Disk problem on startup

phunni · 2010-09-09 09:09:23

Every time I boot I get a "FILESYSTEM CHECK FAILED" error. I'm told to run "mount -n -o remount,rw /" and reboot. I tried that, but I get the same results. I also tried running "shutdown -Fr now" with the same results. I tried running fsck on the disk in question, but it's mounted . If I try and umount it I'm told that it's not mounted. fsck always insists that it is mounted and tells me not to continue.

Shortly before the main error I get:

/dev/sdb1 is mounted. e2fsck: cannot continue, aborting.

The letter in the drive sometimes varies, but I've checked the UUID and it's the same disk causing the problems.

I'm assuming there's a problem with the disk, but I could do with some advice on figuring out whether this is repairable or whether or not I need to just get a new disk...

Also some advice on whether my assumption is likely to be correct or not!

Thanks in advance!

kilgoretrout · 2010-09-09 13:51:57

To check the disk from a hardware standpoint, go to the manufacturer's website and download their hard drive diagnostic utilities iso, burn the iso to a cd-r as an image, boot with the cd-r and run the diagnostics in thorough mode. I would definitely do the forgoing just to rule out a hardware problem, but in all likelihood, you probably just have some filesystem corruption, mbr corruption or both. If you can afford to lose any data you may have on the drive, you can delete all partitions on the drive and repartition and reformat and see if that corrects the problem.

phunni · 2010-09-09 14:01:23

Is there a cli way of determining the manufacturer, or can I only do that by opening up the box and removing the drive?

kilgoretrout · 2010-09-09 14:53:47

There are probably a lot of ways to do that, but I like the lshw utility which is in the community repos. You can install it with:

# pacman -S lshw

and then run it as root:

# lshw

It will spit out a ton of detailed info on all your hardware. If you want to save it to an html file, run:

# lshw -html > lshw.html

You can then view the info in the lshw.html file nicely formatted in an web browser.

phunni · 2010-09-09 15:18:49

is there a way of finding out the manufacturer from a recovery boot? I can't boot into my system because of this problem...

phunni · 2010-09-09 15:47:56

OK - never mind. I commented out the problem disc in fstab in recovery. I was then able to boot successfully. Having installed and run lshw I've determined that the drive is a Maxtor.

The odd thing is that I've now repartitioned and reformatted and I can mount the drive perfectly well from within a booted system. If I try and uncomment it in fstab so that it mounts at boot time I get the same error again. I'm beginning to wonder if this is not a disk issue, but something else in the system...

Also running fsck on it while unmounted reports no problems.

Last edited by phunni (2010-09-09 16:06:42)

panosk · 2010-09-09 16:43:00

I can think of 2 possible causes. The first is that you have assigned drive letters (sda,sdb, etc) in your fstab file and for some reason the assignments during boot change, so your system tries to boot from the wrong partition. I had this problem long ago. To solve it, use UUIDs or labels in your fstab. The other cause could be a firmware bug in your Maxtor drive. I also had a similar problem with a Seagate drive which eventually died.

phunni · 2010-09-09 16:59:19

I've been using uuids in my fstab for a while. The drive has ben working for a while so perhaps it's just dying.

kilgoretrout · 2010-09-09 21:47:12

If repartitioning and reformatting cured your problem, the drive is probably OK. Maxtor was bought by Seagate and you can use their SeaTools diagnostics on Maxtor hard drives:

http://www.seagate.com/ww/v/index.jsp?l … 04090aRCRD

Check the drive out with SeaTools if you want some peace of mind. I know the drive is pretty old but there may be plenty of life left in it.

As to your immediate problem, please post your fstab. Also, is the drive connected to the motherboard ide port or to a pci add on ide controller card?

Last edited by kilgoretrout (2010-09-09 21:50:50)

phunni · 2010-09-10 09:33:51

It's connected to the motherboard.

Repartitioning and reformatting didn't cure the original problem. The computer still can't boot when that drive is included in fstab - which was always the issue. but I can mount it once the machine is booted. I have no idea if I would have been able to do that anyway...

Here's the relevant portion of my fstab:

none /tmp tmpfs defaults 0 0

/dev/disk/by-uuid/2767f677-5271-4ea5-bc56-1c61df4045b7 /boot ext2 defaults,noatime 0 1
/dev/disk/by-uuid/927133f3-f38d-4607-826e-f2d5815e7929 swap swap defaults 0 0
/dev/disk/by-uuid/df20ac7a-299b-4cd7-a285-d5830c03698b / ext4 defaults,noatime 0 1
/dev/disk/by-uuid/2a8ef8e6-8b7e-43a7-9bb1-e965f98acb5a /home ext4 defaults,noatime 0 1
/dev/disk/by-uuid/7a4e9e82-5208-44cc-be9a-19b6804013ee /opt/media ext4 defaults,noatime 0 1
#/dev/disk/by-uuid/f71dd508-e712-40a4-a7d5-db3da9a36d8e /opt/media/music ext4 defaults,users,noatime 0 1

The problematic disk is the one mounted at /opt/media/music which, as you can see, is still commented out...

kilgoretrout · 2010-09-10 16:47:01

I would suspect the drive is not spinning up fast enough which could indicate inadequate power to the drive. In that event, the Maxtor drive wouldn't be ready to be mounted at the point in the boot sequence when a mount is attempted but later on the drive fully spins up and is functional. Check to see if the Maxtor drive is being properly detected in the bios setup for starters. To test this theory, you could try uncommenting the line for sdb1, reboot, go into the bios setup, wait for a minute or two to let all your drives fully spin up and then exit the bios setup and continue booting. If it works, it's most likely a power issue.

Given its age, I assume the Maxtor is an ide drive(confirm please). Could you also post your drive configuration, i.e. what drives you have and where they are connected. If the Maxtor drive has an optical drive on the same cable with it, a malfunctioning optical drive can prevent a good hard drive on the same ide cable from being properly detected. Also, check to see whether a line splitter was used on the power cable going to the Maxtor, i.e. the Maxtor is sharing the power cable with another device. During a boot, there may be inadequate power on a single line to power up both devices.

phunni · 2010-09-10 17:23:09

It is an IDE drive, I'll check your boot/bios test. This drive has been working, and therefore powered, up till now. Also the original error suggests to me that the problem is to do with the drive being mounted not it not being mounted.

However, I'm sure you know more than me so I'll give your bios test a go :-)

phunni · 2010-09-10 17:32:22

OK - I tried that. BIOS can find the drive. I left it a good few minutes before leaving BIOS and booting the machine. Exactly the same result as before...

kilgoretrout · 2010-09-10 20:00:47

Ok. Try editing your sdb1 fstab line like so:

/dev/disk/by-uuid/f71dd508-e712-40a4-a7d5-db3da9a36d8e /opt/media/music ext4 defaults,users  0 0

You keep failing a filesystem check so I changed the ending digits to "0 0" , i.e. no filesystem check. Also, took out the noatime option to keep everything strictly default. See if it will boot. After it boots, see if sdb1 is mounted and usable.

Last edited by kilgoretrout (2010-09-10 20:02:00)

phunni · 2010-09-12 14:11:35

That seemed to fix the startup problem - thanks! I kind of feel like I'm papering over the cracks a little though. But, as long as it works for now...

kilgoretrout · 2010-09-13 18:21:43

I agree. This is definitely a work around. But it's only a step in the troubleshooting process. The next thing I would try after your successful boot is unmounting sdb1 and running a filesystem check on it with:

# fsck -fp /dev/sdb1

Be sure sdb1 is not mounted when you run the above command. Also, make sure any data you have on sdb1 is backed up before attempting the above. The -f flag will force the check even if the filesystem seems consistent and the -p flag will automatically correct any errors found during the forced check. See if you can get successfully through a filesystem check. Note, ext4 fsck has been known to take some time in certain situations, so be patient and let the process complete. If you can get through a fsck on sdb1, next change the sdb1 fstab entry back to "0 1" and see if you can boot without hanging.

phunni · 2010-09-14 11:39:50

Got through fsck and added the 1 - and it boots! Brilliant, thanks :-)

kilgoretrout · 2010-09-15 17:25:39

Glad that worked for you. You might want to check out that drive with SeaTools as mentioned in my prior post. It's probably OK, but running the diagnostics in thorough mode will tell you if there are problems with the drive. If you get bad blocks reported, the disk utility will repair them by marking them so they are not used. If at a later date you run the utility again and see more bad blocks, that's a sure sign the drive is going.
The problem may have come about with the noatime option as well. I don't normally see that option used with ext4 but I haven't really kept up on it.

Are you the same phunni that used to be on mandrake/mandrivausers board? I used to hang out there back in the day under the name "pmpatrick".

phunni · 2010-09-15 17:39:19

That's me :-)

Arch Linux

#1 2010-09-09 09:09:23

Disk problem on startup

#2 2010-09-09 13:51:57

Re: Disk problem on startup

#3 2010-09-09 14:01:23

Re: Disk problem on startup

#4 2010-09-09 14:53:47

Re: Disk problem on startup

#5 2010-09-09 15:18:49

Re: Disk problem on startup

#6 2010-09-09 15:47:56

Re: Disk problem on startup

#7 2010-09-09 16:43:00

Re: Disk problem on startup

#8 2010-09-09 16:59:19

Re: Disk problem on startup

#9 2010-09-09 21:47:12

Re: Disk problem on startup

#10 2010-09-10 09:33:51

Re: Disk problem on startup

#11 2010-09-10 16:47:01

Re: Disk problem on startup

#12 2010-09-10 17:23:09

Re: Disk problem on startup

#13 2010-09-10 17:32:22

Re: Disk problem on startup

#14 2010-09-10 20:00:47

Re: Disk problem on startup

#15 2010-09-12 14:11:35

Re: Disk problem on startup

#16 2010-09-13 18:21:43

Re: Disk problem on startup

#17 2010-09-14 11:39:50

Re: Disk problem on startup

#18 2010-09-15 17:25:39

Re: Disk problem on startup

#19 2010-09-15 17:39:19

Re: Disk problem on startup

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