computer messed up: memory full (from carving tool) cannot boot users - mdm cannot write to identification file

[sunshinereggae]

Dear all,
I am running linux mint 18.1 cinnamon 64 bit
I got my computer messed up by using testdisk (file recovery) which was running too long while I had insufficient space on my hard drive. I closed my terminal, tried to unlock the archive with chmod 777 and delete the content of the folder, but this did not seem to work.
I did a restart on my computer and there the trouble began.
The initial boot-up went fine, but when I selected my user and entered my password, I got the message that MDM could not write to the identification file, and the hint that this usually has to do with low memory on hard drive.
I rebooted the comp again and went to recovery mode. still did not work out. Could only go to the terminal mode or emergency mode, but this only runs on the root directory of the computer and does not recognize users etcetera. command ls did not show anything
My pc has 3 users. I am the administrator with root priveliges.
Turns out I cannot run gparted, as the graphical appearance is disabled.
Now I want to obtain free memory (by deleting files on devices I cannot open) so I might be able to logon with my username again and have access to my files(!).
with the fdisk -l command I saw I have sda1, 2 and 3 (ETI, filesystem and swaP) and sdb 1,2,5,and 6. I expect the corrupted one or the one that was messed up with filling the entire memory was sda2.
Does anyone have an idea how to fix this problem?
Thanks, William

[WharfRat]

Hello sunshinereggae

Welcome to Linux Mint and the Linux Mint forum

Sounds like you have a real mess on your hands.

You can access your files by booting the live media and mounting your linux partition.

You can also run gparted from the live media

[sunshinereggae]

Okay thanks Wharfrat,
I'll try tomorrow. Have a live cd on mint but did not start up right away perhaps I have to change the boot sequence. Let you know whether I have progress.
Cheers William

[rene]

If for some reason the Live DVD/USB boot won't do you can reboot into recovery mode and run tune2fs -m0 /dev/sda2 as root (where of course /dev/sda2 is to be replaced with whichever ext -- ext2, ext3 or ext4 -- partition contains the full file system if it's not sda2. This sets the root-reserved percentage of the filesystem to 0 from a default of 5: if you then reboot you should be able to login again normally. Clean up, and set things back to default with tune2fs -m5 /dev/sda2.