Shut down incorrectly; Ubuntu won't start

[Jetro]

This is kind of related to this thread. Ubuntu refuses to start after my laptop lost power without a battery plugged in, meaning it immediately shut down whilst running (Ubuntu).

I get the same error message:

mount: mounting /dev on /root/dev failed: No such file or directory
mount: mounting /sys on /root/sys failed: No such file or directory
mount: mounting /proc on /root/proc failed: No such file or directory
Target Filesystem doesn't have /sbin/init.
No init found. Try passing init=bootarg.

but it progresses differently from there.

Ubuntu is installed in sda5. It's not mounted or not even listed in "Places" when I boot from live USB.

Here is a bunch of commands I've run, enjoy.

*bunch of nonsense*

[MooPi]

Your not giving e2fsck any options. Try

e2fsck -p /dev/sda1

This will try to automatically repair. You should be doing this from the live CD or bootable usb.

[Jetro]

Oh, right.

sudo e2fsck -p /dev/sda1
e2fsck: Bad magic number in super-block while trying to open /dev/sda1
/dev/sda1: 
The superblock could not be read or does not describe a correct ext2
filesystem. If the device is valid and it really contains an ext2
filesystem (and not swap or ufs or something else), then the superblock
is corrupt, and you might try running e2fsck with an alternate superblock:
e2fsck -b 8193 <device>

[MooPi]

Try the recommendation

e2fsck -b 8193 -p /dev/sda1

[Jetro]

sudo e2fsck -b 8193 -p /dev/sda1
e2fsck: Bad magic number in super-block while trying to open /dev/sda1
/dev/sda1: 
The superblock could not be read or does not describe a correct ext2
filesystem. If the device is valid and it really contains an ext2
filesystem (and not swap or ufs or something else), then the superblock
is corrupt, and you might try running e2fsck with an alternate superblock:
e2fsck -b 8193 <device>

Wait, uh. I think I've gotten something wrong here. Seems Windows is running on sda1, and Ubuntu on sda5... it did not appear before. Damn it, sorry for wasting your time.

sudo e2fsck -p /dev/sda5
e2fsck: Device or resource busy while trying to open /dev/sda5
Filesystem mounted or opened exclusively by another program?

sudo lsof /dev/sda5
lsof: WARNING: can't stat() tmpfs file system /cow
Output information may be incomplete.
lsof: WARNING: can't stat() fuse.gvfs-fuse-daemon file system /home/ubuntu/.gvfs
Output information may be incomplete.

[MooPi]

Damm, okay try this.

mke2fs -n /dev/sda1

This should give you alternate superblock locations to check

Ignore last command then and unmount /dev/sda5 before attempting e2fsck.

[Jetro]

sudo mke2fs -n /dev/sda1
mke2fs 1.41.12 (17-May-2010)
Filesystem label=
OS type: Linux
Block size=4096 (log=2)
Fragment size=4096 (log=2)
Stride=0 blocks, Stripe width=0 blocks
7815168 inodes, 31248425 blocks
1562421 blocks (5.00%) reserved for the super user
First data block=0
Maximum filesystem blocks=0
954 block groups
32768 blocks per group, 32768 fragments per group
8192 inodes per group
Superblock backups stored on blocks: 
32768, 98304, 163840, 229376, 294912, 819200, 884736, 1605632, 2654208, 
4096000, 7962624, 11239424, 20480000, 23887872

Hm, now I'm kind of confused. It says the OS type is Linux? Yet GParted suggests it is Windows. It's even labeled as that, a label I gave it long ago, before any of this happened, and it is indeed Windows. Odd.

I did:

umount /dev/sda5
umount: /dev/sda5 is not mounted (according to mtab)

but I still get this message:

sudo e2fsck -p /dev/sda5
e2fsck: Device or resource busy while trying to open /dev/sda5
Filesystem mounted or opened exclusively by another program?

Hmm. The last thing I did in Ubuntu, was writing a document. When I tried to open the document in Windows (from a ntfs drive that Windows and Ubuntu "shares"), I got a warning that it was in use by the username I use in Ubuntu. Is that of any help?

[MooPi]

Let's start from scratch.

sudo parted -l

[Jetro]

sudo parted -l
Model: ATA Hitachi HTS54161 (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda: 160GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos

Number Start End Size Type File system Flags
1 32.3kB 128GB 128GB primary ntfs boot
3 128GB 150GB 21.5GB primary ntfs
2 150GB 160GB 10.5GB extended
5 150GB 160GB 10.0GB logical ext4
6 160GB 160GB 495MB logical linux-swap(v1)

[MooPi]

How are you checking the disks ? From a live CD, usb drive, ?