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Re: Here we go again

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On 03 Sep 2025 17:21:51 +0100 (BST)
Theo <theom+news@chiark.greenend.org.uk> wrote:

> Daniel James <daniel@me.invalid> wrote:
> > On 03/09/2025 08:57, Davey wrote:  
> > > ... I am seriously wondering whether to remove the added SSD, the
> > > original m2SSD, and try again. This might lead to a total wipe and
> > > re-installation of the OS, the major problem being the loss of
> > > all my Thunderbird Local Folders since my last backup.  In the
> > > perfect world, the replacement of the other SSD would restore it
> > > to the PC, but if it doesn't, I won't be surprised.
> > > 
> > > It does seem that the main partition is full, and it won't
> > > complete a boot sequence.
> > > I really need some help here, please!  
> > 
> > It's really hard to know what actually happened to bring about your 
> > problems in the first place, and how what you have done since to
> > try to try to remedy matters may have made them worse, or at least
> > more complicated.  
> 
> My guess is that there are two bootable drives (one M.2 and one SATA)
> and he is booting from the backup not the primary drive.  And
> possibly it's using the boot partition on one and the rootfs on
> another, or some mixup like that.
> 

I agree with that, it matches GParted and Disks views.

> > It would be easier if you had made image backups of all your disks 
> > before you started. Time taken making a backup is never wasted.
> > 
Unfortunately, one never knows when something is the beginning of a
problem. A week ago, it was all working smoothly, including access to
the 'lost' partition. The only known problem was the 'wrong' m2SSD'
name, and which partition it was booting from. Then it wouldn't boot.

> > TBH at this stage my course of action would be to get a new drive
> > big enough to hold everything and do a clean install onto that, and
> > then try to mount your existing drives one at a time (maybe in some
> > sort of hot-swap (e.g. USB) external housing so they're not present
> > at boot time and UEFI can't mistake one drive for another (they
> > SHOULD have different GUIDs, but have they?)) and copy the the data
> > you need onto that clean system.  
> 
> Sensible.  I'd suggest that if you take full-disc image backup, it's
> never connected to the machine at boot time.  Then there is never any
> confusion over which drive you've booted from.
> 
Sounds sensible. I need to look at large SSDs. I have never heard of
USB housings for SSDs, but then, I have had no reason to.

> The same goes when you do a fresh install - if there is only one drive
> present in the machine, you can't get any pieces installed to the
> wrong drive.
> 

That was how it was originally set up. The extra SSD (m2SSD) was added
later, and it all worked fine for a couple of years. Everything started
to go wrong when I had to upgrade from Ubuntu 18.04 and went to 22.04.
There have been various problems since then, culminating in the present
uselessness.

> > It should be easy enough to copy /home from your (partly-)working 
> > system(s) onto the new drive. Linux is pretty good at letting you 
> > transplant a /home from one system to another, and so long as you
> > have installed all the applications you need onto the new one
> > everything should Just Work(TM).  
> 
> For Thunderbird, make sure you copy the ~/.thunderbird folder,
> and if it's Ubuntu and you're on the snap, also
> ~/snap/thunderbird/common
> 
> Theo

I have been given the name of a local guy who specialises in data
recovery, so presumably he knows a thing or two about this. I will call
him tomorrow and see what help he can be.  I do not trust myself to go
deeper into uncharted waters at this point.
For now, I will leave the laptop unpowered.  It spent most of
yesterday sitting there with a blinking cursor, but nothing else
happened.

Thank you both for the advice, I will report (any) progress.

-- 
Davey.

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Here we go again Davey <davey@example.invalid> - 2025-09-02 11:03 +0100
  Re: Here we go again Davey <davey@example.invalid> - 2025-09-03 08:57 +0100
    Re: Here we go again Daniel James <daniel@me.invalid> - 2025-09-03 16:49 +0100
      Re: Here we go again Theo <theom+news@chiark.greenend.org.uk> - 2025-09-03 17:21 +0100
        Re: Here we go again Davey <davey@example.invalid> - 2025-09-03 17:48 +0100
          Re: Here we go again Theo <theom+news@chiark.greenend.org.uk> - 2025-09-03 18:20 +0100
            Re: Here we go again Davey <davey@example.invalid> - 2025-09-03 20:10 +0100
            Re: Here we go again Davey <davey@example.invalid> - 2025-09-03 20:50 +0100
            Re: Here we go again Davey <davey@example.invalid> - 2025-09-04 11:35 +0100
              Re: Here we go again Daniel James <daniel@me.invalid> - 2025-09-04 17:30 +0100
                Re: Here we go again Davey <davey@example.invalid> - 2025-09-04 19:52 +0100
                Re: Here we go again Davey <davey@example.invalid> - 2025-09-05 23:49 +0100
                Re: Here we go again Davey <davey@example.invalid> - 2025-09-08 11:50 +0100
                Re: Here we go again "Vincent Coen" <VBCoen@gmail.com> - 2025-09-08 16:11 +0100
                Re: Here we go again Davey <davey@example.invalid> - 2025-09-08 17:28 +0100
                TRIM (Was: Here we go again) Daniel James <daniel@me.invalid> - 2025-09-15 16:00 +0100
                Re: TRIM (Was: Here we go again) Davey <davey@example.invalid> - 2025-09-15 17:30 +0100
                Re: TRIM Richard Kettlewell <invalid@invalid.invalid> - 2025-09-17 08:43 +0100
                Re: TRIM Daniel James <daniel@me.invalid> - 2025-09-17 10:30 +0100
                Re: TRIM Davey <davey@example.invalid> - 2025-09-17 11:05 +0100
                Re: TRIM Daniel James <daniel@me.invalid> - 2025-09-17 15:12 +0100
                Re: TRIM Davey <davey@example.invalid> - 2025-09-17 15:54 +0100
                Re: Here we go again Davey <davey@example.invalid> - 2025-09-09 09:04 +0100
                Re: Here we go again "Vincent Coen" <VBCoen@gmail.com> - 2025-09-09 12:19 +0100
                Re: Here we go again Davey <davey@example.invalid> - 2025-09-09 18:03 +0100
                Re: Here we go again "Vincent Coen" <VBCoen@gmail.com> - 2025-09-09 22:02 +0100
                Re: Here we go again Davey <davey@example.invalid> - 2025-09-10 00:14 +0100
                Re: Here we go again -Update Davey <davey@example.invalid> - 2025-09-11 17:12 +0100
                Re: Here we go again -Update Davey <davey@example.invalid> - 2025-09-21 16:10 +0100
                Re: Here we go again -Update "Vincent Coen" <VBCoen@gmail.com> - 2025-09-22 01:41 +0100
                Re: Here we go again -Update Davey <davey@example.invalid> - 2025-09-22 09:29 +0100
                Re: Here we go again Davey <davey@example.invalid> - 2025-09-10 12:43 +0100
                Re: Here we go again Theo <theom+news@chiark.greenend.org.uk> - 2025-09-08 21:33 +0100
              Re: Here we go again Daniel James <daniel@me.invalid> - 2025-09-04 20:07 +0100
                Re: Here we go again Davey <davey@example.invalid> - 2025-09-05 02:47 +0100
          Re: Here we go again Gordon <Gordon@leaf.net.nz> - 2025-09-03 23:46 +0000
            Re: Here we go again Davey <davey@example.invalid> - 2025-09-04 09:36 +0100
        Re: Here we go again Gordon <Gordon@leaf.net.nz> - 2025-09-03 23:31 +0000

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