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boot
hard-drive
sata
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🔍 See Original Answer on Ask Ubuntu ⧉ 🔗
URL:
https://askubuntu.com/q/1132854
Title:
Slow Ubuntu Boot [ata2: SRST failed (errno=-16)] and [ata2: reset failed, giving up]
ID:
/2019/04/10/Slow-Ubuntu-Boot-_ata2_-SRST-failed-_errno_-16__-and-_ata2_-reset-failed_-giving-up_
Created:
April 10, 2019
Edited: June 12, 2020
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November 23, 2025
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Step 1 - Identify ATA2
It’s a guess that ATA2 references /dev/sdb. The way to find out for sure is using:
$ ll /sys/block/
total 0
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 0 Apr 10 16:46 ./
dr-xr-xr-x 13 root root 0 Apr 4 21:05 ../
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 0 Apr 10 16:46 loop0 -> ../devices/virtual/block/loop0/
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 0 Apr 10 16:46 loop1 -> ../devices/virtual/block/loop1/
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 0 Apr 10 16:46 loop2 -> ../devices/virtual/block/loop2/
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 0 Apr 10 16:46 loop3 -> ../devices/virtual/block/loop3/
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 0 Apr 10 16:46 loop4 -> ../devices/virtual/block/loop4/
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 0 Apr 10 16:46 loop5 -> ../devices/virtual/block/loop5/
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 0 Apr 10 16:46 loop6 -> ../devices/virtual/block/loop6/
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 0 Apr 10 16:46 loop7 -> ../devices/virtual/block/loop7/
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 0 Apr 10 16:46 nvme0n1 -> ../devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.0/0000:3e:00.0/nvme/nvme0/nvme0n1/
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 0 Apr 10 16:46 sda -> ../devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:17.0/ata2/host1/target1:0:0/1:0:0:0/block/sda/
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 0 Apr 10 16:46 sr0 -> ../devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:14.0/usb1/1-1/1-1.3/1-1.3:1.0/host2/target2:0:0/2:0:0:0/block/sr0/
Ignore the loop1 through loop7 entries.
sda(a hard drive) is on channelata2nvme0n1(an SSD) is on0000:3e:00.0(actually hardwired to the CPU @ 40 GB/s)sr0is onusb1
So your first step is to discover which devices are on ata2
Step 2 - Check devices
ide devices can be chained with master/slave arrangement and if on ata2 you might need to check their settings whilst removing them one by one to ascertain which is defective.
Someone with same error discovered their DVD/CD drive on ata2 was the culprit and defective: "ata2: link is slow to respond, please be patient" during boot
Another person found a defective SSD was the problem: ata1: link is slow to respond, please be patient (ready=0)
By all means run fsck or whatever drive testing utilities at your disposal too.