my Asus laptop (os 18.04) is acting funny

I'm going to try and copy some of the messages as I tried booting up.

/dev/sda7 contains a file system with errors, check forced.
[ 4.756102] random: crng init done / 3.9%
[ 4.758603] 7 urandom warning(s) missed due to ratelimiting
Inodes that were part of a corrupted orphan linked list found.

/dev/sda7 UNEXPECTED INCONSISTENCY: RUN fsck MANUALLY.
(i.e., without -a or -p options)
fsck exited with status code 4
done.
Failure: File system check of the root filesystem failed
The root filesystem on dev/sda7 requires a manual fsck

BusyBox v1.27.2 (Ubuntu 1:1.27.2-2ubuntu3.3) built-in shell (ash)
Enter "help" for a list of built-in commands.

(initramfs) fsck
fsck from util-linux 2.31.1
(initramfs)_

now what do I do?

Hi.
Don't know really what the next step would be, but I would be worried that the drive is failing.

Not much help, I know....

well, that's a possibility

What I'm wondering is I have a USB drive with 16.04 OS on it
but my OS is 18.04 on the laptop
I believe one of the things the software on the USB looks for is how the HD is doing (maybe fixes a few things if needed). Do I need to change the USB drive to 18.04 to use it properly?

cecilia wrote:

...Do I need to change the USB drive to 18.04 to use it properly?

What do you mean with "use it properly"?
The machine will boot from the USB drive if it is not corrupted. In your case you would be running a 16.04 Version from the stick, and should be able to run any diagnostics that aren't specifically version-dependant. As far as I know, checking the state of the drive is not version-dependant.

I don't know that running the system from the USB will instigate any automatic checks or repair attempts. Rather, I think you would need to do that manually.

I would have a look at the S.M.A.R.T values for the drive.
What that is here:
Wikipedia

One way to check it here:
smartmontools

that is a command-line programm; there is a reference to a GUI front-end towards the end of the article.

This is more up-to-date, I think
Disks utility

The article indicates that the utility should be installed on a 16.04 Ubuntu, or the Wiki Article behind the link "Disks utility" does.

If it is not there, there are instructions on how to install it there.

The only reason I see to get a newer Ubuntu version on the USB drive would be if you wanted to run some diagnostics tool that is not on there, and the version is too old to access the repositories and install what you want to use.

That is all still pretty vague, but I haven't looked at anything in that direction for some years now, so I don't have any really fresh or current ideas.

well, that should keep me busy for a while.

in case I do find a problem with the HD, can I replace it in my laptop. I should think that's possible

Yes, should be possible. You would then need to re-install everything of course, from the operating system up.

What I neglected to mention: before you do anything else, boot from the USB Drive and save anything that is really important from your drive off to somewhere else.(eg a second USB drive, or an external hard drive, or something....)

I normally back up lots of my data anyway and yesterday I just went in and grabbed a few files that I might not have saved in a cloud or on a data DVD

In case you want to know the progress of this adventure:

I finally did what I have wanted to do for a while now and made my husband's laptop multiboot. I installed Ubuntu on it so I could access my stuff and get a little work done.

All of that went great. This gives me time to make sure I've gotten all the files I want off my laptop. Kind of takes the pressure off.
I have 99% of what I want. I just want to check.

At the same time my old cell phone has decided to start dying off.
I had to get a new one and even though it's been a week it still isn't connecting to the network. So, I've been busy with THAT nonsense.
Oy vey!

cecilia wrote:

I finally did what I have wanted to do for a while now and made my husband's laptop multiboot. I installed Ubuntu on it so I could access my stuff and get a little work done.

All of that went great. This gives me time to make sure I've gotten all the files I want off my laptop. Kind of takes the pressure off.
I have 99% of what I want. I just want to check.

Great stuff. 👍🏽

... new phone... it's been a week it still isn't connecting to the network.

What a pain. Somehow new devices always seem to be much more trouble than they are worth. That is why I use my stuff until it doesn't work anymore. 😉

That, and the environmental aspect, of course. 😊