Re: [tlug] Help! Total hardware failure

[John Fremlin <john@example.com>]

dave@example.com writes:
> My main desktop computer where I do all my work has completely crashed on
> me. It won't boot.
[...]
> Crap, I think, my hard drive has died.

Sometimes, if you leave the drive to cool down, it will just start
working again . . . take it out now as it might not like being turned on
and off.

> I put in an Ubuntu boot CD, thinking maybe I can run some kind of
> diagnostic or at least access the data, or something.
[...]
> SQUASHFS error: Unable to read fragment cache block [2662784b]
> SQUASHFS error: Unable to read page, block 2662784b, size d843
> Buffer I/O error on device sr0, logical block 315578
> SQUASHFS error: sb_bread failed reading block 0x998

Maybe you just have a scratched CD?

[...]
> If not, can hard drives be repaired? Where would I go to do that?
>
> Second priority is figuring out what's wrong with the computer and fixing
> it. Is it the hard drive? Is it something else? What can I do from this
> point to be sure about what's going on?

Probably the first step is to move the hard drive to another computer to
see if anything can be recovered. You can buy SATA USB caddies if you
want to connect to a laptop.

Best would be to try to copy everything off in just one powercycle, as
it might not survive another.

> Thanks for any advice or help. My life is pretty much on hold until this
> gets sorted, so I hope I can get this sorted ASAP.

Other ideas are to try memtest and change the PSU.

Best of luck!

[...]