Dual Boot fail mint 19.3 but Windows 10 will still boot

[Bogbrush10]

Hiya everyone, I am a total newbie to Linux and in my 70's so treat me gently please, as I am slow and you can assume I know very little!
I have a dual boot for Mint 19.3 and Windows 10 on an Acer Aspire 5.
During a Zoom meeting in Mint 19.3 my screen froze and I could do nothing other than power down the laptop, nothing worked at all.
On rebooting I found that Windows 10 booted as normal but Mint 19.3 eventually defaults to the following after the logo has been on screen for a while

Busybox v1.27.2 (ubuntu 1:1.27.2-2ubuntu3) built in shell (ash)
Enter 'help' for a list of built in commands.

(initramfs)

on entering 'return' I got the following

Gave up waiting for root file system device. Common problems:
- Boot Args (cat /proc/cmdline)
- Check rootdelay= (did the system wait long enough?)
- Missing modules (cat /proc/modules; 1s /dev)
ALERT! UUID=818caab9-825a-46a0-904e-e78f3fec8bfb does not exist. Dropping to a shell!

BusyBox v1.27.2 (ubuntu 1:1.27.2-2ubuntu3) built in shell (ash)
Enter 'help' for a list of built-in commands.
(initramfs)


I have tried a live USB GParted boot but this finds no partitions other than the USB drive itself.
Nothing I have tried, booting with a USB Mint 19.3 ISO, shows any partitions other than the USB itself.
I am fast coming to the conclusion that all my data, Thunderbird, images, etc, are irrecoverable. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Hindsight is a wonderful thing, I don't need to be told I should have backed up all data. I had set up timeshift to another partition but can't now get to it.
Tony

[sleeper12]

Does it give any more details if you enter 'exit'?

[deepakdeshp]

Try running fsck. Looks like corrupt file system for /.
https://askubuntu.com/questions/1004955 ... k-manually

[sleeper12]

Try running fsck. Looks like corrupt file system for /.
https://askubuntu.com/questions/1004955 ... k-manually

So, the command for that would be sudo fsck -f / Is that correct?

[deepakdeshp]

Try running fsck. Looks like corrupt file system for /.
https://askubuntu.com/questions/1004955 ... k-manually

So, the command for that would be sudo fsck -f / Is that correct?

It won't allow fsck on a mounted file system. If he knows the partition where Mint is installed ,suppose it's sda7 then the command is

Code: Select all

 sudo fsck -y /dev/sda7

after booting from a live USB.

[Bogbrush10]

Thank you everyone for your suggestions. I went through them and this is what I found.

Typing exit did nothing but cycle through the BusyBox sequence i showed and took me back to (intramfs).

Booting from a live USB and entering sudo fsck -y /dev/sda(2,3,4,5) I tried each of these in turn

/dev/sda2/ was the only one that produced a result, others just querying whether it existed.
/dev/sda2/ gave the following

fsck from util-linux 2.31.1
fsck.fat 4.1 (2017-01-24)
/dev/sda2: 7 files, 1217/1221 clusters

I then tried to boot and there was no change, boot into win10 without problem, boot into Mint cinnamon 19.3 failed back to BusyBox and to (intramfs).
I hope that makes sense.
Tony

[Pierre]

can you now Boot into your LinuxMint Live Media .. usb stick ..
and then find the program Disks and run that.

then from there, grab an screen_shot of what it is showing for your HDD partition layout.
and copy that back here, on your reply.

[sleeper12]

It won't allow fsck on a mounted file system. If he knows the partition where Mint is installed ,suppose it's sda7 then the command is

Code: Select all

 sudo fsck -y /dev/sda7 

after booting from a live USB.

Ok, my first thought was try to identify which sda it is.

[Bogbrush10]

I have tried running DISKS in live USB and all it sees is the partitions on the USB drive, a /dev/sda1 and a /dev/loop0. There is no other partition detected. I have run fdisk -l and that found no partitions. I have run fsck -y /dev/sda 2,3,4,5 and 6 in live USB and at the (initramfs) prompt and none of them 'sees' any partitions.
Now the way I see it is that the disk cannot be corrupt as I can still load and use Windows 10 from the dual boot. The windows partition is some 300gb of a 1tb SSd drive. There is around 700gb sitting in the background that is not visible. I don't understand why I cannot find a means of visualising the partitions, whether I can access them or not.
Any suggestions?
Do I need to remove the SSD drive and put it in an external caddy and see if it can be analysed by an operating system on another machine? Surely there must be an option within Linux to avoid having to do that. All comments gratefully received.

[AndyMH]

Boot your mint install stick, open a terminal and sudo parted --list and post the output. Post the output between code markers (the </> button above the reply window) - makes it easier to read.