Linux Boot Trouble: "Gave up waiting for root file system"

I recently ran into the error above while trying to start up my dual-boot Lenovo laptop (Kubuntu + Windows 11). These are the steps I took to fix it.

1. Starting with this SO post, I did the following:

2. Ran sudo file -s /dev/sda3 to check the filesystem type. Output was data, suggesting this was likely not the right partition. No other partition seemed to be the one I was looking for.

3. Went to BIOS to check various settings

4. Went to Lenovo boot menu and selected Ubuntu was able to start up (?!)

5. Ran the following to reinstall GRUB Bootloader:

6. Ran cat /etc/fstab to make sure things looked right:

7. Saved a backup of my fstab in case this happens again:

8. Rebooted the laptop to see if the fix held:

9. Removed several old popos entries in the laptops boot order. Not clear if those had anything to do with this, but cant hurt to remove

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