Disregard. Repeat post. See below.

I thought this issue was fixed after running the script recommended above but it's now worse. When I booted up this morning I got a completely fresh installation of Mint with all my settings gone and all my folders empty. The apps I had installed appear to be there but their settings have also been wiped out.

When I try to get into System Settings to see what's going on, Mint won't accept my previous password. When I try to change the password, of course it asks for my current password, which it thinks has six characters. I have never used a password anywhere that has six characters and since I don't know what Mint thinks is my existing six character password, I can't get in to change it.

What happened? I did have a blank USB stick inserted when I booted this morning but that shouldn't have affected anything because the ubuntu boot sequence is in the first two positions in the Boot Options list in BIOS.

Help desperately needed. Thank you.

Usually when a program asks for a password and shows a row of asterisks, the number of those asterisks does not correlate to the number of characters in your password (if it did, this would be of use to people trying to guess your password).

The other things you have experienced would be the case if your home directory had somehow been deleted or renamed. Which "script" did you run? (or do you mean the apt-get command).

Also, can you paste the output from the following:

Sorry for the incorrect terminology. I ran the command indicated in the link you provided above.

Here's the first command you just gave. Others to follow:

drew@ken-X200CA ~ $ cat /etc/fstab
# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# Use 'blkid' to print the universally unique identifier for a
# device; this may be used with UUID= as a more robust way to name devices
# that works even if disks are added and removed. See fstab(5).
#
# <file system> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
# / was on /dev/sda2 during installation
UUID=0d365ded-8757-4cbf-a41a-d8369dd7d96a / ext4 errors=remount-ro 0 1
# /boot/efi was on /dev/sda1 during installation
UUID=CF6B-0360 /boot/efi vfat umask=0077 0 1
# swap was on /dev/sda3 during installation
UUID=6652224d-4a01-4e8c-ad0b-00743bd2b9aa none swap sw 0 0
drew@ken-X200CA ~ $

drew@ken-X200CA ~ $ mount | grep /dev/sd
/dev/sda2 on / type ext4 (rw,relatime,errors=remount-ro,data=ordered)
/dev/sda1 on /boot/efi type vfat (rw,relatime,fmask=0077,dmask=0077,codepage=437,iocharset=iso8859-1,shortname=mixed,errors=remount-ro)
drew@ken-X200CA ~ $ ls -la~
ls: invalid option -- '~'
Try 'ls --help' for more information.
drew@ken-X200CA ~ $

All looks good so far (I don't use EFI so I'm unsure how that should appear in fstab and when mounted but assume they're ok).

There should be a space between the -la and the ~ (it's always better to cut and paste commands, where possible, to avoid transcription mistakes).

drew@ken-X200CA ~ $ ls -la ~
total 128
drwxr-xr-x 19 drew drew 4096 Mar 31 08:36 .
drwxr-xr-x 5 root root 4096 Oct 19 19:23 ..
-rw-r--r-- 1 drew drew 220 Oct 19 19:23 .bash_logout
-rw-r--r-- 1 drew drew 4000 Oct 19 19:23 .bashrc
drwx------ 10 drew drew 4096 Mar 31 10:24 .cache
drwxr-xr-x 4 drew drew 4096 Mar 31 08:17 .cinnamon
drwxr-xr-x 14 drew drew 4096 Mar 31 08:35 .config
drwx------ 3 drew drew 4096 Mar 26 15:46 .dbus
drwxr-xr-x 2 drew drew 4096 Mar 26 15:46 Desktop
-rw------- 1 drew drew 31 Mar 31 08:14 .dmrc
drwxr-xr-x 2 drew drew 4096 Mar 26 15:46 Documents
drwxr-xr-x 2 drew drew 4096 Mar 26 15:46 Downloads
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 18002 Oct 19 19:24 .face
drwx------ 2 drew drew 4096 Mar 31 08:30 .gconf
-rw------- 1 drew drew 1336 Mar 31 08:14 .ICEauthority
drwxr-xr-x 4 drew drew 4096 Mar 31 08:04 .linuxmint
drwxr-xr-x 3 drew drew 4096 Mar 31 07:57 .local
drwxr-xr-x 3 drew drew 4096 Oct 19 19:23 .mozilla
drwxr-xr-x 2 drew drew 4096 Mar 26 15:46 Music
drwxr-xr-x 2 drew drew 4096 Mar 26 15:46 Pictures
drwx------ 3 drew drew 4096 Mar 31 08:36 .pki
-rw-r--r-- 1 drew drew 655 Oct 19 19:23 .profile
drwxr-xr-x 2 drew drew 4096 Mar 26 15:46 Public
-rw-r--r-- 1 drew drew 0 Mar 27 12:09 .sudo_as_admin_successful
drwxr-xr-x 2 drew drew 4096 Mar 26 15:46 Templates
drwxr-xr-x 2 drew drew 4096 Mar 26 15:46 Videos
-rw------- 1 drew drew 121 Mar 31 08:14 .Xauthority
-rw-r--r-- 1 drew drew 7421 Mar 31 10:44 .xsession-errors
drew@ken-X200CA ~ $

Just to be clear, the command I ran a couple of days ago was to remove virtualbox.

Also, today I'm getting a lot of latency while typing this and elsewhere when trying to do things.

Thanks. That doesn't look so good - many of these directories have newer dates (today) than they should have.

Do you have only one user on your system, and is that user called "drew"?

Also have you installed or updated/upgraded anything else at all since you ran the apt-update command referred to previously?

There is only one user. When this computer was originally configured by the retailer with Win 10, they used what they thought was my name by using the short form of my legal first name - Kenneth - so they set up the user as ken. After I wiped out Win 10 and installed Mint, I changed the user name to the name I always use which is the nickname version of my middle name Andrew - so Drew.

As best as I can recall I installed only these:

- re-installed photo QT photo viewer. This still appears in the main menu.
- installed Blue Griffin web design. This never made it to the main menu and is not there now. I had to run it by double clicking on a file in its folder that I created in Home. It's not in the Home directory now.

And I uninstalled several apps that I wasn't using by right clicking them in the main menu and selecting "uninstall"

Thanks for the info. Could you please run the following command, and then paste everything in the output that has occurred since, and including, the apt-get command which you used to get rid of virtualbox-guests*:

Start-Date: 2018-03-27 12:10:04
Commandline: apt-get remove virtualbox*
Requested-By: drew (1001)
Remove: virtualbox-guest-utils:amd64 (5.1.34-dfsg-0ubuntu1.16.04.2), virtualbox-guest-dkms:amd64 (5.1.34-dfsg-0ubuntu1.16.04.2), virtualbox-guest-x11:amd64 (5.1.34-dfsg-0ubuntu1.16.04.2)
End-Date: 2018-03-27 12:10:44

Start-Date: 2018-03-27 12:31:07
Commandline: /usr/sbin/synaptic --hide-main-window --non-interactive --parent-window-id 92274725 -o Synaptic::closeZvt=true --set-selections-file /tmp/tmpw9sqronh
Requested-By: ken (1000)
Upgrade: pciutils:amd64 (1:3.3.1-1.1ubuntu1.1, 1:3.3.1-1.1ubuntu1.2), libpci3:amd64 (1:3.3.1-1.1ubuntu1.1, 1:3.3.1-1.1ubuntu1.2)
End-Date: 2018-03-27 12:31:20

Start-Date: 2018-03-29 07:33:57
Commandline: /usr/sbin/synaptic --hide-main-window --non-interactive --parent-window-id 88080429 -o Synaptic::closeZvt=true --set-selections-file /tmp/tmpdl7guvnr
Requested-By: ken (1000)
Upgrade: openssl:amd64 (1.0.2g-1ubuntu4.10, 1.0.2g-1ubuntu4.11), libicu55:amd64 (55.1-7ubuntu0.3, 55.1-7ubuntu0.4), libicu55:i386 (55.1-7ubuntu0.3, 55.1-7ubuntu0.4), firefox-locale-en:amd64 (59.0.1+linuxmint1+sylvia, 59.0.2+linuxmint1+sylvia), firefox:amd64 (59.0.1+linuxmint1+sylvia, 59.0.2+linuxmint1+sylvia), libssl1.0.0:amd64 (1.0.2g-1ubuntu4.10, 1.0.2g-1ubuntu4.11), libssl1.0.0:i386 (1.0.2g-1ubuntu4.10, 1.0.2g-1ubuntu4.11)
End-Date: 2018-03-29 07:34:36

Start-Date: 2018-03-29 18:34:45
Commandline: /usr/sbin/synaptic --hide-main-window --non-interactive --parent-window-id 111149064 -o Synaptic::closeZvt=true --set-selections-file /tmp/tmpjRBFxA
Install: photoqt:amd64 (1.6-1)
End-Date: 2018-03-29 18:34:50

Start-Date: 2018-03-29 19:07:19
Commandline: /usr/sbin/synaptic --hide-main-window --non-interactive --progress-str Please wait, this can take some time --finish-str Application removed successfully --set-selections-file /tmp/tmpTsOHD1
Remove: xreader:amd64 (1.6.2+sylvia)
End-Date: 2018-03-29 19:07:27

Start-Date: 2018-03-30 07:22:16
Commandline: /usr/sbin/synaptic --hide-main-window --non-interactive --parent-window-id 88080425 -o Synaptic::closeZvt=true --set-selections-file /tmp/tmpalk5zhtn
Requested-By: ken (1000)
Upgrade: intel-microcode:amd64 (3.20180108.0+really20170707ubuntu16.04.1, 3.20180312.0~ubuntu16.04.1)
End-Date: 2018-03-30 07:23:02

Start-Date: 2018-03-31 08:24:27
Commandline: /usr/sbin/synaptic --hide-main-window --non-interactive --parent-window-id 85983279 -o Synaptic::closeZvt=true --set-selections-file /tmp/tmp2l1wxenv
Requested-By: drew (1001)
Upgrade: libgssapi3-heimdal:amd64 (1.7~git20150920+dfsg-4ubuntu1, 1.7~git20150920+dfsg-4ubuntu1.16.04.1), libgssapi3-heimdal:i386 (1.7~git20150920+dfsg-4ubuntu1, 1.7~git20150920+dfsg-4ubuntu1.16.04.1), cryptsetup-bin:amd64 (2:1.6.6-5ubuntu2, 2:1.6.6-5ubuntu2.1), evince:amd64 (3.18.2-1ubuntu4.1, 3.18.2-1ubuntu4.3), libfreerdp-codec1.1:amd64 (1.1.0~git20140921.1.440916e+dfsg1-5ubuntu1, 1.1.0~git20140921.1.440916e+dfsg1-5ubuntu1.2), bluez:amd64 (5.37-0ubuntu5, 5.37-0ubuntu5.1), libdns-export162:amd64 (1:9.10.3.dfsg.P4-8ubuntu1.5, 1:9.10.3.dfsg.P4-8ubuntu1.10), libwinpr-environment0.1:amd64 (1.1.0~git20140921.1.440916e+dfsg1-5ubuntu1, 1.1.0~git20140921.1.440916e+dfsg1-5ubuntu1.2), libfwup0:amd64 (0.5-2ubuntu4, 0.5-2ubuntu7), postfix:amd64 (3.1.0-3, 3.1.0-3ubuntu0.3), python-twisted-core:amd64 (16.0.0-1, 16.0.0-1ubuntu0.2), libcrack2:amd64 (2.9.2-1build2, 2.9.2-1ubuntu1), libisccfg140:amd64 (1:9.10.3.dfsg.P4-8ubuntu1.5, 1:9.10.3.dfsg.P4-8ubuntu1.10), libwind0-heimdal:amd64 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End-Date: 2018-03-31 08:31:29
drew@ken-X200CA ~ $

Uh oh. I forgot about the updates that Mint pushes out almost everyday. Could that last one, the intel-microcode be the culprit?

Wow, that last upgrade was mammoth, and could well have caused the problem. What did you do to generate that - change your software sources, allow level4/5 updates when you hadn't allowed them before, or something else?

Just to check your software sources, please paste the output from the following:

I'm not sure, but I doubt that it would cause what you have experienced.