System crashed, now boots to the command line

General Help
#1

I've been using Zorin Ultimate 15.2 for a few months on an old Toshiba laptop (I5, 4GB ram). This is my first real experience with Linux, so I really don't know what I'm doing. I was on the web (Firefox) when the system froze up. I cycled power a couple of times, no help. I finally resorted to the old "pull the battery" trick. Now when I turn it on it boots to the command line as follows:

BusyBox v1.27.2 (Ubuntu 1:1.27.2-2ubuntu3.3) built-in shell (ash)
Enter 'help' for a list of built-in commands.
(initramfs)

How do I recover from this? Can I do a repair from the original USB drive?

#2

From this screen, please type in exit and hit the enter key, then relay here what information the screen prints.

#3

(initramfs) exit
/dev/mapper/zorin--vg-root contains a file system with errors, check forced.
Inode 38014481 seems to contain garbage.

/dev/mapper/zorin--vg-root: UNECPECTED INCONSISTENCY; RUN fsck MANUALLY.
(i.e., without -a or -p options)
fsck exited with status code 4
The root filesystem on/dev/mapper/zorin--vg-root requires a manual fsck

BusyBox v1.27.2 (Ubuntu1:1.27.2-2ubuntu3.3) built-in shell (ash)
Enter 'help' for a list of built-in commands.

(initramfs) _

#4

Your hard drive is failing, I am sad to say.
Sectors have failed that contain necessary information for running the operating system.
IF this was me...
I would disconnect that drive and connect it on another computer as an external drive- then enter it and try to back up as many personal files as possible.
Then reconnect the drive and run fsck on the drive to see if that fixes the errors by moving essential files from bad sectors to working ones.
This may also result in having to reinstall if the damage is too far gone.
If so, Plan Ahead to replace that Drive as soon as you are able - do not delay or you could have data loss before you are able to transfer to a new drive.

#5

I appreciate the info. I had a sinking feeling that might be the case. This is a Toshiba 1TB drive that I installed maybe 3 years ago. It will be my last Toshiba drive.

#6

I think that most of us can relate to this. Honestly, it's not so bad, though. You have some Advanced Warning... You have enough time and options to try to take corrective action, at least. Instead of waking up to find the Hard Drive went utterly kaput taking all your data with it. Some of us have had this one happen, too (In fact... it is how I ended up migrating from Windows to Zorin OS...)

#7

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