Computer refuses to boot into SSD

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1

Wow, it hasn’t been that long and already I’m having problems again. This time, I have no idea what could’ve caused it.

My 1 TB SSD was getting bloated very quickly because I not only had the rescued data, but I also had backed up files from another drive. So I decided that I wanted to use the internal HDD, which still works, to hold this backup data to free up space. I still had Manjaro installed on it from my past mistake and figured ‘Hey I could just format it and that way the drive will be free!’, so I use Gnome Disks to accomplish this. Yes, I did make sure I had the correct hard drive selected. I checked and doublechecked before proceeding.

This happened last night. This morning, I decided to reboot the computer. I forget why, but anyway after that, the computer refused to boot up. It was giving me the same error message I had gotten before when I didn’t update the computer on the old SSD properly.

https://i.imgur.com/xAi7zwa.jpg

I start to panic and start to wonder if I somehow erased my data again and after I managed to calm myself down, I used my Linux laptop (thank goodness I still have that) to create a bootable Linux USB drive. I plug it in, boot from the USB, and I’m able to see that my 1 TB SSD is fine. The data was all still there, so I hadn’t accidentally erased it, which was a relief. Using the bootable USB, I did install Manjaro onto the HDD and immediately backed up my SSD files onto it just in case. So my data is safe, on two different drives and part of them on an external hard drive.

But there was still the problem with booting into the right drive. I reboot the computer and go into the BIOS to check to see what order everything was in. My 1 TB SSD wasn’t selected as the first option for some reason, I quickly change it to be Boot #1. Then I rebooted. The compuer still booted into the HDD instead, which was strange. I rebooted again, went into the BIOS to doublecheck, and sure enough the SSD was still labeled as Boot #1. I try to forceboot into the SSD. Most of the time, it’ll just go right back to the boot options screen. The one time I thought it was going to boot, it stayed on a black screen for a long while before it just auto-rebooted itself and went back to the HDD.

https://i.imgur.com/gAZZDMq.jpg

So I’m unable to boot into my main drive despite the data being fine. I also didn’t do any important updates before this, so I’m not sure how it came up with that ‘kernel modules couldn’t load’ message again at the start of this, unless the computer attempted to boot from my old SSD.

Does anyone have any idea on what could be going on?

2

A layout of all the partitions on all drives will make it easier to understand. Probably some part of the os was on the hdd that you wiped.

From the last screenshot you should try “uefi os”, and disable csm.

3

Here’s screenshots from GParted regarding the drives.

Also I have no idea why the BIOS read the HDD three different times.

https://i.imgur.com/6BQgrQa.png
https://i.imgur.com/ay9cBsQ.png

4

Those images are useless. How should anyone know which is which? Post

fdisk -l
5

Here’s the output:

Disk /dev/sda: 931.51 GiB, 1000204886016 bytes, 1953525168 sectors
Disk model: ST1000DM010-2EP1
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
Disklabel type: gpt
Disk identifier: 2B603B34-DF59-4EE3-B015-368A850D476A

Device      Start        End    Sectors   Size Type
/dev/sda1    4096     618495     614400   300M EFI System
/dev/sda2  618496 1953520064 1952901569 931.2G Linux filesystem


Disk /dev/sdb: 931.51 GiB, 1000204886016 bytes, 1953525168 sectors
Disk model: Samsung SSD 870 
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0x650dd6ac

Device     Boot Start        End    Sectors   Size Id Type
/dev/sdb1  *     2048 1953520064 1953518017 931.5G 83 Linux
6

You don’t even have an efi partition on SSD. You were probably booting via old efi partition that was on hdd, which you formatted.

7

Hmm that does make sense. Would I be able to repartition the drive to give it what it needs without erasing the data? Or am I better off just reinstalling the OS entirely and making sure it’s properly partitioned?

8

Should work, yes.

9

At least I can’t say, with that just that information. But if your “backup” is a working backup, sure? It sounds easy-ish to fix, if you know a few things.

So it’s probably that grub is just not pointing to the proper place, and that place /boot/efi may not exist as a FAT32/EFI partition? (Manjaro defaults to a 300MB for this partition, so it’s tiny.)

To fix you’re most likely booting a live stick and chrooting in to fix grub. I can’t tell by reading and looking where you want to boot, and if you need to make that partition on /dev/sdb? But it sounds like an easy fix either way.

10

Disable CSM in UEFI. Boot from the usb. And restore GRUB on sda.

11

I attempted to use the advice given to me to try and restore my computer’s ability to boot into the SSD. Unfortunately it failed and the computer continued to bypass the SSD and kept going to the HDD instead. My only option was to do another OS reinstall. Thankfully I didn’t have any new data to backup.

Anyway thanks for the help!

12

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