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Re: Here we go again

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On 2025-09-03, Davey <davey@example.invalid> wrote:
> 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.

How did you upgrade? By a fresh install, or via the command line?
>
>> > 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.
>

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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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