Cannot boot from harddisc. How do I run a filesystem check using a Linux LiveCD?

The question should be "How do I run a filesystem check using a Linux LiveCD?"

It should also NOT relate to firefox, as it is related to bootup.

Boot to LiveCD and umount ALL the internal partitions, if you run:

sudo fdisk -l; mount

You will see the partitions as well as if they are mounted or not. You cannot safetly fsck a partition which is mounted.

You will unmount them with:

sudo umount /dev/<name of partition>

(NOTE: it is umount and not unmount, this is NOT a typo)

once all are unmounted

you are free to run:

sudo fsck -Va /dev/<partition name>

You will need to check all partitions just in case.

You could also not the manufacturer of the drive and downoad the ultimate boot CD (www.ultimatebootcd.com) and scan the drive with the manufacturers too to ensure that it is physically ok.

In the terminal I wrote "sudo fsck /dev/sda1" as - I think it was you, shawn, who suggested that as the first suggestion. It worked.

fsck and this command solved my problem, shawn! (If not for this help possibility it would likely have taken me days to resolve by searching, reading, reinstalling, regretting, waiting for some computer minded person to have the time to answer me when I was not busy with something else and could fully concentrate on the questions, explanations, procedures, etc. I can't see how I ever would relate 'root problems' with fsck, dev, sda1....).

This is an expression of my gratefulness for you guys out there helping one like me with a head far from being computer minded! Thank You so much!!!

I like the feeling of having a sense of what is installed on the computer I use daily together with the less spying possibilities and less commercial minded attitude than wINdoWs represents . Thus I stick to Linux/ Ubuntu even though I sometimes think that I make too many errors and so totally am relying upon others helpfulness in cases like this, that I ought to go back to wINdoWs where my wrong desicions most likely not will be fatal to the system. But a sense of freedom here draws me! And with both feet on the ground my sense of what it is all about will eventually collect to something more and more useful for my purpose and use of the computer!

:-(
:-|
:-)
;-D