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The status checks automatically performed on Amazon EC2 instances are:

• System Status Checks: These check the underlying systems used by the Amazon EC2 instance
• Instance Status Checks: These check the configuration of the specific instance

See documentation: Status Checks for Your Instances

Often, an instance is available and ready to be used before these checks are complete -- this is especially the case for Linux instances because they boot very quickly.

If you receive a 1/2 checks passed message, either wait a little longer or Stop and Start the instance. Performing a Stop/Start will launch the instance on a different host, which will probably fix whatever problem was being experienced.

If the 1/2 checks passed message continues to appear after a Stop/Start, it is probably a misconfiguration of the AMI. I have seen this when the wrong virtualization type was selected for an AMI that was created from a Snapshot.

You might be able to get a hint about the problem by using the Get System Log command in the Actions menu, which shows the log while the instance is booting.

Worst case, launch a new instance from a known-good AMI, attach the non-booting volume as an additional disk and copy files to the new disk. You will still have access to your files even if it will not boot.