I installed Slackware 13.37 on the in-laws computer, 250 miles away.

I asked for a photo screenshot, these are attached. Looking at it I'm guessing give the root password then run:

# fsck /dev/sda

or is it /dev/sda3?

Googling I get the impression this could take many hours. Should I also get them to use -y or -p as well? They are not computer-savvy enough to really do much more than follow instructions but it's impossible for me to get in front of the PC myself.

Not sure what's caused this, I was hoping Slackware would be trouble-free computing for them as Windows was always causing problems for them or getting jammed up with *ware.

Any suggestions welcome.

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I would just follow the instructions, making sure to adjust fsck for the file system type.

Unless it's a gargantuan hard drive, it shouldn't take a huge amount of time, likely less than an hour, possibly much less.

Here's an article that should help. Also, you could see man fsck, but the article might be a good frame of reference for it. The man page addresses adjusting for different file system types.

http://linuxpoison.blogspot.com/2009...ilesystem.html

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Thank you, I shall read through your link and we will attempt a repair over the phone.

Good luck. I used to work support and I would not relish walking someone through this over the phone.

I used to tell folks, "type this and hit enter, then tell me what you see." The "tell me what you see" saved me a lot of grief.