File System is corrupt or read only? What is going on?!

baz8771 · 2009-11-26 05:51:49

Hey guys, I'm a huuuge linux noobie. I decided that I was going to try my hand at arch as a Thanksgiving Project. I installed arch and everything went great! I go GNOME installed, my drivers were working (internet was real slow, dont know why, if you have any ideas on that, let me know. Its not my DNS servers either). I have learned SO much about linux and the way that it works, but I'm having a huge problem right now. When I rebooted, I got a disk check on /dev/sd3 and it fails at 90% every time. It is telling me something about my superblock and that I can fix it with e2sck -b 8193 but that doesn't work, it says that there is no file located at the hard drive that i direct it to. Ive tried playing with my fstab, but i don't really know what to do in it. If you guys can help me, i would so appreciate it.

PS: I have arch installed on a 500gb SATA hd formatted in ext2. I don't really know too much about linux please remember, however, I am willing to learn. If you post something up, please explain it well. Thank you!

Ranguvar · 2009-11-26 06:31:47

ext2? Are you by any chance on an SSD, is that why you're using a non-journaled filesystem?
If so, I recommend ext4 without journaling You can disable it now.

If you don't understand what I just wrote, you shouldn't be using ext2, and that will likely resolve your corruption problem -- switch to ext4, ext3, JFS, ReiserFS, any modern journalling filesystem.

To actually fix your problem now, try booting from the Arch install CD or something and doing a normal 'fsck /dev/drivename' to try and resolve the matter.
Also, you'll get better assistance if you post up the actual error (both for e2fsck and the disk check)

Congrats on working up the courage to try Arch and on learning more about GNU/Linux

baz8771 · 2009-11-26 16:50:48

XD thanks for the advice, I'm going to try that now. And I'm acutally on a regular hard drive. I just picked Ext2 because the last time i installed ubuntu thats the format it made it. Ill try and get the exact error message and post it back up if that doesnt work.

EDIT: The e2fsck didn't work, nor did the fsck. But, here's the full error.

Checking Filesystem:                                 [FAIL] (Always at 90%)
/DEV/SdA3
     The superblock could not be read or does not describe a correct ext2 filesystem.  If the device is valid and it really contains an ext2 fileys (ndot a swap ufs or sthingele), Then the superblock is corrupt, and you might want to try running e2fsck with an alternative superblock:
       e2fsck -b 8193 <Device>

Then underneath that, wrapped in a box made out of asterisks it says:

                                                                                                                    *FILESYSTEM CHECK FAILED*
Please repair manually and reboot.  NOt that the root filesystem is currently mounted read-only.  To remount it read-write type: mount -n -o remount,rw /
When you exit the maintenance shell the system will reboot automatically.

I really don't want to go thorugh the ENTIRE process again... but if I have to, I guess I will. Installation just took forever

Last edited by baz8771 (2009-11-26 17:09:26)

fsckd · 2009-11-26 17:28:32

Did fsck give any errors?

Edit: What are your others filesystems, may be you're trying to mount the wrong thing? Post output of fdisk -l /dev/sda. (I'm assuming there's only one disk, sda.)

Edit2: Oops, I meant post contents of /etc/fstab but both fstab and fdisk info would be good.

Last edited by fsckd (2009-11-26 17:42:41)

baz8771 · 2009-11-26 17:42:48

When i ran the fdisk -l /dev/sda it gave me information about my 1tb hard drive I also have in my computer... but it's not the one that I use for arch. I use the 1tb for extra storage and its NTFS formatted.

edit: fstab has /dev/sda1-4 in a column on the side, and then they are repeated, but commented.

Last edited by baz8771 (2009-11-26 17:43:58)

fsckd · 2009-11-26 17:48:49

Can you copy and paste your full fstab?

Ok, without seeing your fstab, if I'm guessing correctly, I think perhaps the system might be switching the device names. We're going to need you to change your fstab to use UUID instead of /dev/sdaX. Follow the wiki, specifically for by-uuid. Even if it doesn't solve your problem, it's still a good thing to do.

Last edited by fsckd (2009-11-26 17:55:22)

baz8771 · 2009-11-26 17:59:55

Is there a way to copy the fstab and then paste it into windows...? cause thats what I'm on right now. Im dual booting.

Edit: How in the world do i find the hard drives UUID?

Last edited by baz8771 (2009-11-26 18:02:02)

fsckd · 2009-11-26 18:07:51

baz8771 wrote:

Is there a way to copy the fstab and then paste it into windows...? cause thats what I'm on right now. Im dual booting.

There are programs which might be able to mount your ext2 filesystem from Windows. There are no guarantees this will work. Actually, try modifying the fstab first following that wiki page. If my hunch is correct, then we do not need to see your fstab.

http://www.fs-driver.org/
http://www.chrysocome.net/explore2fs

Edit: How in the world do i find the hard drives UUID?

It explains it on the wiki page. Print the page out or write down the relevant directions. Sorry, I have no idea how to do this from Windows.

Edit: *sigh* I'm so silly. Of course you don't need a live CD. *smacks self*

Last edited by fsckd (2009-11-26 18:13:33)

cjazz · 2009-11-26 20:46:09

baz8771 wrote:

The e2fsck didn't work, nor did the fsck. But, here's the full error.

Checking Filesystem:                                 [FAIL] (Always at 90%)
/DEV/SdA3
     The superblock could not be read or does not describe a correct ext2 filesystem.  If the device is valid and it really contains an ext2 fileys (ndot a swap ufs or sthingele), Then the superblock is corrupt, and you might want to try running e2fsck with an alternative superblock:
       e2fsck -b 8193 <Device>

Are you sure you're typing in the correct characters? If your error message is correct, it suggests you're using some upper case characters and, as I'm sure you know, Linux commands and devices are case sensitive.

Dheart · 2009-11-26 21:43:12

It could be dead HDD.
How old is yours? Mine died after 5 years of usage and in its last agonizing moments it gave readonly filesystem errors.

Arch Linux

#1 2009-11-26 05:51:49

File System is corrupt or read only? What is going on?!

#2 2009-11-26 06:31:47

Re: File System is corrupt or read only? What is going on?!

#3 2009-11-26 16:50:48

Re: File System is corrupt or read only? What is going on?!

#4 2009-11-26 17:28:32

Re: File System is corrupt or read only? What is going on?!

#5 2009-11-26 17:42:48

Re: File System is corrupt or read only? What is going on?!

#6 2009-11-26 17:48:49

Re: File System is corrupt or read only? What is going on?!

#7 2009-11-26 17:59:55

Re: File System is corrupt or read only? What is going on?!

#8 2009-11-26 18:07:51

Re: File System is corrupt or read only? What is going on?!

#9 2009-11-26 20:46:09

Re: File System is corrupt or read only? What is going on?!

#10 2009-11-26 21:43:12

Re: File System is corrupt or read only? What is going on?!

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