GRUB HARD DISK ERROR issue

[SiberCat]

I ran into this error message when installing Damn Small Linux (DSL) on a hard disk installed on my Dell desktop. The disk was then installed on a PC104 imbedded computer. I searched numerous postings on the web and found only hints to a solution. I finally solved the problem for my case and wanted to share the results:

Here's what didn't work: I installed the disk as the Secondary Slave on my Dell and then installed DSL from a LiveCD, including GRUB. When I moved the disk to the PC104 it was installed as the Primary Master. When I tried booting, I got the GRUB HARD DISK ERROR message.

Here's what did work: I installed the disk as the Primary Master on my Dell and then installed DSL (from a LiveCD), including GRUB. When I moved the disk to the PC104 and installed it as Primary Master, it booted OK.

Speculation: the hints I found indicated that GRUB was getting different disk "dimensions" (e.g., head, cylinder, sector numbers) when the error was reported. I suspect that when my disk was installed on the Secondary Slave connector, GRUB still read dimensions of the Primary Master disk. So then when it was installed as the Primary Master in the PC104 system it read dimension numbers from its BIOS that didn't match those held by GRUB. I'm not a GRUB expert, so this is a guess.

Conclusion: install the disk as the Primary Master when installing GRUB. Good luck!

[Jonathan183]

Welcome to the forums SiberCat

Thanks for sharing your solution.

Grub is normally installed to the MBR of the first hard disk in the system (if you want it installed somewhere else you usually have to specify this during the install). So if you had another hard disk in the PC at the time you did the first install, and that was the first hard disk the system tried to boot from ... I would expect Grub to be installed to the MBR of that disk. Does the system you used to install DSL still boot?

[SiberCat]

Hi, Thanks for the reply...

Yes, the Dell computer that I used when I tried to install DSL and GRUB on a disk installed at the Secondary Slave position still boots. I guess I dodged a bullet on that! The disk should be installed as the Primary Master when attempting this. Thanks for the warning...