My laptop won't boot.

DiscoStu

Ask away, I'm no expert! No, I downloaded Ubuntu 14.04.1 LTS (The top one on the page) then used the linked installer software to get it on the flash drive. I chose 'Ubuntu' from the drop down in the installer, same as the screenshots in your link. should I have formatted the flash drive first? It just says on the site that you need 2GB free on it rather than saying it has to be empty and formatted. I installed it on two different sticks and same thing happens with both.

digitalscream

Hmmm. Sounds like your laptop just isn't recognising it, which is very weird. You don't need to format the drive first - at least not usually. 

Actually, it could be worth leaving it for 10 minutes at the black screen stage; if it failed to boot from USB, then it'd skip to the main drive and start booting Win7. If your USB drive is a bit slow, it could take quite a while to load.

DiscoStu

Ok, thanks. I'm off to a comedy club so will try again later or tomorrow.

rpr

I had the exact same problem,caused by a major windows update being interrupted. The used the Ubunto on USB stick method which worked , however it took a LOT of attempts to get it to boot. Seem to remember the on/off button had something to do with it restarting,but cant really remember now.

 Worth persevering with tho, suppose getting windows re-installed would fix -though not really ideal.

Ianpdq

I have a lenovo laptop it has a restore button next to the start button just a thought

DiscoStu

Ianpdq said:

I have a lenovo laptop it has a restore button next to the start button just a thought

Aye, tried that!

equalsql

Have you tried hitting F8 continually when it starts up? This should get you to a list of safemode options.

Emp_Fab

I had a poke around MS's site this morning and came across this page:- http://support.microsoft.com/kb/951418#top

There is a hotfix available for that particular cause (but whether this is exactly what yours is remains to be seen), but how you are expected to run a hotfix on a machine that won't boot is a mystery !

Emp_Fab

p.s. if your laptop didn't come with a Win7 disk, I seem to remember that they are obliged to provide a means of recovery instead, so there may well be a recovery partition on there that will give you a lot more options.  How you access that will need a quick google.  I'm not volunteering as I'm off to bed now !  Good luck !

Axe_meister

Could also be a memory issue, had the same error when I had a bad memory stick.

wave100

As mentioned above there's usually diagnostics that you can run from the bios - try running them first and then at least you will know which particular bit of hardware is knackered. If it is the hard disk (which would be my guess too) you may not be able to get your stuff off it in any case. If you can't get Ubuntu to work, I'd get it to a technician and see if they can get it to work. The downside is you may lose all your data, the upside id it's a relatively easy fix....

DiscoStu

equalsql said:

Have you tried hitting F8 continually when it starts up? This should get you to a list of safemode options.

Tried to get safe mode to run but it wouldn't.

rpr said:

I had the exact same problem,caused by a major windows update being interrupted. The used the Ubunto on USB stick method which worked , however it took a LOT of attempts to get it to boot. Seem to remember the on/off button had something to do with it restarting,but cant really remember now.

 Worth persevering with tho, suppose getting windows re-installed would fix -though not really ideal.

So what did you do in the end, @rpr? Did you swap to Ubuntu full time or did you find a fix for Windows?

Danny1969

Did you try F11 to access restore partition ?

DiscoStu

Guess what guys....
I'm typing this from my laptop!!

I changed the USB slot that the memory stick was in, and also noticed via the boot settings that the USB stick was set to be number 4 in the boot sequence so I moved it to number 1 and.... Ubuntu booted!

So I'm online! I can find my files too so I can back them up later on.
What does this tell me then? That it's a corrupt file in Windows as oppposed to being a hardware error given that everything booted with Ubuntu?

@digitalscream

DiscoStu

Danny1969 said:

Did you try F11 to access restore partition ?

I think so..? I've tried all the f keys and can't remember what does what tbh.
My Lenovo has two HDDs in it, is one for the OS/booting and the other for storage?

Ianpdq

The storage on my Lenovo has a backup of all the original settings to restore the system

digitalscream

Excellent The point of this exercise wasn't to fix it - it was to back everything up and give you a vaguely usable system. You can now connect am external drive and copy everything, so that in the case that your drive's fucked (or something goes wrong during the restore process) you haven't lost anything. You'll need to refer to the documentation to do the restore...however, the good news is that Ubuntu boots, so there's likely nothing wrong with your RAM, CPU or motherboard

DiscoStu

Ianpdq said:

The storage on my Lenovo has a backup of all the original settings to restore the system

Is that in the One-Key Recovery option? I couldn't suss where to find a 'recent image' to revert to but did see something about restoring to original settings.

Will I need the Windows 7 code if I do this? Because I don't have one. No disc, and the W7 label on the underside of my lappy has rubbed away over time.

digitalscream said:

Excellent The point of this exercise wasn't to fix it - it was to back everything up and give you a vaguely usable system. You can now connect am external drive and copy everything, so that in the case that your drive's fucked (or something goes wrong during the restore process) you haven't lost anything. You'll need to refer to the documentation to do the restore...however, the good news is that Ubuntu boots, so there's likely nothing wrong with your RAM, CPU or motherboard

And that Sir, is great news!

Danny1969

If you restore from the partition you won't need to enter a win 7 key Stu

DiscoStu

Danny1969 said:

If you restore from the partition you won't need to enter a win 7 key Stu

Lovely stuff! So F11 then?