This is the next stage, really, to my 'Numerous problems...' thread of a couple of weeks ago. Mods: if you feel this belongs in 'Hardware', please move it and accept my apologies.
My level of experience
More-or-less rank beginner. (e.g. I don't even know where to look for system logs etc if anyone needs information from them.) But I'm not afraid of the command line and if someone holds my hand for a while I can probably start to work out some of the simpler things for myself. Anything complicated will need spelling out, preferably in words of one syllable.
The Problem
Following the saga of my previous thread I did a clean install, which seemed to resolve all the problems I'd been having. After that was completed, the 'disks' utility showed just the 4TB HDD, leading me to conclude the SSD had failed. Spent the rest of the week getting things set up; about halfway through the week I had to reboot the machine but in doing so I didn't think to check the boot order so can't say exactly what happened next.
At some point I looked at the 'disks' utility again and the HDD had been joined by the 500GB SSD! Around the end of the week, the symptom of trying to open a program but nothing happening recurred, so I tried rebooting the machine. This time it stopped going in before reaching the login screen and nothing I could do (including altering the boot order) would change it. In the end the only way out that I could conceive was another clean install (even the 'try Ubuntu option on the bootable USB, although it worked, didn't seem to offer a way to get the installed version to boot).
All now seems to be well and the SSD is once more absent from the 'disks' utility, but I'm nervous; I don't have the time (or the patience) to do a clean install every weekend.
Questions/advice I need
When the machine was new the SSD was for software and the HDD for data. Is that normal? I imagine the SSD may have some kind of intermittent fault; is this a reasonable conclusion? If so, and if it remains sufficiently early in the boot order, could it have been the means by which the machine did its midweek boot? (I hadn't thought such a thing might be happening because I set the machine up to encrypt the disks when I first acquired it and there was no request for any encryption password during that boot.) More to the point, is there some way in which a PC is biased to go to the SSD for software when one is visible?
If a PC is biased to load software from an SSD if one is visible, I imagine a failing SSD would cause the same sort of accumulating problems I reported in my previous thread? Or at any rate, if it has booted from the SSD, it would presumably never look at the version installed on the HDD? So is there any way (short of physical removal) I can lock out the SSD so the dud installation can no longer cause problems? Will that have to be done every time the machine boots or can it be set and left? (I'm rather assuming ensuring the SSD isn't in the boot order will prevent it being used to boot; if that's not the case I guess it will be physical removal?)
I found there's a Smart test option in the disks utility; I don't know if that's just a GUI controlled version of smartctl or something else? I'm currently running a long test on the HDD with it, desperately hoping it's not going to spoil the result if I keep working as it runs. I imagine it can't be used to test the SSD unless that disk is visible? If I were to reboot the machine and let it use the SSD (if it wants to), what is the likelihood I can run a test on that without causing damage to the current good installation on the HDD?
I may well post further information, particularly test results (I hope others will be able to interpret them better than me) as they emerge.
I imagine (hope) installing a new SSD is reasonably straightforward physically, when the time comes? But I guess it will need a clean install to put Ubuntu and all the software I use on the SSD? At the moment, the strategy I have in mind is to nurse the machine through to the Christmas break, when I will have time to actually do the work so, subject to some of the answers I may get, you may find me seeking particular help then.
In the meantime, any answers or thoughts folk may have would be most welcome.
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October 17th, 2022#2oldfred oldfred is offline
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Re: SSD (perhaps) issues
Do you have good backups?
Or is second install on HDD your main install?
You need at minimum, backup of /home, any system settings you manually change in /etc and export of list of installed apps to make it easy to reinstall.
When you do not see SSD, does UEFI/BIOS see drive?
If drive not seen in UEFI/BIOS, no software will be able to find it.
That might indicate loose connection, bad cable or bad drive.
Is SSD a SATA drive or newer NVMe type?
Please copy & paste the pastebin link to the BootInfo summary report ( do not post report), do not run the auto fix till reviewed.Lets see details, use ppa version with your USB installer (2nd option) or any working install, not Boot-Repair ISO
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Boot-Repair
https://sourceforge.net/p/boot-repair/home/Home/
And to better document hardware, preferably when SSD seen:
Hardware doucumentation script, one line using && \ to make as one entry
https://github.com/UbuntuForums/system-info
wget -N -t 5 -T 10 https://github.com/UbuntuForums/syst...in/system-info && \
chmod +x system-info && \
./system-info
UEFI boot install & repair info - Regularly Updated :
https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2147295
Please use Thread Tools above first post to change to [Solved] when/if answered completely.