Laptop froze and now I can’t get back into Ubuntu

    My laptop froze today and I force switched it off. A few minutes later it would just show the purple screen when trying to get into Ubuntu.


    Then my laptop said it couldn't find a boot device.


    I've had this HDD for just under a year now and I took it out of my laptop, it is quite hot and I've left it to cool before I put it back in.


    Could there be any reasoning behind it getting so hot?


    Notes:

    • I only use ubuntu, no extra OS
    • My laptop is around 7 years old
    • Laptop has an i7 4th generation I think
    • 6GB RAM
    • 1TB HDD
  • Go to Best Answer

    Update:


    So it came up with the purple screen again and got stuck on it. I pressed ctrl+alt+del after a few mins of waiting to restart it and now its showing boot device missing

    @Ashaz#9673 If you're very comfortable with Linux and the command line, boot your laptop from a Linux live USB and use ddrescue. If not, take the drive to your local computer shop and they will do approximately the same thing for you.

    @StevenNL2000#9675


    Well.. I did manage to get as far as that then nothing happened so I restarted my laptop. It now brings me to something called grub and I can't get out of it, whenever I try and 'linux' something it says:
    error: directory is encrypted
    Can't get past this

    • Best Answer

    If you have no idea what you’re doing, then stop using the hard drive completely. The more you try and access it, the less of a chance you will have of recovering data. Your best bet will be taking it to a professional if you really need your data back.


    Also, if you bought the drive new, you could have a warranty from the manufacturer. Have a google about and see how much of a time limit there is, as they may recover your data for you


    Edit: you might be in luck, seagate seems to offer at least a 2 year warranty on their products, there’s a tool to properly check on their website

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