Linux won't boot

[dmartn149]

I'm always bragging to my wife about how sweet linux mint is. Then last night I needed to run Windows, and now Linux won't boot. I just get the green mint logo on a black screen.

[big_teee]

Maybe something is set wrong in bios.
Check all the secure boot, and uefi settings are correct for your system.
T

[dmartn149]

When it's trying to boot, if I press esc I get a long list of actions. Two of them are marked fail They are "starting smb/cifs file and active directory server... fail and "stopping send an event to indicate plymouth is up...fail

[big_teee]

Is this similar to what you have?
Fixing the black screen after grub boot-up (screen/video settings mismatch) - Linux Mint Community
T

[dmartn149]

No. It won't get past the LM logo. It just hangs there. If I press esc I get a black page full of white type. Looks like a list of steps in the boot process. Two of those steps are marked "fail" in red. They are "starting smb/cifs file and active directory server" and "stopping send an event to indicate plymouth is up" I started it in recovery mode, and tried "update grub bootloader", "check all file systems" and "repair broken packages"
Still doing the same thing. I started to just reinstall the OS, but then I got to the point where it was going to over write the partitions and I was not sure if that meant the windows partitions too so I stopped. Now windows is acting a little funny too. It keeps trying to install updates, then saying that it was unable to complete the updates. Not sure if there is something wrong with my HD or if that is just typical windows BS

[big_teee]

Laptop hard drives are pretty cheap now.
I have several, when things act funky, I put in a different one to see if things change.
With the extra drives and the usb drive enclosure, I can move stuff around if I need to.
seagate laptop drives - Newegg.com
I have several of the seagate 500s, they are small, fast and cheap.
You could do a new drive to assess your problems, then go from there.
Here's some of the enclosures at newegg.
laptop drive enclosures - Newegg.com
Please keep us posted on what you come up with!
GL,
T

[DrGonz78]

So here is a link for a program that runs out of windows to test the hard drive.
How to See if Your Hard Drive is Dying with S.M.A.R.T.

Also I have re-installed so many times, using windows, over the years that I always run DBAN.
Darik's Boot And Nuke | Hard Drive Disk Wipe and Data Clearing

Cool thing about writing zeros to a drive... DBAN will fail running the data wiping software if the drive is bad. I have had issues installing OS's onto bad hard drives with somewhat similar results too. However, sometimes the OS will install on a bad drive but with errors, frustrating. Personally I never dual boot from one hard drive and always use a dedicated drive for each system. That way one dies and at least you still have a healthy drive.

[big_teee]

Here's a command I use a lot in linux to write zeros.
Boot to a live mint, or ubuntu DVD, or USB stick and zero the drive or partition with this command.
dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdX
sdx is the drive to wipe.
Warning, make sure you put the right drive letter in, and it takes a long time on a big drive!
I love multiboot systems.
I have 4-6 OS's on each computer.
I always use a separate storage partition to keep docs and data in.
That way each OS can access the same storage partition.
Here's what my Lenovo drive looks like.
I have 4 Distro's and room for 4 more, and the Storage partition on the end.
Usually you have Trouble with one OS at a time.
I'm fixing to reload the Ubuntu Studio, at the end of the month, when Ubuntu Studio 15.10 wily werewolf official comes out.