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    #1

    Smart Command Failed then Grub Error 18

    Booted up my PC and just after I'd logged into Kubuntu the screen went white, nothing to do. Switched to tty1 which was reporting IO errors for sda, and wouldn't let me login.

    Rebooted the PC and as the AHCI BIOS loaded it reported 'Smart Command Failed' for my boot drive (sda) and then GRUB reported 'Error 18' and stopped there.

    This is a new PC less than 6 months old, it's been running fine, no indication of any problems, my boot drive is a 320GB WD.

    Just to be certain I opened up the case, unplugged the SATA cables and plugged them back in again, but let's be honest it's difficult to go wrong with SATA connectors. Switched on my PC and it is working again!

    I've got smartmontools installed, though I admit I don't really know much about it, and did a quick check:

    sudo smartctl -a -d ata /dev/sda

    This shows no errors, should I run some tests on the disk or do you think it was the SATA cable and I've nothing to worry about?

    Thanks

    Nick
    Kubuntu 20.04(AMD64)/KDE 5
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    #2
    Re: Smart Command Failed then Grub Error 18

    Sure sounds like a SATA cable connector issue to me.
    Your are right about SATA cables being straightforward, but they are also notorious for coming loose easily or not being seated fully, given the way they are designed.


    There's a whole deal on Error 18, but your situation does not (yet) sound like it.
    I'll paste it here in case ot becomes an issue, BUT this sounds like a hardware issue and it sounds to me like you fixed it.


    - - - - - - - - - - -
    GRUB Error 18 reference:

    GRUB Manual
    http://www.gnu.org/software/grub/man...#Stage2-errors
    18 : Selected cylinder exceeds maximum supported by BIOS
    This error is returned when a read is attempted at a linear block address beyond the end of the BIOS translated area. This generally happens if your disk is larger than the BIOS can handle (512MB for (E)IDE disks on older machines or larger than 8GB in general).

    See GRUB Error 18 here:
    http://users.bigpond.net.au/hermanzone/p15.htm#18

    An intellectual says a simple thing in a hard way. An artist says a hard thing in a simple way. Charles Bukowski
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      #3
      Re: Smart Command Failed then Grub Error 18

      Ok, you've put my mind at rest, thanks for the links.
      Kubuntu 20.04(AMD64)/KDE 5
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