Ubuntu boots into emergency mode. ^D and other recovery options fail. How can I fix it?

From similar questions, I thought it would be useful to run blkid and cat etc/fstab for your reference to help me figure out what is going on.

blkid has only 1 entry: /dev/sda1 which is my HDD with OS, while /etc/fstab has the same listed with its UUID=dd243628-27f1-4448-9480-c9e336997d0

Problem was in the /etc/fstab where I had added a USB drive entry prior to the previous shutdown before being unable to boot. (See last entry on the screenshot for sdb1)

This entry happened when I was trying to mount my USB drive.

Solution? I just commented out that entry using 'sudo nano /etc/fstab' and hard rebooted the PC.

The MF booted right up into my regular Lubuntu desktop. 😤