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    Acer Aspire 9300 is not always able to boot with large harddrive

    Discussion in 'Acer' started by Zox, Feb 9, 2011.

  1. Zox

    Zox Newbie

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    Hello everyone,

    I have a small issue with my Acer Aspire 9300 notebook.
    I have replaced my old Hitachi HDD 160 GB 5400 RPMs with new Hitachi 250 GB 7200 RPMs HDD. After this the following issue appeared:

    I have dualboot system - Linux and Windows, I tried both boot loaders - grub and windows loader - this occurs independently with both. Some times grub errors out:

    error> out of disk

    I reboot the machine and some time this error reoccurs, some times grub menu appears but then while booting Ubuntu reports that it is not able to find the /home partition. I tested this HDD on other PC - it works fine. Old smaller HDD also works fine. So I suppose that my bios is not always correctly working with large HDD and this causes boot loaders not to be able to locate the entire disk or some of its partitions. I have upgraded bios to latest version:

    ftp://ftp.acer-euro.com/notebook/aspire_9300/bios/v1.20.zip

    But this did not solve the issue.

    Can anyone let me know if it is possible to some how modify the BIOS or patch it to support large harddrive?

    Any help appreciated! :)
    Thank you.
     
    Zox, Feb 9, 2011
    #1
  2. michael_recycled

    michael_recycled Notebook Deity

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    Hi,

    this is not a "large HDD" problem. If it were, then you'd have problems with your old 160GB HDD either.

    My guess: faulty HDD or there is a connection problem between HDD and motherboard.
    In either case, I'd expect error messages in the system logs. Also check the SMART values (smartmontools on Linux).


    Michael
     
    michael_recycled, Feb 9, 2011
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  3. Zox

    Zox Newbie

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    Checked SMART VALUES:

    There are couple of warnings and ATA standard is not recognized.
    Can this cause this problem?
     
    Zox, Feb 10, 2011
    #3
  4. michael_recycled

    michael_recycled Notebook Deity

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    Not good at all.
    Get the Drive Fitness Test from Hitachi Support here: www.hitachigst.com/support/downloads. You probably need the CD ISO image.

    Also, you should backup your data ASAP.

    Additionally, make sure, all connectors are properly seated and any cables (if present) are in pristine condition.

    Michael
     
    michael_recycled, Feb 10, 2011
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  5. Zox

    Zox Newbie

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    Michael
    Here is the update - sorry for delay - I have replaced the harddrive with anouther new one (other harddrive "failing" was also new). And reinstalled all things and still the same error occurs. Here is the SMART data for new disk:
    ===
    By the way my noteboook some times does not successfully wake up too with these larg 250 harddrives.
    What I can see in dmesg is:

    How ever I do not see any option in BIOS to switch to LBA
     
    Zox, Mar 5, 2011
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  6. michael_recycled

    michael_recycled Notebook Deity

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    SMART data are looking good at the moment.
    If there are still problems, then I suspect it's the connection or - worst case - the motherboard.
    I assume you already have the latest Bios installed.

    Michael
     
    michael_recycled, Mar 6, 2011
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