Super Newb Needs A Hand To Hold For This Entire Process

I tried to install Debian 8 and 7 but I get error message at partitioning stage:

"Failed to create a file system
The ext4 file system creation in partition #1 of SCSI1 (0,0,0) (sda) failed."

After that I couldn't advance further.

I booted from a live Debian and the HardDisk actually shows there with some older files on it.

I tried to install even Windows but from the start it shows the computer doesn't have a Hard Disk Drive so the installation stops right at the start.

Any ideas what is wrong and is there any fix?

I have a dual boot laptop with debian stable & Windows 7.

The HD partitions a
sda1: NTFS for W7
sda2: FAT32 (currently unused)
sda3: linux /boot
sda4: linux ext4, which is LVM with encryption

I've re-installed W7 and now need to recover the MBR & grub menu.

I've booted with the netinst usb in rescue mode, but it fails to mount the root partition /sda4:
"An error occured while mounting the device you entered for your root file system (/dev/sda4) on /target"

and /var/syslog shows:
Code:

rescue-mode: selected root device '/dev/sda4'
umount: cant umount /target: Invalid argument
isofs_fill_super: bread failed, dev=sda4, iso_blknum=16, block=32
EXT2-fs (sda4): error: unable to readsuperblock
EXT3-fs (sda4): error: unable to readsuperblock
rescue: mount: mounting /dev/sda4 on /target failed: Invalid argument

So it seems like something is wrong with the mount command?

Would appreciate suggestions how to solve this.

Thanks

I am having problems with my Sony Vaio windows
it boots up saying (on a black screen, grey text):
==============================================
Windows Boot Manager
Windows failed to start. A recent hardware or software change might be the cause. To fix the problem:
1. Insert your Windows installation disc and restart your computer.
2. Choose your language settings, and then click "Next."
3. Click "Repair your computer."
If you do not have this disc, contact your system administrator or computer manufacturer for assistance.
Status: 0xc0000225
Info: The boot selection failed because a required device is inaccessible.
Enter=Continue ESC=Exit
==========================================
No matter how many times i tried to restart and even tried F10 repeatedly or Alt-F10 I can't get to any other screen other than the above screen.

So I thought ah to hell with windows on this machine. I'll just install a linux distro because it's for my uncle all he really needs is internet and watch youtube videos/movies.

I have successfully burned and installed Fedora before on other machines using LiveCDs when they had CDs.

This time I tried to burn the DVD since it's it doesn't fit on the CD (I got my ISO from http://download.fedoraproject.org/pu...86_64-21-5.iso)
But when i inserted my DVD and restarted the same black screen appears.

So i have been looking for an older version of Fedora that fits on a CD (I am thinking maybe it'll boot from a CD, not sure though) but can't find any.

Any thoughts or solution to my problem?

Thanks in advance.

After creating a bootable usb using Universal USB Installer. I booted up the sytstem (Dell Inspiron N4110) F12 boot on usb, did the install, everything went well until after copying files and then the error message that "The grub-pc package failed to install into /target.. So i continued without a boot loader and now am trying to figure out how to get it back.
Previously i did a perfect dual boot of Kali Linux wherein the Grub boot loader was present. I did however uninstall Kali, reclaim HDD space, and even use EasyBCD to remove Grub(i believe).
Also worth noting is that before this dual boot with pignuy and after uninstalling kali linux i did a complete reinstallation of my windows 7 system using the recovery HD.

Now i would like to know how i could get grub boot loader back onto my system so that i can boot up Pinguy OS. Thanks

Hi,

Before installing Linux Mint 17 to the entire HDD of my HP p2 1317cb desktop, it was running a preinstalled windows 8 OEM UEFI. After several failed attempts of dual booting(no grub menu and boots directly to the windows 8) i then decided to do a erase all and install Linux option. Now i have Linux Mint 17.1 working flawlessly, so far. What i want to now do is, dual boot a windows 7 installation alongside my Linux. Please advise on the best way to do this.
Thank You.

Note: Before doing a clean install of Linux i disabled secure boot,enabled legacy, and disabled fast boot.

I am trying to move away from windows. Installed Dragora with lots of hitches I managed to fix until I booted from hard drive. on boot from hard drive I got a blank screen for over an hour. On my next look at the screen the next morning I have these 4 lines over and over.
ssb0:0 Missing Free firmware
"b43-phy0 ERROR:firmware file"/*(DEBLOBBED)*/"request failed (err=-22)

"b43-phy0 ERROR:firmware file"b43-open/ucode15.fw" not found

"b43-phy0 ERROR:/*(DEBLOBBED)*/
there is a curser flashing and I am able to type but unable to start a new line. I typed setup signed in and recieved
" No mail.
root@rafaela:~# " Am I in line edit mode? wha;t went wrong? how do I get the graphical interface? how do I install the missing files? Should I run screaming for the hills?

My attempts to back-up to an external hard disk finally met with apparent success but I cannot now mount the target drive.

To summarize:-
1. Installing a SATA hard disk, identical to my computer's main drive, in a USB 2.0 caddy and attaching this to the computer resulted in qualified recognition. 'fdisk' 'saw' both the main drive, as sda, and the USB drive, as sdb, respectively but initially noted that the latter, “... doesn't contain a valid partition table.” This was hardly surprising. At the point of first connection the external drive was essentially a 'bare metal' device, having had its data wiped. Nevertheless, 'fdisk' correctly reported its size, number of heads and cylinders, etc.
2. 'dmesg' also correctly identified the external disk as sdb, reporting its type and the USB port to which it is connected.
3. 'df' ignores the second hard drive, reporting only the main disk.
4. Attempts to clone/back-up the main disk to the external disk using the recommended tools EaseUS Todo back-up and RedoBackup, booting respectively from appropriate USB memory sticks, both failed. Neither utility was prepared to write to the external disk. EaseUS acknowledged the latter but crashed the whole computer when instructed to perform the clone. RedoBackup failed to recognize the external disk.
5. Then came the break-through. A bit more Net browsing led me to try the command 'dd if=/dev/sda of=/dev/sdb'. The main disk was bit-copied (cloned) to the external disk at roughly 20Gb per hour, meaning that my 80Gb disk was copied in just under 4 hours. Checking 'dd's resulting report showed what appeared to be a perfect copy.

So far, so good. I now have a back-up which, being identical to the main disk, should, I assume, be bootable. In the event of trouble with the main disk I should be able simply to exchange it for the external disk and carry on from the point at which I made my last back-up. I cannot, however, access and read the external disk. I assume that it must have a partition table and be mounted. The first requirement appears to have been resolved by the cloning operation. 'fdisk' reports no trouble with the partition table on the cloned external disk. It lists /dev/sb1 as the bootable Linux partition, /dev/sdb2 as the Extended partition and /dev/sdb5 as the Linux swap / Solaris partition, exactly mirroring the corresponding entries for the main, sda, drive.

My attempts to mount the external disk have all failed, however. I clearly do not understand the syntax of the mount command or have failed to meet some other requirement. 'mount' objected without hesitation to my early mistakes but “mount -t dev/sdb” was instantly accepted. No error messages or other output resulted and the command prompt was immediately redisplayed but 'mount' then failed to show that the external drive had been mounted. If I try something like 'mount -t /dev/sdb1 /mnt/xdisk', where xdisk is a directory I have been told to create, then I am presented with a prolix description of 'mount's syntax, most of which leaves me bewildered. 'mount' then once again confirms that sdb1 does not feature in the list of mounted devices.

Can someone offer any suggestions? I have read one or two of the other posts on this topic but none of the details match my problem too well and I did not understand some of the replies. If I try to add a line to /etc/fstab, for example, I find that I do not have a directory called 'fstab', only 'fstab.d' and that is empty.

I have roughly one year's experience with Linux Mint 13 which I chose because it so closely resembled Windows XP.

Hello, I hope someone can assist. I have installed 17 on 2 laptops and 17.1 on another all with windows 8 upgraded to 8.1 Now I have a new PC with 8.1 and cannot get 17.1 to install. I go thru all the steps but when I get past "something else" and choose the "free space" that I partitioned in windows and hit install the window pops up with "no root file system is defined" "Please correct from partitioning menu.. I have never had this happen, did I not do something? There is 1 300mb(fat32, efi) partition, ntfa, free space(which is where I am trying to install Linux), 1 small and 1 large "free space". Then the define for boot loader installation, which I do not remember needing to do before. Can someone please help. The PC is an Acer Aspire, amd10, 3.7ghz, quad core, radeon hd 8670 graphics , 1 terabyte hdd, 4gb ram, windows 8.1

Hi!

I am running into a problem as stated in the title. I currently run Windows 8.1 on a Asus S300CA notebook. Not too long ago I installed and shortly after uninstalled Ubuntu 14.04 by simply deleting the partitions via Windows and recovering the original Windows Boot by running command prompt: "bootrec.exe /fixmbr" ... which consequently seemed to get rid of the grub loader.

Now I like to install Elementary Luna, but while installing the boot loader an error message pops up saying that the 'grub-efi' package fails to install into /target/.

After some research and not being able to find too much on the subject, I created an extra '/boot/grub/efi' partition of 100MB. Thereby selecting 'sda5' to mount/install the boot loader in that particular directory/partition. This has not worked and produced the same error message.

* Quick start disabled in Windows 8.1
* Running 'Try Elementary Lunar', the wifi hardware is detected but no signals are picked up, nor can I seem to connect to my landlord's router using their SSID (Just in case someone suggests doing something in the terminal requiring an internet connection.)

What to do? Your help is much appreciated.

* Edit: I just realized there is an entire forum dedicated to making Linux run on notebooks, laptops and netbooks. Mods, feel free to move this message.

i have windows 8.1 and ubuntu 14.04 ....now wen i try to access a drive of windows in ubuntu it says failed to mount.
then i used "sudo ntfsfix /dev/sda4" for mounting the drives ......it worked for all drives except the E drive (not the system drive).
it gives error windows is hibernated , shutdown windows.
I shutdown my windows properly but still that particular drive refuses to mount..
any solns?