hang on "Verifying DMI Pool Data" at boot

[drone4four]

I was running Ubuntu with an uptime for some two weeks or so. After downloading Black Mesa Source yesterday, I attempted to boot into Windows 7 to install the recently released mod but I got an error message before Grub2 loaded. The message read, “BOOTMGR is missing.” I then booted my Ubuntu Live disc and Googled the error message. I can’t recall exactly what it was that nudged me towards the conclusion that it was my two mass storage USB sticks plugged into my PC. I have my boot priority in my BIOS set to USB-HDD, CD Drive and then hard disk. My BIOS was probably looking for an O/S on those two storage USB sticks and it couldn’t find any. I removed my USB sticks which eliminated that error message. However, I then encountered different unusual behaviour. Now it hangs after, “Verifying DMI Pool Data.....” Google tells me that the source of problems similar to mine involve hardware and not software. Since I don't even get to Grub2 boot loader, it can`t be a problem with Ubuntu or Windows. As per advice I found on Google, I tried reverting to factory default settings in the BIOS. This yielded “Update Success” after "Verifying DMI Pool Data," but it still hangs. Also, I think my hard disk isn't the problem. My Ubuntu Live environment detects all the hard drives. I can see the contents of all my partitions, so I think I can safely rule out that it`s a faulty hard disk. What else could it be?

I ran a Memtest86 check and it said there were no errors detected.

[crazycheese]

You can't rule out faultness of your harddrives, unless you checked their SMART tables.

The "DMI Pool" hang is very probably, because your BIOS can't find the boot sector, or it is damaged by whatever means.
So, instead of printing "non-bootable device", it just hangs there.

Select a device, which has a boot loader installed properly, and from there, boot the OS you want. Ofc, it should be present there.
If you don't have a device with boot loader configured to boot your desired OS,.. create it.

[drone4four]

I found a workaround to boot my O/Ses. Before I get to that, I would like to address your comments, crazycheese.

You can't rule out faultness of your harddrives, unless you checked their SMART tables.

Here is the output for smartctl:

gnull@jung:~$ sudo smartctl --all /dev/sda
[sudo] password for gnull: 
smartctl 5.41 2011-06-09 r3365 [x86_64-linux-3.2.0-30-generic] (local build)
Copyright (C) 2002-11 by Bruce Allen, http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net

=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Model Family:     Western Digital Caviar Blue Serial ATA
Device Model:     WDC WD3200AAKS-00B3A0
Serial Number:    WD-WCAT10119120
LU WWN Device Id: 5 0014ee 100c77ef2
Firmware Version: 01.03A01
User Capacity:    320,071,851,520 bytes [320 GB]
Sector Size:      512 bytes logical/physical
Device is:        In smartctl database [for details use: -P show]
ATA Version is:   8
ATA Standard is:  Exact ATA specification draft version not indicated
Local Time is:    Sun Sep 16 00:54:25 2012 EDT
SMART support is: Available - device has SMART capability.
SMART support is: Enabled

=== START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===
SMART overall-health self-assessment test result: PASSED

General SMART Values:
Offline data collection status:  (0x84)	Offline data collection activity
					was suspended by an interrupting command from host.
					Auto Offline Data Collection: Enabled.
Self-test execution status:      (   0)	The previous self-test routine completed
					without error or no self-test has ever 
					been run.
Total time to complete Offline 
data collection: 		( 6180) seconds.
Offline data collection
capabilities: 			 (0x7b) SMART execute Offline immediate.
					Auto Offline data collection on/off support.
					Suspend Offline collection upon new
					command.
					Offline surface scan supported.
					Self-test supported.
					Conveyance Self-test supported.
					Selective Self-test supported.
SMART capabilities:            (0x0003)	Saves SMART data before entering
					power-saving mode.
					Supports SMART auto save timer.
Error logging capability:        (0x01)	Error logging supported.
					General Purpose Logging supported.
Short self-test routine 
recommended polling time: 	 (   2) minutes.
Extended self-test routine
recommended polling time: 	 (  75) minutes.
Conveyance self-test routine
recommended polling time: 	 (   5) minutes.
SCT capabilities: 	       (0x303f)	SCT Status supported.
					SCT Error Recovery Control supported.
					SCT Feature Control supported.
					SCT Data Table supported.

SMART Attributes Data Structure revision number: 16
Vendor Specific SMART Attributes with Thresholds:
ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME          FLAG     VALUE WORST THRESH TYPE      UPDATED  WHEN_FAILED RAW_VALUE
  1 Raw_Read_Error_Rate     0x000f   200   200   051    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
  3 Spin_Up_Time            0x0003   154   153   021    Pre-fail  Always       -       3258
  4 Start_Stop_Count        0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       5
  5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct   0x0033   200   200   140    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
  7 Seek_Error_Rate         0x000e   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
  9 Power_On_Hours          0x0032   056   056   000    Old_age   Always       -       32735
 10 Spin_Retry_Count        0x0012   100   253   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
 11 Calibration_Retry_Count 0x0012   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
 12 Power_Cycle_Count       0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       301
192 Power-Off_Retract_Count 0x0032   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       153
193 Load_Cycle_Count        0x0032   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       301
194 Temperature_Celsius     0x0022   109   087   000    Old_age   Always       -       34
196 Reallocated_Event_Count 0x0032   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
197 Current_Pending_Sector  0x0012   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
198 Offline_Uncorrectable   0x0010   200   200   000    Old_age   Offline      -       0
199 UDMA_CRC_Error_Count    0x003e   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
200 Multi_Zone_Error_Rate   0x0008   200   200   000    Old_age   Offline      -       0

SMART Error Log Version: 1
No Errors Logged

SMART Self-test log structure revision number 1
No self-tests have been logged.  [To run self-tests, use: smartctl -t]


SMART Selective self-test log data structure revision number 1
 SPAN  MIN_LBA  MAX_LBA  CURRENT_TEST_STATUS
    1        0        0  Not_testing
    2        0        0  Not_testing
    3        0        0  Not_testing
    4        0        0  Not_testing
    5        0        0  Not_testing
Selective self-test flags (0x0):
  After scanning selected spans, do NOT read-scan remainder of disk.
If Selective self-test is pending on power-up, resume after 0 minute delay.

gnull@jung:~$

Select a device, which has a boot loader installed properly, and from there, boot the OS you want. Ofc, it should be present there. If you don't have a device with boot loader configured to boot your desired OS,.. create it.

I have been dual booting using bootloaders for as long as I have used Linux -- which is why I don't need to create one. All I need is a way to detect my existing bootloader. The work around I figured out is to use a Super Grub2 LiveCD to detect the Grub2 configuration file on my home directory which resides on /dev/sda7.

I'm still in need of a permanent solution because I don't want to use Super Grub every time I want to boot an O/S.

[Kano]

Most likely the grub version installed is buggy. If you know what you do you could replace it by grub bzr. But i doubt so

[drone4four]

Most likely the grub version installed is buggy. If you know what you do you could replace it by grub bzr. But i doubt so

I'm not sure what you mean. I ended up solving the problem using boot-repair. I should have reported back here sooner, but I got carried away with other things.