grub loading stage1.5 error 16

[le_fou]

Hello everyone,

I am a new user of linux ubuntu. I have installed linux ubuntu9.04 with my windows xp professional as a dual boot.

it was working well, both of them windows xp and the ubuntu, and suddenly I can<t access anymore anyone of them, the system stopped suddenly, I tried to restart it and it's giving me the following message :

Grub loading stage 1.5

Grub please wait....

error 16

I tried to search in different forums, but I didn<t find anything on error 16, I am not an expert, and actually I am a new user, I don<t have any idea what to do, but all I need now is to get some files I saved on my windows desktop.

I even tried to boot my computer with w linux ubuntu cd 9.04, and I can access to all my files on the ubuntu part of the computer, while when I try to open the windows part, it will open the windows part but it's showing that It contains 0 items, what I see actually is an empty window.

so please it's urgent, can somebody help me to get access to my files ?

thanks

le_fou

[matrixs]

I even tried to boot my computer with w linux ubuntu cd 9.04, and I can access to all my files on the ubuntu part of the computer, while when I try to open the windows part, it will open the windows part but it's showing that It contains 0 items, what I see actually is an empty window.

It seems your Windows partition is corrupt. Try any hard disk recovery utility.

[le_fou]

Hi Matrixs,

we can<t try to access windows by another way ? if not how can I get a recovery utility, and how to apply it on windows while it's not opening ?

thanks for your reply,

le_fou

[Lostfarmer]

16 : Inconsistent filesystem structure
This error is returned by the filesystem code to denote an internal error caused
by the sanity checks of the filesystem structure on disk not matching what it
expects. This is usually caused by a corrupt filesystem or bugs in the code
handling it in GRUB.

Would try 'testdisk' , it might be on your live linux cd.
TestDisk - CGSecurity be sure to first read the How-To-use.
First let 'testdisk' check the partition table , if all is good, next from testdisk menu select Advanced , hilight the XP partition, press enter, to check XP's Volume Boot Record.

[le_fou]

Hi LostFarmer,

I am sorry for being late, but I was sick the last 3 days.

thanks for your help, actually I installed testdisk and I have recovered the files I want in my windows part. I tried even to follow the link that you posted above to try to make my laptop work again, but I am facing some pbs and it's not booting, it still giving me the same error. I am attaching here a pic, so you can see what I am facing right now [IMG]file:///home/ubuntu/Desktop/Screenshot.png[/IMG]

what do you think ? is it possible to fix it?

[Lostfarmer]

You need to use 'attach files' for your 'Screenshot.png' under additional options below the post screen.

questions:
1)some linux cd's allow one to boot into the installed linux on hdd, can you do so ?

2)do you have a MS XP cd ?

3)right before problem did you add/remove any hardware/software ?

4) ran any program that might have change the hdd partitions ?

need history right before problem , any thing you did.

You did read Running TestDisk - CGSecurity
at testdisk displays-
1) select hdd
2) select Intel
3) select Analyse
does it list your partitions correct and with out errors ?

3a) select advanced
4) hi-light your XP partition and press enter
5) does it say your primary volume boot record is good ? and the same as it's backup.

edited, by adding below:

You indicate that the grub error 16 is on boot up , not when you select an OS to boot. That leads me to think the partition that contains the "/boot/grub" files might need checked. I'm not much of a linux user but read Linux Command Directory: fsck on the use of 'fsck'. Boot with the live cd to run the command on the '/' linux hdd partition, be sure that the partition is NOT mounted. If you need help on the command post back the output from 'fdisk -l' (l=small L) and others will give needed detale.

[le_fou]

Hi again, this is the file attached.

As for your questions, here are the answers :

1) I am using a linux cd to access my files and to boot my laptop, but I don't think I can boot into the installed linux hdd
2) I tried to boot it before with an XP cd but it didn't work
3) I plugged my external hard disk, and I removed it, but after that I kept on using my laptop, 2 days, so I don't think that was the problem.
4) I don't think I ran any programs that changed the partitions.

just before the problem, I was running Matlab, and it's an original version, suddenly the computer stopped working, I tried control+alt+delete, but it didn't work, so I shut it down by pressing on the on/off button, afer that I tried to restart it and that's when it showed me that error.

tesdisk running
1)yes it's listing my partitions without errors.
2)yes it's saying that is good, for the windows part, and for the backup I didn't try it; as for the linux it's writing like supeblock find a certain number...(I can't remember anymore but I can try it again if you need that.
3)

[Lostfarmer]

Looking at your 'testdisk' output, there is a problem with the XP partition. You have XP listed twice with the same start sector but different total sizes. I think the first one listed is from the MBR and the 2nd is detected by 'testdisk'. From live linux run '

fdisk -l -u

' and post. Also

dd if=/dev/hda2 of=XPVBR count=1 bs=512
xxd XPVBR

before running above command verify that your XP partition is indeed hda2 , if not use the correct partition ID. The first line reads the first sector of partition into file named XPVBR. The secord line converts the hex data into text, If you get a program not found error try 'hexdump -C XPVBR'. Note: be very carfull with any 'dd' command. You may have to have root privilege to run commands.

If the partition size listed in the MBR is differnent than size listed in the Volume Boot Record (VBR) or XP partition listed twice in the MBR, then grub likely might see a "Inconsistent filesystem structure--error 16" but do not know if it would be dueing boot up or XP selection.

Haveing to do a hard shut down can corrupt the MBR and/or VBR.

The way I have my hdd partitioned, 'testdisk' has problems for me so can not say just how to use it.

[le_fou]

Hi again LostFarmer,

I run your first code and here is what I see :

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ fdisk -l -u

Disk /dev/sdb: 8011 MB, 8011120640 bytes
16 heads, 32 sectors/track, 30560 cylinders, total 15646720 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 32 15646719 7823344 c W95 FAT32 (LBA)
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$

[le_fou]

Hi LostFARMER,

this is the result of the second command, so tell me what do you think, and thanks in advance for your help.

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo dd if=/dev/sda2 of=XPVBR count=1 bs=512
1+0 records in
1+0 records out
512 bytes (512 B) copied, 0.020019 s, 25.6 kB/s
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ xxd XPVBR
0000000: eb52 904e 5446 5320 2020 2000 0208 0000 .R.NTFS .....
0000010: 0000 0000 00f8 0000 3f00 ff00 8a73 0200 ........?....s..
0000020: 0000 0000 8000 8000 4f3a 6e07 0000 0000 ........O:n.....
0000030: d24f 0c00 0000 0000 3e82 3e00 0000 0000 .O......>.>.....
0000040: f600 0000 0100 0000 551a 07dc 2c07 dc82 ........U...,...
0000050: 0000 0000 fa33 c08e d0bc 007c fbb8 c007 .....3.....|....
0000060: 8ed8 e816 00b8 000d 8ec0 33db c606 0e00 ..........3.....
0000070: 10e8 5300 6800 0d68 6a02 cb8a 1624 00b4 ..S.h..hj....$..
0000080: 08cd 1373 05b9 ffff 8af1 660f b6c6 4066 ...s......f...@f
0000090: 0fb6 d180 e23f f7e2 86cd c0ed 0641 660f .....?.......Af.
00000a0: b7c9 66f7 e166 a320 00c3 b441 bbaa 558a ..f..f. ...A..U.
00000b0: 1624 00cd 1372 0f81 fb55 aa75 09f6 c101 .$...r...U.u....
00000c0: 7404 fe06 1400 c366 601e 0666 a110 0066 t......f`..f...f
00000d0: 0306 1c00 663b 0620 000f 823a 001e 666a ....f;. ...:..fj
00000e0: 0066 5006 5366 6810 0001 0080 3e14 0000 .fP.Sfh.....>...
00000f0: 0f85 0c00 e8b3 ff80 3e14 0000 0f84 6100 ........>.....a.
0000100: b442 8a16 2400 161f 8bf4 cd13 6658 5b07 .B..$.......fX[.
0000110: 6658 6658 1feb 2d66 33d2 660f b70e 1800 fXfX..-f3.f.....
0000120: 66f7 f1fe c28a ca66 8bd0 66c1 ea10 f736 f......f..f....6
0000130: 1a00 86d6 8a16 2400 8ae8 c0e4 060a ccb8 ......$.........
0000140: 0102 cd13 0f82 1900 8cc0 0520 008e c066 ........... ...f
0000150: ff06 1000 ff0e 0e00 0f85 6fff 071f 6661 ..........o...fa
0000160: c3a0 f801 e809 00a0 fb01 e803 00fb ebfe ................
0000170: b401 8bf0 ac3c 0074 09b4 0ebb 0700 cd10 .....<.t........
0000180: ebf2 c30d 0a41 2064 6973 6b20 7265 6164 .....A disk read
0000190: 2065 7272 6f72 206f 6363 7572 7265 6400 error occurred.
00001a0: 0d0a 4e54 4c44 5220 6973 206d 6973 7369 ..NTLDR is missi
00001b0: 6e67 000d 0a4e 544c 4452 2069 7320 636f ng...NTLDR is co
00001c0: 6d70 7265 7373 6564 000d 0a50 7265 7373 mpressed...Press
00001d0: 2043 7472 6c2b 416c 742b 4465 6c20 746f Ctrl+Alt+Del to
00001e0: 2072 6573 7461 7274 0d0a 0000 0000 0000 restart........
00001f0: 0000 0000 0000 0000 83a0 b3c9 0000 55aa ..............U.
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$