Corrupted File System

English Install/Boot/Login
1

Hello all,

I had successfully installed and ran Suse 11.1 for some time. Then, I go to boot up again, and it goes out of the GUI mode and into a terminal boot-up because of problems that it found. I am mostly a Windows user, so I didn’t do anything except reboot using my Suse CD installation disk. I tried the “Repair” option, but it got to “Ext3 File Sys on /dev/sdb2 corrupted”. I tried to initiate repairs, but I finally said “Skip”. Several other components came up (Cups, etc) but these were unsuccessful in being repaired as well. I was told that I wound have to fix it manually using fsck. I kept going however, and finally got to the Boot Configuration screen.
Now, I am running Suse on one hard drive, and Windows XP in a different drive. Since XP was not noted on the boot config screen, and “Propose another configuration” (i am paraphrasing here) did not include XP. I aborted, since I didn’t want to lose my ability to log onto Windows.

Next, I rebooted (without the install CD) once again and tried the fsck option that was previously suggested.
Well, I went thru HUNDREDS of problems that it found. These included references to indexes/nodes(?) that were not found, were listed but were empty, and “2s” that shoulda been “1s”. Also, it said Grub had a problem, altho the Grub loader always comes up in my boot-up, and presents me with Suse/Suse Safe/XP.
I saw this was never ending, so I ctrl-alt-deleted and here I am now, seeking help.

What should I do?
If I reinstall from the CD, will it fix incorrect parameters, or wipe out all my pre-configed stuff? I should mention that I do not have a whole bunch of stuff on there, since I am mostly in a learning mode.
I just do not want to lose my ability to get into Windows from something flaky happening with the Boot initialization.
Also the 2 systems are on tow seperate hard drives, I wish they were totally isolated.
When I get another computer, I will just have Linux on one, Windows on the other.
I know most Linux folks don’t like Windows, but at this stage, I can not do without it.

So…suggestions? :\

Thx,
Rick

2

re-install

Two HD’s is a great setup. This should explain a little:
Just for now ignore that is was written for 11.0
Partitioning/Install Guide - openSUSE Forums

You will need to use custom partitioning. Your windows installation should be fine, just make sure it is marked Do Not Format in the set up

Here is a 11.2 install slideshow, it goes thru some custom partitioning
11.2 Slideshow Images - Windows Live

3

What partition is /dev/sdb2? If it is /home, your best bet is try and recover it using a utility such as INSERT - for details INSERT (english pages)

If it is / , a lot depends on how much customisation you have done, e.g. to /etc files. You may find it easier to reinstall the / partition on another part of the drive, format that partition and then see if you can use it as an additional data partition. It will depend on the nature of the corruption.

4

Nah, dual booting is very common. I use 2 disk setup, with GRUB as default boot disk, and trick Windows to thinking it’s on the first disk. When I installed Win7 upgrade it was simple to turn off the other disk, and let MS think it’s a pure unadulterated system.

Basically all you need is :

###Don’t change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: windows 2###
title Windows
map (hd1) (hd0)
map (hd0) (hd1)
rootnoverify (hd1,2)
makeactive
chainloader +1

Where ‘2’ is the C: drive for Vista & Vista 2009 boot manager. I haven’t run Windows much at all of late, but that doesn’t mean it never comes in handy for some game or something.

Haven’t run Win7 much at all since oS-11.2 came out, because for me oS-11.2 feels much faster and more pleasant; though 7 does seem less sluggy than Vista.

5

Caf and John,

First off, thanks much for the fast reply :slight_smile:

I must admit that I do not recall where /home is located.
I downloaded this little prog. called Explore2fs (a bit of a misnomer – supposed to read 3fs as well), and altho it showed 2 partitions (Linux? Windows?), it would not reveal the contents of those partitions.
Here is the “debug log” for what it’s worth (I can’t attach files here?):

Explore2fs version 1.07
Written by John Newbigin
If you experience problems using this program, please set the
debug level to high, restart the program, cause the problem and
then e-mail the debug log and a description of the problem to
John Newbigin jn@it.swin.edu.au
Windows NT 5.1 build number 2600
Looking for Linux Partitions
\Device\Harddisk1\Partition2
EXT2 Found. magic = 0xEF53
UID = C5195FEC0D3E4DBB9512509BDB161A52
\Device\Harddisk1\Partition3
EXT2 Found. magic = 0xEF53
UID = F70E631C0D4A4B42B16F40472333D175
No LVM2 detected
Found 2 ext2/ext3 partitions
Found Valid Superblock
4k block size
Inodes count : 483328
Blocks count : 1931816
Reserved blocks count : 96590
Free blocks count : 984303
Free inodes count : 346646
First Data Block : 0
Block size : 2

Blocks per group : 32768

Fragments per group : 32768

Inodes per group : 8192

Mount time : 1260094694
Write time : 1260124983
Mount count : 26
Maximal mount count : -1
File system state : 3
Behaviour when detecting errors : 1
time of last check : 1257306093
max. time between checks : 0
OS : 0
Revision level : 1
uid for reserved blks : 0
gid for reserved blks : 0
First non-res inode : 11
Size of inode : 256
Blockgroup no : 0
Compatible features : 0000003C
Incompatible features : 00000002
: EXT2_FEATURE_INCOMPAT_FILETYPE
Read only features : 00000003
: EXT2_FEATURE_RO_COMPAT_SPARSE_SUPER
: EXT2_FEATURE_RO_COMPAT_LARGE_FILE
uuid : C5195FEC0D3E4DBB9512509BDB161A52
Volume name :
Last mounted :
Compression algorithm : 00000000
No blocks to prealloc : 0
No for dirs : 0
Revision 1. This should be OK.
59 groups of 32768 blocks
Descriptors take 1 blocks
Block bitmap 1 blocks
inode bitmap 1 blocks
inode table 256 blocks
LockBlockGroup 1
UnLockBlockGroup 1
Found Valid Superblock
4k block size
Inodes count : 675952
Blocks count : 2702936
Reserved blocks count : 135146
Free blocks count : 1470830
Free inodes count : 673502
First Data Block : 0
Block size : 2

Blocks per group : 32768

Fragments per group : 32768

Inodes per group : 8144

Mount time : 1260094704
Write time : 1260095118
Mount count : 31
Maximal mount count : -1
File system state : 1
Behaviour when detecting errors : 1
time of last check : 1257262846
max. time between checks : 0
OS : 0
Revision level : 1
uid for reserved blks : 0
gid for reserved blks : 0
First non-res inode : 11
Size of inode : 256
Blockgroup no : 0
Compatible features : 0000003C
Incompatible features : 00000002
: EXT2_FEATURE_INCOMPAT_FILETYPE
Read only features : 00000003
: EXT2_FEATURE_RO_COMPAT_SPARSE_SUPER
: EXT2_FEATURE_RO_COMPAT_LARGE_FILE
uuid : F70E631C0D4A4B42B16F40472333D175
Volume name :
Last mounted :
Compression algorithm : 00000000
No blocks to prealloc : 0
No for dirs : 0
Revision 1. This should be OK.
83 groups of 32768 blocks
Descriptors take 1 blocks
Block bitmap 1 blocks
inode bitmap 1 blocks
inode table 255 blocks
LockBlockGroup 1
UnLockBlockGroup 1

Downloaded and ran that INSERT program.
To be honest,I chickened out.
The processes it offered to undertake were far too
low-level and “jargony” for me to feel comfy with.
At any rate, it provides me with a “last best chance” to get on the internet, should everything else fail.

I am thinking a re-install of Suse may be called for.
My main concern is that I am still able to boot into my Windows XP. I don’t want Windows to look for and expect the Grub boot loader, and it won’t be there.
Here’s a capture of my msconfig boot.ini:

If indeed I do need to re-install Suse, should I:
A) Install it over the existing Suse install
B) Re-format my existing Suse install, then re-install?
C) If “B” (or “A”?), since I am running 11.1 now, should I just opt for 11.2 instead?

Still not sure why the files became corrupt - any idea what could have caused this?

Again, thanks for your generous assistance on this.

Rick

6

Get yourself a copy of SuperGrubDisk if you haven’t already. Even if grub is broken and will not boot windows, SGD will.

re-install SUSE as a new install. if you had a separate /home partition you could keep that, it depends if you have much user files in there that you need.
Remember SUSE will not format windows unless you tell it to. In the slide show I linked for you you can see partitions marked for format with a F in the listing.
But you will need to use custom partitioning which requires you know what is what with your partitions.

7

And learn it really is better to break things up :

/ - system stuff
swap
/home - user data, reduce work on upgrade
/next-oS - plan for upgrade
/local/data - Place for those big media files etc

The problem is, once you’ve started letting fsck(8) remove files, you have likely got things mangled.

With important data, and some expert help, you could recover corruption perhaps (though having done backup is much cheaper solution).

Unlucky, the only time I’ve nearly lost a filesystem under Linux touches wood has been with corrupt partition tables that I was able to fix up. It’s not very common at all, in general usage, though you could try to cause it, by having batch file renames and directory moves going on, whilst you pull power cord.

8

a Note: Corrupted files may be an indication of a hardware problem. It is a good idea to run a low level disk scan to check and possibly correct defective sectors.

I use spinrite (not free) or you can use one from your drive manufacturer. Note it takes a long time.

fschk will rebuild your file system but chance are good if it is that corrupted it will not be able to reconstruct all files. the pieces it can’t splice back together will end up in the lost & found directory. Since the corruption seems to be in root you can then repair or re install root to get the machine running again.

Corruption can occur because of power failure in the middle of a write, hard drive beginning to fail or just plain old act of god. :wink:

9

Good point. badblocks(8) will actually scan & can verify the disk. Or you can download a drive fitness utility from disk manufacturer.

If you find sectors need marking bad, then later when you repeat more come, it’s time to order a new disk (try not to use system and make sure you have yr backup if you do)!

10

First off, just want to thank everyone here for all your
generous and helpful comments. I appreciate it. It is worth becoming a “Linux Guy”, just to be able to hang with such a cool community of people :slight_smile:

Now, I did a dish scan - I used a bootable floppy (glad I specified I needed one now!) for IBM disks, and short and extended tests showed no errors.
However, with the “HD Tune” utility, altho it says all is “OK”, under “Reallocated Sector Count”, it is highlighted yellow, indicating…“something”.
It would appear to me that some sectors have been marked as “Bad”’ am I correct in this?"

http://www.rickshrum.com/test/hd-tune.jpg

As far as how my Suse is laid out, I just took the defaults 11.1 served up to me.
The config presented by robopensuse looks nice however.

Caf recommended I get a copy of SuperGrubDisk.
I see a few different options on:
Super Grub Disk Homepage
Which would be the recommended one?

If I need to re-install, there isn’t really anything on my Linux partition that is not easily replaceable, so it’s no big deal.

Having said that however, I think I will hold off on my re-install until after Christmas.
I am doing some selling online, and altho all should go safely, I want to avoid the off-chance that I will do something to screw up my ability to boot into Windows.
“Paranoid”…“Cautious”…your call :wink:

Will this thread still be accessible and open to new posts after the 1st of the year?
I genuinely want to become proficient at Linux.
Actually, I started off in 1989 on UNIX running on a mainframe.
On one occasion, I even went so far as to write a term paper using “vi”.
That next morning, I told my boss about my “accomplishment”, whereupon she asked me “Why didn’t you just use ‘Word’ on my Mac?”
D’oh!

Oh well, again guys (assuming all guys), thanks!

Rick

11

Will this thread still be accessible and open to new posts after the 1st of the year?
Totally it will. Yes.

With SuperGrubDisk it’s just a matter of try it. If you are trying to boot windows - just look for a windows option. It can vary depending on the one you download because I use one that works with Grub 2. Experiment. Or ‘auto’ seems to be an obvious choice.

Not sure about that disk scan report though.