fsck, harddisk errors SOLVED

[Jean]

Today the harddisk check ubuntu does did fail.

I was told I should run fsck and that the filesystem was mounted for me in read-only mode.
Strange thing was that I got some error about bash : groups command not found. Can somebody explain what this was please. Was that disk so corrupted bash couldn't find something?

Second time around and I was put at the shell I just entered 'fsck' and it told me it found 1 error and if I wanted to ignore that. I typed y (yes) and the check continued and now I am back typing in kubuntu.

Please could somebody tell me the steps I need to do to check / repair that drive again?

Thanks.

[Fintan]

Re: fsck, harddisk errors

You could start here:

http://linux.die.net/man/8/fsck

because of this:
http://www.minix3.org/previous-versi...n1/fsck.1.html

I would suggest doing a check/repair from a live cd, have to love those things

[Rog131]

Re: fsck, harddisk errors

Disk check (ext partition)

Cheking the first partion of sda:

sudo fsck -v -f /dev/sda1

man fsck, man e2fsck:

In actuality, fsck is simply a front-end for the various file system checkers available under Linux.
e2fsck - check a Linux ext2/ext3 file system
-v Verbose mode
-f Force checking even if the file system seems clean.

Note
Unmounted partition !
With mounted partition:

WARNING!!! Running e2fsck on a mounted filesystem may cause
SEVERE filesystem damage.

Do you really want to continue (y/n)?

Force fsck on the next boot:

sudo touch /forcefsck

Link:
Fsck on Shutdown
http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/inde...opic=3088866.0


Partition list:

sudo fdisk -l

or

sudo fdisk -l /dev/sda

man fdisk:

NAME
fdisk - Partition table manipulator for Linux

-l List the partition tables for the specified devices and then
exit. If no devices are given, those mentioned in /proc/parti‐
tions (if that exists) are used.

Also :
smartmontools - control and monitor storage systems using S.M.A.R.T.

The smartmontools package contains two utility programs (smartctl and smartd)
to control and monitor storage systems using the Self-Monitoring, Analysis and
Reporting Technology System (S.M.A.R.T.) built into most modern ATA and SCSI
hard disks. It is derived from the smartsuite package, and includes support
for ATA/ATAPI-5 disks. It should run on any modern Linux system.

Smart info of hdx (hda):

sudo smartctl -a /dev/hda

Smart info of sdx (sda):

sudo smartctl -d ata -a /dev/sda

More:
Monitoring Hard Disks with SMART
http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/6983

[Jean]

Re: fsck, harddisk errors

Thanks people.

Fintan, I just tried the Live Cd, there is an option 'repair broken system', but if I choose that it seems it wants to do an install. Ask me for my language and stuff. Is this the right option?
Waht is the way to check a disk from the live cd?

Rog, I looked up the info you gave thanks. I already found a way to influence fsck checks so I can force them. Further I understand that it is a bad idea to run fsck on a mounted disk. I assume I can just sudo unmount -a before I do a manual check.

It seems I dont' have smartcontrol installed, sudo smartctl -a /dev/hda said command not found, I did not go searching for it because I don't like to install things when I'm not sure about that harddisk unless you tell me it's safe to do so.

I'm rather new at ubuntu and this is not what I wanted to be learning at this stage. That harddisk is rather new, bought it just for ubuntu 3 months ago.

[Fintan]

Re: fsck, harddisk errors

Fintan, I just tried the Live Cd, there is an option 'repair broken system', but if I choose that it seems it wants to do an install. Ask me for my language and stuff. Is this the right option?
Waht is the way to check a disk from the live cd?

No that is not the option you want. Just load the live cd and when you get to the desktop open up a terminal and follow the instructions given in my links or by rog.

Please read those links carefully!

The reason why you want to do this from a live cd is the problem with running fsck on a mounted partition.
From a live cd you will not have this problem

[Jean]

Re: fsck, harddisk errors

Thanks Fintan,

When I got in the terminal a from the live cd nd typed 'sudo -v -f /ev/sdc'
I got:
fsck.ext2: Device or resource busy while trying to open /dev/sdc

Then I tried 'sudo umount -a' and got:
/tmp device is busy
/dev device is busy
/var/run device is busy
tmps not found
/lib/modules/2.6.22-14-generic/volatile: not mounted.

However then I booted back into the normal ubuntu, gave 'sudo touch /forcefsck', let it reboot and it came through the scan clean. Yess.

Thanks both. I'm gonna invest the smartmontools.

[Fintan]

Re: fsck, harddisk errors

Glad to be of help

[mchuskie]

Re: fsck, harddisk errors SOLVED

It's often worth starting live CDs with the "noswap" kernel option when you're doing things like this - at least using Knoppix, it stops it using any swap partitions it finds on your hard drive(s) that might cause the device to be labelled "busy".