Tutorial on restoring corrupt GNU/Linux ..

Recently I encountered an issue I have never encountered before. My Zorin and FerenOS desktop were reporting 'ghost' USB devices which on closer inspection turn out to be the '/' (root) file system partitions. Yesterday I attempted to boot into FerenOS and was greeted by a message of a corrupt bootblock, 'busybox' message and at the prompt: (initramfs).

I resolved the issue by booting the Linux Format DVD from last month's magazine which had Kali Linux 2018 on it. If you have more than one Linux Distribution Hard Drive, be sure to remove the one that is OK to prevent any mishaps.

To login to Kali in live mode, login as 'root' with password 'toor'.

Then open the terminal which appears on the 'mac' styled bar at the bottom as a mimicked 'DOS' prompt window (icon). Because you are logged in as 'root' the Terminal will already be running as 'root'.

Then you enter the following:

e2fsck -y /dev/sdaX

fsck = file system check (GNU/Linux equivalent of chkdisk)

-y = automatically answer 'yes' to what e2fsck finds to correct.

dev = device

sdaX = the identification of your 'root' partition that is failing to boot - yet another reason to ALWAYS install using the 'something else' method where you have:

1. 30-50 Gb '/' (root) file system for Booting off and Applications on Primary Partition

2. an extended partition to hold '/home' for all your personal data and 'swap area' which on current advice should be twice the size of your physical RAM installed at the end of the extended partition.

I am posting this from my restored FerenOS install - and which I now take system snapshots to avoid future embarrassment using the preconfigured app it comes with, TimeShift.

[With acknowledgement to: https://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/can-i-run-fsck-or-e2fsck-when-linux-file-system-is-mounted/]

---------- Post added 19-10-2018 at 00:03 ----------

OK, discussed issue with IT Technicians and it is an indicator of imminent hard drive failure - 10 months left on warranty -so wait to hear from WD warranty care. (Also confirmed via searches on internet - a 'superblock' error is bad news so will be backing up the drive tomorrow night.

---------- Post added 20-10-2018 at 20:57 ----------

UPDATE 20.10.2018

Well having run the Data Lifeguard Diagnostic for Windows utility from WD the drive passed, as it did with CrystalDiskInfo and lastly, the greatest detailed results from GSmartControl I now believe that the issue lies with a faulty SATA cable/SATA port. So I must have misread the superblock error somewhere along the line.