Previiusly working instal wont boot

[Alespiller]

I look after 2 desktops which I put PClinux (LXDE) on a year ago.  Both have been working fine.  I went to backup the data on them before updating PCLinuxOS but found one of them had stopped booting just a day or so ago.  I do not think anyone had been trying to install any new software as the root password is kept in the safe.

When booting the boot menu comes up I select Boot PCLinux as normal and the screen changes to the booting screen with the boot progress bar but hangs just a few seconds into the boot.  I tried again to do a Safe boot but that does not work either.

I had a LiveCD disk so I booted off the CD-ROM and looked at the directory structure which seemed to be intact.  Now I could just copy all the data and desktop directories and do a complete re-install and not lose much but what is the more elegant approach I  can use to try and find out what is wrong?

The computers are quite a distance away so I can only get access to them every other day or so if you ask me to do something I am sorry but it will be a day or two before I can get any further information and reply.

Thanks in advance for any advice you give me and I have tried searching but all the problems seem to be on initial install rather previously working ones.

[Ramchu]

I would try Redo MBR .

[AS]

I look after 2 desktops which I put PClinux (LXDE) on a year ago.  Both have been working fine.  I went to backup the data on them before updating PCLinuxOS but found one of them had stopped booting just a day or so ago.  I do not think anyone had been trying to install any new software as the root password is kept in the safe.

When booting the boot menu comes up I select Boot PCLinux as normal and the screen changes to the booting screen with the boot progress bar but hangs just a few seconds into the boot.  I tried again to do a Safe boot but that does not work either.

The above exclude boot loader issues. The next time you can access the machine, at grub menu press F3 (Option),
delete the option quiet and add the option splash=verbose, so you can see the text boot progress and possibly some error message ...

A next thing to try is booting from LiveCD and perform a filesystem check for each Linux partitions:
fdisk -l will list the partitions, fsck -f /dev/sdxN will check the filesystems (substitute xN with the disk letter and partition number as required).

I had a LiveCD disk so I booted off the CD-ROM and looked at the directory structure which seemed to be intact.  Now I could just copy all the data and desktop directories and do a complete re-install and not lose much but what is the more elegant approach I  can use to try and find out what is wrong?

The computers are quite a distance away so I can only get access to them every other day or so if you ask me to do something I am sorry but it will be a day or two before I can get any further information and reply.

Thanks in advance for any advice you give me and I have tried searching but all the problems seem to be on initial install rather previously working ones.

... also, sometimes delay upon boot happens when:
... ntp try to update the time but the network is not working ... or the ntp server is not reachable ...
... The system may perform automatic filesystem checks resulting in delay, depending on number of partitions and sizes.

Additionally, try to use CTRL+ALT+F1~F8, see if the system is running and can switch to consoles, if yes could be an X related issue or a DE problem.
... if you see the keyboard led flashing ... it means the kernel is crashing ...

May be other cause ... but I'm out of ideas right now .... 

AS

[Alespiller]

Thank you both for the ideas.  As luck would have it I am going back this evening.  I will let you know how I get on.

[cyrwyn]

Just press the Escape key as soon as you see the boot progress bar and it will change to text output. No need to alter Grub.