo (2012-10-02 11:38:51)

Terminator · 2012-06-08 12:40:27

I think you installed grub to the MBR of the wrong HD, that's why the windows boot loader was still loaded. When disconnecting all but sdb, you got the 'waiting for device ...' error, because now, your fstab is wrong.

edit: what did you do in grub? I assume you will need:

root (hd1,?)
setup (hd0)

But I'm not sure since it has been a while since I had operating systems on a secondary hard disc.

Last edited by Terminator (2012-06-08 12:42:52)

mark-o-solo · 2012-06-08 12:42:10

my fstab works with uuids, not /dev/sdx
...and yes, i did change the uuid of the copied partition after dd if of
yes, i did , thats what i ment in the first post: i did update grub
i am really lost here :-(

Last edited by mark-o-solo (2012-06-08 17:04:00)

DSpider · 2012-06-08 22:21:57

This is confusing as hell. You're not being very clear... And the Shift key really isn't your friend either, is it?

From what I understand you get this error:

waiting 10 seconds for device .../by-uuid/...

And you've already re-generated the initramfs image from a chroot (mkinitcio -p linux) and it didn't help.

Ok... Have you tried the Fallback entry? If you don't have a Fallback entry, press "e" when the GRUB menu shows up, rename it "initramfs-linux-fallback.img" and press "b".

PS: By the way, from a "live" Linux distribution post the output of:

# fdisk -l

# blkid

Because I'm curious if you have two boot partitions with the same UUID (since you mentioned that you used "dd" to clone it) and where the boot flag is.

mark-o-solo · 2012-06-09 05:46:16

Hi, I edited my first post, im sorry for being alittle fast with my writing. I DID edit the uuid of the copied Arch partition and update fstab and menu.lst afterwards.
Here is my fdisk -l:
http://pastebin.com/9x1UHGnR
The original fstab is in /dev/sdd1, the new windows is /dev/sdd3 and the copied Arch install is /dev/sda3. /dev/sde is the one that shouldent be there, this drive is a complete mystery to me.
The two 250 gb disks are being used in a software raid 0 on windows.
The New Arch install has the same UUID as the original one, except the last number is 1 whereas the last number of the original one is 0.

Last edited by mark-o-solo (2012-06-09 05:53:20)

DSpider · 2012-06-09 08:48:46

root (hd4,2)
setup (hd4)

And you wonder where /dev/sde came from?

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Gr … B.27s_root

Device and partitioning numbering begin at zero. For example, the first hard disk recognized in the BIOS will be defined as (hd0). The second device will be called (hd1). This also applies to partitions. So, the second partition on the first hard disk will be defined as (hd0,1).

In GRUB 2 partitions are numbered from 1 instead of 0. But drives are still numbered from 0.

Also:

I copied my Arch install via dd from sdb to an empty partition on sda

Don't use dd to clone a partition unless you know what you're doing. Use rsync instead (preferably from a LiveCD):

# rsync -avx /mnt/Root/* /mnt/Backup --exclude={/dev/*,/proc/*,/sys/*,/tmp/*,/run/*,/mnt/*,/media/*,/lost+found}

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Fu … with_rsync

Because now you have two partitions with basically the same UUID, which is not good practice, IMO.

Last edited by DSpider (2012-06-09 08:52:47)

mark-o-solo · 2012-06-09 18:22:10

Ive been using dd for quite some time, it always worked with my ubuntu installs. Also, I only said (hd4) as an example, its been some time, I dont quite remember. I will use rsync from now on on arch.
What I really need right now is to get (one of) my system(s) running.
On my original install, when I boot up, I get "could not mount partition", "grub error 17".
Secondary:
Do you have any idea where the 8gb drive may come from? I only have 4 hdds in my computer, which are all accounted for in fdisk -l ? And, as I said previously, it does not depend on what hdd are connected.

DSpider · 2012-06-09 18:35:42

Then something is connected to your computer. Either externally or internally. Unplug every HDD and USB device (except maybe the mouse and keyboard) and use a LiveCD to run fdisk -l. It can't still show up then!

And did you try googling for "grub error 17" ?

Last edited by DSpider (2012-06-10 08:54:21)

Arch Linux

#1 2012-06-08 12:32:05

[SOLVED] Unable to boot arch installation after dd partition copy

#2 2012-06-08 12:40:27

Re: [SOLVED] Unable to boot arch installation after dd partition copy

#3 2012-06-08 12:42:10

Re: [SOLVED] Unable to boot arch installation after dd partition copy

#4 2012-06-08 22:21:57

Re: [SOLVED] Unable to boot arch installation after dd partition copy

#5 2012-06-09 05:46:16

Re: [SOLVED] Unable to boot arch installation after dd partition copy

#6 2012-06-09 08:48:46

Re: [SOLVED] Unable to boot arch installation after dd partition copy

#7 2012-06-09 18:22:10

Re: [SOLVED] Unable to boot arch installation after dd partition copy

#8 2012-06-09 18:35:42

Re: [SOLVED] Unable to boot arch installation after dd partition copy

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