Broke my computer [Solved]

A couple of days ago I opened an email account with Yandex and sent several test emails. When I checked yesterday, they told me my account had been suspended because I had been hacked or had a virus. They wanted my phone number to reactivate the account; personal information I wasn't prepared to give. I have the firewall configured.
I closed out and went on with a couple of hours of routine computer use: wrote an email, checked the forum, downloaded a couple of "Switched to Linux" videos from You Tube, did some writing. The computer acted normally.
Last evening, the computer wouldn't boot up. I get the splash screen then "Emergency Mode" (like Windows Safe Mode?). After logging in "journalctl -xb" brings up the journal. Flagged in red: "fsck failed with exit status 4" and "Failed to start file system check" In grub I ran recoverys for "5.3.0-26-generic" and "5.0.0-37-generic." I got "Loading initial ramdisk..." but nothing seemed to be loading and I let each run for 30-minutes. Under System Setup I get Main Advanced, Security, Boot, Exit. Those all have sub categories. Not sure what to do with those.
God, I feel like such a problem child.
Thank you for suggestions,
Katie
My system: Clevo, 250Gb SSD for Zorin 15.1, 1Tb HDD for storage, Zorin's Gnome DE.

What happens if you insert your Installation Media, boot into that, then run

Code:

fsck -v

on your installed version of Zorin?

Checkout the solution I updated on the login loop how to here regardng fsck:

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=15297&hilit=+fsck#p68833

After you are back up and running, would be a good idea to install Timeshift:

https://itsfoss.com/backup-restore-linux-timeshift/

Thanks guys, for all this. Let me look through everything and try. And yes, Swarf, I have Timeshift but not sure how to access it from the Emergency Mode.
Katie

Once you are in root terminal in advanced mode try:

Code:

sudo timeshift --restore

You then should be prompted source of restore etc.

Back up and running. Thanks guys.
Automatic Fsck wouldn't work so did it manually. Didn't work on the SSD where Zorin OS is installed. Something I don't know about, I guess. But it ran on the 1Tb HDD and uncovered a bunch of errors. Everything corrected and the computer booted up. Just wondering now about any further maintenance that should be required.
Good to be back home...
Katie

Easiest help thread ever.
You did all the work.

Yeah... you guys are so lucky.
Katie

Katie, your self help skills are beyond sufficient. I think you should think about working for a company in the IT department. I'm sure you'd make some of them look bad in their own department. Then next time somebody calls down to ask for help, you will actually have something useful to say, other then, "have you tried turning it off and on again? If you want to watch a funny rendition on an IT department at work, I suggest you watch IT Crow d, its fully of laughs.

Good job on fixing your computer, I am happy for you. Now its time for me to take a few sips of coffee and rethink my life. I haven't quite figured it out yet, but I am pretty sure I just need to dip into my pile of broken dreams. Pulls out a screwdriver, hey that don't belong there, I was wondering where that went, now I can fix my broken furnace, as well as tighten my own screws, thats of course if I have any left.

Hmmm...
Yandex...
That is Russian Google. Now,debates about the Current US political climate aside, we DO KNOW that Russia has an active interest in disruption of US services.
viewtopic.php?f=14&p=69521#p69521
I am not waxing conspiracy, however, caution may be advised.

I used to have Kespersky years back, and the Anti-Virus scanner actually detected a very evil and very difficult to remove virus, back when I was on Windows. It went into a advanced detection and removal mode, it was quite something to see Kespersky going to war with it.

However, later down the line I discovered that Kespersky was a Russian made program. And once the hacks into America began happening, I no longer trusted the app. So I removed it, and never went back! I don't trust anything Russian. Too much corrupted government going on with that man in charge. And its really too bad too. Cause we got a lot of wonderful Russian American's in our country who are lovely people. But they get a bad rap cause of their communist comrades back in mother Russia.

At one stage my preferred AV was Panda AV - it found a virus, quarantined it but would not delete. Solution - booted into Sabayon Linux, went to the windows folder where quarantined and deleted the varmint!

A check on the web and I found I wasn't the only one who had issues with Yandex. Could it be that once they have you signed up, they "temporarily" suspend your account for the express purpose of getting your phone number? The same way Face Book does? I guess they can easily sell a phone number.
Put a big RED FLAG against Yandex (and Face Book). Not worth the hassle. I'll put up with a few ads rather than trade off personal information.
Katie

A check on the web and I found I wasn't the only one who had issues with Yandex. Could it be that once they have you signed up, they "temporarily" suspend your account for the express purpose of getting your phone number? The same way Face Book does? I guess they can easily sell a phone number.
Put a big RED FLAG against Yandex (and Face Book). Not worth the hassle. I'll put up with a few ads rather than trade off personal information.
Katie

KayDee, test out the free Protonmail. It has great features. No ads.
However, it does have a cap on how much you can store under the free version. That said, I have found that cap beneficial as it makes me clean my inbox and stay clutter free. I move image files out of email to cloud or local storage. It trained me in a GOOD way where other free email services spoiled me in a bad way.

Too many companies on the web want all our information now. Back in the day privacy meant something. Back in the day, people expressed fear over letting other people know their license plate number, or social security number. Now days, we freely give our information away, and even let our phones spy on us, just so we have the convenience of using apps.

You are so right about Yandex and Facebook. I think they are evil companies who only care about money, and they will go to great lengths to get it. Case in point, several years ago Facebook was willing to screw over their own shareholders, and they did! But were their reprocutions? Of course not! Our government rewards dishonest companies.

Now the European union is the only government that is putting down heavy regulations on these internet companies. In the USA, America believes in capitalism at all cost, regardless of who gets hurt in the crossfire, to earn some pieces of paper. Which in modern times its more like digital currency, especially with the oh so illegitimate bitcoin.

The government laughs at the constitution, as it means nothing to them. They won't let anything get in the way of the mighty dollar, and neither will greedy corporations like Facebook and Yandex. I agree, screw them, do not give away your information like that. Nobody has any business with it in the first place! Identity theft also starts with the acquisition of your information, and its a real problem these days!

Thanks for the tip, Aravisian. Protonmail looks pretty good. Reading through their Privacy section, I notice they have a free VPN. That’s interesting. I think Opera browser offers a free VPN as well. I used Opera years ago but dropped it. Don’t remember why, but I had a reason. I’m going to look more closely at Protonmail but first impressions were favorable.
And star treker, YEAH! I’m not sure where we are headed with privacy issues on the internet, but regulations, especially in the US, are like a giant sieve. It’s the Wild West for the unscrupulous. We can do our best to make our machines secure. But privacy???? I’m not so sure. Keep your banking information and passwords on a stick. And watch your accounts closely and be ready to jump if anything suspicious shows up. My savings are all locked into short term GIC’s. Even I would have a tough time releasing my own funds. The interest rates are c*** but my money will always be there.
The internet reminds me of the old telephone ‘party lines’ we had living in the rural countryside where anyone one on the same line could listen in. In those days, privacy meant speaking in a foreign language. A form of encrypting?
Good to hear from you both,
Katie

On a recent issue of Computer Active this side of the Pond (well few months ago now) Opera is not a safe VPN client. Having discovered a post on here, RiseUp VPN is a clear winner for me.

Thanks for the tip, Aravisian. Protonmail looks pretty good. Reading through their Privacy section, I notice they have a free VPN. That’s interesting. I think Opera browser offers a free VPN as well. I used Opera years ago but dropped it. Don’t remember why, but I had a reason. I’m going to look more closely at Protonmail but first impressions were favorable.
And star treker, YEAH! I’m not sure where we are headed with privacy issues on the internet, but regulations, especially in the US, are like a giant sieve. It’s the Wild West for the unscrupulous. We can do our best to make our machines secure. But privacy???? I’m not so sure. Keep your banking information and passwords on a stick. And watch your accounts closely and be ready to jump if anything suspicious shows up. My savings are all locked into short term GIC’s. Even I would have a tough time releasing my own funds. The interest rates are c*** but my money will always be there.
The internet reminds me of the old telephone ‘party lines’ we had living in the rural countryside where anyone one on the same line could listen in. In those days, privacy meant speaking in a foreign language. A form of encrypting?
Good to hear from you both,
Katie

You can also (Starwrekker taught me this) theme Protonmail using .css. I have mine looking Very Snazzy.
On the political side- Don't get me started LOL. I am sure we all thoroughly agree on those fronts.

Also forgot to mention I also use firewalla - a little hardware box that sits and connected to router.